"Worlds best Illumintation Tools", Not so far

robinsok · Oct 18, 2007

I just bought an Surefire E2D off of the CP forums Marketplace. I was really pumped because i have wanted one for a long time. It came last night, new in package as far as i can tell, thats how it was listed and thats how it looked to me.

I used it at work today, and it's already F*cking broken. The tailswitch doesn't work, and now the light is stuck on. So its worthless at this point.

I have put maglites through hell and never had one break, even dropping them off ladders, drops, etc. And a surefire is supposed to be a high end light, and it doesn't even last 24 hours. I did not drop the light or do anything to damage it.

I know they have a lifetime warranty, but what kind of turnaround time does that usually involve?

lightemup · Oct 18, 2007

I think you will find if you call SF and explain the situation they will look after you quite rapidly. It is a real shame the tailcap went on you

Best of luck.

Novaflash · Oct 18, 2007

I had the same thing happen to my E2D. I simply called Surefire and they sent me a new tailcap within a week. In the mean time the tailcap is not that hard to take apart. A little lube and stretch the spring and it will be back to normal, or at least mine was. I know it is dissapointing but dont let this ruin your experience with Surefire I assure you they make a great product accept the tailcap failures. Call Surefire CS and they will take care of you their warranty is unriveled. That is also what you are paying for. Good luck.

nyyankeefen · Oct 18, 2007

lightemup said:
I think you will find if you call SF and explain the situation they will look after you quite rapidly. It is a real shame the tailcap went on you Best of luck.

The same happened to me
They will send you a new tailcap, but it takes like 2 weeks. In the mean time I sprayed a little silicone lubricant into the tailcap...works perfectly and now I have a spare tailcap.

Actually they sent me two tail caps, one for an e2e and one for an e2d so I forgot about being pissed at surefire lol

Brozneo · Oct 18, 2007

Same thing happened to me, An email to SF CS and a tailcap was in the mail - happy as now!

robinsok · Oct 18, 2007

So there obviously should be a recall, why isn't surefire taking care of this? A 100 dollar flashlight that commonly breaks when brand new. I'm just using this at work, what about the guys that count on these in dangerous situations?

skalomax · Oct 18, 2007

Tailswitch problems are all too common with Surefire.

It's good that I live 25min from their HQ.

bones_708 · Oct 19, 2007

Commonly breaks? I don't think you could take it that far. Certainly it has been known to happen but that is not the same as it being common. I really doubt that the failure rate of Surefire's are greater than other companies. I do know that their Warranty is as good of better than any other company, that they stand behind their products, and that I personally had a 6P that was on it's 10th year with the original bulb till it finally went out last year. I have a 9n that is even older that is still on the original bulb and battery. That having owned over 20 different surefire's I have never came across any defective parts. That when I emails about buying a tail cap to replace one I lost surefire sent me a brand new one without me even asking. Just the enquiry about buying one was enough for them to send one to me. That being said I'm not a huge clicky fan and don't have any surefires with them.

skalomax · Oct 19, 2007

bones_708 said:
Commonly breaks? I don't think you could take it that far. Certainly it has been known to happen but that is not the same as it being common. I really doubt that the failure rate of Surefire's are greater than other companies. I do know that their Warranty is as good of better than any other company, that they stand behind their products, and that I personally had a 6P that was on it's 10th year with the original bulb till it finally went out last year. I have a 9n that is even older that is still on the original bulb and battery. That having owned over 20 different surefire's I have never came across any defective parts. That when I emails about buying a tail cap to replace one I lost surefire sent me a brand new one without me even asking. Just the enquiry about buying one was enough for them to send one to me. That being said I'm not a huge clicky fan and don't have any surefires with them.

Out of about 15 surefires I had about 5 lights with tailswitch problems.
Maybe It's the store I'm buying them from, They do stand behind their products 100%. I think they could do a bit better.

robinsok · Oct 19, 2007

I've got to give them credit, i just called them and they really didn't ask any questions, they just said they would have one here within a week. I will hold my opinions until i use it for a little while. Maybe i just got a bad apple, but with the prices that they charge, there should be a VERY low failure rate. They market these towards LEO's and Military guys, people that trust their equipment with their lives. If someone just said that 5 out of 15 of his had the same problem, then that is ridiculous, but like i said, I'll hold my judgment, hopefully it will be good from here on.

mdocod · Oct 19, 2007

someone ran a thread awhile back taking a pole of SF switch problems.... I do remember a lot of results on both sides of the fence... I don't remember the conclusion, the fact that there was so much activity in a thread about that, suggest in and of itself that it is a common issue with SF switches.

NeonLights · Oct 19, 2007

Well, if it it helps offset the "5 out of 15" with problems claim any, I've owned 18-20 Surefires over the years with no tailcap (or other) issues. Never had to use the SF customer service, but it is good to know it is there. One of the reasons the SF failure rate seems so high is that you tend to only hear about the customers with failures, not the many more satisfied owners with no issues.

Illum · Oct 19, 2007

since we don't know whether their production run is segmented or continuous, we can't throw out the possibility that there may be a bad run of switches somewhere and repairs to the design or manufacturing may have eliminated the problems of newer batches.

The issue may likely arise from older productions that remained under a seller's inventory, with no reason to believe that they are faulty, and therefore will not raise concern that their products may need a recall

skalomax, where do you mostly buy your surefires from, and those that has had previous issues, care to tell [if you remember] when you bought them?

nerdgineer · Oct 19, 2007

mdocod said:
someone ran a thread awhile back taking a pole of SF switch problems.....

Those who responded to the poll reported a 24.5% problem rate for new Surefire clickies - out of 416 total samples.

Most problems were fixed by Surefire. 3.8% reported that the problems remained unfixed after 3 months.

FWIW...

wakibaki · Oct 19, 2007

This is an all too common phenomenon. Every time it comes up a bunch of Surefire buffs crawl out of the woodwork to defend these torches.

Stick with it, the tailswitch is easy to dismantle, stretch the spring, lubricate this, tweak that...

...just what really differentiates this from a $20 item from DX?

w

DM51 · Oct 19, 2007

This thread started badly, and is now getting worse.

robinsok · Oct 19, 2007

DM51 said:
This thread started badly, and is now getting worse.

It didn't start badly, i'm just telling what happened. It's a fact. It broke in one day. Like i said, i will try the light for a while and see what happens.

Patriot · Oct 19, 2007

I've had a couple of issues with switches also out of 14-16 purchases but they were always taken care of quickly. I hope that you get a new switch quickly also. Good luck.

Carpenter · Oct 19, 2007

At the other end of the spectrum..

No issues at all with 15 purchases.

scottaw · Oct 19, 2007

I tried to get ahold of SF 2 weeks ago about a tailcap issue....they haven't even bothered responding to me.

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