I was hoping to see some pictures. This thread is already on its 4th page…
A Fenix that I bought 10 years ago had a perfect finish, came with very nice packaging, very nice instructions and has worked flawlessly for a decade. The sofirn showed up in a weird generic box. I could probably find a dozen imperfections in the anodizing. The machining was sharp. It worked for less than 2 weeks. Many things are made in China for political and cultural reasons that are beyond the scope of a forum post I want to write. My girlfriend is actually from China, and I’ve been there a handful of times. Most of the manufacturing is done in this particular region. It’s not just limited to flashlights. Great quality and terrible quality things come out of this region of the world. Unfortunately sofirn seems to be the ladder.
I posted 11 pictures there is a link to the gallery
I see no exterior quality differences between the 5 fenix i bough and 5 sofirns ive bought
But then i havent disassembled em
Olights can explode too
https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/behil7/olight_pl_mini_explode/
As to boxing … everyones favorite flashlight here, the convoy s2+ grey/black comes in a cheap cardboard box 
I think it’s also telling that both fenix and acebeam have a real warranty and real dealer network in the United States. These are people that you can get on the phone and talk to if you have a problem. I only know this because I’ve had questions about these brands not because I’ve ever had a problem. I’m sure there are other good manufacturers as well. Back in the late 90s when I was buying sure fires they seem to have pretty decent support even though an incandescent light is really not comparable to any of this stuff today. Anyway I learned a lesson with all of this. Stick to reputable, accountable manufacturers with a warranty. Even if the specs of a light look good if the price is too good to be true and the support is basically non-existent it’s not a gamble worth taking.
Acebeam from last few month
Fenix is pretty good IF and only if you buy from an authorized dealer
If you want “failures” well theres always the armytek fiasco from a few years ago
Basically youll be sticking to fenix …
Im a fenix fan and often say flashaholics ignore reliability and warranty
But the only consistently reliable dont ship to china warranty i know of is fenix and some american brands
Or anything bought from rei
Oh and sofirn does have more support than many of these cheap chinese brands, have you contacted them to inform em of the issue?
How do I contact them? I contacted the place I bought it from and actually spoke to someone on the phone at Amazon to inform them about the product. That was really the best I could do. I know I can call people when it comes to surefire, Fenix, acebeam and novatech because I have. to be honest I don’t know how good their warranties are because their products have been totally reliable for me.
Aside from all of this both of these sp36’s would get hot inconsistently on seem to step-down inconsistently. I was on the fence about keeping them before this happened but this certainly made up my mind.
Its in the instructions and the card they pack with it
Though the best way is through fbook, specifically their fbook group
It’s important to keep in mind that USB-C only refers to the connector.
The kitchen sink of protocols and functions that the USB IF has dumped in its lap ensures that it will never be fully mature or easy — by choice, as it keeps adding to that pile.
It may not be a total fecal show, but it’s not far off.
What most users will get out of it is that — it’s small, it’s reversible, and it’s not as bad of a physical connector as Micro-USB.
They will probably also get faster charging out of it — and these have to be conscious decisions — if the correct adapter with the appropriate protocol is used, and the cable is rated for fast charging.
Fast data transfer? Nope. Gotta make sure the cable is 3.2G1 or 3.2G2 (FKA 3.0, 3.1Gx), 3.2G2x2, or Thunderbolt 3 (their high cost makes this obvious).
The only thing any of these have in common is the connector. It’s up to the user to sort out everything else.
Much of it could have been averted if the IF had some backbone in defining minimum specs for a next-generation of connectivity, but it gave in to cost, and the lowest common denominator instead. A classic by-committee way of thinking.
Jake, sorry for the issue. Please DO NOT send back to amazon warehouse. Because amazon warehouse will not take care of it.
Please send back to sofirn, will PM
Or anybody in USA (I guess Jake is located in USA) can help open and find the issue? sofirn will take care of the shipping fee.
I have the SP36 BLF Anduril version on its way. Should I be concerned about using the built in charger? Is there anything I could check for example with DMM?
That’s pretty good customer support.
Throw it out
There is zero chance he could get any damages from suing Sofirn, or any budget Chinese manufacturer. It could have killed off his entire family, and he’d still get zilch.
If he was a American suing an American company, sure, he’d probably get an award of $10 million for a headache. But good luck getting anything more than a replacement from Sofirn. They’re not playing buy lawsuit-happy rules.
@Jake257: I fully agree with you that this incident is very unpleasant for you and your girlfriend and that something like this should not happen. After I saw your thread this morning I immediately asked Sofirn to take a look at this thread and help you sort the problem as quickly and conveniently as possible. As far as I can see Barry (Sofirn) has already taken care of your case.
But, let me do some quick summary:
1. In the manual you can unmistakably find following information:
Sofirn Limited:
Tel: +86-755-23440047 Fax:+86-755-23440141
Web: www.sofirnlight.com
E-mail: us@sofirnlight.com eu@sofirnlight.com
Please contact us if you have any questions.
If your product is defective please contact us for replacement within warranty period.
How come that you put up the assumption Sofirn had no reputable, accountable warranty and customer service without even trying to contact them? I have come to know Sofirn for some time now and as far as I can tell they spare no efforts to provide one the best customer services ever seen before. While some of my private messages to Imalent and Acebeam on BLF were never responded, Sofirn was often reported to answer quickly, friendly and helpfully by many people here on BLF. They also provide CS on other channels like Facebook.
2. While you were quite objective at the beginning of your thread, describing the issue and later on supplementing some pictures, you have afterwards started to "bitch & moan" about things of Sofirn's flashlights and the brand itself that are not related to the specific problem of this thread...
Now, these words leave the impression that you have a problem with Sofirn in general and that you seem to be quite biased by some other flashlight brands that are widely known to have faulty devices, too. What you call a "weird generic box" is what I call an effective way to reducing costs and offering a better sales price. If you need to have a premium box with some shiny brochure along with your flashlight, fine. But please keep in mind that these things come with a certain surcharge in costs. I guess it will not change things for you but I can assure you that Sofirn is working on some cool new design already while trying to maintain the costs at a very reasonable level. You were saying that the machining was sharp and that the anodizing had many imperfections? If you feel so negative about the product why didn't you return it in the first place and ask for a refund? All your personal discontent about Sofirn's quality is based upon 2 (two!) reported cases of a faulty SP36 driver. I'm not judging the general quality by only two reported incidents but so far I have been testing about 20-25 Sofirn SP36 flashlights - all of them were Amazon returns ("defective" or "damaged") - and none of them came defective from factory and none of them had any issues with their internal charging circuit.
I hope things will work out for you in a proper way and that Sofirn will get the chance to investigate the problem. No matter how hard research & development as well as quality control will work, there will always be a small percentage of defects with electronic devices in any products you can find. In my opinion, it's not only about if a problem happens, it's also about how a seller/manufacturer deals with the problem.
Funny , Sofirn IS online as I speak - http://budgetlightforum.com/user/23289 I wonder if they will advise you. I presume that it IS Sofirn, and not just a user called that.
I also agree entirely with the above post, apart from the ‘Barry’ bit - the OP would have no way to know ‘Barry’ was Sofirn, nor would I.
Many people have tried to help and advise, including me, but you are still carrying it on. Now they were overheating beforehand, you were already considering sending them back.
I get the impression you are after more than help, though I don’t understand what exactly?. I am starting to get the impression you don’t actually want to return it for some reason.
the li-ion electrolyte smells kind of ammonia ish, and kind of petroleum/naphtha ish
a plastic garden hose smell, may be from melting or burning insulation from hot wire
or overheated circuit board
or overheated heat sync compound - the whitish stuff
i;d inspect the battery closely,
if it seems ok, possibly put it in a charger on low current and close inspection
if it is normal, then it was the light
diagnosing the light requires disassembly
impossible if glued
would also void warranties possibly, esp if it was glued and you remove glue or unsolder thigns
wle
i;d just do an amazon return
maybe keep it a few more days and see if seems leaky or smelly
if so, put in a few plastic bags with warning notes “may be leaking CAUTION”
but only inside the box
wle
As Barry suggested, it would be much more helpful for Sofirn and all of us if Jake was to send it back to Sofirn and not back to the Amazon warehouse. Sofirn has already agreed to cover the shipping costs. Once returned to Amazon there's no chance for Sofirn to investigate the problem any further. The defective unit can only be scrapped or sent as "defective" to another address ("removal order") but there's no telling which device came from which customer.
it could smell like any of these, or something else
depends on what burned, melted, failed etc
there are many possible plastics, paints, glues, coatings etc
wle