E01 Battery Leakage Quick Fix:

I buy E01's as gifts. I bought my dad a blue one for his keys since he is always losing flashlights. He loved it until it stopped working one day... He opened it up and the coppertop that was in it had leaked out and corroded into what looked like the great barrier reef of coral haha. I inspected it and decided that the circuit board had been damaged. We go back to the store and he buys another one. After a year or so I look and find the old E01. I figured, what the heck I can't break it any worse, and disassembled it.

1. I carefully cleaned the bottom of the circuit board contacts with some deoxit and a qtip, (I did not remove the board from the head)

2. I bent a paper clip and pulled out the gold plated spring

3. I squirted some toothpaste in the body tube and started polishing the bottom of the tube with a qtip (toothpaste is abrasive)

4. I then cleaned the spring to a golden shine

5. Through trial and error I ended up using a standard precision screw driver to expose clean aluminum in the bottom/bottom sides (where the spring contacts the body of the light) to get out the hard corrosion and bad aluminum, and the contact ring at the top that contacts the board.

6. I then cleaned out the tube with steaming hot water and thoroughly dried it

7. I then inserted the spring using the paperclip to guide it back down till it popped in place

8. I took a pea-sized amount of toothpaste and carefully polished the machined reflector to a factory shine taking care not to scratch up the led lens

9. I replaced the damaged o-ring with the factory spare and lubed it and the threads

10. Voila! An E01 back from the dead. :rock:



This should work with similarly constructed lights...

thank you so much for this. I've been looking everywhere for a guide like this to fix my beloved E01.

I tried baking soda and vinegar and all kinds of stuff. It wasn't until I read this that I realized you could take the spring out and really get some good scraping of the corrosion.

My E01 is back in action and on my keychain where it belongs. Thanks again!

Thanks for the great post rangerxtrn

Good show, ranger. I'll bet lots of folks here will read your post and go raise the dead.

Geoff

rangerxtrn said:

I buy E01's as gifts. I bought my dad a blue one for his keys since he is always losing flashlights. He loved it until it stopped working one day... He opened it up and the coppertop that was in it had leaked out and corroded into what looked like the great barrier reef of coral haha. I inspected it and decided that the circuit board had been damaged. We go back to the store and he buys another one. After a year or so I look and find the old E01. I figured, what the heck I can't break it any worse, and disassembled it.

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10. Voila! An E01 back from the dead. :rock:

This should work with similarly constructed lights...

Click to expand...

Problem is there are VERY few lights constructed like the E01. The E01 electronics are potted in some kind of clear non-conductive epoxy. This is part of what makes it extremely shock and moisture resistant. If the entire compartment flooded, the water can't get near the driver board components. The Malkoff M60 and M30 also have a similar construction.

Excellent tutorial, but its miss-leading to assume this process can be repeated on all lights.

The best solution is prevention (Lithium or NiMH)

Always keep the battery when one leaks. Most battery companies will replace the light if you have proof. Costco covered a Streamlight for me.

This only helps with non-limited editions though.