Maglite is now becoming a big scam

LED Flashlights – General Info
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I bought a heavy duty maglite with LED, the kind that can be used as a night stick, because I live in Canada around bears, cougars and I have goats and dogs to defend, so maglite was the brand to go for reliability, endurance and duty.

Unfortunately the LED failed and the light wasn’t lighting anymore so I decided to call maglite to know how to replace the LED myself.

They told me that this model needed to be sent to the warranty department to be fixed and that I will have to pay to send it and also pay to get it back…they also started to tell me that in case of water damage, I would have to pay for the repairs…

Then they told me that the only place to send it was in the US and that the cost to send it would be pretty high.

So I told them that maglite used to be “The Brand”, that before you could just remove the bulb to replace it or add an LED bulb, or change the battery…but I also told them that they lost a customer forever and I am going to throw this maglite in the garbage, which sucks…

Don’t buy maglite anymore.

P.S. I am not fighting the bear with the maglite, I am making noise on my metallic fence with it…

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I hope you enjoy your stay, Dylanthem!

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Thank you for clarifying. The entire time I was reading your post I was thinking a Maglite seemed like a suboptimal weapon for fighting bears.:bear:

Most LED flashlights these days are designed with LEDs that are intended to be permanent. It doesn’t speak well for Maglite that their light actually broke.

It’s a shame that Maglite has fallen so far. They used to be the best light you could buy. I used to carry a 2xAAA one around with me in college. They were everywhere. Now they’re garbage.

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Why do you guys think they are garbage? An LED can fail in any light. The 50k hours LED life is only for the LED not the electronics underneath it.

As for fighting off a bear, I would say Maglite is superior to Convoy and Wurkkos. The bear would not stand a chance against a 6D.

Do you guys agree?

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They were never really reliable or particularly well-engineered. We just don’t know about all the good alternatives.

They used to be a big, heavy chunk of metal. They still are, but once that was enough of a selling point. It no longer is.

Maglite completely missed the opportunity to make properly engineered, quality LED lights and instead retrofitted crappy, half-assed solutions.

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is this another account of the same user? lol…

Did the LED just randomly fizz out, or were you actually banging the light on stuff? My first gen LED minimag, the ones with “35 lumens” in the weird red and yellow font, had weaker LED solder. the LED popped off the board when I struck a towel padded cinderblock to test its durability.

On a side note, many of the newer mags aren’t as robust as the original ones. They’re now affordable lighting first, and blunt tools second.

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The main thing that disappoints me about Maglite is that it has been decades since they produced any lights that interest me. None of their offerings this century have been all that attractive to me. They always seem to be a bit behind in technology and build quality. Years ago, I briefly, considered some of their led lights until I read about reliability issues with them.

Perhaps they’ve solved those problems and their current lineup might be good. I haven’t checked.

Maglite’s warranty seems fine. Having to ship a light back to the manufacturer for warranty service is about the best you can expect from a flashlight manufacturer.

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I agree, but more typical is that the user pays for return shipping and the manufacturer pays to send it back.
I have to say though that I have not had any problems that required me to return a Maglite. With like 15 of them around here (not often used, but fully functional) and maybe another 10 gifted. Granted though, I haven’t purchased any in at least 10 years… so there is that.

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In my opinion, the biggest issue with modern maglites is their choice to implement blatantly visible PWM for lower and deregulated high modes. It’s sub-1khz. It really stresses my brain and strains my eyes.

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Lets be aware that Maglite is sold in every sporting goods store, every Home Depot, every Lowes, every Walmart on the planet. They dont cater to the enthusiast audience. They really dont care if they done attract members from BLF.

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I posted this before on a different thread, I thought this 20 years ago or more and find them a tacky company.
I’m one of those who thinks that Maglite let themselves down and their consumers down by sucking the gravy from the ignorant buyers and their existing market share instead of jumping into the LED world and keeping their place in the market and building on it by dominating the LED revolution, instead they went for short term gain by continuing to sell what had become second rate flashlights.

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Yeah admittedly, none of mine were lights that came with LEDs. All old Incandescent versions…
All modified with different versions of LED conversions. Plus tail switches in the case of the multitude of the two AA minis I have laying all over the place… But I have never had problems with any of them. Other than the old bulbs burning out at inopportune times.

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Maybe, but:

The fact that Mag Instrument Inc is still in business and still making lights after all of these years has to tell you that they are doing something right. I think we, collectively, forget that the folks that read and post here and sites like it are an insignificant percentage of the flashlight buying population.

Though I also wish they had done more to keep their lights more relevant technologically. If they made something that would do 1000 lumens, 4500K, 90+ CRI, replaceable 21700 cell, 4 levels and keep the beam focusing… I would probably try one.

Obviously, me not buying their current offerings is not a big impact on their bottom line… :laughing:

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After ugly family breakup think they just decided to cash in on Legacy Name/Brand recognition.
Kind of like Craftsman brand still being whored out by the name and not saying it is trash now but rather it is not what it was with real made in USA wrenches, Ratchets etc. under the original Sears.

Now, my question to you all is, do any of you own any Bison Sportslights products?

Here is the breakup, legal crap;
In 1992 there was a shakeup at the company when Claire discovered that Tony had been arranging to leave the company to his children from a previous marriage upon his death. This started a bitter family battle that would last over a decade and result in Claire and her sons leaving the company, Claire filing a palimony lawsuit against Tony for $200 million, and Claire’s sons starting their own flashlight company in 1997.[3]

Palimony lawsuit

In 1992, after learning of Maglica’s business plans, their relationship ended and Claire filed a palimony suit for, among other things, breach of contract, breach of partnership agreement, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and quantum meruit in Orange County Superior Court seeking $200 million in damages. The lawsuit went to jury trial, covered by Court TV to large and involved audiences,[4] awarded Claire $84 million in the Spring of 1994.[5]

The judgment was appealed to the California Courts of Appeal where, in 1998, was reversed and remanded. The court stated that the award was incorrect because the damages should have been the value of her services, not the amount of the benefit of her services.[5] After being remanded and requiring a new trial, Claire settled with Mag Instrument Inc in 2000 for $29 million.[6]

Bison Sportslights, Inc.

Bison Sportslights, Inc. were found liable for willful and malicious misappropriation of trade secrets, malicious breach of confidence, malicious false advertising, and malicious unfair competition. Bison had a permanent injunction entered against it and Mag Instrument, Inc. was awarded $1.2 million for damages and attorney’s fees.[7]

Bison Sportslights, Inc. is no longer in business.

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Yeah, but looking around, gross sales for the last years I found were (2024) between 200 and 250 million.
Somebody is buying them. I am sure those numbers would make any of the brands we know and love around here super happy. Likely none of them do a fraction of that.

Anyway, not trying to defend anything, really! Just Sayin’
BTW, this does not justify the treatment the OP got when trying to get his light fixed!!

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Dewd who was pricing out a vintage 6D might have a keeper…

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The reason Mag is still around is a testament to the truism that people don’t want ¼-inch drills, they want ¼-inch holes.

Those who buy the Big Mags want a solid club that they can use to light up shiite.

They dgaf about color temp or CRI or ringy beams. They’re fine with a horrible ring of light, ie, The Doughnut Hole Of Death, as what they call flood, and a football-shaped blob of light as what they call spot.

A crappy “As Seen On Teevee!” 3AAA zommie is to them a miracle of modern science.

They consider McDonald’s to be fine dining.

Dunno if they still sell the clubs with hotwire bulbs. If you can get one, yeah, fine, get one and stick in a LED replacement blub, whether Mag or Nite-Ize or whatever. At least you’ll get 4× the runtime with a more consistent beam.

And you can still go clubbin’.

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I remember my first Maglite that I EDC’d: a 1xAAA incandescent Maglite Solitaire.

The build quality was awesome. It featured a machined aluminum body back when the standard from other manufacturers was to use cheap stamped steel or molded plastic.

The downside was the Maglite Solitaire had a maximum output of just 2 lumens. And you only got that with a brand new bulb and fresh Alkaline battery.

It even had a zoom mechanism with 2 modes:

  • Spot mode: When focused, the Solitaire produced a fairly tight hotspot. Google says this beam was rated for 82 feet, but personally I found it only useful for maybe 6-10 feet. It was useful for spotting keyholes at night.
  • Donut mode: When unfocused, the Solitaire produced a wide ring of very dim light with huge hole in the center. It was cool that the light could do this, but I found it had no practical purpose.

The 2xAAA and 2xAA incandescent Maglites were quite a bit more useful with their 13-14 lumen output.

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My older brother gave me a 2xAA Maglite in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
I don’t think I have bothered with Maglite ever since.
I am not aware of any nice flashlights that are quite hefty and can be used as a club, but I tend to focus on 1x21700 lights. :man_shrugging:

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Point taken.
OP did not seem to indicate time of ownership before failure.
If within a time frame of retailers return process, I would be all over that. Pays to buy from “In Country Retailers” when possible for ease of these return issues.
Feel sorry for Canadian customers for a lot of things bought that we take for granted here for the relative cheap and easy shipping compared to customs of any sort.

That is why when buying directly from China, consider it a one way ride and flip the coin on whether it will work out OK, most times it does. When Not I consider it the cost of doing business in the wild west.
Still happy to buy somewhat direct if it makes sense, we never had that luxury in the 1960-1970’s .

Don’t care how many Maglite sells and am happy for them that they do still sell a good amount.
Have quite a few on my shelf and they never gave me a bit of trouble, consider them the major member of flashlight evolution and they served our law enforcement well for many a decade.

We are a different breed here, that is a given.
There are plenty of crap beers that still sell well, marketing and brand recognition does most of the work and good old peer pressure.

All good, Peace Out!