Has anybody tried this light from Kai?

http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=1341

Looks VERY interesting.. and at a price that I can't walk away from. I could buy half a dozen and give these away to nice folks.

Also, how reliable is the seller? I've heard some references to them but have not been back long enough to do a through investigation as to how satisfied people are with them.

Its been out for sometime bro, kinda old news. Gota review of it on my review site www.lightreviews.info

Thanks Been out of the loop way too long (six months IS a long time, as I am discovering..)

KevinL said:

http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=1341

Looks VERY interesting.. and at a price that I can't walk away from. I could buy half a dozen and give these away to nice folks.

Click to expand...

The basic Elly torch is good, as is this Cree'd version.

I have modded a few with both Cree and Seoul SSC P4 LED Stars, selling elsewhere on CPF.

KevinL said:

Also, how reliable is the seller? I've heard some references to them but have not been back long enough to do a through investigation as to how satisfied people are with them.

Click to expand...

Kaidomain, very slow dispatch, I have some items taking up to a month to arrive.

Items allegedly "in stock" appear not to be at times.

Quality is variable too.

KevinL,


Do not buy it! I bought one mainly because of the insanely low price, but there is a reason the price is so low! The light has poor threading on both ends, an off center emitter by a mile, and flickers badly as well.
Spend the extra $15 and buy one of Kai's nicer lights such as the Ultrafire C2 or C3. Those aren't that much more than this light but you will be getting a MUCH nicer light!

adirondackdestroyer said:

KevinL,
Do not buy it! I bought one mainly because of the insanely low price, but there is a reason the price is so low! The light has poor threading on both ends, an off center emitter by a mile, and flickers badly as well.

Click to expand...

Well my experience is totally the opposite.

I must have bought around 15 of the original and Cree'd Elly's from DX, in several batches, and had NONE of the above problems.

Just had to wait quite a while for delivery.

I tried to order one of these yesterday, but rather oddly whenever I put it into my shopping cart I end up with an empty cart - even if there was other stuff in there before. Anyone else suffer the same problem?

Dodge said:

I tried to order one of these yesterday, but rather oddly whenever I put it into my shopping cart I end up with an empty cart - even if there was other stuff in there before. Anyone else suffer the same problem?

Click to expand...

It's a known problem.

It's even mentioned on their website !!!

The LED needs a good path to ground. The aluminum - solder blob doesn't work. My tail switch self destructed around where the part that holds the rubber boot pressed or screwed into the body of the switch assembly. A Garrity clicky or a Mag clicky works just fine.

It needs some TLC and finesse on some units out of the box but mine has been decent enough since. It has an off center emitter (Cree version) but not annoyingly so. In real use I don't notice. I lost my White Wall Hunting permit so I don't engage in that much anymore anyway. Besides who would be happy with a light that they couldn't tinker with?

Kevin,
Those cheapie AA lights simply aren't very bright unless you seriously overdrive them with Li-ions, and they aren't very small. They usually are about as bright as a good 3w Luxeon, but of course may have much more impressive runtimes. Many of us have given away (or modded) all our cheapie Luxeon lights, since part of the fun of the new emitters is the WOW! factor of how darned bright they are at 700mA-1A or how small a package they can go in. So if you have any Luxeon lights around, you may have a lot of nice gifts already

If you're just looking for an inexpensive CREE or SSC to tide you over until the new Surefire LEDs start shipping, I'd suggest a Fenix, Huntlight or Ultrafire because you can get those really fast from US distributors like 4sevens, JSB or Lighthound. With Dealextreme or Kaidomain, you may have no modern LED light until Surefire is already shipping...

The LOD-CE AAA (especially impressive with a 10440) would be useful even after buying a Surefire because it's even smaller than the upcoming Titan, or if you wish to stick with 123As, the P2D is available now too.

The other quick alternative of course is to buy from a member over in B/S/T.

Eeekk.. they don't sound too good. Even Dae (szwholesale) and a few others known for cheap lights were consistent, reliable and fast. He put in a 2AA LED light as a free gift for me once, it died after I used it 3 times but I ain't complaining since it was free (I know I definitely did not order it) all the other lights I DID order worked just fine.. couldn't be happier.

Lighthound as always, is the BEST. I deal with John a lot and he was the one who started my quick descent into flashaholism.

I have gotten rid of most of my cheap Luxeons, I have a Fenix L1T left - that's about it.

I was hoping for the new Seoul in the Surefire E1L, that would be a wonderful and meaningful upgrade to the E1e+KL1 that has been following me since January 2005. The ole E1e is battered, but still very reliable. I have carried it so much that the epoxy securing the front end of the bezel has naturally disintegrated (must be all the pocket heat, normally I use a ROP as a heatgun). This is actually considered a Good Thing - I am thinking about what I want to do to it or whether I want to just retire it stock..

When is SF releasing the new lights anyway?

I think there is just so much demand for these new cheap lights that dealers ran out quickly, but continue to list them as in stock while more are being manufactured. They are still very impressive (consider that shipping is free and the bare emitters alone are $4 in quantities>1,000), but the 18650 versions like the C2 are probably more "fun." Runtime is probably better suited for more practical + reliable lights with more efficient regulation anyway.

There was a thread here sometime back where people were showing photos of all the free Photons they had received from John. Some people had quite large collections

I'd send the old E1e to Milkyspit for a Seoul retrofit! And the Seoul would work great in a L1T too.

Someone mentioned that they called and SF said sometime in July.

Pellidon said:

The LED needs a good path to ground. The aluminum - solder blob doesn't work.

Click to expand...

Same note here - my Kai Elite light won't turn on for this reason (although this is easily fixed). A bigger problem is a thread mismatch on the body of my sample - the head won't screw on, but just wobbles loosely on top of the emitter and falls off. I've contacted them for support, and the extent of the advice to date was to check to tailcap for malfunction (which it isn't). The original DX/Kai Elly lux-clone light seemed to be assembled better than this new cree one, based on a sample of one new one to two old ones I have.

DX has a better version with glass lens and textured aluminum reflector. The picture shows smooth, but the two I got had textured.

http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2098

Try DX instead. At least he answers your email when he screws up.
Kai sent me a wrong item, and a webcam with no driver, and hasn't answered any email.

Anybody managed to resolve problems with Kai? Will I need to reverse the credit card payment to get his attention?

I bought 4 of these from Kai and 4 from DX (thinking they were different lights). They are not, (so far as I can tell), apart from the reflectors. At the price I think they are great value, and outperform my Arc LS, which was one of my most powerful flashlight until Crees came along. They also appear to throw out nearly as much light as my Surefire E2e with KL1 head. Considering the Arc runs off 1 CR123A and the Surefire runs off 2, this much light from a single NiMH AA is fantastic. Also, the light quality makes my Arc and Surefire look very blue. The build quality is what you might expect for the price, but they are certainly robust enough.

One of the tailcaps from the batch from DX was faulty, but after emailing them they sent me a replacement tailcap very quickly. So, I would recommend them, and DX.

I just got one of these in the mail yesterday, and I really like mine! Maybe I got lucky, but mine is significantly brighter than my rexlight on high, or my XM3, or my Blaster VI or my 3AA maglight or my P1D CE on high. It is even brighter than my My Little Friend (with P4 leds) on low, although the MLF on high buries it

I guess I lucked out, mine from DX is great. Looks really nice, very clean and neat inside and out, including the star and leads. Functions well, besides the clicky which has to be pushed straight in to make it click. Ran for 3 hours straight on a 2500 Energizer. Maybe I got one of the good ones. I just got my mulitmeter back running, so I don't know it's "lowest usable voltage."

Mine lasted about an hour.
I was happy with it for the hour.
Then it fell off of the shelf and died - wasn't much of a fall.

one hour after a 6 week wait - sheesh

scottv said:

Mine lasted about an hour.
I was happy with it for the hour.
Then it fell off of the shelf and died - wasn't much of a fall.

one hour after a 6 week wait - sheesh

Click to expand...

Did it jump or was it pushed ?

Have you opened it up, maybe just a loose wire, look at the negative wire fixing under the screw, it needs connection to the body of the light.

Or perhaps even just the "Pill" needs tightening up again.