Your chance to Speak up on glued flashlights!

LED Flashlights – General Info
41

IIRC Bangood/Astrolux started gluing with the S41, after some justifiable criticism here of some poor detailed design and shoddy workmanship, not least by me. Making it far more difficult to prise them open for the necessary corrections. It felt like spite.

Consider: the A6, X6, X5 etc. would have been less interesting to enthusiasts if glued up, and may not have been such a success for Banggood, still steady sellers. Perhaps they forget their heritage.

The original MF01 would also have been unacceptable if glued up. Driver failures in MK1 only satisfactorily resolved for some by gutting it and retro-fitting a BLF based design at additional cost, poor assembly in MK2, stripped threads, loose stripped MCPCB securing screws rattling about inside the head, inadequate thermal compound, I’d have been stuck if I couldn’t correct mine myself, it would have been returned and if necessary Paypal involved if not satisfied, which would cost the supplier far more.

I understand the temptation to glue things up to discourage meddling, but reject it. Particularly on enthusiast torches, where the supplier seems to have forgotten that some of these things owe a lot to our input and improvements. And buying power.

Frankly, if the next-gen. MF01, for example, is glued up I would see that as a disrespectful, arrogant, ungrateful kick in the teeth to us. They should accept that nothing is perfect, and that some wish to make their own changes, or just fix simple problems ourselves. Even just to inspect, and satisfy ourselves that the assembly is well done.

My attitude might be different if Bangoood’s responsiveness to correcting problems of their own making was good. But it is not, far from it.

42

This is exactly my opinion.

I want to be able to repair (most important thing to me) and maybe mod (not important) all the flashlights I buy without too much trouble.

43

I prefer non glued lights. I have a Surefire P3X and P2X and looking at he P3X lens yesterday, Wow!!! I have a ton of scratches on that lens, and would like to be able to replace it myself.

That makes the Elzetta lights look more appealing to me, plus they are fully potted.

44

Nice post. :beer:

I did not buy the MF01 due to them gluing them.

I have a habit of taking all my new lights apart to look them over and inspect them. Am I the only one?

Anyway, there is usually enough competition among flashlight companies that I can choose someone else’s unglued light.

45

I destroyed one lens and optics from a MF01 getting it open, at least I could save the light with replacement from Neal

46

Good poll, I hope it makes a difference in future :slight_smile:

47

You have to remember they are glued for a reason. Remember ‘we’ only represent probably 1% (if that) of their sales - the rest go to normal people, and for those 99% it’s probably a better decision to use glue to stop them breaking them, we all get curious and take things apart - sometimes they don’t go back together!
I’m not sure either choice is really fair or true, as only a tiny tiny proportion will ever mod or repair, you can hardly expect manufacturers to make them for the 1% over the 99%. Maybe look at it as a bonus if they aren’t glued? :wink:

48

How about, no glue, no warranty, aside from any manufacturing defects. Kind of like some of the factory disclaimers on some old drag-race ready muscle cars.

Another option… If they’re going to use glue how about something that releases at a relatively low temp?

49

I bought an S41. It came with one faulty LED.
It came glued. I had to buy 2 strap wrenches and likewise it took a lot of work to open it to be able to do the reflow of the led.

Next I bought an MF01. It worked fine a few days, then stopped working. When I tried to open it… bezel glued. As one of the strap wrenches I had was too small, I had to buy another to open it. After hard effort I managed to open it, the failure was a cold welding…

For every thing that I enter I must pay customs tax, 60% on the value of the purchase (including shipping fees) plus “administrative service”, according to receipts of payment. If there are no receipts, the bureaucrat on duty will set the value according to their judgement.
So that… If I claim a guarantee I will have to pay the customs taxes twice.

I can buy a Fenix glued but… I will not buy any Astrolux that I suspect is glued.

Edit: The package of my MF04 arrived wet. Inside the flashlight there was moisture and condensation on the glass. As it was not glued I could solve it without any problem.

50

Of course, most lights right now have no glue and yet are still warrantied. Let’s just buy those and skip the glued ones like we do right now. That makes more sense to me.

We aren’t buying old drag cars, we’re buying brand new flashlights. I would not accept a “no warranty” for unglued. There’s no point.

If the MF01S is glued, I won’t buy it. I won’t accept “no warranty” for no glue. I expect full warranty, at least for first few weeks to make sure it’s fine, and no glue. If not acceptable, I hear Emisar has a new light coming out.

51

I don't take my flashlights apart, but I am against glue.

If I were to sell or give away a flashlight, the recipient might want the ability to take it apart.

52

+1

I will not buy any Astrolux that is glued.

53

You mention in the OP about possibly charging more for a no-glue light. I think that’s a reasonable way to go about it. Make the no-glue option a simple click on the sale page, call it the “Developer” option and charge one dollar more for the light in that configuration. Maybe the dev model could also have better springs, a thicker MCPCB, a slight uptick in driver current, and/or other such upgrades bundled along with the no-glue host to justify the increase in price. Meanwhile, anyone not expecting to mod their light could buy the “Normal” version. Many brands offer choice of emitter CCT, ano color, and other options already. This could just be added alongside the others.

54

On my torches: don’t glue anything that can screw on/off.

I mean I get it though for muggle lights… they drop them and things come loose and the light goes off…manufacturers bad don’t want word of mouth, i.e.muggles posting on fb to all their friends that your brand stinks just because the tailcap switch came loose and they think the whole light is broken.

TA, do you have any idea what the muggle sales volume would be on a light like your MF01S? or anything similar? I still think most muggles don’t even buy li-ion but maybe I missed the movement.

55

I don’t know if I buy the warranty issues the manufacturers claim. I know the Maglite, Eveready, Craftsman, Defiant, and Duracell lights I have can be taken apart; and they all have some kind of warranty. A warranty don’t always mean anything, as I’ve seen on the few Coast threads (and AFAIK they glue their lights; at least the two I have are glued.)

I’ve been fortunate it seems with the BLF GT and GT70, as well as the Mini; because aside from having to use strap wrenches they came apart fine. Have not tried the Micro yet, but I want to see how long I can keep myself from taking a light apart - I like it as it is so far.

Again, I’m not saying absolutely no warranty; just a limited warranty for an “enthusiast” version, that limits the warranty to defects in craftsmanship or function, for a period a 14 days from date of receipt - which is about the breaking point of which I must tear down a light. This way, costs are kept down for manufacturer and consumer, and you don’t have idiots ruining it for the rest by doing something to their light and then later on claiming a warranty issue.

56

We enthusiasts actually make up a rather small percentage of total sales for flashlights overall. We are just much more vocal about it so we think we buy them all lol.

After hearing some of the numbers I was quite surprised just how many normal people must buy flashlights.

So it is understandable that they want to cater toward the heavy majority in their business decisions, honestly that is smart business.

I have always been a fan of choice though, I figure give people the choice and see what happens. That is what I am fighting for, the choice to buy an unglued light. There is no hope of stopping glue overall I am afraid.

57

The solution is in your words captain. We need to be a larger percentage to be heard… We need to buy MORE lights. :smiley:

58

No glue please.

59

Having been “behind the curtain” for awhile and talking to quite a few people, I am sure that gluing them does reduce the number of reported issues by about what they say. Although it may only be a 1-2% change, that is a lot when the failure rate is also 1-2%.

It really makes sense, a lot of people will open the light just to look at it and get some dirt on the LED that will then cause it to burn out after some time. Very common issue and these issues seem to disappear when they start gluing the lights. Once again it makes sense and I see no reason to doubt it having been in retail myself.

I fully believe that the number of issues is reduced when they glue them, the only debating point is how much but that will vary light to light. Everyone I have talked to has said basically the same thing, it makes a difference to the bottom line.

60

True, and I can see if less expensive lights are glued, because the profit margin is smaller. This is the BLF, and people are not afraid to spend $700+ on the latest and greatest light, in the same way they spend $700 on the latest phone. Both that can be bricked, and potentially unfixable?

Like I mentioned, at least if we can have them use a glue that releases with heat, it may satisfy the bean counters at the manufacturing side, as well as the enthusiasts who are the only ones crazy enough to do surgery on their lights and have the equipment to break a such glue joint.

I mean, what the hell? Lumintop is notorious for tightening the crap out of their lights, including glue. Yet they’re not ashamed to sell upgrade kits for the BLF GT?! What?