River Rock 2AAA Beam changes

My RR 2AAA's beam changes from a solid white to
a brown center about five seconds after I turn it on.
It happens each time. I will turn it off for several minutes;
then back on. The beam is solid for five seconds,
then it defaults to the brown center.
I've replaced the batteries. No improvement.
What might I check next?

I say take it back to Target and exchange it. (unless someone else has a better idea?)

That's just weird.

Mine has really bad flicker after about 10 seconds of runtime.

My Minimag with NightIze dropin is not much better.

Neither of them are dirty.

One of mine had a tan/yellow center. It looked liked an egg in a frying pan. I took it back and exchanged it. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the little yellow blob of phosphor on the LED. You may try some Writeright over the lens to help diffuse it.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/92270&highlight=writeright

Another one had a dark donut hole and the Writeright smoothed it out. All the RR beams had some sort of faint yellow blotches here and there, dark spots... I have 2 RR aaa's and covered them both with the Writeright and it makes for a much prettier beam. Just a tad loss in throw and output but the outcome is very nice. Writeright is the best option out there. I've tried clear contact paper which diffused it more, cut down more output, and didn't look as nice as the Writeright.

Ditto on the Writeright (though it's getting harder to get the correct stuff).

Both my keeper 2aaa and my 2aaa Headlamp have Writeright, although I never noticed a weird spot or anything like that.

I'd say take it back and get another.

Not only did my RR 2AAA have a yellow blob in the center of the more blue than white beam, I also added some scratches to the lens when I tried to clean it. With a negligible loss of overall light, some Scotch Satin Tape cleared up all the artifacts in the beam and spill.

73
dim

Mine doesn't suffer too awful much from the blotchy syndrome. I'm gonna leave mine as is, because I can use the little extra throw. My Night-Ize makes a better walk around the house at night type floodlight.

I think they are semi-regulated. It could be the circuit shifting down when your first power it up.