Arc-AAA flickering

Here's a small advisory note on an Arc-LE that functioned perfectly for 18 months, and then started acting up:

The trouble was traced to a poor ground connection caused by a combination of the inner design of the barrel, and the base of the Duracell (of all brands!).

Regardless of how old or new your little Arc might be, if it starts to flickr or not light at all--do the obvious, and check the head for proper operation. If that's OK, and you cleaned all of th connections, then before returning it for exchange, always try putting a small (1/16" thick) little piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of the barrel before inserting the battery....

I just did this with my Arc (when NO amount of cleaning All of the connections would make it work), and viola! it works great again now.

My first AAA-LE (roughly the same age as yours) got the quick and dirty roll crimp fix about 2 months ago and works perfect since then. I put the foam pad in the battery tube since I always hated the way that da** thing got caught in the threads. As for the poor ground connection in the barrel - I grab a q-tip once in a while and clean the bottom of the barrel with some metal polish. Works fine for me...

Chris

That's probably what happened to my last faulty Arc AAA. The head was visually and functionally fine, and multiple battery brands were tried, and yet, the light flickered and failed to turn on most of the time.

I have tried the aluminum foil repair before, and it worked. But honestly, for a flashlight of that value, especially with a rock solid warranty, you might as well take advantage of it. Send it in to Arc and they'll take care of it.

Other than that, the Arc AAA is a performer. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Mine doesn't flicker but, one of my spare ARCs didn't turn on everytime because of the bottom part of the wrapper on a particular Energizer Titanium E2 battery getting in between the contacts. That particular Arc tube has a different looking negative contact and worked with other batteries. The same E2 battery worked fine with a different Arc.