Piston Drive reliability, how's your experience so far?

I was looking at some Nitecore lights, their PD lights are pretty cool! I am wondering how reliable is your PD lights (Nitecore or otherwise) vs say tail clicky and head twist lights?

I have two D10s and an EX10 and they are among my favourite lights.

Absolutely no problems here. The EX10 needed a little bit of a spring chop (it was very stiff to operate initially) but both D10s have been fine straight out of the box.

I love my two D10s and I'm EDCing one now.

They have never failed to turn on.

That said, I don't consider either one of them reliable when I try to change intensity.

What about the parasitic drain issue? Is that PD related or driver circuit related?

hatman said:

I love my two D10s and I'm EDCing one now.

They have never failed to turn on.

That said, I don't consider either one of them reliable when I try to change intensity.

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So, you are saying they are NOT reliable?

The first batch of D10 suffered from a few setbacks like thin piston and body walls, at times the brass ring would act up because it did not sit properly after some use. But in general, I have er quite a few and I don't have any issue with any of them.

With regards to parasite drain, D10/EX10 are not the only lights that have them. You can start worrying only after you leave it alone after over 400 days. Can't say for D11 since I've not tested it.

More info here.

To try them out, I'd gotten the D10, d20, and Ex10.
And though the D20 felt bulky it was a great light. Traded it after 3 months.
The D10. Was cool cause it was brighter on 14500 cells, I installed the tritium myself.
Traded it too.
The Ex10 I kept, it is the perfect size IMO. Has the ramping UI(user interface) has a tritium in the tailcap.
I do regret not waiting until the Ex11 came out so that it'd be 60 lumens brighter. If they come out with an XML version i would buy it even though I own 5 XML lights right now lol I even have a Quark AA modded with an XML

Seems like exclusively Nitecore users here. How about the reliability of other brands' PD lights?

I'm not exclusive to any brand, but nitecore are the only piston drive lights I have experience with.

ganymede said:

Seems like exclusively Nitecore users here. How about the reliability of other brands' PD lights?

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I don't use Nitecore exclusively, I own and tried many other brands (see my sig) but found D10 to be one of my favorites with others like Liteflux LF2XT, Fenix LD01, Surefire E2DL, Zebralight H51, Quark AA Tac etc. Can't say the same for the rest of the Nitecore models though.

IIRC, there isn't other brand of PD lights unless you're referring to the ones created by the PD designer himself, McGizmo (Don McLeish). Even Arc6 is done in collaboration with him.

I've had my EX10 for a couple of years now, the piston was initially very stiff and unresponsive, I replaced the piston O ring with thinner ring and it has performed flawlessly ever since, the only maintenance being an occasional battery change. I'm not a great fan of the ramping UI so I only ever use high and low.
Norm

I had a lot of problems with my E10's and D10's turning on in my pocket so in the end I traded them off over at CPFM, there are other members who just absolutely love them.

No problems with my EX10s thus far.It took a little time to become familiar with the UI but I really like them.I think there are only a few lights that use the PD system.McGizmo was the first and his lights are legendary around here.IIRC Nitecore purchased rights from McGizmo to use the PD system.Lightflux used a similar system I believe but I don't have any of thier lights and they are no longer available.

I had an EX10 since they came out and other than the thin threads at head breaking I have never had a problem with it. I did find it 'on' in my pocket a few times, but loosening the head a tad locks that out from happening. I would guess that loosening the head would also stop the parasitic drain too?

jhc37013 said:

I had a lot of problems with my E10's and D10's turning on in my pocket so in the end I traded them off over at CPFM, there are other members who just absolutely love them.

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Can't you lock it out to prevent accident activation?

David Chow at 4Sevens basically brought the Nitecore PD to market, but won't even carry them any more. I'm sure there is an interesting story there.

The PD "concept" is great but Nitecore has had reliability problems in the past and there customer service isn't that great either. The latest product may be better but I probably won't take the chance.

The best place to get current impressions of the latest PD product is in the product thread itself:
Nitecore D11.2/EX11.2

Nothing wrong with the piston side of things, except some can be stiff because of the piston length and/or spring coil overlap.

A good cleaning under the brass ring and application of deoxit gold solves any operation problem I've ever seen with operation.

All the problems with the Nitecore seem to be driver related. They just die on their own, I've received several that died within a few minutes of operation. Mostly D20's. The driver is so flaky some modders to abandon upgrading NiteCores.

But if you get a good Nitecore, it seems to work a very long time. I had good reliable experience with the D10's. So I'd suggest using it heavily when you first get it, just to make sure there are no issues.

So in a nutshell, PD has a potential benefit of removing the tail switch from the light, a source of reliability issues. However, the Nitecore driver has enough of a reliability issue that I don't consider the total flashlight any more reliable than a torch with a robust driver and a conventional tail switch.

Like some others, I've not had any glaring reliability issues, more that ramping could be a challenge at times. Single clicking for on and double clicking to get back to low seemed to always work without fuss. Ramping and click-hold for high seemed hit and miss. And I did keep up with cleaning the switch mechanism and lubing with DeOxIt Gold. Worked great after that cleaning, but would inevitably degrade again very quickly.

cave dave said:

David Chow at 4Sevens basically brought the Nitecore PD to market, but won't even carry them any more. I'm sure there is an interesting story there.

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David's ingenuity and design brought the Nitecore PD series to market and facilitated the license of the Piston Drive system from Don McLeish. All brands expect Fenix and O-Light (of which he is now Chairman) were phased out from the 4Sevens site when he launched the 4Sevens brand. Probably a business move more than as a result of unreliable PD switches. However, Engr Paul in post 17, says what is a common perception of Nitecores driver reliability. Personally, all mine have been fine but I haven't modded any and many people on CPF have said the same - flaky drivers are quite common.

My experience is the Piston Drive is ingenious and very reliable. Problems have occurred when the factory covers them in excess blue lube causing them to stick.

You need to have a little experience to strip the piston, brass ring and spring from the head and clean / service and re-assemble the lights to give optimum performance. Nothing too difficult but you will definitely see an improvement in the PD mechanism if you do it.

David had some business problems with Nitecore. Something to do with distribution deals that Nitecore suddenly backed out of.

My only experience with the piston drive was the Nitecore D20. Unfortunately, I don't have much positive to say about it because the piston was stiff and difficult to operate and needed frequent cleaning which required disassembling the tail end of the flashlight, a process which required tools. The light also had this annoying habit of turning on by itself if it was bumped which on more than one occasion led to it running full blast in my pocket and me not realizing it until my leg started to get warm.

I hated that light.