How Durable are Hank Lights? Any hard-use photos?

I’m still very much in the “honeymoon phase” with all of my Hank lights. I try not to get a scratch on them. Since I EDC them in my wallet pocket, that hasn’t been hard to accomplish.

I’m just curious if anyone has subjected these to much abuse and how they take it. On one hand, they are built. On the other hand, the electronics are not potted and they have rubber buttons and glass lenses.

Obviously anything will break if you abuse it enough. I’m just curious and fishing for pics like the one on this review for a Thrunite: Very good flashlight

The Emisar lights are elegant, well made, and perform well. I have several.

As for durability, If you work in a coal mine 18 hrs a day, I would pick a convoy or a light with a mechanical switch. Of course carry a spare. There is no substitute for redundancy.

The convoy lights are simple and they work well.

This guy properly uses his Hank lights

I don’t think there is any obvious failure point on emisar/noctigon lights other than the ones with the clear rubber switch. The material is not overly thick to say they are designed to take a beating but I have dropped my D4 several times on hard concrete and it held up fine. They’re solidly built.

Potted components: I’m a firm believer that high quality solder and proper soldering temperature are far more important than potting. A dab of adhesive might reduce vibrations on specific components but will do nothing in helping it sustain the high G forces of a drop.

This is great! My D4SV2 will look like this eventually…letting it occur naturally! Only difference is I have an M2R clip on mine.

Nice! That was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to see.

Not sure how we rate durability for typical lights….there is physical wear and failure of typical parts like you mentioned, and then there is the reliability of the drivers mostly.

That amazon photo shows a well loved light. Pretty much all anodized aluminum lights will look like that with time even to some degree just with pocket wear. Anodizing penetrates the metal around 1.5mil, give or take depending on the anodizing process and the particular aluminum used. So it’s easy to nick and eventually you can wear that much metal away through abrasion to show the silver.

Emisar and Noctigon are well made but on the physical aspects they aren’t so much different than the majority of decent lights. Potting doesn’t always help so much, but it can (more so if a good thermal transfer compound is used, which isn’t always the case). I think it helps more with weapon-mounted lights (where the strength of the springs, especially the driver spring, is just as important or maybe more important than any potting). A lot of drop damage ends up being the cell getting rammed into the driver board. On the electronics side, the drivers seem great with low failure rates, soldering is clean and well done. My sample size is only two lights, so take this for what it’s worth.

But all glass will break and for the most part aluminum is aluminum and will wear the same and take the same knocks. Switches die sometimes.

I think the most durable lights tend to be glass-filled nylon bodies that are designed well and with impacts in mind.

He does mention though how many times he’s replaced components - the only original bits on those D4SV2s are the hosts.

The funny thing is that if you click on his name you have to proclaim you are over 18 to see his flashlight posts.
Apparently Chinese flashlights are NSFW.

Ah, I was not aware

Only issue I had with my D4 (v1) was the switch that got stuck. I got a replacement from Hank and solved the issue (I also repalced the driver but it was/is completely functional).

It felt to the ground several times, has its bruises, but no broken parts or whatsoever! Solid lights! And I don’t mind it worn out parts :blush:

In case it wasn’t clear, I consider that Thrunite picture to be a positive example. If a light can survive long enough to look like that, then it must be fairly durable. I’m just looking for pictures of well-loved Emisar/Noctigon lights. There’s something satisfying about seeing a well used tool that still works. I’m also curious how common this type of usage is for these lights. They are undeniably hotrod lights so I guess most of them probably never see much punishment.

Given the price and the non mainstream brand behind it we have to consider any Chinese light disposable.
And don’t forget the prepper adage, two is one and one is none.

The warranty is at the goodwill of the company, we have heard both success and horror stories.

We are gambling but by buying well reviewed lights and those that have been around a while and built a track record we can minimize risk but in the end we are buying no name brand, made in China, mostly uncertified merchandise where we are gambling that we get a good product.

We get what we are paying for.

So use the light, own more than one in a category if you need reliability and don’t try to baby it beyond good practice (don’t intentionally try to ruin the light).

Hank does have a good reputation for what thats worth.

Having EDC’ed the Emesar lights, and many since the V1 were launched. I have not had any issues and I have dropped, kicked, submerged them and they are still working. I do not abuse my gear, but I do use it.

Most of the D4 line and D4S lines seem to be pretty durable.

Will they take the abuse of a light designed to be dropped 200 Ft 10 times and submerged to 9 atmospheres? Nope but they were never designed to be used like that.

Will it handle 99% of what is going to be thrown at it? Most likely. Like someone said above, if you are hard on equipment always buy 2, one for backup for when one fails.

I forgot my D4V2 in the oven after cleaning it.

I later heard it fall while I was pre-heating the oven: the magnet was demagnetized from the heat.

I immediatly put in under running water (maybe a mistake… the air inside contracting might have sucked some water in). I then took out the battery and lay it down on something metallic with a fan to cool it down.

This was 1 year ago, the flashlight is still doing good. Thankfully, neodymium demagnetizes at a temperature below the solder fusion temperature.

That’s interesting. I didn’t know that heat killed magnets. I guess it’s just never come up for me before. At any rate, sounds like you got lucky!

Very lucky I heard it fall down… I’m don’t know what would have happened if the battery had started to vent… would the flashlight have exploded?? or is it really built strong enough :stuck_out_tongue: ??

I was just pointing out that the exterior appearance really says little about “durability” but it depends what we’re focused on. Minus the dings, scratches, or gouges, a pocket/cloth worn light can look just as “durable” over long use as one that has rolled around in a toolbox or the dirt for a shorter time. Just the anodizing wearing away. Better anodizing will take longer because it penetrates just a little deeper than what it on most of our lights, including Noctigon/Emisar. They’re great lights and Hank brings us great features and not-shoddy assembly quality for a lot less money than some other brands.

Magnets…yeah, heat will reduce their strength and eventually can kill them entirely. The typical lowest grade neodymium grades that are what we usually see for sale start to lose strength around 200°F and that is permanent loss. As it gets hotter they lose more and I think around 600°F or so they reach curie and will lose all magnetism. In normal use they may lose a little strength as they get warm/hot but will regain it as they cool. There are lots of grades of neodymium, though, and you can hunt down the more heat resistant grades if it’s important.

I now think of low heat resistance in magnets as a safety feature!

I had the glass of my D4 break while it was in my backpack, no idea how, maybe the bezel was screwed down too tight??? Bought a replacement from the intl-outdoor website. No other problems. Carry my D1 in my bag nowadays as I prefer the beam, anodising is a bit dinged up, but otherwise it’s fine.