The entire industry needs better quality control.

Is it just me, and it probably is, but it sure does seem that lights, especially led lights, seem to have a well deserved bad rep when it comes to quality control.

I'd say it's gotten pretty bad, when problems such as lens rattling or off center beams don't even cause much of a stir.

Is it too much to ask for centered beams, even tint, secure fittings, 100 percent reliable switches, beams that don't flicker with weak batteries, and a finish that is free of defects.

I don't expect to get these things with a 10 dollar light, but some of these problems are common place on lights costing much more than that.

Raven said:

Is it just me, and it probably is, but it sure does seem that lights, especially led lights, seem to have a well deserved bad rep when it comes to quality control.

I'd say it's gotten pretty bad, when problems such as lens rattling or off center beams don't even cause much of a stir.

Is it too much to ask for centered beams, even tint, secure fittings, 100 percent reliable switches, beams that don't flicker with weak batteries, and a finish that is free of defects.

I don't expect to get these things with a 10 dollar light, but some of these problems are common place on lights costing much more than that.

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I'm new to LED lights, but have noticed the same thing from reading a lot the past couple of weeks. Apparently its not just the cheap lights.

I haven't experienced any problems with my own flashlights since the Arc4+ Rev. 2 fiasco in early 2004.

I have purchased five flashlights in the last thirty days. Four Surefires and one Gladius. And I must say they are all excellent piece of workmanship. Fit, finish and function are all topnotch. Just like almost everything else, you get what you paid for

Yes, quality control is quite important, but QC covers making sure the finished product falls within the design parameters. If the manufacturer does not specify that the lens must be secured so that it does not rattle, the QC step will not correct it. It's not a defect.

On the other hand, the industry could use higher quality standards sometimes. I've seen lights that would only work with some brands of batteries. I've seen finishes that were sloppy and parts that were glued instead of properly fitted.

Lights that flicker as the battery falls below the specified minimum voltage are not defective unless the light was designed to go into a dimmer mode.

We can encourage quality designs and quiality builds by voting with our money.

Yes, I agree and I was quite amused that several manufacturers who delivered faulty products due to bad or inexistent QC good lots of cheers for their wonderful and friendly customer support .-)

Also in same cases it is a pity to see very well designed lights suffering from easily avoidable QC issues.

PeLu said:

...manufacturers who delivered faulty products due to bad or inexistent QC...wonderful and friendly customer support .-)

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Yes, good customer support is nice, but it would be even better to avoid the need for that support by better QC.

This area was studied extensively by W. Edwards Deming, who was instrumental in bringing Japanese manufacturing from the "cheap shoddy" era to the current high quality state. One of his key findings was it's less expensive to build the quality in initially than to fix problems via rework or warranty claims.

It would be nice if some high end flashlight manufacturers would get on board with that method.

I'll second this one. It kills me when people equate "i wasn't ignored when i had a problem" with "fantastic customer service".

PeLu said:

Yes, I agree and I was quite amused that several manufacturers who delivered faulty products due to bad or inexistent QC good lots of cheers for their wonderful and friendly customer support .-)

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Archangel said:

I'll second this one. It kills me when people equate "i wasn't ignored when i had a problem" with "fantastic customer service".

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Fantastic relative to so many others who tell you "Don't make YOUR problem OUR problem.."

Standards have fallen, indeed.

The Metal Gear at Walmart is a good example. Most have off center LED's. I picked up 2 with the best centered LED's. One which I kept had nice white beam, the other had a slight blueish tint and a horrible scar where it appears they slipped while screwing in the clip and gouged thru the anodized finish. They tried touching it up with some mismatched paint and still left some bare aluminum showing. I took that one back.

Let's hope someday all LED's of a given brand will have the same tints and brightness. I've taken most back because the tint was horrible or for ugly yellow or dark spots and uneven beams. These were not slight imperfections, but obvious ones!

There's an old saying in manufacturing circles:

Top quality
Fast production
Low cost

Pick two of the above but not three....

Manufacturers need to consider their target market and try to come to some balance that both they and their market can live with. All three of the above can rarely be met in most cases.

In my (Somewhat) ejumucated opinion as a Manufacturing Engineer and Flashlight Geek, I'd say that three companies stand out as doing a fairly good balancing act for their respective markets:

Streamlight, Inova and SureFire.

dehnehsu said:

Let's hope someday all LED's of a given brand will have the same tints and brightness. I've taken most back because the tint was horrible or for ugly yellow or dark spots and uneven beams.

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Don't forget that most customers need lights to find tehir way in the dark or similar tasks and they do not care about tint or similar things.
Selecting tints for an usual torch/flashlight would be just a awaste or resources. This are different with our special collectors lights...

Bearing in mind the industry is still kind of young. Not the LED industry, but LED's for flashlights. They are making money hand over fist because they are a hot new technology and people are snatching them up like crazy.

Quality control shouldn't be as flip and snide as the tire industy.
"If it ain't round and black, send it back."

Perhaps if we start to curb our buying habits they will wise up. After all, they must read these posts as well.


:touche: Viva le revolution!

PeLu said:

Don't forget that most customers need lights to find tehir way in the dark or similar tasks and they do not care about tint or similar things.
Selecting tints for an usual torch/flashlight would be just a awaste or resources. This are different with our special collectors lights...

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Yeah, I'm pretty obsesive when it comes to workmanship. I'm sure someone else who has purchased my returned yellow blob flashlight is happy with it, or the folks who gladly puchased the off center LED lights I've left on the pegs. Thats why I'll always try to purchase my Flashlights at a place I can return them. It's nice to judge by my eye what is acceptable craftmanship and if I want to purchase it or not. Of course I still cant judge the tint with the flashlight still in the package.