Surefire A2 Aviator, risk removing the LED ring?

I've had my A2 aviator for over a week now and it's been fantastic, probably the best light that I own. There is one little thing that's bugging the crap out of me though. When the batteries are low if you look at the LED's inside it looks like there is a fine "film" of dust or something that is covering the LED's. It's not real bad, there's no dust in the reflector or lens or anything, just a thin, almost cloudy layer of what I'm assuming is dust over the LED's. I know this probably has no impact on performance whatsoever but it's really bothering me. I have a microfiber cloth that I use to clean my binocular lenses and I'm just dying to remove the three screws and gently wipe the LED's down but to be honest I'm afraid this might be one of those situations where I can make a bad situation worse and mess something up, or possibly get more dust on the LED's. Any other aviator owners ever notice this on their LED's?

You won't hurt anything by removing the LED ring to see if your LED's have some "dust" on them. I doubt it. But go ahead and check it out. I replaced my stock SF LED ring with the "Aviatrix" ring which has two white and one red LED. I agree with you that it is one of the "best" lights to own. It was my primary EDC for quite a while.

Could you please post a picture? What you're describing seems to me like they etched the LED domes to smooth out the beam pattern... Or sanded it or something.

If that's the case, then you'll most likely make the LED's beam worse by removing the etching.

I was assuming that he was talking about the A2 he purchased brand new directly from SureFire just last month.
Brand new LED's should be clear and not have a sanded texture.
Here is a picture of some sanded LED's taken from this thread:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/100819

one of my LEDs was skewed off center. I just unscrewed the LED board and straightened it out without any problems.

Ok guys I went ahead and removed it without any issue. Everything is fine now. I guess the most important part is making sure you don't tighten the little screws too hard when putting it back on. The LED's were not "scuffed" or eched, they were just coverered with a fine layer of dust. Wiped them of and everything is fine.

kramer5150 said:

one of my LEDs was skewed off center. I just unscrewed the LED board and straightened it out without any problems.

Click to expand...

Mines the same way, and at first I was afraid there was something wrong with mine. But after viewing several A2 pictures every one showed the same thing as mine. The LED's don't sit perefectly centered in all the holes, this is normal and dosen't seem to affect the beam whatsoever, at least in the white LED version. Not sure how you straightned it out though, as my LED board only will sit down in one way with no play towards either side.