My Imalent DX80 caught fire, vented smoke, almost exploded (replacement head arrived)

hank · 2019-11-29T18:57:29.000Z

Imagine being a worker in their office, looking nervously at a big box of returned flashlights and hoping nothing explodes …. perhaps their unwillingness to take back the problem model is a legitimate fear of having a bunch of them all in one place.

trailhunter · 2019-11-29T19:03:50.000Z

I got rid of all my Imalents, not worth risking a limb or life over cheaply made flashlights.

WalkIntoTheLight · 2019-11-29T19:05:28.000Z

neo71665:

Seems since I won this in gear bests drawing last march instead of buying it nobody cares if I have a working light. I’m about ticked off enough to go back in every forum I ever said anything good about this light and update with the lack of customer service I’m getting.

Do warranties even apply if you get the light for free? If they refunded you, you’d get $0. So, I’m not sure they’re obliged to fix a broken light.

I guess it’s worth a shot contacting Imalent directly. It’s absolutely no surprise a random retailer won’t help you. What’s the normal length of an Imalent warranty?

M4D_M4X · 2019-11-30T13:22:51.000Z

neo71665:

Who did you contact to get to warranty your light? I’ve sent emails to at least 4 people now with no response. It’s been a lil over a month (more like 2) with no response but from one US distributor. They were only worried if I bought the light from them directly or not. Once they found out it didn’t they quit returning emails. I only asked them who I can contact about a warranty claim. I wasn’t blaming them and tried to be polite as anybody can. Seems since I won this in gear bests drawing last march instead of buying it nobody cares if I have a working light. I’m about ticked off enough to go back in every forum I ever said anything good about this light and update with the lack of customer service I’m getting.

can you please forward me the email to martin@m4dm4x.com?

Shellen said she did not receive a email about this problem

beggindog · 2019-11-30T13:43:45.000Z

IMO they should give you a new light AND a new head

SKV89 · 2019-12-02T04:16:37.000Z

WalkIntoTheLight:

Do warranties even apply if you get the light for free? If they refunded you, you’d get $0. So, I’m not sure they’re obliged to fix a broken light.

I guess it’s worth a shot contacting Imalent directly. It’s absolutely no surprise a random retailer won’t help you. What’s the normal length of an Imalent warranty?

Well said. That’s what I as thinking too when I read his post.

neo71665 · 2019-12-02T22:10:32.000Z

WalkIntoTheLight:

neo71665:

Seems since I won this in gear bests drawing last march instead of buying it nobody cares if I have a working light. I’m about ticked off enough to go back in every forum I ever said anything good about this light and update with the lack of customer service I’m getting.

Do warranties even apply if you get the light for free? If they refunded you, you’d get $0. So, I’m not sure they’re obliged to fix a broken light.

I guess it’s worth a shot contacting Imalent directly. It’s absolutely no surprise a random retailer won’t help you. What’s the normal length of an Imalent warranty?

I’m not bothered if they don’t fix it since I have $0 in it since I did win it. At the end of the day Imalent got their money (I’m sure they didn’t give the light to gearbest). When I received the light I filled out my warranty paperwork.

As for the warranty:
“All Imalent products are covered by our warranty service. DOA/defective products can be exchanged for a replacement through a local distributor/dealer within 15 days of purchase. After 15 day, all defective/malfunctioning Imalent products will be repaired free of charge for a period of 60 months from date of purchase. After 60 months, a limited warranty applies, covering the cost of labor and maintenance, but not the cost of accessories or replacement parts. The warranty is nullified in all the following conditions:

The product(s) is/are broken down, reconstructed and/or modified by unauthorized parties.
The product(s) is/are damaged through improper use
The product(s) is/are damaged by leakage of batteries.”

I’m well in the 60 month time frame. If they aint gonna warranty it I’m fine with that I just want somebody to tell me so I’ll throw it in the trash.

M4D_M4X · 2019-12-02T22:13:33.000Z

did you email sales@imalent.com?

M4D M4X:

can you please forward me the email to martin@m4dm4x.com?

Shellen said she did not receive a email about this problem

neo71665 · 2019-12-02T22:27:15.000Z

I musta deleted the original email. I am sending another one right now

WalkIntoTheLight · 2019-12-02T22:27:35.000Z

They should warranty it, since it’s still within the warranty period. Hard to know if they will, since you haven’t said if you contacted Imalent. A retailer isn’t going to help you. Take Mad Max’s advice.

neo71665 · 2019-12-03T00:04:19.000Z

I used the email (one given above) first as it was the only one on the paperwork. I resorted to contacting retailers after I never got a reply. I only was contacting retailers trying to see if there was a different email to use. I never expected a retailer to do anything but maybe give me some info on a different contact email.

This all started about 2 months ago now. Heck I even started a thread on here about it back then.

I have sent another email today. Maybe the other got sent to spam or a trash folder, I do understand it happens. Hopefully this one goes through. Frankly I just want to know if they will fix it, if not I’m gonna tear the battery pack apart and use the cells. Maybe sell the remains to somebody that wants to tinker with it for a few bucks. I’d rather have the working light though.

trailhunter · 2019-12-03T01:22:04.000Z

neo71665:

I used the email (one given above) first as it was the only one on the paperwork. I resorted to contacting retailers after I never got a reply. I only was contacting retailers trying to see if there was a different email to use. I never expected a retailer to do anything but maybe give me some info on a different contact email.

This all started about 2 months ago now. Heck I even started a thread on here about it back then.

I have sent another email today. Maybe the other got sent to spam or a trash folder, I do understand it happens. Hopefully this one goes through. Frankly I just want to know if they will fix it, if not I’m gonna tear the battery pack apart and use the cells. Maybe sell the remains to somebody that wants to tinker with it for a few bucks. I’d rather have the working light though.

Better Business Beaureu

neo71665 · 2019-12-03T17:00:07.000Z

New head is being sent to me

mortuus · 2019-12-03T21:20:40.000Z

won light or not it should still go under the flashlight makers warranty. good u getting a new head hopefully it will work.

snakebite · 2019-12-08T17:49:09.000Z

my educated guess is that a mosfet failed or got latched up and dumped full battery into the inductor which burned up the traces and desoldered the inductor.
once you get carbon and a dc arc going it will burn till there nothing left to burn.

DBSAR:

UPDATES,May,16,2019

The replacement head arrived today for the DX80. I thank Imalent for the fast & great customer service, and quick solution & replacement of the failed light.

(I managed to get the burned head apart… it looks like the driver nearly exploded, (several of the components were blown off the driver board completely, and some of the large copper traces were melted off. My only guess here either one of the square large inductor coils shorted, or a trace close-shorted to cause some high-amp DC arching, (like a welder affect) maybe someone more experienced with circuitry could identify what happened here. (it happened when the light was cold and when turned off, and occurred as soon as i tried to turn it on.)

snakebite · 2019-12-08T17:52:47.000Z

sounds like a latch up condition.
inadequate gate pulldown or bad power conditioning on the buck chip that allows it to get in a bad state on power connection(screwing battery tube in)

Blinkinglights:

My DX80 blew up again, WTF!
I mechanically locked it out before use because the damn button is so easy to turn on. I twisted the light and tried to turn it back on, smoke went to the glass, light stinks and now dead, SUCKSSS!

Pip · 2019-12-08T19:59:21.000Z

snakebite:

sounds like a latch up condition.
inadequate gate pulldown or bad power conditioning on the buck chip that allows it to get in a bad state on power connection(screwing battery tube in)

Fwiw mine also blew during battery connection. Similar results to what everyone else had. It definitely seems like a design issue. I wish Imalent would let us know if the issue is fixed in the later models. I’ve sent mine out to Imalent and they’re supposed to repair or replace it. When it comes back I could connect and disconnect the battery multiple times to try to simulate it and risk losing another head, or I could just leave the battery connected forever and it will probably work fine forever. Do I really want this thing in my house? If Imalent fixed the issue they probably can’t acknowledge it without doing a recall.

WalkIntoTheLight · 2019-12-08T20:09:54.000Z

Pip:

Fwiw mine also blew during battery connection. Similar results to what everyone else had. It definitely seems like a design issue. I wish Imalent would let us know if the issue is fixed in the later models. I’ve sent mine out to Imalent and they’re supposed to repair or replace it. When it comes back I could connect and disconnect the battery multiple times to try to simulate it and risk losing another head, or I could just leave the battery connected forever and it will probably work fine forever.

Personally, I’d test out the battery installation at least 100 times before I was willing to accept it.

Do I really want this thing in my house?

If you have to ask….

If Imalent fixed the issue they probably can’t acknowledge it without doing a recall.

Yeah, I’m not so sure Chinese companies have to obey recall rules.

snakebite · 2019-12-08T20:53:48.000Z

imalent=immolate?

James_C · 2024-07-12T03:07:13.373Z

I realize this is an old thread, but I think this is pretty interesting. I had purchased a broken DX80 for parts and finally got around to opening it. The failure on my sample was less catastrophic. Note, I removed an inductor (square 100) from the top-right of the driver. I think this is where the failure originated. It was barely attached.

It’s interesting to see the differences in the components between this one and @DBSAR 's. I can spot a few but I’m no driver expert so I don’t know what they could be for. There’s a helpful youtube video out there with a teardown and it shows even more differences in components. It seems like they went through a few iterations but evidently there were still some problems.

I haven’t removed the driver yet so it’s hard to say how damaged it is; however, given the apparent propensity for these things to blow up, I’m hesitant to even try to fix it.