NDI Hot and Blue on a 14500. Need advice!

I recently purchased an NDI, R2 version, from a highly regarded dealer. It arrived and I noticed the following when operating it on an AW 14500 cell:

Tint shifts from cool white to very blue within 10-15 seconds
Gets too hot to hold in 2-3 minutes
Is not as bright on a 14500 as my D10 R2 or my NDI Q5 on a nimh cell.
Is even dimmer on a nimh cell.

I contacted the dealer, obtained an RMA, and sent the light back about 10 days ago. Today I emailed the dealer for an update and this was their response.

"Thank you for the e-mail. We did have a chance to look at the light and it is fine. The light was meant to be used with primary AA, AA Nimh or AA Nicd batteries. The light can be used with 14500 batteries but*for very limited time increments because it will get hot. We will ship back your light tomorrow."

Neither my NDI Q5 or my D10 R2 get hot on this same 14500 and neither of them tint shift. I'm of the understanding that this light is designed to operate for extended runtimes on a 14500 and that the output is only slightly higher than on a AA or Nimh cell and heat should not be an issue. That response from the dealer seems like a load of crap to me. I don't want to identify the dealer as they have always been reliable until now and maybe I'm wrong.

So, what are your opinions. What if anything would you do?

The NDI will handle a 14500 Li-Ion with no troubles. If the beam is turning blue, then either the LED isn't properly heatsinked or it's being driven at way too high of a current due to a problem with the light's circuit. When you see a LED behave in this manner, it needs to be shut off right away... the LED will often burn out very quickly, or at best it'll have permanently reduced output. Getting too hot to hold in 2-3 minutes definitely indicates a problem.. I'd say there's something wrong with the driver circuit. If you said it was getting too hot to hold after 15-20 minutes, then I wouldn't worry about it... but it shouldn't get that hot as quick as yours is. Mine doesn't get unduly hot even after extended usage with a 14500.

As far as what you should do, I think any reputable dealer wouldn't have a problem with issuing a refund or replacement.

sorry to hear about that problem Ive developed a real need for 14500 cells around the house. I use them to power 12volt LED clusters. In a 3 cell battery tray I have 2 14500s with a single alkaline. it rocks.
I also use them in my Quark, Connexion and older D10. no problems at all.

I respect keeping the dealer out of this, here.

I know 4 Sevens, battJunction, Lighthound are all excellent.
4 Sevens has been very helpful to me bigtime.

I'd say the explanation you received doesn't make sense at all.

FlashCrazy said:

The NDI will handle a 14500 Li-Ion with no troubles. If the beam is turning blue, then either the LED isn't properly heatsinked or it's being driven at way too high of a current due to a problem with the light's circuit....

As far as what you should do, I think any reputable dealer wouldn't have a problem with issuing a refund or replacement.

Click to expand...

That's what I thought. While I'm not the most informed person here I do have enough AA Nitecore lights to know somethings wrong here. In my response back to the dealer I stated that I believed there was a problem with the circuit or the heatsinking.
What makes it even worse is that the dealers sales page for this light gives runtime and output info for a 14500 cell and even has links to detailed runtime graphs where you can see that the light is being run continuously for over an hour on a 14500.
So far, no response back from the dealer. There probably won't be one either as I received shipping notification for the light being returned.
I'd like to know if a qualified 3rd party CPF member would be willing to take a look at this light and post their observations. I will gladly ship it out to a neutral party when I get it back. I'm not trying to make trouble for anyone. Maybe someone can diagnose the specific problem and I can try the dealer again. The light is of no value to me whatever right now being unable to run on a 14500 and being anemic on a nimh or AA.