They glue the MF01 now ? Glad I dodged that bullet. My MKII was frankly a POS as delivered, but at least I could open it easily and fix the many obvious problems, at some expense, time, tools and replacement parts. Still not sure why I bothered, but once started I was committed.
Out of the box, sealed up, it should have gone straight back.
With my attention it is now functional and usable, in fact quite nice, but destined to be replaced by something much better soon.
On offer here for any UK resident who want to buy a perfect one, not messed with, just fixed up the way it should have always been, better than new. PM me.
No more Astrolux or re-badged Mateminco stuff for me, once (thrice or more, always a disappointment) bitten, life is too short to deal with such ineptitude. Or glue. Or Banggood.
Well if we don’t shut up about this maybe they’ll do something also. I can’t imagine cracking or scratching my lens, then potentially scratching tbe bezel just to freakin’ change it? Or putting my head on aa slow boat for warranty repair. On my dime.
I wonder if there’s a third way, one that actually prevents muggles from opening their lights yet doesn’t stop BLFers from doing so.
Some kind of glue that can be easily broken? Or easily broken with a help of something (moderate heat? solvent? else?).
Bezels that can’t be removed w/out special tools? (Tools that are easy to improvise for a determined person. Or ones that a light maker sells for chips)
Some kind of tamper-evident seal?
A simple marking saying that opening voids warranty?
Not long ago , we had a light for sale with option for “ no glue , no warranty “ I think it was fireflies , but I don’t remember for sure. Anyway , I wasn’t willing to send off money for no warranty. That just gives them an opportunity to deny to correct anything. I just figured I’d deal with the glue if need be. As it turned out , they had no , or minimal glue anyway.
I’m for no glue . However , I won’t except a no glue , no warranty deal either.
There's glue and there's glue, some glue to improve a flashlight's impact resilience can be good (in electronics for example). This is different than using glue to @#$% up any internal access chances, and is easily realized. I can choose to buy a flashlight which uses glue for the former (white spirit, turpentine, gasoline, etc usually take care of it, too bad o-rings also get @#$%ed), but won't given the latter. Gives a clear hint about the sort of people which is behind the product.
Voted for NO GLUE in the flashlight threads or on the driver! I want to open my lights, improve heatsinking or change leds for better tint, higher bin, etc. If it is because of warranty just add a ‘warranty void if removed’ seal between reflector or driver and flashlight like they do in computers. I don’t care about warranty even if when opening the light is dead afterwards. The glue, if any, should at least dissolve at 100°C, not require to heat up the flashlight housing until the led comes almost off the PCB and force it open! The first glued light I wanted to open was the Astrolux MF02, didn’t succeed yet. Maybe when I’ll be confident enough I’ll try with hot air and a vice. Luckily I didn’t order cold white!
This is a good option except for the fact that I have not seen an actual glue option mentioned.
A heat releasing glue would be fine, something that could be opened with a hair dryer for example but I am not aware of anything cheap and easy to get that would fit this use case.
If someone knows of something please do let me know.
One more thought. Glued lights fail less. Therefore they are more reliable. Therefore they are of higher quality for an average buyer.
The buyer likely won’t realize that - but they will know whether the light works or not. And therefore average customer satisfaction is going to be higher with glue.
Obviously that’s not true for us. But I think it’s worthwhile to think about the other 99% of users who won’t be able to repair a failed light anyway and come up with something that works fo us - but works for them as well.
I doubt that. Glue, and other materials expensively applied in specific places for stress relief, environmental protection, yes. But that is usually not what is being done.
It must also be a problem for the manufacturers when they receive a failed torch for investigation/repair. I doubt that they have a secret method to open them, unknown to anyone here, nor can be bothered to apply the time and skill needed. Most likely they just bin them and replace if you are lucky, without any investigation or lessons learned. Destined to keep on making the same mistakes, unless their return-rate becomes unaffordable. Continuous product and process improvement thwarted. Feedback from knowledgeable investigators likewise.
This. Don’t glue anything shut, but somehow mark it so that tamper is evident. Then, if a light has been tampered with, warranty is void. I think most BLFers would be plenty pleased with that, as well as most muggles. Seems to me that only warranty abusers would not like that arrangement.
Yeah, I thought of that too. And I don’t know the answer. Maybe, as was suggested by others, a weak glue? The glue only has to be “strong” enough to keep the light from self-disassembling. If someone disassembles the light intentionally, the glue would then act as the “broken seal” that voids the warranty.
Why would it need to not be visible ?
Never seen this sort of stickers ? :
Varnish or sticker over screw or a dab of thread lock in the threading of a retaining ring with a small trace of varnish over it that you need to crack will make the opening quite easy but detectable. Epoxy glue is plain lazy and stupid as it make something irreparable, only disposable.
I would think even Loctite Blue would suffice. A couple tiny drops before assembly. A little heat via a heat blanket or set on a hotplate on low, and a strap wrench would suffice for disassembly. Maybe a couple small holes on the bezel that we can get a spanner wrench on the bezel.
Also thought about how to make a tamper seal. One oddball way would be to put an additive in the thread locker to make it fluoresce under a certain light, making it difficult to match when there’s an attempt to re-seal the light. Another oddball way would be to drill through the bezel and head, or head and body, and insert a breakaway pin of zinc or tin, thus it would be self-evident if a piece was disassembled - or, even plastic; removal of pin voids warranty.
I can see Coast or Energizer gluing their lights. (although AFAIK Energizer does not.) They are mainstream companies. 99% of the buying public does not buy a Lumintop or Astrolux. There is a small niche of the flashlight buying world that buys these lights. And a good percentage of those buying those lights are us, many who have a basic skill of changing an LED or driver board. So if there are enough people like me, who would rather fix a light myself then to pay for shipping back and forth and wait months (if we’d ever get the light back…) then how do warranty claims go up?
