Non-functioning innova X1

I stopped at my local sportsmans warehouse today because they are having a going out of business sale and all lighting is 30% off. Most of the good stuff was gone, but I saw an Innova X1 left, and so I picked that up for $14.77. I thought it was a cool light. When I got home though, I tried to turn it on and....nothing. So I put a fresh battery in it and.....nothing. I flipped the battery around and....nothing. I'm thinking it may just not work, which is a total bummer. Is there anything I should know about these lights? Something I'm doing wrong? Or did I just get a dud? If I do have a dud, should I bother sending it to the company, or just eat the 15 bucks and go find another one somewhere else? (It was a no-returns liquidation sale. CRAP!) Thanks a bunch.

Inova has no reverse polarity protection. Flipping the cell killed it for sure. Didn't you check it in the package before you bought it?

Yes I did, but I figured it isn't that uncommon for the batteries to run dry while in the package on an item that encourages buyers to "try me". And it didn't seem to work at all before flipping the battery anyways, so I would doubt I was the one that killed it. Plus, there was no such warning on the package stating that flipping the cell would cause damage. How should I have known?

If it was me I'd send it back to Inova. What have you got to lose? Maybe a few bucks postage? If you'd rather not send it back I'll take it off your hands.

I maybe will do that, and send it back. Or I could take it apart, as a learning experience. In the meantime, maybe I'll look around for another one, a working one. I'll have to see if any other B&M stores near me carry Inova. I thought Target did, but I didn't see them there. I could be mistaken. I'm just surprised it didn't work, I've read good things about the brand here on CPF.

My X-1 had a foam donut that the positive end of the battery went into, and which would have prevented the negative end of the battery from making contact. Some batteries just would not work in it. It had flickering problems, and would not always work. I put a small piece of copper in the foam donut to improve contact. I liked the X-1 and EDC'ed it for a few months.

I ran it on NiMHs for a while, but it was sometimes hard to get them to make contact. Mine stopped working. For $6 more than a new X-1 would have cost, I replaced it with a Jetbeam C-LE which is a lot smaller [percentage wise].

I carried my X5 for two + years before it gave out. I sent it back to Inova with the note "Please fix my light" and nothing else. They mailed me a new X5 in 3 weeks, I think. I don't know if their 10 year warranty also covers the X1.

Inside the X1 package there's a small instruction leaflet that says that the warranty lasts 'for the life of the light' so I suggest you contact Inova and tell them your X1 did not work out of the package.

Ok, so I went to target and I bought myself a new X1 today, to compare. This one works, obviously. I looked it over closely, and I think from what I have read on other threads that it is a gen 3, as it has a clearly visible rectangular emitter at the bottom of the reflector. After looking at the dud x1, I think it is a gen 2 as it is different in that it has a large clear round dome over the led. But crazy as it sounds, I'm not sure it even has an emitter. All I see under the dome is "yellow" with one tiny thread of wire sticking up. I cannot see any obvious led unit in there. Does anyone else have one they can look at and verify what I see? Because if there is no emitter, that would certainly explain why it doesn't work.

Yep, that IS the LED. Its very small and mounted on a brass/gold colored thing. The emitter looks yellow-ish.

EDIT:

Some pictures I took of the emitter. They were as clear as I could get.

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=7541235

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=7541234

Thanks for the pics. The X1 version you photo'd looks like the one I have that does work. The one that does not work has the clear round dome under the lens but over the led, a dome like you see on an arc AAA. That is the one that seems like there is no led under the dome. The functioning x1 looks just like your pic, and I can clearly see the emitter. I dunno...weird. I'll probably just play with the working one while I send the other one in, and see what happens.