Horrible Experience with Armytek

EDIT: Received the replacement C2 Pro Max (Warm version) and it measures 2820 lumens, that’s 380 lumens higher than my first unit. I’m fairly sure that the gen 1 XHP70 is being used in them all, at least the warm version. Nothing close to the 3720 lumens they claim. I’m not tearing down this unit to check.

One of the four dies aren’t lit on Firefly level too.
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Firstly, I chose to void the warranty since I didn’t want to waste $58 nzd shipping it back.

I reviewed the Armytek Wizard C2 Pro Max, and recorded 2440 lumens from the rated 3720 lumens (warm white version) and thought surely there was something wrong with my lumen tube at the time. I contacted Armytek and my contact referred me to their repair department, this is after just recently discovering that only half the LED was working. They asked for a video, so I sent a photo and video, they said it wasn’t clear what the issue was, so send it back to confirm it’s actually covered under warranty and not user error. They even asked me to check the battery was fully charged, how stupid. It reminded me of multiple experiences I’ve had with Banggood. This individual said that it also needed to be sent back because they had never experienced this problem before, ahhh I highly doubt that, that sounds like rubbish.
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I then thought, what the hell and pried the bezel off. Sent them another video saying “here’s proof, now I don’t need to send it back” lol. They responded that it still wasn’t clear what the issue was and removing the bezel was of no benefit! Can you believe it, absolutely shocking service, so much for talking to their repair department who should know better. They of course informed me that the warranty was now void, which I knew.
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I removed the LED and what did I find? I realized that it was the XHP70 Gen 1, not the advertised XHP70.2, no wonder it was under performing. I reflowed in a spare XHP70.2 and now it’s closer to 3200 lumens. 1Lumen measured 3499, so it’s fairly close. Different lights and test setups.
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What really angered me was that I was treated like an average customer after spending hours reviewing their products. I explained that I only wanted it replaced to use in future reviews, for the purpose of promoting Armytek products, they simply took no notice. I very rarely use what I review, I place each model in its box and only use them for comparisons in other videos. Armytek get ongoing promotion whenever I feature it in another video.

Had an Imalent model fail recently, I explained I’d like a replacement for the purpose of advertising only, they promptly shipped one out, no returning needed.

Just an all round bad experience, I made it clear to Armytek that I’d most likely not be reviewing for them in the future. How can I recommend products with customer service like that.

So false advertising and piss poor customer service. Good to know, thanks!

Others that reviewed this model measured over 3400 lumens so it would have been the 70.2 in theirs. No idea why the Gen 1 was in mine though, strange.

I wonder how many units shipped out like this one

I guess its possible that somehow the older emitter getting installed was an honest mistake, but the piss poor customer service ruined any chance to correct the mistake.

I see nothing good about it at all. Host is heavy and amateur design. Driver is boost type, but asynchronous so low efficiency, fake or wrong LED.Hard to modd. Overall : very medium class product , but over priced and have bad CS. + Aggressive marketing bweeeaaa :confounded:

Very aggressive.
And lets not forget their claims of being cutting edge…

The C2 Pro Max was one of 3 models they sent which ended up faulty, maybe the factory packaged faulty returns without knowing.

C2 Pro Max - as above
C2 Pro Nichia - worked perfectly for my review, sold it to a reviewer for 1Lumen and notified a little while later it was flickering. He asked Armytek for a replacement driver and was denied.
C2 WR - white LEDs failed straight away

Posted about 3 models failing on reddit and ended up being down voted, my guess, it’s a little hard to believe that 3 out of 3 models were faulty in the same package.

One big plus, however.
It is a Canadian company who happens to “own a few factories” in China.

Even better news.
Armytecstore(dot)de states “European manufacturer and own factory”
and “unprecedented warranty” and “no hassle warranty 10 years”.
So I guess the only hassle comes from the customers, not from Armytec.

All of which is done from their European HQ in Berlin.

C’mon, no more aggressive than Olight, Imalent and others.

BTW, my experience with AT products and the german representation is just the opposite. Wizards are among the most used lights I have, all still going strong, and very popular among runners, so the number of sold lights might be quite high. Still, few reports on failures.

My only complaint about an order being late resulted in AT just paying back s&h :). If there’s a problem, send the light back. If you do not intend to send in a defect product, don’t wonder about a negative outcome to your complaint.

Perhaps.

I just find the Armytek claims of being superior lights to be hype, they have some good features but it seems their defect rate is quite high (if not the highest) which according to their hype you would expect it to be the lowest. And you pay a lot for an Armytek, even on sale. And their warranty service leaves much to be desired as many threads show.

Frankly a Convoy or Sofirn/Wurkkos is much better priced and more rugged. Especially Convoy.

My most used light, Wurkkos FC11
My most all purpose light Convoy M21B

I’ll have a go at repairing the ArmyTek Wizard C2 Pro Nichia so that it stops flickering (PWM). It’ll be a fun challenge and an excuse to get a temperature controlled heat gun. :beer:

The headband is comfortable and user interface is great. Flickering is less noticeable on High and Turbo.

It’s kind of heartwarming to know that some companies don’t give reviewers special treatment. :innocent:

I wonder how many XHP70 gen 1 emitters were accidentally used… normally they come in big reels with thousands of LEDs.

I guess that’s one way of looking at it.

If they had responded and just said, that they required it back as per their policy, I wouldn’t of had a problem, but to deny seeing any kind of issue was what frustrated me.

Is it that difficult to see from the first photo? If you know what you’re looking at it’s obvious, and a repair rep should be onto these things.

Even to say it wasn’t clear what the issue was even after I removed the TIR was a joke.

The major plus of not shipping it back and removing the bezel was, to see this XHP70 Gen 1 there instead of the advertised Gen 2. Would they have ever admitted this if they found X units had been sold this way, I highly doubt it. I wonder how many customers have an under performing Pro Max and don’t realize it.

Anyone know what the max current for the Gen 1 was? Could be a reason the LED started to fail if it was being pushed too hard.

I’ll never buy from them. They’re expensive in the first place. In the 2nd place their 10 year warranty is meaningless. I don’t support bad business and I don’t want that sort of drama. This isn’t the first I’ve heard of their poor / non existent warranty from armytek.

From data sheets I have, the maximum currents are the same for both 70 and 70.2; 4.8 amps for 6 V version, and 2.4 amps for the 12 V version.

Okay, thanks for confirming that. I can rule that out.

Armytek has had a reputation for piss poor CS and this solidly adds to that. I, too, have had poor experiences. Despite overall high build quality the tail cap board is just glued in place with no other method of retaining (Wizard C2 Pro Nichia and many others). Well, mine popped out! I emailed AT CS to ask their advice on reassembly and regluing after clearly explaining that is fell out and I did not disassemble it. Nor did I ask for a warranty replacement. Their only reply was that it appears I disassembled it :person_facepalming:

Its really a shame as I really like the Wizard headlamps. They work VERY well for my uses, and the UI is almost perfect for me. But paying that much (plus shipping) to buy from a company that so blatantly cares not about its customers is a hard pill to swallow. Next time I’ll either go budget with Sofirn or, if they offer a good emitter at the time, Zerbralight.

Armytek is not a budget light and as such the service should reflect that. Price wise they are in the same category as Fenix or Nitecore.

The company has nice matte finishes and tough well built rubber and straps … they do some things very well …. Then blow up the rest of it . I like the look of their textured lenses but something about the way it screws with the light bothers me . BLF exists in part to make honest user experiences to members curious about products and manufacturers …sadly the simple answer is this company has had real problems for years and has not seen fit to address or fix any of them. Their reputation precedes them or in this case it stalks them .

It’s a wonder they’re still in business after all this time. I’m sure someone will chime in and tell that their products are really good, just that their service is shit. Maybe that’s the problem, people keep giving a bad company their hard-earned money