So my light just like, burst? Fireflies PL47g2, seeing daily light duty office/ technical (inspection work, not fabrication or maintenance) use popped clean apart in my hand couple of seconds after activating turbo outside in ~–2°C (that’s about +28.4 degrees fairytale) weather. No fall or knock preceding this at all though the light has hit the floor a bit in the past. My guess is uneven thermal expansion? Though the press fit bezel goes in very shallow for what I’d expect in this style of construction.
Furthermore, the TIR assembly has one foot broken off to make room for the cable entry point and one of the remaining three broke off either in the process or previously so it’s gonna be a fragile, non-waterproof mule from now on. I’m not buing spare optics for this.
Oh and on top of that the PCBs were in crooked. Not square to the light’s axis. That just feels like careless manufacturing.
I’ve been looking forward to the E12R and E07x Pro becoming available again, top of my wishlist, with the NOV-MU and T9R (I like the weird soviet space engine look) right in tow. Now I’m having second thoughts. Is this the quality control roulette I’m told to expect from Fireflies?
Or maybe even durability of enthusiast-grade lights in general, even with their chunky build and solid feel? Are my expectations too high, are enthusiast lights in general not much suited to daily non-hobby duty with occasional bumps and temp swings? Should I be more delicate with my EDC D4V2?
The light was not old, mind you, I’ve only gotten into this game about 2 months ago.
Any thoughts on this issue and ruggedness in general much appreciated. I’m not seeking to bash the manufacturer. More like a reality check, to set my expectations appropriately.
Oh also it eats O-rings. I’ve run out of spares. There’s quite clearly a manufacturing (no obvious burrs though) or design (improper O-ring size or groove size) defect in the tube or cap. Or the supplied O-rings were duds.
Fireflies does have a verifiable history of quality control issues, some worse than others. Just browse this forum and Reddit and you’ll see. I tested 3 Fireflies lights in 2021 (E07 2021, PL47G2 2021, Pl47G2 mu). All had varying levels of quality control problems except the mule. None serious enough to affect functionality though, but others not so much. You’ll hear of broken or misaligned optics, no thermal paste, galled and/or improperly cut threads. It’s too bad since Fireflies has one of the best flashlight drivers out there and the E07X and E12R are great lights. Buy at your own risk I guess.
I have stayed away from their lights other than on old E07 I traded for. Part of my decision was the fact that while nobody directly commented on construction, there usually seemed to be underlying inferences to QC. I am a fan of the FW series, talk about reliability issues but that aside they are easy to fix and do not generally self destruct. I have really grown to appreciate the QC of Hank lights and Convoy lights. While they are on different ends of the spectrum with features, they are both very durable and very functional. At one point I would have also lumped SolarForce into that class as well. I also like or have liked Zebra’s, but have completely freed myself of their products and likely will not buy anymore. Poor emitter choices, a marginal UI and price drove me to this decision.
Just throwing this out there—no brand is infallible. Eventually you’re going to get a lemon. How a company handles defects means a lot. My second D4V2 had a defect. There seems to be some kind of connection problem. We did some troubleshooting but no dice. After I provided a video of the behavior, Hank sent me a new head free of charge. I’ve had 4 more lights from Hank since then and no issues with them. Another is on the way!
Fireflies are a mixed bag. Had a rot66 that was poorly assembled and drained the batteries completely once. I gave it away. I have 2 of the pl47 g2 headlights that I have used a lot and they have been great. I also have a e07 that’s really nice. I would still buy a fireflies if it was a model I really wanted. But I wouldn’t consider them a premium brand as far as quality goes. They have some unique lights though and I like that.
Well, case in point: I just tested a Thrunite TC15 V3 and it was faulty out of the box. I generally have fantastic luck with Thrunite. The main this is how the company handles the issue. It’s worth it if you get good service.
Related- I need a serviceable head torch pretty fast. I’ve managed to press the bezel back in, fully flush, with a big old ratcheting clamp with some soft jaws but I can’t get myself to trust that light anymore. I need high CRI, SST20 4000K preferred, Andúril(2) a must, USB type-C charging ideally, switch mode driver a big plus. I see all that save for the switch mode driver in the Astrolux HL01. Would that be on par with the Fireflies, worse or better, quality and durability-wise?
Should I just go ahead and order one?
ETA: the 21700 of the Fireflies was a big plus, I don’t mind the added bulk, extra battery life is more useful. Too bad the Astrolux is 18650. Also the Fireflies has stellar moonlight performance, absolutely impeccable. Does the Astrolux have good moonlight?
You have to give up Anduril or in body charging. FF and the Astrolux are the only one with both if I’m not mistaken. Lumintop HL3A has most of what you want but no charging and a less efficient driver than the FF. If you don’t include Anduril, there are many options.
I’m very big on free software/ GNU philosophy and I’ve set a rule for myself that I don’t use proprietary software on anything, even as minute as a torch, if there is a viable free alternative available. It’s a whole big thing of mine and makes libre firmware a hard requirement, and Andúril in particular preferred due to lightning storm mode. I love the lightning storm mode.
I don’t disagree with you at all, but currently there are 3 options for this configuration. Everybody seemingly wants an Emisar right angle, or Sofirn/Wurkkos to do a right angle light with Anduril. FF sells lights regardless of their reputation (justified or not) because on paper they have amazing lights with great designs, good drivers, and good LED choices.
The pl47 is hard to beat for a headlamp. I use mine a ton and if one failed I would probably buy another. I use mine all winter to bring in firewood before the kids get out of bed. In the cold weather you can run it really bright continuously, I can drain a 5000 mah battery in an hour.
I was sincerely hoping that a PL47g3 would come out, with Lume1 and USB charging. A right angle peer to the NOV-MU, E07x and the E12R, believing the quality was good, given my short but overwhelmingly good experience with the PL47g2.
Gman thank you. At this point I’ve mostly familiarised myself with Andúril-based commercial offerings, too bad the head torch niche seems a bit underwhelmingly catered for even though there are some huge advantages to 90° lights.
I’ll probably be ordering the HL01, it looks good enough and the other Mateminco/ Astrolux lights I have (couple of A01 and a modded MF01) look to be of decent quality.
I’m pretty sure that was the plan all along, until the shortage got out of control. Thats why we also still haven’t seen the T1R thrower from FF yet either. Thats a shame too because from what I can see, I would have been the best min-thrower around then…and it would still be that right now. I don’t even know what you could say that light would be missing. Size is great, looks, optic, AUX, 21700 or 22430, UI, Driver, I seriously can’t wait for this shortage nonsense to end. I am now lamenting what other Fireflies lights we’d have right now that we don’t know about if this chip shortage wasn’t messing things up. Jack started droppin some HEAT, it’s too bad this all slowed his momentum.
To OP’s point tho, this is the second FF PL472021 that I’ve heard do this. Clearly there is some oddity that has the potential to cause this. I never heard about this in the pl47g2 (which I have & love too) so I wonder what exactly about this new edition could possibly be causing this. Bad glue? Does the gasket expand too much? Seems like a very interesting problem to get to the bottom of.
I don’t think there’s any glue, nor do I think it should be. The construction seems to be intended to function on friction/ interference fit and uneven thermal expansion (body heats up, stainless bezel fails to keep up and expand sufficiently) caused it to separate. The crushed flexible O-ring, possibly aided by some residual stress in the mezel material, provided the force for the assembly to ping apart.
Wurkkos HD20 has 21700 battery, USB-C charging, simple UI with ramping and moonlight. No Anduril. I don’t have one but it looks pretty nice. It is single emitter light not like Fireflies so not as bright. But you can probably get it fairly quickly through Amazon if they have it in your country.
The HD20/HD15 do not have ramping. They switch between the two emitters or have both on. The HD20 lockout is broken but works fine with a 1/4 turn lockout. The HD15 unfortunately has really weird thermal controls.
