Sofirn SP36 spewed toxic chemicals throughout my entire house

OP should return to amazon if within the 30 day window

Full refund and paid return shipping

Unless some BLFer wants to compensate him :wink:

Might want to check with Sofirn first.

Disassembling the head of the light might void your warranty.

Presumably he wants his money back though - I’m not sure taking it apart is the way to go if he wants that outcome, interesting though it would be.

I think if OP just wanted his money back he would’ve already gone through Amazon & posted a simple ‘heads up my SP36s had a problem while charging etc.’

Yeah I get that sometimes quality control issues are isolated. I also understand that they can happen with any brand, but do you think it’s a coincidence that another guy replied here and had the exact same problem? I don’t. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that after more than two decades of collecting high-end flashlights and dozens and dozens of lights none of the reputable brands have ever failed in any way shape or form. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the cheapest brand I’ve ever bought is the one that failed and also the one that has had the worst quality fit and finish and packaging. You get what you pay for I suppose. I just didn’t realize I was paying to be poisoned. I was prepared for the light to fail at some point since it effectively has no warranty from what I can tell.

Has anything like this ever happened with acebeam or Fenix as far as you guys know? Those seem like two of the better Chinese brands to me. I have more Ace beams but that’s just because I like their lights better. I’ve never had a problem with Fenix either.

As for the guy calling me ridiculous you’re not here you don’t have any idea what’s actually happening. If you don’t have something useful to contribute then maybe don’t. I already answered the charger and cable question to the best of my ability.

This is a two-week-old Amazon prime purchase. Getting my money back is a non-issue. I was more concerned about the safety of Kohl’s employees, UPS employees and Amazon employees before putting this thing in the mail.

Presumably Sofirn would want to know about this defect so they can check their manufacturing process and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Still might be a good idea to contact them even if you don’t plan to ask for a refund.

I’m not sure how to contact them. Can someone here give them a link to the thread? I would assume someone here must know something about them since my other sofirn light says blf on it which I plan on returning as well. it’s kind of a shame because I really wanted that lantern they are coming out with where you can adjust the warmth but I can only imagine what this would smell like in a tent when it can make an entire 6000 square foot house smell like burning plastic lol

Theres a sofirn thread here u can post up on

Just post the link to this thread there

I have fenix myself, used daily over the years

And i have a few sofirns

A lot of flashaholics consider zebralight superior to both yet weve had at least one explode and smoke

Weve also had iphones, samsungs and LG phones/laptops smoke and explode over the years

Its a risk with any lithium ion consumer product

What do you want? Seriously, consider what you want.

If you want to help yourself & the community by finding out why there was a problem with the charging circuit, then ask for help. I’m sure someone would be curious to check the light out before you send it back.

If you want to get your money back, then get your money back.

If you want to remove the smell from your home, then contact a cleaner or find a forum that knows about cleaning homes and give you a recommendation. Go see a doctor if you’re concerned about your health.

You’ve alluded to suing multiple times. I don’t think any of us care who you want to sue. Contact a legal professional if you seek compensation.

You started your post with a hyperbolic title. You could provide more helpful details if you want to help yourself. I think about Occam’s Razor & user error when someone is unwilling to look up the charger they used & provide as much helpful info as they can.

If you just want to bitch and moan because your home stinks that’s fine, but please tone down the rabble-rousing & inflammatory speech. That’s a lot of fearmongering & not much proactive problem solving. It also makes me think about psychosomatic symptoms. A lot of people have some fears about Li-ion batteries, I’m one of them. A lot of people don’t necessarily know why they do, I’m one of them too. A lot of people don’t know why situations like this happen, it looks like a lot of people here are in a similar boat. If your goal is information then go that route. If you want your money back go that route. Sorry your home stinks; glad it didn’t burn down.

But I think we have established this is not a Lithium-Ion problem. It’s a cheap circuit board burning up. I had a headache before I knew the problem was the flashlight, so I know it’s not a psychosomatic issue.

I’ve probably gotten as far as I can get here. I don’t think I mentioned suing anyone more than once. I think given the situation my tone has been reasonable. If you disagree then move on to another thread. If a moderator disagrees then they can throw me out I suppose.

I will spell out why I posted here for you. First, to warn others of this potential problem. If I had known about this I could have saved myself a 9 hour headache as well as several other problems. Second, to ascertain whether or not it was safe to put this thing in the mail because I was concerned about putting other people in harm’s way. Third, to get advice on what has potentially contaminated things and what would be a good course of action (I think it’s a cheap burnt Chinese circuit board giving off halogenated dioxins which are extremely toxic and smell similarly to chlorine from what I’m reading). Fourth, to ask the question of whether this has happened with these other brands I am collecting. I enjoy walking at night, but not enough to deal with this kind of nonsense if it’s likely with any of these other brands. I think we have established that it is pretty likely with sofirn since I’m not the only one this has happened to and very unlikely with these other brands since no one can cite a single instance of it happening with any of them and they have been around a lot longer.

some of the people reading this ordered this light now they know to watch out for it. I’m glad I could help them and I appreciate the people who have actually posted helpful suggestions for me. This is the nature ofan online forum though. This is why I don’t spend a lot of time in these kinds of places. Anyone can say anything and it only takes one douche to ruin it for the 99% of people who are here trying to learn or share their knowledge.

I don’t the lithium ion battery had anything at all to do with this situation. Why go there?

I guess USB-C is not yet mature enough to avoid charging circuit failures and mysterious cable and charger incompatibilities. Given the low market penetration in my country I think I will pass for now on USB-C charging and stick with old microusb until the whole mess is sorted out.

Because of the amount of current needed for the bats and charging …

Like i said a zebralight literally exploded and smoke, but the battery was intact (not a battery issue)

This probably wouldnt happen in an AA light

Add in the quick charging voltages and different protocols needed for li-on charging of 10,000 mah

And its clear that li-on consumer products are not as safe as some others

And like i said no one would consider zebralight “cheap”, yet it still happens

Theres been quite a few sp36 sold and used, and 2 instances dont make it dangerous

Thrunite, who advertise reverse polarity protection, has 2 failures here of such feature with smoking lights

https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/708s1u/thrunite_tn42_smoking/

Now im sure if it happened to me i would be upset and its something that should be posted up about

But if you want dangerous, well theres those ford cars …

Nobody seems to be saying it’s a USB-C related issue.

So far, it sounds a lot more like a failed component on the driver.

My acebeam t27 uses USB c charging and it has been totally flawless. So does my Acebeam headlight, so does my Fenix headlight. All of these also work as powerbanks. I have had them longer and use them more with no problems.

Granted I don’t think any of them charge at the voltage sofirn did.

This actually made me think about another question. I was disappointed that none of Ace beams multi-cell lights had onboard charging, but now I’m beginning to think that they must do that for a reason. Most of their individual cell lights do have on-board charging. obviously charging each cell individually is better rather than charging multiple cells in a series. Do you guys think it’s a better design to just avoid onboard charging entirely when we are dealing with multiple cells?

Well i havent heard of this issue on the single cell sofirn sc31 which has been out a year now (have given away 2) or sc31b (given away another 2)

I suspect single bat lights are much simpler (no screws) and most of em use micro usb with lower voltages

If i want a reliable light as possible, it wouldnt have usb charging, of course it would have simple modes, not be pushing the output too hard and a timed (not temp) stepdown

But we dont want simple lights we want fancy ones with usb charging, lotta flashy functions, customizable UIs and blinding outputs

You will find that many folks here having less than reliable lights is no big deal, never mind warranty

Just do a search on astrolux :wink:

I’m only halfway through this thread but this is what I was going to suggest. Too many cheap chargers just “assume” this or that and can potentially fry something that’s not meant to take high voltages.

Eg, old usb used to be limited to 500mA unless negotiated higher, but I got at least one combo of tablet and cheap “lipstick” powerbank that pushes enough current to get both (micro) connectors quite hot, and the powerbank/cell gets quite warm. Great for a quick boost but hardly healthy for either device. And that’s a 2-wire charge-only cable, no data connections, so no negotiation is even possible.

Hit a 5V device with up to 20V? Eep! :open_mouth:

A better design? Not really. More complex, absolutely. There are plenty of devices that can charge multiple cells. Take power tools for example. It wouldn’t make sense to charge each cell individually. But then balancing comes into play.
For this light, though, the cells are in parallel so its essentially just charging a single cell. Not really any different than an individual cell light having a charging circuit…

The smell of burnt chip is really awful and very “sticky”.

A chip on a previous laptop’s motherboard got fried caused by a short (don’t ask…) and let out the “magic smoke”. I just got one or two whiffs but it stuck in my nostrils. Just thinking of the smell makes me feel sick.

Even after 1-2 years, the smell is still there near the disintegrated chip. I avoid sniffing or touching near it. Incredibly nasty.