Zebralight H600Fw Floody issues

I own the Zebralight H600Fw Floody and I've been having some issues with it. Using Ultrafire 18650 batteries the light will sometimes not turn, when it does turn on it will cycle through low, medium and high on its own continuously. sometimes it wont't turn on and you have to tap the bottom of it and then press hard on the switch. I contacted customer service and they told me that I was using to long of a battery and that I should either use one of there 18650's or try a Panasonic NCR 18650, the battery cannot be longer then 67mm. The Ultrafires are 67mm long and I have no issues using them in other lights so I just order some Panasonic NCR 185650's to confirm if they are correct or full of crap.
Has anyone had these issues with Zebralights or other brands?

how did you measure your cells?
I assume you measured them, rather than trust the ultra people.......

justanotherguy said:

how did you measure your cells?
I assume you measured them, rather than trust the ultra people.......

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With a digital caliper, 65.85mm

I had some cheap ultrafire 14500 in my SC52. It would only hold the 500 lumens for a few seconds, and not hold other levels as long as it should have. I put some Orbtronics in and the light worked great.

In my SC600 mk II I have only used the Orb Panasonics, without issue.

I am not sure I agree with the length issue, but I would bet it is the Ultrafires that are at issue. btw, I have heard before that the number one cause of damage is using cells that are too long. I think that is why the SC600 mk II uses two contact springs, one at each end.

Either way, you won't regret the Panasonics purchase.

PocketBeam said:

I had some cheap ultrafire 14500 in my SC52. It would only hold the 500 lumens for a few seconds, and not hold other levels as long as it should have. I put some Orbtronics in and the light worked great.

In my SC600 mk II I have only used the Orb Panasonics, without issue.

I am not sure I agree with the length issue, but I would bet it is the Ultrafires that are at issue. btw, I have heard before that the number one cause of damage is using cells that are too long. I think that is why the SC600 mk II uses two contact springs, one at each end.

Either way, you won't regret the Panasonics purchase.

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As I said the Ultrafires work great in my other cheap LED lights. Hopefully the Panasonic batteries correct it, otherwise this is my last Zebralight. 3 lights and 3 failures so far, not good.

JohnnyVVV said:

I own the Zebralight H600Fw Floody and I've been having some issues with it... the light will sometimes not turn, when it does turn on it will cycle through low, medium and high on its own continuously...
Has anyone had these issues with Zebralights or other brands?

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Sounds very similar to the problem davidt1 had with his H502. The light was defective, it wasn't a battery issue.

Doesn't sound like a battery issue to me. If it wouldn't hold high, then maybe, if the cell actually was too long, then maybe. But it sounds like a light problem to me. I think you may find the panasonic 18650 longer than the one you have (if protected).

I would clean the contacts on the battery well (with some metal cleaner - brasso etc) see if that makes a difference, sometimes a poor connection can cause some strange effects to lights with electronic switches.

I'd still try a different battery first.
Zebralight has more sophisticated drivers that might be sensitive to sudden voltage drops, bad contacts... and the Ultrafire might have poor contact in the protection.

Oh, forgot to mention the batteries worked fine in other lights. So far I have had four Zebralights with no real problems. If I hadn't changed batteries, then I could have blamed the light.

When do you expect the new batteries?

greeny1 said:

Doesn't sound like a battery issue to me. If it wouldn't hold high, then maybe, if the cell actually was too long, then maybe. But it sounds like a light problem to me. I think you may find the panasonic 18650 longer than the one you have (if protected).

I would clean the contacts on the battery well (with some metal cleaner - brasso etc) see if that makes a difference, sometimes a poor connection can cause some strange effects to lights with electronic switches.

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This light is only a few months old and has done it since new so I highly doubt the spring contacts are dirty.

selas said:

Sounds very similar to the problem davidt1 had with his H502. The light was defective, it wasn't a battery issue.

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Exactly what mine does but since the "expert" at customer service recommended using panasonic batteries so I will have to wait until I get them to confirm troubleshooting.

PocketBeam said:

Oh, forgot to mention the batteries worked fine in other lights. So far I have had four Zebralights with no real problems. If I hadn't changed batteries, then I could have blamed the light.

When do you expect the new batteries?

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Sometime this week

Matjazz said:

I'd still try a different battery first.
Zebralight has more sophisticated drivers that might be sensitive to sudden voltage drops, bad contacts... and the Ultrafire might have poor contact in the protection.

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Its funny that a $15 Chinese light off ebay runs perfectly with the batteries I have, I won't call them sophisticated drivers more like poorly made.

I checked davids other posts. Seems he feels it was just one bad unit as his other Zebralights worked fine. He seems to also do water dunk tests. His others passed, but on this one he said maybe it was related, see link for his actual words.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ctor-damaged&p=4131885&viewfull=1#post4131885

This light is only a few months old and has done it since new so I highly doubt the spring contacts are dirty.

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Clean the battery terminals - not the lights terminals. Other lights may have a much lower current draw so be unaffected. As I said above, my suspicion is that the light is at fault here, but cleaning the battery contacts is quick and easy and did solve a similar (though not exactly the same) issue I had with a Nitecore light.

I had an H51 that did the same thing minus the self cycling through the modes. It was the light itself.

ZL fixed it, but it took damn near three months. No explanation of what was wrong either.

Done with ZL after that one. Their customer service is really pathetic.

Be prepared to kiss it goodbye for quite a long time and pay them 10 bucks for the service.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

lightcycle1 said:

I had an H51 that did the same thing minus the self cycling through the modes. It was the light itself.

ZL fixed it, but it took damn near three months. No explanation of what was wrong either.

Done with ZL after that one. Their customer service is really pathetic.

Be prepared to kiss it goodbye for quite a long time and pay them 10 bucks for the service.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

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What exactly were the symptoms of your H51? Have you had any problems with your H51 since you got it back? Are you saying that Zebralight charged $10 to service your light? Was it out of warranty?

switch would work intermittenly. light would cut out and quit for no reason. Id turn it on, sometimes work, sometimes not. I could usually coax it to come on with a smack to the head with the palm of my hand, usually head down did the trick. Mode switching was unpredictable. seemed like something came loose in the head.

Light was 1.5 years old.

ZL fixed it for ten bucks, I was happy for that.

Issue is my light was gone for 73 days and ZL didnt offer any expedited shipping options, very little communication, and just seemed like they didnt want to be bothered.

73 days is ridiculous for a repair job turnaround on something like this in this day and age. I was forced to buy another headlamp in the meantime as I use my headlamp daily.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

JohnnyVVV said:

This light is only a few months old and has done it since new so I highly doubt the spring contacts are dirty.

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Even a brand spanking new light can have contact issues. There's lots of stuff floating around the air in a factory during assembly. It never hurts to clean all contact points on a new light.

If you haven't already, invest in some actual "contact cleaner", available at most electronics stores. When cleaning the head, don't spray the cleaner it it, hold the head with the opening facing down, the light facing up (so the cleaner doesn't drip down inside and get into the electronics) and spray the cleaner on a swab and use the swab to clean the head contact point. Also, don't forget the exposed rim on the end of the battery tube, that's how the circuit is completed, and sometimes a little lube from the threads can easily get on there. And since were at it, be sure and get that little sliver of circular contact down inside the tail cap where the battery tube makes contact. And don't forget the spring.

Of course clean the actual plus and minus battery contacts too.

in my experience, a good cleaning of ALL contact points will solve many flickering and weird mode changing issues.