Any of you Imalent MS32 owners out there - or if you know somebody who owns one… - please could I ask you to try something on your unit?
I am conducting somewhat of an experiment and need to know if any other units out there behave this way.
The TL;DR of this is - allow your MS32 battery voltage to drop below 14V… and see which modes you can no longer access. Even when the light is cool, is it only Turbo/Strobe? Or can you no longer access any of the fan-modes (meaning High I (40,000) lm and High II (90,000 lm))?
This stemmed from after I took my MS32 out on a walk for the first time. I noted after a while I could not use Turbo, High I (40,000 lm), or High II (90,000 lm) anymore. When I got home and checked the manual, thinking I had maybe a faulty light, I saw this passage: “The turbo and strobe will not be available when the battery pack has a current level less than 14V.” Which is fair enough; however there is ZERO mention of High I (40,000 lm) or High II (90,000 lm) being locked out.
As there is no mention of the top High modes being locked out below 14V, and understandably believing my unit is faulty, I contacted Imalent, who said they could organise a replacement head if I send a video of the issue.
I sent them a video of my unit that had been allowed to sit (and so is not being thermal throttled), with an OLED Voltage reading of <14V, where Turbo is locked out, and cycling modes goes 80 → 2000 → 4000 → 9000 → 18000 lumens, and then jumps straight back to 80 lumens.
They replied quote:
“Let me reiterate: the voltage displayed on the flashlight’s screen is only a reference value and does not represent the battery’s actual voltage. For the battery’s precise voltage, please rely on the reading from a voltmeter. Please review the attachment I sent you: (The battery has overheat protection; Ultra High, High, and Medium modes will automatically dim after a certain duration.)”
And they sent me/referenced the runtime spec sheet.
So they had misunderstood that I was complaining about runtimes. After explaining that I am not concerned about the runtime / step-down times; I am not complaining that Turbo / High modes don’t run very long / step down too fast, I again referenced their own manual which only states ONLY Turbo and Strobe are unavailable when the battery pack is below 14 V, and that the runtime numbers you quote are about how long a mode stays at that brightness from a full charge before stepping down – not about locking out modes entirely once the battery voltage drops - which is what is happening on my unit. It would make zero sense to charge the battery to full and retry, as that completely defeats the issue at hand? If I charge to full, then I could not show how the higher modes are locked out when they should not be; below 14V? I had to wait until below 14V to do the test as this is quite literally the crux of the problem!
I basically summarised it as only one of the following two can be correct, either:
- Imalent’s manual is currently incorrect, and it should say that, under 14V, Turbo, Strobe, AND High III (90,000 lm) and High II (40,000 lm) will be locked out. Meaning that yes, if I receive a replacement, then that this is expected behaviour. However the manual remains incorrect.
- My unit is faulty, and indeed only Turbo and Strobe should be locked out when below 14V.
Again, they replied quote:
“I have carefully reviewed all your comments. Our manual is not incorrect, but we did not explicitly state that the 40,000-lumen and 90,000-lumen modes cannot be activated when the voltage is below 14V. This is because the manual only highlights points deemed crucial by our engineers. We do not include every minor detail of the product, as doing so would make the manual overly lengthy and less user-friendly. We kindly ask for your understanding regarding these omitted details. We sincerely appreciate your feedback, which I have forwarded to our product engineers. They will prioritize addressing your concerns to enhance the user experience.”
So, to me, their reply is a very polite yet extremely annoying brush-off. They are now explicitly confirming that:
- 40,000 lm and 90,000 lm are also disabled below 14 V, not just Turbo/Strobe.
- They’re calling that an “omitted detail”, not an error:
- i.e. “the light is working as we designed it; we just didn’t tell you all the details in the manual.”
So, they have taken the position: My unit is not faulty. This is intended behaviour for all MS32s.
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I would much rather have full transparency in a USER MANUAL than have details omitted out so as it not be “overly lengthy and less user-friendly”??! As this only creates confusion like it has done in my case!
As such, as said in the TL;DR, I would like to know, is this a VERY poorly communicated “feature” that is not mentioned in the manual? OR are there faulty units out there that cut off ALL fan modes rather than just the supposed Turbo/Strobe? Please try this on your MS32 and report back !!
For reference, my units S/N is 2025041704 - I wonder if perhaps older or newer units may behave differently?
Another problem I have found with my unit is that the OLED Voltage reading jumps around by almost an entire volt, i.e. between the range of say 14.00V and 14.98 V when triple clicking to show a reading consecutively. I took reading with a Voltmeter and my battery back is fine - readings are steady and constant, which makes me think there is maybe an issue with the sensor in the flashlight head. Maybe this is related to the High modes being locked out when they shouldn’t?
If anyone would benefit from seeing the videos I took of my unit, including the erratic OLED Voltage readouts, the Multi-meter reading of the battery pack, or the High modes being locked out below 14V, which I sent/showed to IMALENT, let me know and I shall try to figure out how to attach them (can only seem to do images)!
