PT Impact and TEC 40, Anybody else seen this?

I changed batteries in my TEC40, which I had loaned to my daughter for a trip (bulb would not light, even dimly).
Brand new batteries: nothing. Then I put the TEC40 head on my Impact body, and it lit up. Put TEC 40 head back on the 40: nothing. Cleaned the 40 inside and contacts: nothing. Decided that something had to be wrong with the continuity in the TEC40 body, and put the new batteries into the Impact. Now it would not light either!!

Then I found that both lights would work if I put crumpled tin foil into the bottom of the case. This doesn't make sense. Both lights spring load the batteries with enough force to make dents in the contacts, and there is plenty of travel left.

I am at a complete loss to explain this. As far as I'm concerned, you should not have to put tin foil in a $30 or $20 light to make it work. Oh well, another argument for switches.

Yes! This exact thing happened to me last week with an old Tec40. It had been working fine the night before. I put the light assembly in my Solo headlamp and it works fine. I cleaned the contacts in the Tec40 as well - no luck. I kept the LA for the solo and just threw the Tec40 body away.

Tom

<< Yes! This exact thing happened to me last week with an old Tec40>>

I wonder how many others? Still doesn't make sense.

Problem is with the compressable contact strip in the bottom of the TEC40 body which completes the battery series circuit. Your valid argument / disappointment with having to go the tinfoil route has been noted often by other owners.

Still - a small inconvienience for an otherwise very versatile light IMHO.

The same thing happened to me recently. I also had to put a folded piece aluminum foil in the bottom. I think someone said that PT is changing the design to address this problem

If I want to use rechargeables in my Tec 40, I need aluminum foil in the bottom for the batteries to make contact.

If you use Duracells, or any other battery brand with an "taller" negative contact, the light works fine. Energizers, and many other brands, have a lower negative "tip" that prevents a good contact in the bottom part of the light.

Using a piece of aluminium foil is almost mandatory to use NiMH, since ALL of them (mostly built from SANYO) have a totally flat negative contact.

Anthony

Wow, this is the first I've heard about this. I was just planning on buying three Tec 40s for gifts, but now I'll just stick to UK 4aa instead.

Raven

I'm using Duracell AAA NiMH cells (flat bottom) in my Rage, which probably has the same contact strip at the bottom as the Rage. It's been working great so far.

Raven said: ...first I've heard ...I'll just stick to UK 4aa instead.

Yup. I had a Tec40 with this problem, took it back. Instead I use the UK 4AA AS2 (with NiMHs)...I really love that light!

paulr said:...Duracell AAA NiMH cells (flat bottom) in my Rage, which probably has the same contact strip

Nope. Take a look down in the Rage. It has springs (just like the PT Attitude). I use NiMHs in both and they DO work great. Although, I have 3 brands that work just fine (RayOvac Ultras 550 Mah, Energizer ACCU 650 Mah and some OEM 550 Mah cells that came with a BellSouth FRS radio), I just bought some new Energizer 750 Mah AAAs that seem to have a difficulty. With the 750 cells, I have to crank the bezel down a lot harder to get the light to work (just like the Tec40 problem).

I'm at a loss to explain this 'cause the new cells are obviously a little TALLER than the old cells that worked fine. So...why would taller cells not work as well? Very puzzling.

BTW...there was a post on CPF that PT is adding springs to the Tec40 at some point.

Thanks to everybody for all the feedback. The more I think about it, the worse it seems that PT would promote the TEC 40 and Impact as rugged survival lights when they have such an obvious design flaw. What if you were in a situation where tin foil was not available?

Oops, typing error, I meant to say I use NiMH in my Blast, which is similar to the Rage but uses two cells. But yeah, I just looked inside and there's springs there. I thought I'd looked before and seen a contact strip. Anyway, it's a nice little light, the PT40's problems notwithstanding.