Am I wrong to be disappointed in Fenix?

I know Fenix lights get a lot of love in these forums, but my trusty L2T has failed on me... I believe, way earlier than it should have. About a year ago, it developed a high-pitched whine in high-output mode, and as of today has developed a burn spot on the LED. There's a dead spot in the beam, and overall output is down about 50%.

i do not believe I have mistreated or abused the light in any way, and I feel let down that the light failed within 4 years. Am I wrong to be disappointed?

You are contacting Fenix? Did you check the tailcap adjustable contact plate? How old is it?

Bill

Burn spot on the LED? That isn't a tailcap switch failure.

Sounds more like inadequate heatsinking to the LED. Perhaps caused by insufficient thermal grease under the star, or an LED improperly soldered to the star. That shouldn't ever happen.

Check to see if it's still covered under warranty.

Even if not, you might be able to fix the light by replacing the LED. You'll need a soldering iron and knowledge in soldering, but replacing the LED is fairly cheap.

Good luck getting the head off of a Fenix. They use glue most of the time to ensure that you can't repair them. I am not impressed with them and haven't ever been. They do an inadequate job of heat-sinking on a lot of the lights they sell and they save quite a bit on the mass of the light as well. I don't like them, but I am a Thrunite fan so why would I like the competition? I have PD-22 and had a PD-20, a friend has the TK-40 and I have been unimpressed with all of them. The Lynx outperforms the TK-40, the Archer 1C outperforms the PD-22 and it can use non-primary cells without losing its low modes. Good luck with the repairs.

I'm really sorry to hear that... (( I've had 9 Fenix flashlights and still have six of them and I've never had any issue whatsoever... I drop them on hard surfaces or water a lot and they've all endured my not so good treatment.

Fenix are a good brand, I have a PD30 and I love it, but it's not a hard duty light and would never treat it as such.

L2T was the first generation of Fenix light
1. They improved many things since the first models were released.
2. I believe it was sometimes from 2007? If yes, depending on your daily usage, it should have taken quite a toll only by the age itself

Fenix might offer you a trade-in option if this is the case.
In 2007, Fenix has the best Chinese quality torch in the market. Up until today, it still is compared to Nitecore and friends...of course this applies to most of their models not the E models

That is a shame that happened but Fenix is still a pretty good brand.

I have a TA21 and LD20 that's just about to hit their 4th year. I have quite a few Fenix lights and I have yet to have any problems with any of them. I'm a fan and, although criticisms are valid points, they are not enough to sway me from getting another Fenix light.

I'd be mildly disappointed to be honest. As others have said, getting the head open is the biggest difficulty in swapping the LED. I swapped the LED on my Fenix LD20 and it was an absolute pig to get the head open. Other than repairing it, a new emitter would allow you to 'upgrade' light quite significantly.

Any light can fail. I had a Malkoff die on the day I got it, and they're about one of the most reliable lights built. Nothing man made is perfect.

Jash said:

Any light can fail. I had a Malkoff die on the day I got it, and they're about one of the most reliable lights built. Nothing man made is perfect.

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+1 to that.

From a little minute search it looks like the light should not be run for long on high due to heat issues .Several issues with led burning out due to inadequate heat dissipation etc due to build maybe or lack of sinking.......

From my experience so far with fenix it has been good,improvements over the years(probably why they have step downs) to minimize potential led damage.

If long time use(subjective) then some manufacturers offer 10yr warranties,may not be perfect in the small print along with limited life time etc but just a thought.

But it appears the L2T is not a perfect light from the start from customer reviews,maybe a 4yr life was not too bad for this light(not saying that is right of course as its not).

No harm in sending to fenix,or another option would be vinh if you love this light.You can have more than adequate heat sinking,new led of choice/tint..............just a thought if you dont want to give up on this light

langham said:

Good luck getting the head off of a Fenix. They use glue most of the time to ensure that you can't repair them. I am not impressed with them and haven't ever been. They do an inadequate job of heat-sinking on a lot of the lights they sell and they save quite a bit on the mass of the light as well. I don't like them, but I am a Thrunite fan so why would I like the competition? I have PD-22 and had a PD-20, a friend has the TK-40 and I have been unimpressed with all of them. The Lynx outperforms the TK-40, the Archer 1C outperforms the PD-22 and it can use non-primary cells without losing its low modes. Good luck with the repairs.

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To even things out a bit i am a Fenix fan and i think Thrunite are overrated and could not wait to get rid of all i had except the little one which is ok ish but nothing i could not buy in any decent hardware store.

Here's the thing.... Even Rolex cranks out a few lemons. In terms of lights, at one point; folks were getting their SureFire U2 models D.O.A. right out of the box or soon stopped functioning properly. Lemons do happen to every brand. What counts is how companies stand behind their products if or when they fail on a customer.

Contact Fenix, let us know how they plan to resolve this unfortunate situation.

mcnair55 said:

To even things out a bit i am a Fenix fan and i think Thrunite are overrated and could not wait to get rid of all i had except the little one which is ok ish but nothing i could not buy in any decent hardware store.

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I have 4 fenix lights and 2 thrunites,the thrunites are, t10s which is a nice AA light,other is the tn35vn which is pretty awesome because of mods, so take that away............ build wise i say fenix is better,just a more solid feel,slightly better threads over thrunite imo. Would not say different leagues,just fenix is higher up the board(my opinion)

So i agree with you,i also think everyone has their preferences and favourites.
even my nitecores have been issue free :laughing: others say different from experiences.........

Monocrom hit the nail on the head.



If you do a search on any light,be it fenix or nitecore or or or and have a fault,on the 1st page of searches this site will come up,so i guess any issues posted or faults come here with them,also it can show that a specific brand has lots of issues ,the 100s of 1000s issue free wont even come here................just a thought

ven said:

I have 4 fenix lights and 2 thrunites,the thrunites are, t10s which is a nice AA light,other is the tn35vn which is pretty awesome because of mods, so take that away............ build wise i say fenix is better,just a more solid feel,slightly better threads over thrunite imo. Would not say different leagues,just fenix is higher up the board(my opinion)

So i agree with you,i also think everyone has their preferences and favourites.
even my nitecores have been issue free :laughing: others say different from experiences.........

Monocrom hit the nail on the head.



If you do a search on any light,be it fenix or nitecore or or or and have a fault,on the 1st page of searches this site will come up,so i guess any issues posted or faults come here with them,also it can show that a specific brand has lots of issues ,the 100s of 1000s issue free wont even come here................just a thought

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Well said Mr Ven we all get something dodgy now and again.I have a single cell AA Nitecore which gets a turn and i find it well made and only downside it gets very hot on high but i enjoy using it.Would make interesting reading if we ever found out the failure rate per 1000 sold.One of the companies who make Led lights that i sell sell claim a 98.6% success rate which is not bad for automotive lights.

The same thing happened to my L2T when somebody borrowed it. I suspect they left it on in turbo in a pocket or something. Luckily there was a few months left on the warranty and the dealer I got it from replaced the head.

I own about 20 Fenix products from EO1's to aTK75 handheld, HP11 & HP15 headlamps, and a few weapon lights. Pretty good quality and fair prices. They ain't no Surefire, but I think they beat up Surefire on pricing/quality or "value" so badly that they brought Surefire prices down out of the stratosphere. That said, I think Fenix is tossing much new stuff out so quickly, that they're losing some of their appeal.

At the very least, the light is partially covered by the Fenix warranty:

Two-years free repairs: Fenix will offer free repair within 24 months for lights from the date of purchase if problem develop with normal use.

Extended warranty service: Fenix kindly suggest that customers register the products with serial number on the official website: www.fenixlight.com The customers will get a an extra six-months warranty service once registered successfully. 30 months of free repairs in total will be available.

Limited lifetime warranty: For lights past the free repair warranty period, we provide lifetime repairs but will charge for parts. The distributor will notify customer the cost of the part before repair.

eggsalad said:

About a year ago, it developed a high-pitched whine in high-output mode, and as of today has developed a burn spot on the LED. There's a dead spot in the beam, and overall output is down about 50%.

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If you're hearing a quite audible whine on a turbo mode that sounds like a driver problem. On the L models I have, there's a faintly-perceptible whine whenever operating on lower modes that seems to correspond to the PWM, which I'm told is a capacitor phenomenon known as "sympathetic oscillation". One suspects that the driver has been overdriving the LED. At 4 years, it will be difficult to get warranty service from Fenix although they might work on it for a fee.