Mag fullsize light survey - switch

You must have owned one of the following Maglites for at least one year.

Maglite 2,3,4,5,6 C or D.

I have owned 2D/4D for two years, not one failure in switch.

Same poll for Fenix clicky switch here:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/192339

EDIT:
You can't vote "no" unless you've had it for at least a year, but if your switch failed before having owned it for a year, please vote "yes". Why? If it's broken two weeks after you bought it, it's broken the next day, and it'd still be still broken a year later.

If you haven't owned it for a year but it's still working, vote "haven't owned for >1 year"

Owned Mag's of various sizes for many many years... never had a switch failure yet.

owned a 3D mag for 3 years never failed.

4D with a Xenon. The light is ~15 years old and the switch works fine. The chrome plating flaked off the reflector a couple years ago though.

Years ago, before becoming a flashaholic, I did what most folks do when I wanted a quality light.... I bought a Maglite. In this case, a 3D cell model. Kept it under the seat of my car for about three years. Hardly used it.

One day, decided to check if the batteries needed replacing. I clicked on the switch, and it literally popped out of the light.

Couldn't get it to pop back in. The light didn't turn on. I decided to unscrew both the head and the tailcap to see if there was a way to get the switch re-attached. Nope! So I tried re-attaching the head and the tailcap. The threads on both ends were stripped! The entire light basically fell apart on me.

I've bought other full-sized Maglites since then. Owned them for a bit less than a year. No switch problems with those.... yet.

owned 2d,3d,4d,6d no switch failures

chewy78 said:

owned 2d,3d,4d,6d no switch failures

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All of them for a minimum of one year?

I started buying the full size MagLites within a year or two of their being introduced, whenever the heck that was. Over time, I have purchased four 2Cs, four 2Ds and two 3Ds. One 3D MagLite was destroyed by leaking batteries, other than that, I have had no problems with any of my full size Mags.

At one point we had some well worn old 3Cs at work that were issued to our security staff. They had years of mistreatment, dings and nicks, finish worn to silver and still worked just fine. (I preferred them over our new 2D lights enough that I want to buy my own to mod.)

Today, like my most of us, I prefer more modern and up to date lights, but in their day, I was a big MagLite fan. I still remember, from 20 some years ago, a Wall Street Journal article listing the top world class products made in the USA and MagLite was high on the list.

Culhain said:

At one point we had some well worn old 3Cs at work that were issued to our security staff. They had years of mistreatment, dings and nicks, finish worn to silver and still worked just fine. (I preferred them over our new 2D lights enough that I want to buy my own to mod.)

Click to expand...

Ace Hardware is a good source for 3C Mags.

Had a 2C switch fail. Anyone know where a good place to get a replacement is?

Edit: After reading post #36 from Aircraft800, I tightened the set screw to improve the ground, and now my switch works! I voted "Yes - Switch Failure", but since that was such a simple fix, it would be better if my vote was switched.

Owned a 3C mag for 5 years and 3D mag for 3 years have not fail yet.

Owned so many Maglites C and D Cells, my first one is in 1985 Maglite 2 D cells and still working. The only replacement that I have done is to change the reflector and the plastic len but have no problem with the switch. Maglite is a good flashlight the only mods I done, changed the bulb to brighter led.

My "new" 3D mag is about 10 years old. My old one almost 20. The rubber boot came off the old one, but it still works good as new.

They are quality products, just a "tiny" bit behind in tech now.

I have a mag 3D from sometime in the late 80's / early 90's and I havent every had it fail. its got its share of nicks and scratches but holds up well.

seen ages in a pickup truck and on emergency scenes in all sorts of weather, cant say enough about it

The switch in my 6D from around 1994 failed a couple of years ago.

I've owned various maglights from long ago and very recently. have never had a switch fail, lots of leaking cells though,after cleaning and sometimes pounding out batteries they worked. had bulb holder part of the switch in a 2 c modified rop-hi crack, maybe heat related. Put a kiu socket on it and the switch is still working. I had a switch go out this year on a 25 year old 4-c streamlight. which they offered to replace with a newer model I declined.

Last autumn I bought a 2D Mag just for an ROP mod. The switch failed almost immediately, but I think it was at least partially my own fault. I did a resistance mod to it and I did it sloppily, causing a semi-short inside the switch. Soon it got stuck in the off-position and wouldn't budge. I don't really know why, I didn't autopsy it, as I had to break it in order to get it out of the light. It's possible some of the plastic parts inside the switch melted (most of it is plastic, after all).

So I voted yes, though I readily admit that it probably was my own fault. Be careful with resistance mods!

Killed one though by losing the spring in it. Put a Kiu bulb holder on it instead.

I bought a 4D Kel-lite must have been 35 years ago. It's switch failed after some time and I sent it back. The replacement light switch then also failed after some (5?) years, but that was because of battery leakage. Must have taken maybe 15 or 20 years for all that.

I bought a companion 4D maglite maybe 25 years ago and it's switch failed maybe 10 years ago. It was such a hassle sending the Kel-lite back that I just tossed the maglite.

I then got a pair of cheap but quite nice 3D mag clones (by Nordic) which I think were Chinese made. The 3D Nordic bodies could screw together to also make a 6D light and a pretty good club. Anyway those worked fine (though not much use) until I got involved in all this so I eventually gave away the 6D Nordic and kept the stubby version to build something in it, which I haven't gotten around to yet.

I bought an Arc LS maybe 5 or 6 years ago. I got a 2AA clickie body for it and the Kroll became unreliable in short order. I got a replacement Kroll and it also got intermittent in short order. Changed the 2AA to a twisty after that by replacing the Kroll with a maglite end cap which had the right thread.

It took a while, but I became a fan of twisties. Especially spring loaded type twisties like in Fenix L0x/Civictor and Gerber (not CMG) Infinities which I think are as reliable as I'll be able to get.

My 4-d cell Mag switch is still ok after 20 yrs or so.