ARC LS Second SALE Price - 49.99!?!?!?!

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Sigman

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Isn't there a "PUI" law (posting while under the influence)?
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rodmeister

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Yes, Fedex just delivered mine minutes ago. Mine is definitely a second, unlike my first second...huh?..which was almost perfect. The new one has a magenta color cast and several discontinuities on the finish of the bezel, and machining marks on the twist switch. On the other hand, the beam is tighter, noticably brighter and has a better "throw."

My previous two seconds were almost perfect but cost $70. This new batch goes for $50, presumably due to the more evident blemishes. I bought the $50 second as a Christmas gift for my nephew but the blemishes are too glaring, so I'll keep for myself as a spare. It's a perfectly good functional light but I can't use it as a gift because of a two chips on the bezel showing the metal underneath.
 

vcal

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Originally posted by this_is_nascar:
These are pretty bad seconds, I must say. All 3 of mine are not working and someone else is having the same issue.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">All three of them?? And you've tried different batteries also?
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GJW

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I did some more playing with mine.

With SureFire batteries I could get two of them to turn on only sometimes if I turned exactly the right number of turns.
Turn too much or too little and the light would go out.
One of them wouldn't light at all no matter what.
I was suspecting the famous flex problem.
Then I tried different batteries.

All three now work with both Toshiba and Sanyo batteries.

I'm thinking that the new 123 battery pack is the culprit because the SureFires do work when I use them with the "clickie" pack.

The old style 123 pack had a raised nipple on the bottom while the new style has an inverted nipple on a raised pad.
Not sure why Arc made the machining even more complicated but it looks like they created a new problem when they solved the unscrewing problem.
 

Sean

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I just checked and mine will not work with a Surefire 123 either but will work with my rechargeable "123" pack even though it's shorter than a surefire. It seems the negitive contact point on the new style 123 pack is too wide and makes contact with the insulated label on the battery instead of the negitive terminal. I seems to only work if the battery is perfectly centered in the pack, as soon as you tilt the pack & turn it on, it quits working.

rodmeister,
What kind of defects did yours have? Maybe yours is like mine. The head had several spots near the top that looked like it had been scratched down to bare metal, but then I realized it was conductive epoxy that was smeared everywere. I scrubbed it off with mineral spirits & an SOS pad now it looks much better.
 

Sigman

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Saw it, knew Peter G had posted about the sale Oct. 30.

Seems to be some "wayward" comments here and there...don't mean to offend anyone, maybe it's just the way I read it?
 

Minjin

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I haven't even gotten mine yet (not due to arrive till middle of next week according to fedex) and I'm already regretting my purchase...

$50 may be cheap for an ARC LS, but it still better be one hell of a flashlight to be worth that much money. But I'll hold back final judgement until I get mine...

Mark
 

Sean

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Actually, I'm really happy with mine. It works great and has a few hairline scratches on the HA that don't bother me since I'm planning on putting it on my keychain were it's going to get scratched anyway.

Hopefully the one you get works with the battery type you use. You can always drop a maglite spring in the bottom if you have the problems like "this_is_nascar" did. Or use a piece of wadded-up foil.
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You've got a 7-day return policy.
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this_is_nascar

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I'm already taken advantange of the 7-day return policy. All three went back to ARC yesterday. I have enought LS's lying around whereas I don't want to keep ones that won't work on SF cells without rigging them up with foil or a spring. What I'm really waiting for is my replacement LS1-REV2. The new size really rocks.
 

W4DIZ

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I have found that I can make mine work with sf battery.when I pealed away the outer skin on the negative side it worked. I am still waiting for my replacement pack.
David
 

Sigman

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Sean told me about this and it seemed to fix my "battery" problem. The foam retainer in the head was too thick. If you compare a Surefire battery to a Duracell...the positive post "sticks out farther" on the Duracell vs. the Surefire. Actually the Surefire's post is the same, but has a black plastic cap/ring around the positive post limiting the positive post's electrical contact. I took the black ring off of the Surefire battery and then it worked fine with the Surefires...Keep in mind that there may be different tolerances on mine than on yours.

Still one shouldn't have to tear apart new batteries to get their torch to work, but it was a quick fix. I think he also mentioned that ARC will send you some thinner foam retainers...

Just a thought/possible direction.
 

soa

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I saw these mentioned on Bladeforums. I whinged about FedEx [and those hard people at ARC said tough :)] - ordered 1 November and had it in UK on 4 November. Little ding/epoxy mark on the knurliing; beam looks fine, Duracell DL123s work fine. It's absolutely brilliant and for anyone hesitating, I'd say don't. I couldn't justify list to myself [for me it's a toy] - but at this price it's great.
 

x-ray

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Well that's two happy people in the UK.

Mine arrived yesterday and the beam is perfect, has a few small scratches on the case but you have to look really hard to see them.

Now I've got the LS bug aswell (already hooked on AAA's
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)

ps. works fine with Panasonic & Tekcell 123's
 

M@rtin

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Make that three
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Pretty much perfect apart from a few small marks/scratches - at this price I can certainly live with it!
 
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