Nitecore QC is terrible. Two dead EA41's!

I bought a Nitecore EA41 in October 2014, and for a while it was a great flashlight. Super bright, a good thrower, excellent form, uses inexpensive & reliable AA Eneloops, and it had a great UI (instant moon, instant turbo, and L-M-H).

In February this year I was using it as a bedside light with the 40mm diffuser and I changed the mode from low to medium, where the flashlight then turned off and wouldn't turn back on. The modes on the flashlight appeared to continue functioning, as I could press the 'mode' button and it would blink three times to indicate full charge and I could put it in 'blue beacon' mode, so I assume the problem was with the connection to the emitter.

I RMA'd it back to Nitecore in China, and after seven weeks they sent me what appears to be a brand-new 2015-edition EA41, in box with accessories, that arrived this morning. Hooray, but unfortunately completely DOA. I tested with two sets of AA's but it doesn't turn on, doesn't even give a battery voltage indication through the LED-switch.


I'm extremely disappointed that despite a "Nitecore quality 5 year warranty promise" they've sent me a completely non-functioning flashlight as a warranty replacement for one that stopped working after only 1.5 years. I expect they'll want me to spend another AU$20 to ship this back as well

Yeah, I'm a little skeptical. I've owned 3 nitecore flashlights and could not make myself love them. I have a an EC4S on the way and have been struggling with ordering a second one for the group buy price (awesome) before the first one even arrives. I know that all brands are not without their issues. I've seen a few people bailing on Olight, but I own a dozen and feel the love. Not sure if I'm going to end up a fan or not.

There's an ec4s group buy?

And damn, you had to ship to China? Mine was handled in the states and they just replaced the head. Shipping paid and everything. Of course, mine was defective out the box and I had ordered directly from the nitecore store so that may make a difference...

I really considered Nitecore (they have a cool factor) but it seems like they have batches that don't seem to go through QC!

Not just Nitecore, but so many others. It seems like all we do anymore is order a light, cross our fingers, and hope for the best. Then a few weeks later we post about issues. We have a 50/50 chance. Of course there are some brands you don't have to worry about, but they're the exception.

Is it the same with other hobbies? Knives, guns, RC, fishing, etc? I don't really have anything to compare first hand.

I suppose, in this era of massive mass production, crazy demand, tight deadlines, ever rising expectations, and serious competition... not everything is tested thoroughly before shipment.

I still want my service and quality!!... but I understand.

Over the last three or four years I have ordered over a dozen Nitecore lights - a TM11, EA4, EA4W, EA41, EA8, TM16, TM16GT, EA11, two MT06, and close to a dozen Tubes. The only problem I have had is that one of the Tubes apparently drained down far enough for the protection circuit to kick in, but after I recharged it, it has been working fine. I also have eight NI18650A cells and two NI14500A cells, again with no problems, as well as an i4 v2 charger.

I guess I have beaten the law of averages here. Just remember, even at 99.99% perfection, one out of every 100,000 will be bad.

NiteCore, is one of the brands you're allowed to take issue with.

allowed?

Chinook said:

allowed?

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Approved even, if I may.

Chinook said:

allowed?

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Some brands here are above reproach.

Chinook said:

allowed?

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Yeah, there's a bit of that in every community.

Nitecore seems to have real-enough problems, though. I'm pretty new to the light habit, and have had two problem-lights from them. One I managed to fix myself, the other, well, I didn't bother sending it to China.

so...is there a place to find a frequency of defects per company/manufacturer?
can't find them in Consumer Reports

I have been fortunate to receive 3ea MH20(CW,NW,GT), EA45S, EC4S in shipshape and Bristol fashion

Dear @Biggoggs and CPF members,

Thank you for sharing your experience. We are sorry to learn your beloved flashlight turned malfunctioning.
Have you contacted your seller for warranty service? That's the quickest way to get served. Meanwhile please send us an email with details to [email protected]. We will see to your issue immediately.

Nitecore Team

I personally haven't had any issues with any of my Nitecore lights, maybe I'm just lucky but all of mine work well and my EA41w I gave to a friend as a gift. He loves it and it still works great a year later. Nitecore, from my experience, is a pretty solid company and sometimes issues like this come up. Other companies like Zebralight, Olight, Fenix, etc also have occasional QC issues. To me the key is how the company handles the warranty claim imo.

I received a defective mt06. I returned it to the seller and they immediately sent me another. The replacement
has been rock solid for a couple months now, used daily at work. It's a great light. It kicked out my 8 year old streamlight stylus from my shirt pocket. Of course should that fail I carry a malkoff mdc with e2t throw head in my pants pocket. I've also had my 1st Gen thrunite tn12 crap out on me and my olight s30r crapped out last month. I think the failure rate is generally higher in Chinese made lights

eekazum said:

And damn, you had to ship to China? Mine was handled in the states and they just replaced the head. Shipping paid and everything. Of course, mine was defective out the box and I had ordered directly from the nitecore store so that may make a difference...

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Yea "Guangzhou" in China, Nitecore don't have an Australian distributor. Under Australian consumer law vendors have to warranty products for 12 months, so outside this (in my case 16 months) it has to be handled by the manufacturer who may provide an extended warranty.

Timothybil said:

Over the last three or four years I have ordered over a dozen Nitecore lights - a TM11, EA4, EA4W, EA41, EA8, TM16, TM16GT, EA11, two MT06, and close to a dozen Tubes. The only problem I have had is that one of the Tubes apparently drained down far enough for the protection circuit to kick in, but after I recharged it, it has been working fine. I also have eight NI18650A cells and two NI14500A cells, again with no problems, as well as an i4 v2 charger.

I guess I have beaten the law of averages here. Just remember, even at 99.99% perfection, one out of every 100,000 will be bad.

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I considered that, but over the years I've owned a couple Maglites, two PhotonLights, an Arc-AAA, half a dozen Fenixes, an Olight, and now a Nitecore, and the only previous issue I've had with manufacturing was with a AAA Fenix (I think one of the 5mm LED posts broke after a year or so). Statistically, if the failure rate was 5% (optimistic assumption) then the odds of me suffering two faulty EA41's in a row would be 1 in 400, or 0.25%, so the failure rates must be higher than that.

Sysmax Ind. said:

Dear @Biggoggs and CPF members,

Thank you for sharing your experience. We are sorry to learn your beloved flashlight turned malfunctioning.
Have you contacted your seller for warranty service? That's the quickest way to get served. Meanwhile please send us an email with details to [email protected]. We will see to your issue immediately.

Nitecore Team

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Yes, I initially contacted the vendor I purchased the flashlight from regarding repairs and was advised to contact Nitecore- see my comment on vendor support above. Have contacted Nitecore service and they want me to record a video of the problem, so if I get time I'll try to do that this weekend.

Not defending them in any way: But say what you want about them, at-least they are here attempting to actively monitor & respond to consumer complaints. That is more than I can say for some of the other mass light manufactures.

I always hear about what a pain it is to ship back to China, well...you kinda knew that going into the deal.

Anyways, hope you folks get it worked out to a mutual satisfaction.

I bought a number of chargers from them- then saw I should check to see if they were 'authentic'. Their website didn't work and I emailed them several times, no answer. Eventually it started working...

... only to have the power cords 'fail' and separate on the AC side. So they were now a shock/fire hazard. Fortunately I had some other cords from Canon battery chargers... but nothing nitecore is coming in this place again.

purduephotog said:

I bought a number of chargers from them- then saw I should check to see if they were 'authentic'. Their website didn't work and I emailed them several times, no answer. Eventually it started working...

... only to have the power cords 'fail' and separate on the AC side. So they were now a shock/fire hazard. Fortunately I had some other cords from Canon battery chargers... but nothing nitecore is coming in this place again.

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Did you ever find out if yours were authentic or not? I know the knockoff chargers had that issue so maybe that's the problem? Haven't had any issues with both of my authentic ones.