Don\'t buy a Photon Fusion until....
Don't buy a Photon Fusion until Photon upgrades the battery compartment latch. It's in the works, but could be weeks to possibly months. The fellow I talked to at Photon said the mold(s) that were supposed to fix the problem, where the light is manufactured in China, were made wrong, and can't be used. They are still getting the design worked out. The timeline was left deliberately vague by him, although I tried to pin him down.
I knew about the weak latch problem, and I was *very* careful when I opened the battery cover. But after opening it only 5 or 6 times, always indoors, the lower half of the latch broke off, rendering the light useless....unless you have a roll of duct tape *with* you.
I had to send the old battery case in to Photon, and they are going to send me a replacement, which is the same latch design.
So, I don't expect to see the replacement for around 10 days. I've had to return the first Photon Fusion I received, due to a dead on arrival LED. Now, I have to return the battery case.
I am more than a little annoyed by all of the down time, or I should say 'missing in the mail' time this rather expensive headlight has had since I bought it.
And, whenever they get the new battery cover latch redesigned, I will have to send the battery case back yet *again*, to have it 'upgraded'. All returns have been at my expense, of course.
I know that Photon is doing what they can, but frankly, whoever designed that tiny little tab, with a hole in it, to hold the battery cover down against the pressure of 6 rather strong springs, is an idiot. The latch that holds the removable head strap attachment to the battery cover is extremely well made: heavy plastic, large grooves and tabs, and well engineered. The battery case latch should have been made with the same level of engineering. One look at the flimsy battery case cover latch, and you'd shake your head: what the h**l were they *thinking*?
The Photon Fusion is an excellent headlight, (and convertible to a free standing table or hand held light), except for this one really bad feature.
In a month or 2, Photon will likely have this problem fixed, I hope, since the first latch lasted about a month, despite my efforts to be as careful as possible when opening it.
And my headlight, or part of it, will have spent well over a month in the mail, or at Photon, waiting to be fixed.
You would be much better off waiting until this is worked out, to buy a Photon Fusion, and avoid the headaches I'm having with this headlight. (no pun intended....)
Don't buy a Photon Fusion until Photon upgrades the battery compartment latch. It's in the works, but could be weeks to possibly months. The fellow I talked to at Photon said the mold(s) that were supposed to fix the problem, where the light is manufactured in China, were made wrong, and can't be used. They are still getting the design worked out. The timeline was left deliberately vague by him, although I tried to pin him down.
I knew about the weak latch problem, and I was *very* careful when I opened the battery cover. But after opening it only 5 or 6 times, always indoors, the lower half of the latch broke off, rendering the light useless....unless you have a roll of duct tape *with* you.
I had to send the old battery case in to Photon, and they are going to send me a replacement, which is the same latch design.
So, I don't expect to see the replacement for around 10 days. I've had to return the first Photon Fusion I received, due to a dead on arrival LED. Now, I have to return the battery case.
I am more than a little annoyed by all of the down time, or I should say 'missing in the mail' time this rather expensive headlight has had since I bought it.
And, whenever they get the new battery cover latch redesigned, I will have to send the battery case back yet *again*, to have it 'upgraded'. All returns have been at my expense, of course.
I know that Photon is doing what they can, but frankly, whoever designed that tiny little tab, with a hole in it, to hold the battery cover down against the pressure of 6 rather strong springs, is an idiot. The latch that holds the removable head strap attachment to the battery cover is extremely well made: heavy plastic, large grooves and tabs, and well engineered. The battery case latch should have been made with the same level of engineering. One look at the flimsy battery case cover latch, and you'd shake your head: what the h**l were they *thinking*?
The Photon Fusion is an excellent headlight, (and convertible to a free standing table or hand held light), except for this one really bad feature.
In a month or 2, Photon will likely have this problem fixed, I hope, since the first latch lasted about a month, despite my efforts to be as careful as possible when opening it.
And my headlight, or part of it, will have spent well over a month in the mail, or at Photon, waiting to be fixed.
You would be much better off waiting until this is worked out, to buy a Photon Fusion, and avoid the headaches I'm having with this headlight. (no pun intended....)