Another Sunwayman FAILURE!

ok, so i gave bought my brother a Sunwayman C22C last spring when it was on sale, (the model with the side light) and he tells me it flickered and went out. last week, and never used it very much. I picked it up this weekend to have a look at it, and it seems the driver is dead. I have had all four Sunwayman lights i had in the past fail from driver issues, and every time i tried to contact Sunwayman, they ignored my emails complete. (They also ignore my brother’s inquiry to the C22C issue too) They have to be the worst, flashlight brand ever, poor, non-existent customer service, junk flashlights that do not last a year, and they do not honor their warranty, while they claim to be a top-brand, their expensive lights are trash from my experiences so far.
I have no idea of where to find a driver to fit this C22C to fix it.

Edit: -i had a look at the driver under a magnifying glass, and the soldering and workmanship is horrible… it is sloppy, messy, all the components are not aligned up on the board, its along the quality level of a dollar-store plastic flashlight.

Edit: -Found this video review of the same model Sunwayman model failing:

If you really want a new driver for a C22C, your best bet is probably to just buy a new C22C. They’re on sale now for about $20.

Something tells me he’s not going to buy another one…

Your forum avatar matches out thoughts exactly. :stuck_out_tongue:

:+1: This!

I still see them for $40+ and up, but nowhere for 20 bucks.

Sigster posted a thread about it today. Here’s the link for the $20 C22C on Battery Junction

I could fix that driver for you ...but it would take a very long time since I'd have to be reincarnated into the form of someone way smarter than I currently am . the other possibility is get into my time machine and go forward to when I'm smarter .... Unfortunately it's broken and I'm waiting for parts from banggood .

I once got an AA SWM and was DOA and never bothered with this brand again.

Well, this thread is pretty much the tipping point. I’ll remove the C22C from my Battery Junction cart. Didn’t need it anyway—not as though that’s ever stopped me before.

There are lots of reports of their crap lights, this video of a C22C is a good example of their junk:

The only Sunwayman I have is a D40A I bought years ago. It was my first decent 4xAA light. I used it quite a bit when I first got it, but I don’t like the user interface, nor the tiny buttons that are almost impossible to find in the dark. It still works well, and seems fairly good quality. I haven’t ever been tough on it, though. Also, I heard there was some issues with the buttons, but I haven’t seen any problems on mine. It was over-priced when I bought it ($79), but I got it anyway. I wouldn’t pay more than $30 for it now, even if the UI was something I liked.

I don’t really see much difference in quality between Sunwayman, and cheaper budget lights. Perhaps the Sunwayman has better efficiency (compared to my other 4xAA lights), but it’s not a big difference.

Zebralight is my go-to for expensive lights. Otherwise, I generally stick to budget brands like Convoy, Astrolux, or the many BLF designs. I don’t see value in Sunwayman at their price point.

I have one of these and love it. I use it every night as a kitchen light. No problems. Hard for me to resist not getting another from Battery Junction for $21 and change and free shipping!

Well, too late for me. I already ordered it. If I had seen this thread a few hours earlier…I guess i will enjoy it until it dies.

I love Sunwayman and had an early V10R stop working on primaries, so I sent it back to Battery Junction along with a form authorizing a $20 trip on that ‘slow boat to China.’ The light was sent in just under the 2 year warranty.

A couple of months later, I get the new V11R in the mail stating that SWM couldn’t fix the light and had no spares and I didn’t owe them for shipping.

Pretty good CS if you ask me, from both of them?

I still have two working V11Rs, an M11R and two D40As.

I like SWM, but they’ve slowed down over the past few years.

Chris

That’s been my experience also. The last few years they just can’t seem to get it together.
They use to be top notch in this hobby but not now. The SWM V10Rti to me was the best light they ever made and the aluminum version the V11R.
The D40A was a highly liked light in it’s time also. I still have one and it’s shining right along.
Some where after this is were things went down hill in my opinion.

Let’s face it, with all of the quality budget lights available to us like Convoy, Emisar, et al., the days of the $80+ pocket lights are dwindling.

Chris

I have only ever had a few V11R’s. No issues, though if there were, I opened the light for an emitter swap so no warranty, great or small would help me anyway. Never really saw any of their other lights that interested me. The emitter or UI normally kept me away from them.

I do think there is still and always will be a market for more expensive lights. Say $50 to $100 for example.

I don't use them often, but both my C22C and C12CC are still working fine.

I’ve been eyeballing the C22C for some time, but never pulled the trigger. Glad I did not.

My first grown up led light was a SWM M40A with an XM-L, and that still works fine.
I got my wife a SWM V10RTi^², and also that stills works like a charm.
Very good, considering I could make a fortune if I let people hire her as a mini-mobile test-center. No need spending months in Finland or on the Pole or in the Sahara. Just give her a(ny) car, tell her to be careful, and within a week she will call you to inform you which parts suddenly will fall off in the next 100,000 miles of normal usage. And if somebody please could come over and give her a lift home?

Back to SWM, I used to download their brochure and gloat over all the goodies I could not afford.
Lately it seems they are just crancking out bad copies of bad copies of lights that once were top of the bill.
I think they should reconsider entering the budget light market. After they cleared out their warehouses.