Having a bit of an interest in torches like we all do here, I decided to source some from a manufacturer in China who I won’t name.
These were single 18650 lights, with red and green emitters for hunting use.
I spent hours researching the topic, what else was around, who made them, and so on.
After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing via email and obtaining a couple of well presented test units, I placed an order for an initial number of lights to sell mainly to members of a hunting forum I get on.
I do a lot of hunting with LED torches and was generally regarded as something of an authority on the lights and techniques - prior to this venture I would get PM’s galore about torches, techniques and all that goes with it.
So I figured I’d give it a go selling these red and green lights.
My initial outlay was several thousand dollars, and I was somewhat nervous as you’d understand.
My shipment arrived some weeks later and I already had eager buyers waiting.
I checked over each and every single light before sending them - who wants a hunting trip or night out ruined by a defective torch? That, and it’s just dangerous to have a light fail when you are afield.
Each light was checked over - switches checked for assembly, O rings lubed, everything snugged up as it should be, and then tested with a battery and then off they went to the buyers.
I found a couple that weren’t assembled too well - no centering ring between the emitter and the reflector, just sneakily stuck together with some adhesive insulation discs was one defect that springs to mind.
It was all going very, very well….until the first email came: “I’ve got problems with a torch I got off you.”
OK, I expected the odd issue.
So I had the defective light returned and there was a flickering issue, and it would drop down to a very dim output seconds after activation. (these are single mode lights…)
The quick fix was to put a new driver in. Upon opening the light, I found that a 20mm contact board had been used, with a 16mm driver somewhat loosely floating around inside the pill. Not ideal - was this earthing out somehow? I don’t know. Anyway, using a 20-17mm adaptor ring I subbed in a new driver and sent it back.
Then I got more reports of the exact same issue.
Now, packing and sending these things is around $10 each end - so customers weren’t happy and I wasn’t happy and yes, people had nights out hunting curtailed because of the issue. Then my own light did the exact same thing one night, in the middle of nowhere. If it was my only light, things could have gotten a bit uncomfortable.
One of the worst things is that while these lights looked and felt the part and performed well, they were proving far, far more unreliable than the cheapest $15 light from the likes of DX, some of which I’ve had for several years with little to no problems!
Somewhat annoyed I contacted the manufacturer who suggested I send a light back and offering to fix the issue. Fix the issue? I had sent lights all over the country! There were apologies. My contacts there seemed to want to help, but the offers were impractical really. There were offers of free pills with my next order. Would YOU spend thousands of dollars more on a product that had not one, but several issues and that was causing you embarrassment, and costing you time and money?
Here I was, with a reputation as being “in the know” about hunting lights, and the ones I sold were not always reliable. Ethically, I feel the need to help buyers out, rather than suggesting it’s been 90 days or whatever so tough luck. These are buddies off a hunting forum after all…
The whole affair, that started off as both a well intentioned venture to supply something good and to make some pocket money, ended up costing me hours of my free time corresponding about defective lights, fixing defective lights, and spending money buying parts and on postage sending the things back.
It has left a very, very bad taste in my mouth in relation to ever attempting such a thing again, there’s ongoing disappointment over what SHOULD have been a successful venture at my end, and the annoyance of still getting reports of defective lights.
Before this, I was happy to talk flashlights, loved playing with them and working on them. It was a fun hobby - now I’m sick to death of dealing with the things.
That’s my story, and I’d suggest to any of you entertaining the idea of doing what I did to think long and hard - I did my research, I thought it over, and things still went sour.
’s for offering to fix up the lights that you sold. That speaks volume’s for you.
That’s one hell of a big toe you used to test the waters.