Welp, there was a post here made by Sofirn itself saying that. But that message has mysteriously disappeared for no apparent reason.
We’re not attacking you, As Hank said above, we are just lacking information. It would be great to see some photos close up of the driver damage on the component-side. Many are more curious of what could be causing such a bad reaction you are having to the smell, as it would be nice to know of some material is really toxic in a different way that what most are familiar with when it comes to what electronic components are made from that we know of. You are not alone when it comes to a rare failure of a electronic device or a flashlight. I had my Imalent DX80 catch fire and nearly explode in my hands not long ago. There was a lot of smoke, it smelled bad, but after airing out the room with a fan in a window the smell was gone in a few days. Would be great if we all knew what could be different in your light failure to cause such lingering odor & ill effects. Driver shorts, overheating and internal fires can be nasty & scary.
(below is a photo of my recent light driver fire:
That’s pretty nice of them. I’ve never heard of any other flashlight manufacturer making an offer like that.
I sympathize with what you experienced. It is really frustrating and unexpected when electronics malfunction like this. Especially when the problem doesn’t just destroy the electronics in question. In your case, it filled your house with stinky headache inducing fumes and left a foul odor on your cables and $800 cell phone. You’re still in the return period for Amazon. In your position, I’d be very tempted to return it to Amazon as the least hassle option too.
However, I get the impression that Sofirn sincerely wants to figure out what happened. That they care about the quality of their products. To that end, it’s nice to see them offer twice the purchase price to compensate you a bit for the extra hassle compared to returning it to Amazon.
It would be really nice if Sofirn would offer you big $$$ to compensate you for the stink, headaches, and damage to your phone. But realistically I don’t think ANY flashlight company would make such an offer.
Regarding the charger and cable:
Jake mentioned in a prior post that the charger is whatever came with an LG V30 and the USB-C cable was an Anker.
I don’t think he mentioned the exact model of Anker in question, but a quick Google search of Benson Leung’s list of approved USB-C cables does show several Anker cables are approved.
Yeah it’s an unfortunate situation. I know what it’s like to run a business and have to deal with this kind of stuff myself, so I’m genuinely not out to make a problem for anyone. This legitimately gave me a very serious headache for many hours though. If I didn’t think this posed a safety and health concern for other customers I would have just sent this back to Amazon.
Just to address a previous post I will say that the way I charged it when it failed was the same way I charged it every other time. I go for walks in the middle of the night when you would need a flashlight. I come home I plug them in I go to bed. Is this really not a reasonable way of doing it? That’s actually a real question. I find it surprising that people are expected to watch a charging battery. Is that really what most of you guys do? That isn’t always convenient for me.
it looks like there was one hell of a fire with that imalent. I actually steered clear of that brand because I read about stuff like that. They do have some impressive specs, but that seems like they don’t have the quality control or testing to be as reliable as they should be from what I’ve read. I think the difference there is you were outdoors holding the thing so you could deal with it in a way that made sense. Whatever happened with my light happened in my house for who knows how long before I caught it.
So what is the safest practice? I’m thinking from here on out I’m going to stick to high-end flashlights and for multi cells I will use an external high quality charger.
even my phone case after being scrubbed with vinegar rubbing alcohol all sorts of things smells like this and it was only next to the charging cable for 5 minutes. I don’t know what this stuff is but I’ve never experienced anything quite this strong or difficult to get rid of.
Jake257,
Sorry you had trouble with the charging deal on your Sofirn flashlight.
You have mentioned Acebeam a couple times and said how well they make flashlights.
And they do for the most part.
Before they were Acebeam, they were Supbeam, then they flirted with changing the name to Microbluebear but after we and many other people mocked that name they decided on Acebeam.
Anyway, back at the end of the Supbeam days they decided they were going to wow the world and invent a flashlight that would charge the batteries internally and switch between series and parallel.
This did not go well.
The model is Supbeam K50 like this;
http://www.sbflashlights.com/Supbeam-K50-p362.html
Grab a six pack and read up on the crap that went on with this flashlight and the responses from the manufacturer.
This thread can enlighten you as to the back and forth and probably allow you to realize that these makers are supportive right up to the point where they aren’t.
Still like this flashlight but I never once even attempted to charge the batteries inside the light.
Never like that idea with multiple cells to begin with, just too much power to have bottled up in a tube if something goes wrong.
Point is, cheap or expensive, these things are a work in progress some times regardless of who makes them.
Later,
Keith
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=lithium+ion+charger+fire
Got smoke detectors in the room where you leave the charger?
The problem is the reactant chemicals are separated by a thin membrane (and lots of different membrane materials have been used)
and the chemicals can with time and age start to crystallize — they’re called “dendrites” and can puncture the membrane. And the reaction that starts feeds itself and releases oxygen so it’s hard to extinguish. And when the chemicals leaking out are burned, that forms hydrogen fluoride, one of the nastier slow-acting poisons you don’t want to breathe. Thus the best thing to know about these is “don’t inhale.” Harder to do when you’re sleeping.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=li-ion+battery+dendrite
Since I started reading here some years back I’ve kept my li-ion cells in a fireproof box, and never left thm charging unattended and always had the charger on a fireproof surface.
And I’ve found two li-ion cells that failed while in storage —- detectable by a film of brown stuff spread all around the vent holes at the positive end. I got lucky.
But stuff happens.
I recall reading in a fire marshals report some years back that consumer electronics fires are way undercounted as they tend to hide the evidence of what happened. I’ve noticed that a lot of charger manufacturers from China lately are representing their plastic as nonflammable. I’d like to believe that.
Note that for multi-cell flashlights, it’s never wise to put two li-ion cells in series.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=FLASHLIGHT+EXPLOSION
They need to be matched, and again age and use degrades them at different rates so a pair that’s matched when fully charged can diverge as the cells get drained. Eventally the weaker cell gets reverse-charged from the stronger one and kaboom. Thus the warning never to mix old and new batteries, even carbon zinc or alkaline cells.
Exploding Flashlights
June 1997
DHHS (NIOSH) Publication Number 97-149
Try putting the phone case in a sealed big ziplock bag with a new box of baking soda for a day and see if that doesn’t pull the smell out.
Thanks for the replies. That is some interesting reading indeed. Micro blue bear that is a pretty awesome name. So based on my pictures are you guys pretty confident that there isn’t a problem with the cells at all? I don’t have to worry about hydrogen fluoride exposure do I? If you look on one of the cells it is discolored on the top and a bit brown, but I’m thinking that is probably from the heat of the burning board above it. If I want to know definitively should I just try each cell and if the flashlight turns on with each individual cell I am okay? Or does a vented cell potentially still work? Sorry if that’s a stupid question
By the way am I wrong in thinking that all of this information makes the fact that Tesla cars exist absolutely terrifying? If one cell can do something like this imagine having a car parked in your garage underneath where you sleep with more than 7100 of these things wired in parallel and series at the same time that are all supposed to charge at once overnight while you sleep.
Not at all stupid.
The design of the battery uses the pressure vent as a fuse. If internal temp & pressure get high enough to pop the vent the cell should be instantly disabled. See the CID portion of THIS LINK.
FYI - the graphic in that article also shows why the top insulator of this kind of battery is so important.
I never charge batteries inside the flashlight, I always use an external charger. I do watch them on the charger, and monitor their temperature with an infrared thermometer. I check voltage with a DMM after the battery comes off the charger.
Current lithium ion chemistries can be dangerous, which is why there is intensive world wide research into safer alternatives with the same or higher energy densities.
https://www.powerelectronicsnews.com/technology/lithium-ion-is-dead
https://www.powerelectronicsnews.com/technology/special-report-beyond-the-exploding-battery
If I want highest standards and a manufacturer that can be drawn to court if anything fails, I’d have to pay for it in terms of product price. Inexpensive electronics come at a different kind of cost. Customers decided long ago to have Shenzhen produce all sorts of things around them. With this kind of economical power I’m amazed how accommodating the chinese companies [still] are.
The problem is there really are no american made alternatives anymore. Of course some of the original LED lights were made here. My Novatech was pretty awesome for 2006 and it still holds its own today. Even those of us willing to pay five times the price just don’t have good options with a wide variety of lights.
I honestly love the concept of this sp36s. The main light I use to go walking is an acebeam l30 Gen 2. I much prefer the beam of my nichia tk18, but it just doesn’t make enough light for everything I do. If anyone has any suggestions on an alternative to this thing if quality is the main concern rather than price please let me know.
Just buy a fenix and be done with it
High CRI be damned 
Nobody here attacks you. We're just trying to help you, Sofirn and all of us to find out what happened and why it happened. However, this requires all of us to rely on facts and not on wild guessing or ranting about non-related things like cardboard box designs etc.. You seem to be quite frustrated and worried about the incident and I can fully understand that. But please be fair and let all of us focus on how to find the root cause of the problem.
So far, Sofirn offered you to pay the shipping costs to send it back to them. They also offered you to refund the broken light AND to get another flashlight free of charge as a sign of goodwill and to compensate you for the hassle you and your girlfriend have gone through. Seriously meant question: What else do you expect them to compensate? How do you expect them to know what you are asking for without telling them?
I guess that's me, the guy that called you biased. Well, sorry I did not mean to offend you but you are always pointing out Acebeam and Fenix as "golden standard" while both manufacturers have had broken devices in the past, too. Only because you have been fortunate to not have any defective Acebeam flashlight does not necessarily mean their quality is way beyond Sofirn's. In fact, Acebeam's entire first batch of the EC65 had a design flaw causing the driver to die instantaneously once you put a high-drain cell into it. Acebeam did only exchange the broken device by a new one - nothing more. Sofirn took immediate action about your problem, offered you a full refund + a new flashlight even though you did not contact them directly. Still, you are ranting on and on... (sorry, that's what seems to me being "biased").
Seem to be true or are true? If you had taken a look into the manual you would have discovered both a phone number and at least one e-mail address to reach Sofirn. You are saying they do not have a long warranty period. Did Sofirn tell you how long their warranty was? Even if it was less than Acebeam's two or five years warranty, they would have certainly taken care of your case since it happened right after you bought the flashlight. Moreover, I'm sure a burning Acebeam or Fenix flashlight would cause the same kind of smoke and smell in your house. They use similar components in their flashlights. That's again, what I call biased and not being objective.
If you have bought flashlights for more than 20 years then why did you expect a "cheap" brand like Sofirn to have North American local dealers? If having a local dealer was so important to me, I would inform about my options before I actually buy and I would probably buy from a local dealer and not order from an Amazon FBA warehouse. Personally, I would also prefer to buy a $ 500,00 Acebeam flashlight from my local dealer in Germany but we are not talking about a $ 500,00 flashlight here and local support is expensive and will need to be included in the sales price. You expect a local 5 star 24/7 customer service for a $ 50,00 flashlight that you called a "cheap brand" before. How is that supposed to match?
Once again, you are ranting on and on. You state that you are not part of R&D but at the same time you are 100% certain about poor quality control and R&D being the reason for the defect. Please do us and yourself the favor to return the flashlight for proper investigation to Sofirn. Then we will know for sure what happened based upon facts. But this seem to become impossible because...
Well, that figures...
Now, you hold a pistol to Sofirn's head. Either they compensate you (without telling them what and how much they should compensate you for) or they will not be able to find out what really happened to your flashlight. I will stop judging your true intentions from here on...
Well done, Jake! Now that you achieved to let everyone being afraid of buying the SP36S you stop cooperating to help Sofirn and the community find the problem. I really hope you will change your mind about not sending the light back to Sofirn.
I never said anything was the gold standard. I even pointed out what I don’t like about those brands. I’m simply saying that after collecting dozens and dozens of those brands as well as others this is the only one that is failed in any way shape or form. There is some kind of toxic contamination that is still affecting me from this incident. At this point the main thing I would like to do is understand what that is and what to do about it. When we breathe it in it gives us a metallic taste in our mouths. we threw away everything that was directly involved in the incident but my phone and desk still smell of this stuff.
I don’t really care what happened with the light or what happens with future lights as long as people understand what they are getting into with this. Your posts honestly make me want to throw this thing in the trash and never come on this forum again. You clearly have an agenda and I have clearly struck some kind of nerve with you or you wouldn’t spend 45 minutes dissecting and quoting my posts that I voice typed in about 4 minutes.
if they were based in the United States they would be looking at damages of thousands of dollars. I’m not asking for that. I’m asking for whatever they’re willing to give me, but I’m not interested in being poisoned by a second low-quality light. Honestly they seem like nice enough people. I’m not here to bash them, but biased silly fanboys with an agenda make me want to do just that.
I find it absolutely ok to warn about such problems and wait until things have been clarified. I also understand that someone who suffered from such an incident cannot simply keep calm. It’s human.
Interesting now you come to the heart of the matter. Though denying it (till later). You have been a member since 36 hours (atm) and have written 1 thread and 39 posts in that time. All about the same thing. More knowledgeable people than myself have responded with questions and answers. That you choose to ignore or respond slowly to. It’s about time you do something yourself, not only blocking every solution you are offered so far. I’m glad I did not make any suggestions. It would have been a waste of time.
Your charger is still smelly. After all this time? Come on! Ever heard of evaporation? Live long and prosper.
Well, at this point I believe it’s probably a good time for everyone to step back and think. This bickering and finger-pointing has seems to last way longer than I would have liked.
Who wants to be called biased?
Who wants their brand they love and enjoy be apparently called out to be something totally against what it’s stand for?
Who wants to have their actions questioned for seemingly no real reason?
Who wants to have their intentions misinterpreted in a way they found totally abhorrent?
No. One. Ever. — well, at least that’s what my feelings tells me.