No Turbo on Fenix LD20

Noob here. Great community with excellent information! I recently purchased an LD20 and noticed there's no discernible difference between high power and turbo mode. I've tried with fresh alkalines and Eneloops.

For those that have this flashlight, am I crazy or do I have a defective unit??

floridonet said:

Noob here. Great community with excellent information! I recently purchased an LD20 and noticed there's no discernible difference between high power and turbo mode. I've tried with fresh alkalines and Eneloops.

For those that have this flashlight, am I crazy or do I have a defective unit??

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First of all: :welcome:

I have it and can say that something is wrong yes. The difference between 180 lumens level of turbo is undoubtly noticable when directly compared to 94lumens of high.

Edit: Now I notice that I answered you at two different threads! But anyway you received reply!

Regards, Patric

Have you tried tightening and loosening the head? Tighten for turbo and strobe, loosen slightly to access lower outputs via light presses of reverse clicky. Great light, adequate for most situations and like all Fenix, tough. Roughly 1hr 40m on turbo on nimh from mine. Cheers.

I had this problem and figured out it was "dead" batteries for the ld20 lower modes keep working

however this doesn't make sense considering you tried new ones

I also had a problem when the circuitry got "stuck" i will call it. Try taking the batteries out for a few minutes and then put back in

Thanks all. As a last resort, I'll pick up some lithiums to see if that helps. Otherwise, I'm going to contact the online jungle I purchased it from and get a replacement.

floridonet said:

Thanks all. As a last resort, I'll pick up some lithiums to see if that helps. Otherwise, I'm going to contact the online jungle I purchased it from and get a replacement.

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Lithiums are not the way to go with this light. The higher voltage will result in the loss of lower levels until the voltage drops. NiMH is the best bet for this light.

This is not the first time I've read that someone has thought the turbo mode on their light wasn't working.

First of all make sure you are in a perfectly dark area, OUTSIDE. You will see the greatest difference between high and turbo at longer distances but don't expect the light to be twice as bright from high to turbo. While the difference is noticeable from 94 to 180 lumens, it's not by much. Remember you need 4 times the lumens to make a light appear twice as bright. For your high mode to appear twice as bright on turbo you would have to boost the light output to 376 lumens and turbo is only 180.

Second if one or both of your batteries are weak there will be no difference between high and turbo.

Third, clean the threads and head with alcohol and when placing the light in turbo mode make sure the head and tail cap are tight.

It is possible you have a defective light, but more than likely it is one of the three things above.

Good Luck

Bill

I agree with Bill. The difference can be very hard to see against a white wall at close range.

Just an update to this post. The turbo is indeed faulty on my LD20, thus it's going back to the retailer. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't have any in stock LD20's so it's just being returned instead of replaced. However, I did manage to get an E20. I'm very satisfied with the constant light output of this model.

I confirmed the problem by purchasing another LD20 as a gift for someone. With fresh batteries, the turbo mode was indeed discernible.

Thanks all!!

I think the E20 is a great light. I gave one to my brother early last year and he has been thrilled with it ever since.

Bill