New Fenix - DOA

Wanted to post this as an fyi, just incase anybody else runs into this minor issue. Received my Fenix L1P today and it was DOA right out of the box.

Inspection revealed a small bit of debri stuck to the positive battery contact. This was preventing the positive post of the battery from making contact and of course the light no workie.

Took some fishing around in there with a little piece of wire but I got it out. It looked like a sliver of very thin styrofoam sheet packing material. It was just big enough to cover the contact, and just clingy enough to stay stuck on the contact until I jared it loose. Then tapped the body on a pad of paper, and it finally fell out of the flashlight body. Maybe this styrofoam stuff was used to package electronic components. [shrug]

At any rate the light works fine now and I can't seem to stop playing with it.

Wayne

Don't play with it....
..
You'll go blind.

:santa:

I had this EXACT same thing happen with a nuwai 0.5 watt 1AAA, thought it was defective but had debris on positive contact, nice catch

You've fixed it, great job

sounds like quality control issues, Another reason I will never get Fenix over Surefire.

hogx1 said:

sounds like quality control issues, Another reason I will never get Fenix over Surefire.

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Could happen with any manufacturer, even the vaunted Surefire, although I'd really be upset with a DOA Surefire since they are so pricey.

BlackDecker said:

Could happen with any manufacturer, even the vaunted Surefire, although I'd really be upset with a DOA Surefire since they are so pricey.

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Anything COULD happen, but it doesn't http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/images/icons/party.gif

hogx1 said:

sounds like quality control issues, Another reason I will never get Fenix over Surefire.

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Find me a $40 Surefire LED light that runs on a AA and I'll agree with you.

-LT

Lunal_Tic said:

Find me a $40 Surefire LED light that runs on a AA and I'll agree with you.

-LT

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You get what you pay for. Its one thing if you can't afford a Surefire, but if you one 3-5 lights and ones not a Surefire then you are doing something wrong.

I droped my A2 in a bucket of water, pulled it out shok it off and back I was. That woulda been a toasted fenix and now im out 80 bucks if I wanted to replace it.

You pay for insurence but rarely do you claim anything, Make good choices now and be happy later when it counts

hogx1 said:

I droped my A2 in a bucket of water, pulled it out shok it off and back I was. That woulda been a toasted fenix and now im out 80 bucks if I wanted to replace it.

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i sure hope your A2s can survive your "bucket of water", cause the fenix definitely can survive far more than that last weekend my fenix has been in a cave, slammed against rough limestone & granite cave walls, submerged and operated multiple times under mineral and guano laden water for extended periods of time, scraped against fine silt mud and the rock beneath it, and came out with nothing more than a bit of wear on the HA. Sure there are reports that the fenix's HA isn't that robust, but it's a $40 light. and my peak had about the same wear and it's HA is far more robust.

sides, i can buy 3-4 fenix's for the price of the A2, so i'd still be ahead if i toasted a fenix or two. you can say that i'm impressed when the fenix or <insert lesser light here> does what i described above. i expect no less from a SF. in fact, at the price of a surefire, i'd expect it to be perfect. however, they are not without their problems and niggles. a report of a dead A2 straight out of the box and the luxeon lottery you play with SFs to name two examples. when i pay $200+ for a light, such as the U2, i expect not to have to play the lottery, but i am.

holding a light costing 1/3 the price to the same standards is sorta like expecting VW or toyota quality and reliability from a proton saga (crap car brand from my country). and yes, i've owned/driven all before so i take rights to use them as examples =)

Yup, and there's the infamous 17-story drop one of the Fenix survived...

If SF had perfect quality control, people wouldn't be returning their U2's to have the "donut-hole" fixed, for example.

hogx1 said:

Its one thing if you can't afford a Surefire, but if you one 3-5 lights and ones not a Surefire then you are doing something wrong.

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What kind of statement is that? I can certainly afford a Surefire but I find 3-4 good quality flashlights a lot more useful than one very expensive one.

Certainly, I think the form factor of a AA Fenix is much more useful than the larger Surefires, so for me, Surefire doesn't make a flashlight that meets my needs at ANY price. So for me, a Fenix is a superior light.

hogx1 said:

You get what you pay for. Its one thing if you can't afford a Surefire, but if you one 3-5 lights and ones not a Surefire then you are doing something wrong.

I droped my A2 in a bucket of water, pulled it out shok it off and back I was. That woulda been a toasted fenix and now im out 80 bucks if I wanted to replace it.

You pay for insurence but rarely do you claim anything, Make good choices now and be happy later when it counts

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Me thinks hogx1 is a Surefire snob.

Not everyone wants or needs a SF in their collection. I have hiked in many a dangerous area with nothing but a River Rock headlamp and a Sam's Club Element. Total cost of those 2 lights? $30.

My Fenix has survived a rain storm (it is a bicycle helmet light), no problems dropping it either.

I have used Surefires and know many people that have them. One guy at work loved the Fenix on my helmet and commented that "Those little lithiums are expensive" I dropped out the NiMH rechargable and quipped "You bet! I am so cheap I shy away from alkalines"! I then blinded him and he wants one... his Surefire is rarely used and he likes the size, holster, brightness, use of LED and that it uses common AA cells.

I have no problem paying for Surefires, my problem is feeding them as I use flashlights all the time and for bike lights for myself and family.

For now, the Fenix is my powerful small light that I afford to feed.

hogx1 said:

sounds like quality control issues, Another reason I will never get Fenix over Surefire.

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Funny how this is about a piece of styrofoam inside a flashlight. A quick blast with an air compressor and you're done. Do you have any idea how much crud gets past any given quality control departemnt on any given day?

As others have said... find me a light for $40 that runs on a single AA, puts out at least 40 lumens, is waterproof, and will provide two hours of regulated light.

I wouldn't call a piece of loose styrofoam a quality issue. I have a number of Surefires, and a Fenix (no quality problems). The Fenix is the one in my pocket every day.

This thread is sad.
Thats as much as complaining about "sir, theres a spec of dust on my heatsink, now its 0.001% less efficent, I could vaccum it out, but I expect that the people at the factory that are payed very littile to clean it, take photographs of the before and after photo, then polish it off after adding a pack of thermopaste and a nice wrapping box". But you payed 40 dollars for it
"Expectation too high, price too low for such expectations"

warpdrive said:

What kind of statement is that? I can certainly afford a Surefire but I find 3-4 good quality flashlights a lot more useful than one very expensive one.

Certainly, I think the form factor of a AA Fenix is much more useful than the larger Surefires, so for me, Surefire doesn't make a flashlight that meets my needs at ANY price. So for me, a Fenix is a superior light.

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Yeah! What he said.

I ordered two Fenix (Fenix-es? Fenix's?). The first surprise was on the package. No batteries! For a $45 light, I want batteries. Heck, even for the $30 non-premium version I expect batteries.

OK, I have enough AAs lying around. Put them in.

No light. On both of them. Reversed the batteries. No luck. Checked the manual. OK, first orientation was right. Still no light.

Then I darkly remembered an old CPF thread. Head might be loose. Worked fine for the first. The second head wouldn't budge. I had to use to vise grips to turn the thing. Of course, despite sufficient padding, I scratched both the head and the body.

As far as I know, the head is SUPPOSED to be removeable. If not, they have to work way better on the QC.

After I lubed all the threads, both lights work perfectly. I'm happy with them, perfect tint, both are very similar in beam and brightness. The fnish is very nice, except not as hard as other HAIII.

But as I said, their QC has to be improved. Badly. No such thing ever happened to me with any other manufacturer. Not even Chinese ones.

No batteries is an insult in this price range. Two lights dead as a doornail in one shipment is something that should not happen. Ever.

Can't say I've had a single problem with mine. There will always be a few bad units in a batch, it's next to impossible to avoid, no matter how good your quality control is. Until I hear about large amounts of DOA L1's, I'll still consider it just as that, a few bad units.