Glo-Toob (Old Model) problems, please help?

I have 2 of the older model Glo-Toob lights, a white and a green. The white one "sort of" lights, and the green one is just plain not turning on at all. I think the problem might be in the switch mechanism. It's unrealistic (in my opinion) that both lights will have failed about the same time.

I've owned them about a year, give or take a couple of months, if that matters. I've been to the manufacturer website, but it seems that the page is geared towards the newer models. Can't find any technical stuff, or 'repair' info online, and I'd really rather not pay postage to send a couple of tiny little markers back to the maker for service, if they'd even accept.

CPF is *THE* place to go for lights, so any ideas?

There does not appear to be any damage to either light, and I tried swapping batteries for new, just in case one had somehow drained, no change. No visible signs of corrosion. One of them turns on if I fiddle with it, so it's not a blown circuit. The one that won't turn on does emit a low-low glow sometimes, like it's trying to, so it's not a blown circuit either, I don't think.

Thanks for any help. :thumbsup:

Take off the top cap/switch and complete the circuit with a parerclip, wire, or something like that.

I bet they both run just fine.

I think your switches need a thorough cleaning.

Ditto on what Sgt Led...given the fact that they're older models, one of them ost over looked items in flashlights is the continuity...a little bit of grease, dirt, dust, corrosion, can make a big difference. Make that metal shine, and give it another try. If that don't work, try the batteries...The one that came with mine had a card-board base on the positive end, and seemed to mess with the connectivity...replaced it with a duracell, which have smooth plastic bases, and it worked fine. BTW, :welcome:

Like any light, clean and maintain 'em on a regular basis, but that's only about once every six months to a year.

Electrical contact cleaner is OK, but I find Caig products work better. Whatever you use just be sure to let it dry for a few minutes before you put it back together. Don't forget to clean the contacts on the battery too. In a pinch you can use a very soft touch with a soft pencil eraser but then you'll have little bits of that to clean up as well.

By the way, you did check the batteries on a good tester, right? No offense, but these days I gotta ask to be sure.

These are just LED lights and the basic maintenance and methods for checking for quick fixes are the same. There's a ton of flashlight maintenance info on this site.

Those things are really hard to kill and not real prone to failure so it should be an easy fix. Bet ya have 'em up and running in no time.

Hey, here's a thread on maintenance to start deoxit+maintenance

*** D'oh! Forgot to ask if you've worked the threads on the switch (center section of the cap that has the keyring attached to it) a few times? Crud will build up in there from pocket carry. If it is crudded up you could probably clean out the worst of it with a cotton swab and some alcohol.

I have thoroughly cleaned the switch mechanism, and there is absolutely no change. I am convinced it is the switches, though. Any idea how I can take one apart and see what's going on? The one switch on the worse of the two appears very loose, the most I can get on that light is a dim glow that can occur even without the switch on the Glo-Toob, from the battery by itself.

The other Glo-Toob does light, but not consistently. I have to carefully work the twist with the cap not entirely screwed on. This leads me to believe conductivity may be the issue, so I gave the cleaning a try, with no luck.

Jeez, every time I swear that I am not OCD, a challenge like this comes up and I have to drop everything to fix it. And I'm grasping at straws at this point because other than the circuit board those things are really pretty simple. When they go wrong and you have a series of problems or they aren't easy fixes, I find it a real puzzler.

I don't think that taking the switch apart would make too much difference -- the switch is pretty simple and is a big part of the waterproofing. Most everything happens on the circuit board at the other end.

You say one of them glows, even when the switch is backed off? That sounds like a short but there isn't much chance of that with the way these are designed. Hmm...

Are the battery terminals well cleaned? You don't want to see any crud on them at all. Did either of the batteries in your lights seem at all to be bulging? Pretty rare but that is a sign to toss them even if they look like that only a tiny bit. Is there any sign of one end or the other of the battery looking even slightly dented? That could happen from screwing the cap down too tightly and would account for the problem even if the batteries are fairly new. I have seen some AA and AAA that were actually shorter than other brands but never an A23 but I suppose it might happen. I use Energizers in my Glo-Toob and they have worked fine over the years.

I'd try new batteries first, ones bought new and fresh from the package. You ought to be able to find them for around $2 each or even less and that's worth the headache you already have. These are not lithiums and do not have a super, duper long shelf life. That would account for the other one glowing dimly when on and then going out in a short time. If that fails, at least you'll have spare batteries and those are often used in car starters or garage door openers as well (my spares never seem to hang around too long).

Be sure that the contacts are clean so much as to be shiny (another reason why I like DeOxIt Gold -- keeps further oxidation at bay as it cleans). Again, a quality contact cleaner should work too. Let them dry for several minutes. As I mentioned before, try a very light touch with a soft pencil eraser and see if that cleans up the contact on the cap/switch. The spring at the bottom of the tube should be bright and shiny as well (the one in mine is gold and that really shines).

If that does not work, if you have a pair of long tweezers or forceps, try to GENTLY stretch the gold spring at the bottom of the tube just a little bit. If the cap has been screwed down very tightly, it could have gotten compressed too much and that would cause intermittent or poor contact. Be careful not to use too much force. I have no idea as to how that spring contact is attached to the circuit board, so easy does it!

Is there any crud or dirt inside the tube itself? I think that the tube is metal so it should look fairly bright and shiny (well, mine does anyhow). Some alcohol and a bit of paper towel wrapped around a pencil and then worked up & down and around should take care of that if it needs it.

While you're at it, Glo-Toob recommends lubing the o-ring on the cap with pure silicone grease to keep that in good shape and to preserve the water resistance. It doesn't take much at all (a pea sized tab is enough) and the o-ring is a bit hard to see since it fits almost flush to the underside of the cap. That probably won't solve your problem but it's a good preventive maintenance task. Then again, if the o-ring is damaged or out of place that could interfere with the action of the switch or the completion of the circuit, so there's another reason to check and lube it.

If they still don't work, contact them at [email protected] and see what they say.

I'm leaning toward it being old batteries and maybe a compressed spring as well, but if it were me, I'd do a really thorough second cleaning before anything else since that couldn't hurt.

Sorry I can't be more help but give the quick fixes a try, or even a second try, and I'm pretty sure you'll have them working again. The darned things are usually way too simple to die so if this stuff doesn't to it, it might be the circuitry but I don't recall of ever hearing of that happen before.

At any rate, good luck and keep us posted.

(Man, Im starting to feel like Click & Clack on CarTalk! Is this a "stump the chumps" or what?)

I do not see an o-ring on the one that's giving me the most trouble. Everything I can contact on the underside of the cap is solid, no rubber. Although there is a dark spot that looks like it may have originally held an o-ring.

I have been lightly 'scraping' the plate the contacts the battery, to reveal a bit of bare metal. This resulted in the light flickering on to full 'glow' mode. I'll continue more later.

I haven't checked the other light for an o-ring yet, but I will do it ASAP (probably tomorrow). Possible I got a bad batch. But I will try scraping the contact metal on both, and see if it will restore function. It looks like I may need those 3-packs of replacement caps they sell.

The o-ring on my FX is virtually flush with the underside of the cap -- hardly noticeable.

Ah-ha! If the metal on the tube is pretty oxidized (got the galloping cruds, so to speak), that could be a problem but there's a cheap fix. I EDC these anyway because they are so useful, but look in the cosmetics/nail care section of a store for emery boards or nail buffing boards. They're like stiff pieces of sand paper and come in different textures. The boards are stiff and the buffers tend to be softer, much more flexible (might even be able to be rolled to form a curve), and less abrasive. They are easy to break or cut into pieces that are the right size for the job -- you often need to cut them because very few of them have abrasive on the edges. I've only been using these since the days when cars had ignition parts like rotors and points (jeez, I AM old!). Ought to clean that stuff off quick, easy, and safely. They are so cheap you'll end up getting some and using them everywhere.

If there's no obvious corrosion, I'd do this next:

chmsam said:

I'd try new batteries first, ones bought new and fresh from the package.

Click to expand...

I know you said you already cleaned the contacts.

Just thought I'd share -- had the same problem with a amber glow tube I bought a while back -- not even the FX, just the single mode oldie. Deoxit did cure my problems, but I had to be quite vigorous with the switch -- steel wool might be your friend here to really cut away that stubborn oxidization.

Just checking back in to see if you got them working yet or not.

And to curse you because now I cannot stop playing with the old FX I dug out of storage.

Update:

Glo-Toobs work now. :nana:

Thanks everyone.

Since I'm not a feline I figure curiosity ain't gonna kill me -- what fixed it?

...I have to respond to threads like this.

People spend much time to aid in your assistance. The LEAST you can do is to report back on how you were able to solve your problem so that at minimum people who find this thread later are able to help themselves :candle:

Just to clarify -- I'm only curious. I'd just like to know what worked. I'll PM him if we don't get a response.

Back to sort of on topic.

I've got a lot of experience in sorting out problems with flashlights and many other things and am willing to offer a few suggestions but often when someone has a problem it gets phrased one of three ways:

- "It broke." (nice amount of detailed information, eh?)
- "It doesn't do this, that, and the other thing. I tried 47,000 things and even most of Billy Mays products." (too much information and still not enough details -- how is that possible? And "just who is Billy Mays, and why is he yelling at me!?!" )
- "It does or doesn't do X. I replaced the batteries and cleaned the contacts. What next?" (OK!!! Now I can make a few suggestions and we can get to the point of what's going on).

To put it in perspective, too little info and too much info can both be bad, wasting time and increasing frustration. Details about what's wrong and what's been tried save you time and keeps you from repeating the same steps. Feedback with details narrows it down and leads towards a faster solution. This is especially true when trying to sort out a problem the "long distance" way (by phone, email, or via forum posts).

This fix was actually pretty easy apparently, but I'd still just like to know what did it.