Surefire Clicky Switches?

Anyone noticed Surefire's clickies being super reliable? I'm referring to the lights not flickering on initial activation and never dying on me. I have had many lights where switches wore out and after cracking them open, I found them poorly soldered or poorly tightened.

Surefire clicky's are pretty good, but McClicky's are better and are made to fit into Surefire tailcaps. Most people consider this an upgrade. Most of your online flashlight dealers carry them.

My guess is that the problematic iteration of SF's old clicky has pretty much worked their way out of folks' current lights, so we're not really getting the reports of them failing like we did a few years back.

I've had more problems with Surefire twisty caps than with their clicky switches. I plan on upgrading my few remaining Surefire twisties with McClickies as funds become available.

I have had a lot of Surefires and only one clicky failure. It was a Z68 that got stuck in the on position. You could still use it as a twisty in the meantime. Surefire sent me a new tailcap within a week or so.

Other than that, no problems at all.

My e-series clicky has been fine. I use it with a 17670 cell, which I think weighs slightly more that 2x primaries. SF pretty much nailed it with the re-design a few years ago. (Black switch guts with metal collar reinforcement, raised shoulder in the battery tube to alleviate the weight-impact of the cells onto the switch when dropped).

kramer5150 said:

[...] SF pretty much nailed it with the re-design a few years ago. (Black switch guts with metal collar reinforcement, raised shoulder in the battery tube to alleviate the weight-impact of the cells onto the switch when dropped).

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Thanks for the recap kramer5150, I couldn't recall the details of the revision.

Sure np.

So I'm not the only one that noticed SF's clickies and their quality. I personally like the ones used in their Kroma and UB3T. They're firm but not hard to press down. Never had one failed or disappoint me.

I have two Surefires with clickies. One E2DL that is pretty new - the original clicky works just fine and also the Z61 I recently got for it.
But my G2X pro has a little glitchy switch, I have even replaced it once but it behaves the same way.
Some mode skipping, not a big problem but I wouldn't call it "super reliable"
My Surefire twisties (6P, C2) feels and works great.

I also have some other lights (Fenix, EagleTac and others) and I have actually never had a clicky fail more than a loose retaining ring making the light not work properly.

Of course, my lights doesn't get that much use that I know some of you other guys give your lights.

GunnarGG said:

But my G2X pro has a little glitchy switch, I have even replaced it once but it behaves the same way. Some mode skipping, not a big problem but I wouldn't call it "super reliable"

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Just a FYI, I believe that it has been reasonably well-established that the mode skipping issue with the G2X (& comparables) was due to having one spring and one solid contact surface rather than a double-sprung configuration on many of the other SF's. I don't recall reading about an issue with their tailcap switches, although I would guess it might be possible. :shrug: