Re: only 2 complaints out of the thousands of B90's shipped.
Pardon my French, but that is bullsh*t.
I have personally called SF Tech/Cust Service to complain, plus Gandalf has called. That's two right there. I do not believe we are the only two to have called--as suggested by the number of disatisfied Surefire rechargeables owners on CPF, SIDB, and USN. No way.
As concrete proof, I offer that in speaking to head Surefire Tech, Steve Ryan, in June 2002 he was well-aware of some problem CK-43's not holding their charge and advised me to request B90's from the new lot when available. If there were only 2 complaints out of thousands, why would he suggest this?
Furthermore, in the two separate occasions I've personally spoken with Surefire Customer Service, the reps voiced exasperation with the number of calls to replace B90's--and indicated no surprise. Does that sound like only 2 complaints out of thousands? One CS rep told me entire police dept.'s were sending in their rechargeables, batts, and chargers for replacment--and that they wanted to avoid this by replacing only the batts.
Re: Definition of "Working"
This may be part of the problem. I'm not so sure that Surefire's testing methodology is kosher. I think they pull a freshly-charged B90 off the charger and test it immediately (or soon thereafter--i.e. within a day or few hours) on an X80 lamp. That's great methodology if you want to test a "hot-off-the-charger" (HOTC) B90's, but NOT SO great if you want to test "charge-holding" capability over a week, or two, or a month.
If fellow forumite Surefire M6 indicates he uses his Surefire 9AN 5-days/week, I'm not surprised he considers his B90's as "functional". I suggest he try setting one B90 unit aside for say just 10 days and see if he gets even close to 50% run-time. I'd be very interested in his results. I do suggest that he not put himself in a risky situation requiring light with any-lot B90 which has been off the charger more than a 3-5 days!
My old crappy CK-43's would work fine HOTC, but after 5-7 days would literally crap out after 10-15 seconds. My newer, replacement CL-09's so far have been good even after 5-7 days off the charger, but I haven't conducted any tests longer than say 1 week. (Note: I am testing two CL-09's as of yesterday for a 2-week & 4-week charge holding test.)
For now, I consider my 9AN's (with CL-09 stick) functional only if used within 5-7 days of inserting a freshly-charged. I suggest anybody who really relies on their lights to not go anymore than 3-5 days without recharging (or inserting a freshly-charged B90.
