Surefire Cree L1 owners with issues

hey folks:

I know of 4 people, including myself, who have received new Cree L1s with, um, regulation issues on high. I thought I was the only one initially but as peeps use their lights more one CPFer has PMed me and 2 more have said something in discussions about similar problems

if you also are unfortunate enough to receive a such light please drop a line here so we can have an idea of how big the problem is, if your light SEEMS to be fine, please, please run it on high for a minute or two to make sure you don't have one of these seemingly defective units.

Nick

Care to elaborate on these regulation issues? I don't have my L1 yet (FedEx lost it) but will have one soon...

Basically the L1 I had would drop out of regulation after being turned onto high for about 30 seconds. Some would flicker. You won't notice it if you are just pressing the tailcap for short periods of time but if you use the light for a minute or so (mine at least) it would drop to a lower brightness.

After a FedEx-induced delay, mine showed up today from Mike (thanks!). Put a new battery in it and have had it on for over an hour on high now, but no signs of a flakey regulator.

It is running pretty warm, however, after an hour on high.

One thing - compared to the pyrex window on the original L1, the optic seems very cloudy.

JNewell said:

One thing - compared to the pyrex window on the original L1, the optic seems very cloudy.

Click to expand...

The new lens is slightly frosted, presumably to clean up the beam a bit. The beam is awfully nice, I'm led to understand.

I have the issue also.

10 to 15 seconds on high and the light starts flickering like a strobe.

I've e-mailed surefire...

Wow, that sucks mine seems to be working fine.

I mentioned the problems some on CPF were having with their SF L1 Crees to Greg over at BrightGuy.com.

He actually offered to perform a several minute test of an L1 Cree before filling my order for one. Is that not going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that a customer is satisfied?!!!

I'd bet he'd do the same for others as well. I'd be surprised if he didn't.

I would say that is exceptional customer service for sure!

That is very good customer service.

Has anyone heard from Surefire on exactly what is causing this issue? Is it possible that lights that are not showing this behavior now could begin to in the future?

I have run two 123 primaries to sub-moon mode on "high" without issues, so I believe my light at least is dependable. The head does become rather warm when run continuously for an extended period on high.

I tested for 2 minutes, and mine seems to work fine on high. How much more testing should one do to assure function?

half-watt said:

I mentioned the problems some on CPF were having with their SF L1 Crees to Greg over at BrightGuy.com.

He actually offered to perform a several minute test of an L1 Cree before filling my order for one. Is that not going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that a customer is satisfied?!!!

I'd bet he'd do the same for others as well. I'd be surprised if he didn't.

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did u call chris at brightguy when he said he would test it first or email ??

Got mine back from the factory today. took a grand total of 3 business days between they receiving it and I getting it back. it seems to be working fine. Color is good and the beam is great.

edit:

I spoke too soon.

the light is another dud:

I put in a fresh SF 123 cell, after 3:29, the light drops to half its brightness, and starts to strobe in a very unsightly fashion. The voltage of the battery went from 3.24 to 2.79 in that time.

I'm going to call SF tomorrow and seriously ask them about this problem.

276,

i've done business with BG for, i'm forgettin', 3+ (or is it 4+) yrs now.

i've always spoken with (on the tellie) or emailed Greg Atwell, or, more recently, received email from Tina.

Don't know any Chris at BG (unless Greg also goes by Chris [middle name???]).

To your point, this time i emailed Greg and heard back from him.

270W,

if you don't mind an unsolicited suggestion (my apologies if this suggestion is unwanted):

1) get your money back from SF.

2) email Greg at BrightGuy.com and ask him to test yours first. Just mention that someone on CPF had asked him to do this before shipping it to him. He tested mine for over 5min before being satisfied that it would display the same 2-3min problem that others here on CPF were reporting.

270winchester said:

Got mine back from the factory today. took a grand total of 3 business days between they receiving it and I getting it back. it seems to be working fine. Color is good and the beam is great.

edit:

I spoke too soon.

the light is another dud:

I put in a fresh SF 123 cell, after 3:29, the light drops to half its brightness, and starts to strobe in a very unsightly fashion. The voltage of the battery went from 3.24 to 2.79 in that time.

I'm going to call SF tomorrow and seriously ask them about this problem.

Click to expand...

I just ran my L1 for 5 minutes on high. Worked fine, didn't get hot at all. I can imagine your frustration with getting a defective light and then getting another one as your replacement. Two weeks ago I received my new U2 and turned it on to check the beam out. After 20-30 seconds it shut off and never worked again. It is now at Surefire. Very disappointing to receive a new light and have a problem. I feel for you.

anyone have a piece of something rattling around in the body of their L1?

luminata said:

anyone have a piece of something rattling around in the body of their L1?

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Mine is rattle free

sbebenelli said:

Mine is rattle free

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Mine is rattle-free as well. Very solid AND it passed the "7-straight-minutes-on-high-without-flickering-or-dimming" test. Hopefully it lasts.