Tritium inlays

I’m sure this has been discussed, but what do you think about tritium inlays in the body of a light for aesthetic value. Maybe help spot light in dark? Any thoughts? Know of any?

expensive and they wear out relative fast

Thought tritium was supposed to last 20 years or so.

Radioactive material like Tritium has a half-life. It’s strength drops by half over this time period.

Tritium’s half life is about 12 years. In a decade (roughly) it will only be half as bright as it was when fresh. It looses half that remaining brightness in the next decade, and so on.

That’s correct, after 12.5 years it had decayed by half. It is used in some emergency exit signs. Because it is radioactive (beta emitter) you probably don’t want to mess with it. Banggood was selling tritium capsules a while ago and I wondered what would happen when it reaches the USPS. They don’t take kindly to shipping radioactive material.

I’ve got a few lights with tritium inserts and have ordered vials by themselves and had ZERO issues with USPS.

This is a misconception. Yes, it’s a beta emitter.
Unless you do something stupid it’s completely safe. Even if you do something stupid it’s not particularly dangerous either.

You mess with numerous more dangerous substances every day.

I dealt with tritium exit signs a little, and they were a pain to deal with because of regulations, even though they’re pretty harmless.

I’m not impressed with the brightness of trit vials. It’s only useful in my bedroom in a dark neighborhood with the door closed and blackout curtains drawn. At night.

A new tritium is visible brighter than one after 2-3 years

Its not only the tritium, also the phosphor ages

On Watches its significant if you grab one that’s literally only a few days old
But that’s not tritium more nasty stuff in them

here Light vs tritium decay

I do like them, they look very trick when machined into stuff, but I also agree they are virtually invisible unless it’s pitch black, and even then it’s hardly a light show.
People on this site don’t help in that respect - most shine a UV light on them (and GITD stuff) and/or longer exposure photography to give the impression they glow way more powerful than they actually do (like 10x more powerful), then post the photo’s on here but don’t mention UV being used.
UV doesn’t ‘charge’ trits either, it just makes the appear brighter in photo’s.
I have several trit tubes, and quite a bit of GITD stuff including tapes, paint, powder etc - none of it lights up anything like some of other members photo’s on here, unless you shine UV on them.

That’s true but if you have a light on the nightstand and have some GTD tape or powder infused into epoxy it makes locating the light much easier.

Thanks for the info, I did not know this was done but it makes sense.

Yes, I agree, CRX’s FW3A disks are the best I’ve seen, they last for a good while. Sadly (probably) I switch mine on high, just to watch it glow, then drift off to sleep counting flashlights I wish I had…… :stuck_out_tongue:

I took this one without anything but a Galaxy S6.
.

.

It was slightly darker when I took the pic, I think the camera brightened it slightly. I would have to agree though there not even noticeable until almost dark. I always wondered how some of these flashlight trit shots looked so bright, now I know they had a little UV help. Thanks for the info.

I like trits a lot, for me they are perfect to find my lights in the dark - led indicator lights are all to bright to leave beside the bed and ruin my night vision.

Way to bright for my liking too. I change the resistors out on mine for something around 100k range. Doesn’t light up the whole bedroom at night and keeps the missus happy.

You can legally ship” relatively small amounts”:https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c3_025.htmhttps://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c3_025.htm of certain radioactive materials.

I've had tritium vials in a few of my Lummi lights. They really help you find the flashlights in the dark. The only issue I had was that after many years of carrying them in my pants pockets, with change and keys and other items, over time the vials broke and the tritium escaped rendering them useless. So think about where you will be carrying your light with vials before installing them.

The best adhesive I've found for tritium tubes is Norland 61. It is made for gluing optics. It needs UV to cure. With a proper UV light it can cure in seconds, but you can leave it out in sunlight and it will cure in a few hours.

Tritium vials can be easily ordered in from locations outside the US. Forums like CPF (Candlepower Forum) have a few vendors who sell tritium vials in various sizes and colors. In the US, companies need to get permission from the govt. and prove a reasonable use before they can import it and use it. Most commonly found vials are speced at T25 in brightness. There are T100 vials around but hard to find. They have 4x the tritium to react with the phosphur in the glass vials, compared to T25 vials. Isobrite and I believe Ball use T100 for their wristwatches, and those vials are quite bright! Green is the brightest of colors in tritium...

Tritium vials are perfectly safe to use!!!!! If you break a vial, just don't go out of your way to breathe it in. It will dissipate in the air quite rapidly.

B@rt on CPF is a reputable vendor. I've also purchased lots of vials from a vendor in Singapore (don't remember his name though (sorry).

The UV trick photography explains why they all look similarly bright in sellers pictures.