Received my AAA LE today

I am very impressed with this light. It was much lighter (sans battery) and thinner-walled than I expected, but the quality is superb. The natural color anodizing is more interesting than standard black and the LED color is slightly blueish as per normal "white" LED color - in short, excellent. Quick eyeballed comparision tests with my Photon II show them both to be about the same brightness and even close in color, though we all know which will stay brighter in the long term. Both lights had used batteries (I didn't use the supplied AAA that came with the ARC since I have older AAA's with usable power left) so the comparison is completely unscientific or noteworthy, except that one light is powered by a 1.5V battery and the other by two 3V lithiums. Very nice DC-DC step up circuit!

Anyway, that's about it.. just wanted to post my thoughts for any people still on the fence. Just get one!

Peter, thanks for making such a superb light!

- Brian

Yeah....I've been trying to decide on which version I'm going to go for......I got to hurry or Saaby may put out a hit on me. I think I'll like the natural color anodizing better as well.

Is this thin wall normal in these lights everybody?

Also Brian.....Can you see the "fix" on your copy of the light? I think that the holes for the l.e.d.'s in some of these were drilled a tiny bit too big....so they "filled" them with some sort of super-strength epoxy and re-drilled the hole. Just wondering if you can tell this by looking into the head of the flashlight.

Dan out

Hi Dan,

Decisions, decisions.. yes I went through that as well, but in the end I wanted the LE. I got mine from Brightguy.

By thin wall, I wasn't implying that it was abnormal or anything, just that I was expecting (and I don't know why) the tube section to be thicker. It's plenty tough, I think, but I wouldn't put it in vice-grips as a test.

I think I can see the fix you mention. I can see what looks like clear epoxy where the LED pokes through the head. The hole for the LED is very slightly larger than the LED itself, but to be honest, if I hadn't read about it in this forum, I'd have assumed it was normal. If I had to guess, I'd say the hole is 0.33mm-0.40mm larger than it needs to be - purely a guess.

- Brian

Thanks for the Info Brian.....and welcome to CPF.

The "thin wall" look is mostly due to the fact that at first glance you don't see the real cross-section of the body. I had the same feeling when my first ones arrived. What you see is the O-ring flange. That is the thinnest part of the body. With that in mind, take a peek down there, and you'll see that where the threads begin and beyond, the wall thickness is quite substantial. Trust me when I tell you that you can run over these with a heavy car... with no deformation. Since that flange looks so thin and delicate, try this (what I did when my first one arrived): Hold the thinnest part of the flange between your thumb and index finger and squeeze until your eyes pop out. Did you flex it in any way? If you did, you're Superman, and I want your autograph (plus I owe you a new battery tube). If it made you feel like a 90-pound weakling (nothing against you 90-pound weaklings out there - just an expression) like it did me, then you've just witnessed the smallest fraction of how tough these things are.

Short of crushing it in a vice or pounding it flat with a hammer, I don't think you'll ever have an issue with the thickness of the wall.

Plus, the o-ring flange makes an excellent micro cookie cutter for playdough!

Dan: They do at first appear fragile. But they are not.

Originally posted by Cutter:

Also Brian.....Can you see the "fix" on your copy of the light? I think that the holes for the l.e.d.'s in some of these were drilled a tiny bit too big....so they "filled" them with some sort of super-strength epoxy and re-drilled the hole. Just wondering if you can tell this by looking into the head of the flashlight.

Dan out

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I ordered (6) of the v3.1 LE (from 2-different distributors) and sent them all back. On each of them, the fixed was quite noticable.

The wall on the ARC AAA is plenty thick for the size of the light, and a pretty good grade aluminum is used, so it is pretty strong.

It'll survive being run over with a car, etc. no problem....

You're right darell, the o-ring is the reason for why it looks thin. I didn't look hard enough at it.

Oh, and I can't crush the tube with my fingers.

- Brian (the 90lb weakling)

Brian -

I STILL sometimes think I should be able to squish those damn things between my manly fingers! Yet the only thing I ever crush is my ego.

Originally posted by darell:
Plus, the o-ring flange makes an excellent micro cookie cutter for playdough!

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">And....it's not half bad as a decoration in the bottom of your toilet bowl....right darell?