My first defective SureFire (Tailcap issue)

Just got my L1 Lumamax, and right out of the package it has a defective tailcap
on Low-only unless i have my thumb fully pressing down, or the tailcap turned 1/8 turn past the initial turn-on point for low, the LED flickers randomly (Hey, it's a free Strobe mode, too bad it's low only.... ), high is fine

using the tailcap from my A2 Aviator, low works fine, no flicker at all, it's *clearly* a defective tailcap

a quick call to SureFire's tech support, and they have a new tailcap on the way.....

So, looks like i've joined the infamous "Bad Tailcap" club, but at least SF is making it right

Strangely enough, the L1's tailcap works just fine on the A2, i suppose i could simply swap tailcaps and call it good, but if the L1's TC *IS* defective, i'd rather have it replaced

Welcome to the club; been there, done that. My prob was with a T/C on an E2 which decided it didn't want to work so I called SF and no prob.-new one on the way. Had the season been right I could have grown a crop of tomatoes but at least they came thru. Nice to own quality.

In all fairness, my location and SF location may have had some input.

Karl

I think the reputation for bad/weak tailcaps is generally the clickies if i'm not mistaken.

sounds more like you need a new batt then a new tialcap, as the low mode is the first to go out in the L1 when batt is low, as with an led the more power it has the lower the output the less power the higher the output.

benchmade_boy said:

sounds more like you need a new batt then a new tialcap, as the low mode is the first to go out in the L1 when batt is low, as with an led the more power it has the lower the output the less power the higher the output.

Click to expand...

:thinking: I don't think this is correct. An LED will give more light as the voltage is increased. The tailcap puts a resistor in series with the circuit in LOW mode, and in HIGH mode the led gets the full voltage from the circuit.

I don't know of a light that gets brighter as the batteries are depleted.

dizzy said:

:thinking: I don't think this is correct. An LED will give more light as the voltage is increased. The tailcap puts a resistor in series with the circuit in LOW mode, and in HIGH mode the led gets the full voltage from the circuit.

I don't know of a light that gets brighter as the batteries are depleted.

Click to expand...

hey, thats just what i read from surefires book, i think. i had an L1 and it did the same on a low batt, but put a new one in and it stopped. and i have heard claims here that the low goes out first then the high mode.

mmm...so the L1 TC is the same as the A2 TC?

benchmade_boy said:

sounds more like you need a new batt then a new tialcap, as the low mode is the first to go out in the L1 when batt is low, as with an led the more power it has the lower the output the less power the higher the output.

Click to expand...

Possible, however, this is a *brand new* light just out of the packaging, less than 5 minutes total runtime, yes, it's possible it could have a bad battery, but unlikely

also, with the *same* battery, the problem did not exist when i used my A2's tailcap, if it was a bad battery, the tailcap used would have been irrelavent, the problem went away when used with a known-good tailcap

yeah it is probably a bad tialcap, i wias just saying mine did the same thing when it had a low batt. please let us know when you get the new tialcap.

That is really, really bad that it was defective out of the box. Whatever happened to quality control? The last defective switchgear I've ever seen was from a £1 ($1.93) krypton torch, not a £100+ torch.

I had a L4 TC go bad on me and the light was a shelf queen!!Surefire sent me out a new one but this shouldn't happen with a 150.00 dollar light.I don't think this should happen even with a 50.00 dollar light.

Just my .02 DON

I had an E1l do odd things. Sometimes it wouldn't click on, other times it wouldn't click off, sometimes it worked just fine. It was second hand off ebay but was working fine when it was shipped. I sent it back and the original owner has a replacement on the way. It's a bit of a pain but I guess if they replace it free I don't mind it happening on an expensive light any more than a cheepie.

My L1 does just as Benchmade_boy describes. At first I thought it was a defective tailcap, but when you change the battery the flickering stops. Its funny isn't it? Anyway I luv my L1...............

MacTEch : Does it flickers when you thighten the tailcap rather than use the button? Mine does the same on both scenarios when the battery is low.

I had 5 tailcaps go bad on my U2, then I returned the U2.

Recently I emailed Surefire & asked if they improved the tailcap & the person said no. Kind of shocking.

jumpstat said:

My L1 does just as Benchmade_boy describes. At first I thought it was a defective tailcap, but when you change the battery the flickering stops. Its funny isn't it? Anyway I luv my L1...............

MacTEch : Does it flickers when you thighten the tailcap rather than use the button? Mine does the same on both scenarios when the battery is low.

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Jumpstat, with the stock tailcap, yes it does flicker when it reaches the initial turn-on point via tightening the tailcap, a partial turn past that point and it stabilizes

with the A2's tailcap in place, no flickering whatsoever when either pressed in, or turned past the turn-on point

i tested the battery, it ZTS'es at 100%, i tried a fresh cell (also at 100%) and it did the same thing, it's the tailcap that's bad

Guys, you're turning me off getting a SureFire. I expect as near as damn it to perfect reliability in a £100+ flashlight. Reading this, I certainly wouldn't rely solely on a SureFire based on this thread, I would have my trusty Fenix P1D-CE on my keys just to be sure.

Mike, i can understand where you're coming from, and i agree for the most part, this defective tailcap issue *IS* a major black mark on SureFire's reputation, however, SureFire is doing the right thing and shipping a replacement tailcap for my L1, they don't even want me to send the old one back, they said to just throw it out (i intend to dissect it to see if i can determine the cause of the failure,and maybe do a little fiddling/modding with it)

to be fair to SureFire, these *are* man-made devices and any man-made device has the potential to fail at inopportune times, and it's my first actual defective SureFire, and given my collection so far;
G2
6P
E1e
A2
and my new L1
i'd say i've done pretty good so far, it's the law of averages really, you get enough product together, eventually you'll have failures, no manufacturer is immune to it

to be fair, SureFire's warranty *IS* quite good, as long as you call them about the failure, e-mail contacts are less reliable

in the long run, it doesn't bother me, i know SF will make good on it's warranty, the light *does* function in the interim, so i'm not actually down a light, and worse comes to worse, i can always "borrow" the tailcap from the A2 if need be, as the defective L1 tailcap appears to work fine on the A2

is it annoying, yes, and yes, it shouldn't happen with a light as expensive as a SF, but price alone is no guarantee of lack of failures, after all, a Porsche is just as prone to mechanical failures as a Dodge, just because one is more expensive doesn't make it better

MacTech said:

to be fair to SureFire, these *are* man-made devices and any man-made device has the potential to fail at inopportune times, and it's my first actual defective SureFire, and given my collection so far;
G2
6P
E1e
A2
and my new L1

Click to expand...

Let me add to that I have owned:
G2
9P
M6
E2D
E2L
Bought my parents:
6P Defender
E2E

And have yet to have one tailcap fail.

Hmm, i may have jumped the gun on the defective tailcap issue, as the tailcap now works fine, no sign of flickering at all

however, i have a question about the beam thrown by the TIR optic

i notice a small, off center "ring" slightly to one side of the hotspot, in the actual hotspot itself, it looks almost like an abberation caused by the TIR optic....

hmm, looks like the LED is slightly off center here, wonder if that could be the cause of it, it's really only apparent when WWH'ing with the F04 off, and considering 90% of my L1's usage is *with* the F04 on, it's only slightly annoying

Is this fixable, can the emitter be re-centered, if i was to call up SureFire to get a new head, would they need me to send the old one in first, or would i have to send the entire light in?

how difficult would it be to open the head, pull the TIR, and drop in a reflector anyway, and what McR reflector would i need for the stock Lux LED?

or, should i just stop being so picky and just *use* the sodding thing, so the beam's not *flawless*, so what, it's still darned good and it's something only the most obsessive SF fan would notice.....

<EDIT>
It *IS* an artifact from the center of the TIR and the LED *IS* slightly off center, when staring dead on into the head of the light (turned off, of course) the center of the TIR optic comes to a "dimpled point" for lack of a better term, depending on the angle of the light hitting the optic, the top of the TIR lens looks like it either has a dimple or a point

I'll call SureFire Monday and see what my options are for getting a replacement head with a properly centered LED (unless this is something *I* can recenter....)

you must send the whole light into surefire for the off beam repare. i would not try and fix it myself. i just thought about somthing MacTech, you may need to clean the contacts with a achahol wipe so it will get good contact.

BTW if you have no use for that spare tialcap on the way, i could always use one