E01 in cold weather

Maybe mine is defective, can anyone confirm this? My fenix E01 cannot operate at a cold temperature. And I'm not talking about Alaska or Minnesota cold, just some casual San Francisco, Bay area cold. It's water proof, but it shuts down in cold tap water.

To confirm it's the cold, I put the bezel in a bag and sticked it into the fridge for a few minutes, and it stopped working (briefly.)

Can anyone confirm this?

by the way, this is my first post, Hi all!
I've been reading the forums for quite some times. it's great :twothumbs

Welcome.

Did you try a different battery?

Joe

Cold has no negative effect on the circuitry or LED. In fact cold would be beneficial to the light.


Batteries however abhor cold temperatures, and some chemistry types will refuse to operate when chilled down. What chemistry are you using?

the battery is alkaline, however, in my experiment, I only chilled the bezel.

The E01 works just fine in SF. I came in at 3 A.M. in December 08 for some maintenance work at the campus by Lake Merced. I had the E01 on the brim of my hat and the guys asked if the light was OK in the drizzle. I tossed it in the vault we were working in (it had about 8-12" of water in it). I left it there until we were done(about 20 min.). It actually illuminated the work space rather well! I know, I know...IPX8 doesn't mean poop, but the picture of the E01s underwater in the promos fooled me. I probably had a smug look on my face too as I threw it in. I'm such a noob....and gullible!

P.S. I use Enloops, and no water got in.

OH! :welcome:

Try a fresh set of batteries.

I have frozen mine in a block of ice for several hours (in the freezer) and it still ran just fine with alkalines.

With a lithium battery I suspect it would be able to function at well below these temperatures.

:welcome:

TONY M said:

Try a fresh set of batteries.

I have frozen mine in a block of ice for several hours (in the freezer) and it still ran just fine with alkalines.

With a lithium battery I suspect it would be able to function at well below these temperatures.

:welcome:

Click to expand...

Wait wait wait... did you mean that it worked frozen? or after it was thawed?

If it worked as a block of ice, I'm getting another one. I'm pretty sure that mine is defective. I can't figure out why thought.

It shouldn't be the diode since (as far as I can immediately think of,) current through a diode is exponentially proportional to the 1/Temperature in Kelvin... if anything, cold temperature should make it brighter.

And it couldn't be the battery, since, as I tried to pin point the problem, I chilled the components separately, and it is the head piece that caused the failure.

could it be thermal expansion of the head piece that created space between the tube and the contact and caused open circuit? or maybe it's something in their regulation circuit that caused the problem. I don't know... even if I know, it's probably easier to just get another one, rather than try to fix it.

I really just want to make sure that (normally) the E01 is a rugged light before I get a replacement. It'll suck if my back up light fail on me.

Thanks for the ideas, guys!

Check out this thread cpf - My Quick Fenix E01 Torture Test.

hsotnicam said:

Wait wait wait... did you mean that it worked frozen? or after it was thawed?

If it worked as a block of ice, I'm getting another one. I'm pretty sure that mine is defective. I can't figure out why thought.

Click to expand...

It still worked when frozen in the ice and it was at full brightness too!

And what is the voltage of the cell being used? Have you tried a different brand of known full capacity?

hsotnicam said:

could it be thermal expansion of the head piece that created space between the tube and the contact and caused open circuit? or maybe it's something in their regulation circuit that caused the problem. I don't know... even if I know, it's probably easier to just get another one, rather than try to fix it.

Click to expand...

That sounds plausible.

(...)

I'm sure if you have tried some different batteries and it still does this you have a defective part that is thermally sensitive. Don't trust the test with just one battery though - especially Lithium since voltage readings on these can be very deceptive as to actual power available.

The battery is a duracell. It's also quite fresh since I suspected that it was the battery when it fail to operate, and it was a cold... December... I mean, April night...

I'm putting on a fresh battery and.. in the fridge it goes!
This guy is going to be the most frozen flashlight ever...

if it has a problem with the second battery, theres something wrong with the light. the battery is generally the limiting factor for cold, and it doesnt get cold enough where you are to cause a problem with an alkaline battery.

you should still use rechargeables for a light you use on a regular basis, no more throwing away batteries.

Sounds to me like thermal contraction (from cooling) is simply exposing a faulty/broken/incomplete contact in the circuitry somewhere... like a cold solder joint, mount pad/PCB trace fracture, etc. - I'd just get it replaced under warranty, myself. It really should work just fine under the conditions you mentioned.

okay, frozen and unfrozen again.
The minimum operating point of this device is around zero degree Celsius (water and ice coexist) it turned back on just about 30 seconds after i take it out of the water.

I'm getting an other one anyway to see if a new can really operate as a cube of ice.

If only the head is cooled it definately shouldn't happen, contact the dealer you bought from for warrenty service.

The ideal flashlight has the LED at -80F, and the battery tube at 120F (when operating, 40F when at rest.)

Alkalines don't start getting iffy until 0F, so you do appear to have a hardware problem.