CMG Infinity bad experience

3 for 3 now.

First was the original Infinity (no potting). Inductor broke off after about 2months of EDC. CMG customer service was excellent and they sent a replacement without asking for the original back. (Would have cost a fair amount of postage from Oz to US.) This allowed me to open up the original and find out what was wrong. Managed to repair it, so I thought that was great. But put both away when Arc AAA came out, so it hasn't been subjected to further EDC and so no further comment about robustness.

Next, a friend passed me his original Infinity cause it wouldn't work anymore. We group-bought, so he was hoping I had the original sales receipt for returns under warranty. But that was almost 5yrs ago (Infinity has lifetime warranty, IIRC). I have moved 4 times since then. Who would have any sales receipts from that long ago? He doesn't EDC it, so that's why it took so long to break down, I guess. Haven't done anything with it since Gerber (who took over CMG's reins) wants receipts. Still thinking of trying for warranty return.

Third, Infinity Ultra, bought probably 1.5yrs ago. Never EDC. Just hung on my bedside for emergency. Recently developed a difficulty in turning on. I had to turn it to just the right pressure. Any tighter and it would turn off again. Banging it when it managed to come on could cause it to switch off. Read about this problem on this forum and decided to try the suggested fix. Just a quick tap on the retaining lip to improve electrical contact.

My butterfingers managed to let the screwdriver slip and damage the circuit board, so now it is not right to return it under warranty. So what the heck, I open it up and find that the potting is an incomplete glob that doesn't actually cover and protect the circuit. The only improvement over the original circuit in terms of physical robustness is that the inductor is slightly smaller and lighter and is sealed in place by some clear epoxy which covers it.

So at the end of this long rambling, I think I'll cut my losses, replace the defective Infinities with a Microconverter from the Sandwich Shoppe and vow never to buy CMG products ever again, especially now that Gerber has taken over and is blowing lots of marketing hype everywhere.

So just two questions.
Anyone want some broken circuits? And how do you put an effective lens over the Infinity to protect the Luxeon LED that will be going in?

Gerber wants receipts? Man, that's not nice. Maybe I'll write them about that.

Infinities have generally been pretty solid for most people too. 3 out of 3 going bad is scary. Maybe these things aren't so reliable after all, and perhaps they hope the new design (rotating tail like the Sonic) will improve reliability.

My experiences are different to the above and I have both an Ultra and ordinary Infinity. I have found the Infinity to be both reliable and extremly robust and whilst I carry an Arc AAA for backup at work I'd happily carry the Ultra if I lost it.

The issue over receipts is IMHO understandable from the suppliers point of view and is the normal practice over here in the UK. Very few companies would honour a guarantee if they cant verify the ownership of one of their products.
This doesn't mean that I think they should do this but I can understand why.

Doug

It depends on the terms of the warranty. Many state that the warranty is for the original owner only and is not transferrable. If this is the case, then a reciept is (and should be) required.

Then there are companies like Pelican with their, "Unconditional Lifetime Guarantee of Excellence. You break it, we replace it... forever" policy. Although there are conditions in the "Unconditional" warranty about things like Lamps, Batteries, O-Ring maintenance, and the famous, "The guarantee does not cover shark bite, bear attack and children under five." /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Did anyone else notice that way back when Skylab was scheduled to fall out of orbit, Pelican had added "descending space debris" to the funny disclaimer (The guarantee does not cover shark bite, bear attack, descending space debris and children under five)?

My experience with the CMGs has been very different. I have owned 2 white Infinities, 1 cyan Infinity, 1 red Infinity, 2 Ultras, 1 Ultra-G. Some of the whites have been in regular service for 4 years.

No problems with any of them. I have always been very careful of not torquing down the head too tightly. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

My original Infinity has been left in my pants pocket when the pants were machine washed and dried. Still works fine. I can't think of any other light I have (except possibly the Arc AAA) that would survive that test. I have four or five other Infinities and a Ultra-G and so far, none of them have needed the "screwdriver fix".

Some of CMG's products I would put in the "what were they thinking" class (the Sonic, the Bonfire, the Reactors), but I'm a big fan of the Infinities.

I've purchased 30+ infinity ultra G's on private group buys. Most were handed out to boys scouts and dads. I did install Dr Sholtz corn pads before handing out.

All of the beams were white warm tint, not much blue, 100% satifaction with zero failures.

When I got my Infinity a couple of years ago the threading was so sloppy the head wouldn't even screw onto the body right out of the box. Mountain Gear (retailer) sent another without requiring me to return the light.

Steelwolf look at it this way; if it weren't for your terrible luck with infinity lights there would be three individuals with problematic lights and hacked off at CMG/Gerber

[ QUOTE ]
JJHitt said:
My original Infinity has been left in my pants pocket when the pants were machine washed and dried. Still works fine. I can't think of any other light I have (except possibly the Arc AAA) that would survive that test.

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I have a NON-water-resistant flashlight that survived double that cycle /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif - please see:
are Coin-cell LEDs Waterproof?

I have 2 Ultra-G's from CountyComm, one with engraved NSN, the other pre-.

Both have been exemplary in quality and performance.
I EDC'd the earlier sample - and only replaced it with a Dorcy AAA because of the Dory's momentary on tail switch.

Hmm, I returned my defective CMG Sonic-G (bought from County Comm) to Gerber and got both my defective unit back and a new Gerber Sonic (in Gerber packaging). They didn't request for any receipt though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

[ QUOTE ]
cy said:
I did install Dr Sholtz corn pads before handing out...

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks cy! How elegant!

I posted here a few weeks ago regarding my CMG Infinity Ultra having the same problem. I got three replies, a couple of them suggesting I send it back to Gerber. I haven't gotten around to sending it back, but I can tell you that I e-mailed Gerber and informed them that I didn't have a receipt for the Ultra. They replied and though they didn't come out and say a receipt wasn't necessary, it wasn't listed as one of the things needed for service. I have pasted their reply below (I hope this doesn't violate any rules for this site):

<snip>

Thank you for contacting Gerber Legendary Blades regarding the limited lifetime warranty with your Infinty Ultra. We apologize for the concerns you have experienced. Gerber warrants to the original consumer purchaser that this product will be free of defects, in material and workmanship for as long as you own the product. To obtain warranty service, send the product, along with an explanation of the defect, your name, address, and phone number, to the address below:

Gerber Legendary Blades
Attn: Service Dept.
14200 SW 72nd Ave
Portland, OR 97224

It is recommended that you send your package via UPS, FedEx, or insured mail.

Sincerely,

Robert Dreyer


Consumer Warranty

<end snip>

So you see, they don't indicate that a receipt is necessary. Hopefully this clears up some of the debate regarding this issue. The real proof will be what happens when I send the light in for service.

Original consumer purchaser? I don't remember that being one of the conditions of the CMG warranty. Most of my Infinities came from other CPF members.

A receipt is NOT necessary and further, if anyone does not want to deal with Gerber, send them here and I will deal with Gerber directly. You will get a new Infinity Ultra from us and I will take care of it. I no longer stock the Sonic, so can't help on that one. Gerber has been more slow to respond than CMG, but so far so good. They are a good company. They are just much larger and slower moving than CMG.

Wow, didn't expect so much response. Yeah, I suppose I have been particularly unlucky. I'm not overly worried about it all, since I can easily repair/mod the ones that I've opened.

Thanks to Kevin (batterystation) for the offer. I will send the defective unit over and probably buy a couple of things at the same time.

It seems strange to me that a company that is so proud of the robustness of their product is willing to warranty it only to the original buyer. Why is that? Does the re-buyer (second, third, fourth, etc. buyer) have cooties or something, such that when he touches the oh-so-tough light, the magic gets let out and it isn't that tough anymore?

Something is up with this product line. One vendor where I bought a CMG Infinity Ultra many months ago has been listing them as "temporarily out of stock" for several months now. I bought another Infinity Ultra from Brightguy a couple of months ago but now it seems as if Brightguy doesn't carry any CMG products.

The only CMG products that I see at Brightguy are listed on the Specials page as "Closeout".

How long has Gerber owned CMG?

According to an email reply I got from Gerber a week or so ago, the old Infinity is no longer manufactured. This revelation was tangental to another question I had for them, so I don't know how much of the CMG line they intend to carry on with. Just FYI.

Infinity Ultras are readily available. The merger was official April 1. All is smooth sailing on the Infinity Ultra line.

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batterystation said:
Infinity Ultras are readily available. The merger was official April 1. All is smooth sailing on the Infinity Ultra line.

[/ QUOTE ]

What about the Infinites?

[ QUOTE ]
From Customer Service at GERBER:
Thank you for your e-mail and your interest in both CMG and Gerber products.
While we are continuing to carry many of the CMG lights, the Infinity lights you
have mentioned are no longer being manufactured.

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