Highest drop without blowing the bulb??

Recently I got about a dozen coworkers to purchase G2's, along with myself, for work. We needed a small, non-conductive, bright light, and the G2 fit the bill.

One person has dropped his G2 onto cement from about 4' and his bulb stopped working. Other's have dropped their's anywhere from waist height to around 4' and their bulbs survived.

I haven't dropped any of my Surefires yet, but I have blown many a maglight bulb from about 4'.

Any impressive stories about a drop from a good (bad from a bulb's point of view) height where the bulb didn't blow??

Hello E2e,

Here is a story i posted a few months ago:

Me an my dad were hanging Christmas lights on our second story roof. Me being afraid of hieghts, i only had the use of one hand - one was holding for support while the other was free to work. I just got home from school, so i was wearing the wrong attire for the job too.

Anyway, i managed to stuff most of the tools needed into my pockets. When my dad asked me for a hammer, i grabbed it from my pants pocket and the rubber handle must have caught the E2, pulling it from my pants too. It rolled down the roof and onto the hard concrete driveway BEZEL first.

My brother immediately heard it SMACK on the concrete and picked it up. He laughed at me for dropping it, but stopped laughing when he turned it on and saw that it still worked. The glass was still in tact and the bezel suffered a small ding, deforming it's circular shape a bit. I was too concerned for cosmetics because it is a workhorse of a light. And besides...it looks like this:





Can you tell, on the second picture, where the dent is on the bezel? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I see the dent. That is impressive! I suppose I needn't worry about small drops blowing the bulb in my E2EHA. I've always wondered if it were durable, and it seems that it should be. Thanks for the story, it put me in the holiday spirit early.

I'm constantly dropping my e2e from about 4-5 feet high and so far so good. I have a bad habit of dropping my E2e when I get out of my truck. I think it's just luck though, one day I'll probably drop it 6 inches and it'll hit the wrong way, breaking the filament.

the MN03 seems to be one of the most robust incadescent lamp assemblies. personally i've dropped my C2 with a P60 from about waist height which put a dent in the bezel similar to ledagent's E2, but left the lamp intact /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

ledagent: i've said it before, but i'll say it again....i like your E2 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

whoa!

Does it make a difference if the flashlight was on or not?
i always thought it has a higher chance of breaking if it was on.

I've only ever field-tested when the SureFires were constant-on. Field-testing at night sometimes takes the edge off the abuse...

Al

Truth or fantasy:

DO THESE REALLY SURVIVE A 30 FOOT DROP?


Brightnorm

Different bulbs = different tolerances...

You can have the same type of bulb survive a 20 feet drop, and one die out in only a few inches of a fall...

I guess the best answer for how high you can drop a bulb without breaking it is:

DON'T drop it at all...

There's no guarantees...

Well, people may not believe this, but I've dropped a 3D Maglite from roof level and the bulb didn't blow (but it did hit the ladder a few times on the way down, so maybe that cushioned the fall).

And I've never had a MiniMag bulb blow - including a fall from a 2nd story dorm room onto the sidewalk and also from a couple of "failure testing" incidents in which I forcefully threw my MiniMag onto the garage floor (concrete). The light did go out once, but that was because on that throw it hit bezel-down, and the bulb came loose a bit from the socket. When I looked at the bulb, the glass around the base of the bulb was actually broken, but I reseated it back into the socket and it worked fine. I stopped this "testing" when I realized that all I was doing was trashing the body with nicks and dings. So I've never understood all the Maglite bulb failures. I guess I've been lucky.

But even so, I do try not to drop my lights anymore /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

John

john: i agree.....i wonder how much truth there is to all the reports about "failing maglites", because i've never had a maglite fail on me or blow a bulb. sure, they're big, the beam sucks (and sucks even more after its been dropped), but they're reliable as hell in my experience.

I dropped both my E22 and E1e from the hight of a vanity on to the tile in my bathroom and both survived......these were not tests they were unplanned events.