Have you ever worn out a flashlight?

I haven't yet, not even a bulb. I have two Luma Pro rechargeable incan I used over a year, haven had the needs to replace the bulbs.

5 bulbs defuncted for me (and one DOA), all overdriven except the TL-2 bulb that probably was weak.

I have not worn out a flashlight yet, but have been worn out myself while I was using one

Sigbjoern

Not just yes, but Hell Yes. (keeping in mind I'm former law enforcement)
Flashlights I've killed, worn out, or generally destroyed...
-3D Maglight: Batteries burst and destroyed the light.
-3D Maglight: Backed over it with a cruiser.
-3D Maglight: Wore out the switch, would turn on but not off.
-Any number of 3D Maglight bulbs.
-MiniMaglight: Dropped off a cliff
-MiniMaglight: Run over by a firetruck
-A good number of MiniMaglight bulbs
-Streamlight SL-20: Eaten by a VERY ANGRY Rottweiler
-Streamlight SL-20: Finally battered to death with daily (nightly) use and abuse
-Army "angle head" flashlight: wore out the switch after years of use as a camping light.

I wear out the switches on my Streamlight Stinger and Ultrastinger on a regular basis. I think one light is on its fourth switch. Of course, I turn them on and off more than 100 times each day in my work as a home inspector.

I just send them back to Streamlight and they replace the switch for no charge. They even put in a new reflector and lense without my even asking.

my work light before I got my G2 was a 2D maglite. It is beaten, battered, (dropped more times than I can count), and so worn that the red anodizing is almost gone. The switch cover fell off,but it still works. This light got a new bulb and a well-deserved retirement as a backup flashlight in the tool bag behind the seat of my truck. As a pipefitter, my lights get a workout every day.

I have never worn one out. I took out my oldest magcharger, and other than some scratches, it was fine. Same thing for my oldest stinger.
I attribute my lights not wearing out to buying the next, newest light when they come out. I never use just one all the time.

Wore out a magcharger switch; turns on sometime but often turns off by itself or immediately after I release the switch.
Killed two leds on an X5t by running it too long... doesn't look like the remaining leds will last that much either.

jtice has some pretty cool pics of worn out light after caving

Mostly just some bulbs when experimenting with overdrive!

I have an old Sam's 3D (same as older Rayovac Industrial 3Ds) held together with sport tape as the threads kind of wore out. They had WAY to nice beams to let it go!

I destroyed several cheap lights trying different things but didn't wear them out by any means!

Ministar2 - Surprisingly failed, got a new one from Terralux free tho.

I think it may be hard for most people to actually "wear" a flashlight out. If you take minimal care of most lights (Even cheap ones) they last a long time.

I used to make fun of my dad with his old Eveready spun-steel, chromed 2D light after I got into M*G (Why does everyone spell it that way? Is it a naughty word?) lights right as they came out. A couple of decades+ later and I've gone through many M*G lights with crapped-out switches and don't use them anymore.

Dad's gone now, but his cheapo dinged and scraped up 30+ year-old Eveready is still right here stuck on my file cabinet with it's integral magnet. Still works good...

Killed a cheap plastic Panasonic by dropping it and cracking the case. Wore out the switch on another one (man, they bend and loose contact easily)

Instaflashed bulbs experimenting with overdriving.

Then there's playing 2 person tug of war with an old Garrity "Tough Light" at camp and snapping the rubber lanyard in half. The light was still working when I lost it about five years ago.

I would say the only thing I've actually worn out was an old MiniM@g. I got it from my uncle when I was young and used it a lot until one day, the bulb burned out and I couldn't find the spare one in the tailcap since someone already used it. I lost that light somewhere in the house. Still, I'll someday get another one.

Broke some contacts in an Inova Microlight. The light still works but not the constant on switch. It needs new batteries though (I EDC it along with another cheaper keychain light that is amber in color)

Rubbed off the lettering on a Coleman Graphite and cracked the rubber button over the switch. Still works though. Oh, and there's putting my soldering iron down too close to it and melting a small dent in the rubber covered head.

I still have this old light my aunt had that I called the "Air Raid Siren" light as it had a mechanical siren on the back. Had some batteries leak in the light which corroded the contacts. It still works though. It's gone through one bulb change; it uses screwbased bulbs. Then there's breaking one of the latches off on the battery door; I tried to krazy glue the latch back on but the door fits loosely. Right now, it's held together with tape.



I've worn the lables off rechargeable batteries from constantly topping them off.

Yes I have, I recenyly purchased one of those 15 LED 3aa with laser lights
from ebay, after about 4 weeks the cheap switch stopped working

I had this great 6 cell maglite. One day I opened it to find the batteries had leaked and got all the batteries stuck. I think they also expanded. One day a couple of years ago I tried to pound them out to no avail.

Ended up damaging the flashlight and threw it away in disgust.
It was about 16 years old. My baby! :mecry:

To think what a nice LED upgrade could have done for it.

Tron3
A tip for the future. I found that taking a sheet of good quality (high rag content) paper (sometimes called resume paper) and wrapping it around the batteries seems to reduce the occurance of batteries leaking or popping in maglights (especially the "D" size ones). I have no idea why, but I haven't had a single leak or pop since I started doing it almost 10 years ago.

zespectre said:

Tron3
A tip for the future. I found that taking a sheet of good quality (high rag content) paper (sometimes called resume paper) and wrapping it around the batteries seems to reduce the occurance of batteries leaking or popping in maglights (especially the "D" size ones). I have no idea why, but I haven't had a single leak or pop since I started doing it almost 10 years ago.

Click to expand...

I actually have that kind of paper I am not using - no kidding! Unless you been really fortunate with batteries, I have no idea why that could POSSIBLY work.
:huh2: Is it insulating the battery against jarring, thus impoving reliability? The idea of it absorbing leaking acid is pretty good.

It started out when I was a cop (years back when the "D" sized maglights were the best thing available). We'd have the usual failures, leaks, popped batts, and so forth so lights were getting replaced pretty regularly. Well we had a few guys who had their lights for a -long- time and somebody noticed and told one of the guys he should check to make sure his batts hadn't leaked.

Well the guy slides out his batts to check and we see that there is this sheet of paper wrapped around the batts. He had typed out all of his emergency medical and contact info on this sheet of paper, wrapped it around the batts, and slid it into his flashlight in case of emergency. He said the EMT guys had given him the idea.

It seemed like a good idea to the rest of us as well so we pretty much all did it and suddenly the battery failure issues mostly went away. When the batts did still occasionally fail the paper helped a lot by absorbing/containing the spill and we were often able to clean up the lights and continue to use them.

I don't know if it's an insulation issue, gas absorption, cushioning, or what. All I know is it really does seem to make a difference especially if you keep going from very cold outdoors to warm indoors and back (like a cop does).

I've also had the battery issues with the D sized mags along with what the rest of you have reported. I'll try the paper wrapping.

The only other light I'm expecting to die is a Mini that has gone through several severe impacts and the bezel/head is partially crushed. The switch on that is still good.

My Dad wore out a 3D M@g.

Then again, he did so by forgetting it under the cooktop of our stove, where it baked for about a year and a half before we found it the next time the stove broke. (Note, Magic Chef brand stoves are junk...)

Maybe the paper sheet absorbs some of the gas the batteries vent...