UK 4AA 4 Watt head problem. My fault or return?

So I recently bought a UK 4AA eLed - great light! - and a 4W head designed for the 4AA Nimh rechargeable they're selling. I figure pop it on my old 4AA work light body and it'll be a great light.

And it was: for about five hours. I was using NIMH cells, whic I figured would be producing the same voltage as the official UK rechargeable, but the lamp still burned out with only a very little use.

Which is a shame, because when it worked it was really a completely amazing light.

Did I do something stupid? Did I get a dud unit? Should I return the head and report it as a problem? Has anybody else tried this light combo, and how did it work for you if you have?

Muppet

I think you got a dud

Re: UK 4AA 4 Watt head problem. My fault or return

I too tried this and was initially amazed with the output.

I bought two of the 4W bulbs. After using the first one for maybe 15-20 minutes (not even continuous) I noticed a "hole" in the beam. When I took the bulb out, I saw that the shiny silver "chrome" at the base of the bulb had bubbled.

I thought the damage may be from using freshly charged NiMH batteries. They had only "aged" about 10 hours (unused) before I used the flashlight.

So, for bulb #2, I put my charger in discharge mode and left the freshly charged batteries in there for about 10 minutes. After running the light for about 10-15 minutes continuously, I noticed that it was very hot and, AGAIN, the "chrome" at the base of the buld had started bubbling. There is no hole in the beam (yet) so maybe I'm OK.

My experience is that this is not working out as well as I hoped (for use as a helmet mounted bike light). If you want a "blast" of intermittent light, I'm sure it would be fine.

Hope this helps.