Cursed Zebralight

[flashlightsarecool]

Bought an sc63 cool white with a cree xhp35 a little over a year ago. It had inductor whine on high. I sent it back.

The second one had an led quadrant burn out. I sent it back.

The whole led burned out in the third one. It would turn from bright white to dark blue and dim to almost nothing within seconds of activation. You could see smoke inside the bezel. I sent it back.

The fourth one the screw on the pocket clip must have backed out a little. The screw broke in half when I sat down in my chair at work and I couldn't get it out of the light.

There will be no fifth light. I gave up and threw it in the trash. I'm not sure I'll ever buy another zebralight.

Anyone else have these issues with their zebralights?

I will give zebralight credit for replacing my light multiple times. Their quality control seems to be off.

 

[AVService]

ZL is my go to brand and I luckily have never had a single issue with any of mine.
Sorry that you have.

 

[Fireclaw18]

ZL is my go to brand and I luckily have never had a single issue with any of mine.
Sorry that you have.

Of the 15 or so Zebralights I've bought over the years, over half had issues, and quite a few of them had major issues.

For example, both my SC64w HI have issues. Both have seen minimal use and have never been dropped:

SC64w HI number 1: works fine 95% of the time. But occasionally, right after turning it on it will turn off again. Loosen tailcap and retighten to get it to work normally again. Irritating when it happens, but it's rare and easily worked around. I consider this a relatively minor issue.

SC64w HI number 2: worked fine until 3 days ago. Flashed once to turbo and then dimmed to moonlight. Since then it only runs on moonlight mode no matter what I do with it. Probably something burned out in the driver. The light is pretty much unusable like this so I'll have to send it back to Zebralight for service.

That said, despite the issues I love Zebralights. Their design is great and when they work they work well. However, I'm not sure I'd trust a Zebralight as my only light though given the bad luck I've had with them.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

I've bought 6 Zebras, and they are all great.

Well, with the exception of the occasional "turn off from H1 on first use", but only when it's colder than -10 degrees outside in the winter. It could be the battery (lithium-ion aren't great in sub-zero conditions), but I still suspect it's the driver that can't supply enough juice when it's really cold, until it warms up a touch. After the first use, or using it on any other mode, it's fine.

This issue occurs on the only 2 Zebras I use outside in winter, so I suspect they're all affected. There's zero chance that a Texas design company would ever catch that issue during design.

 

[MSGinMD]

If you can remove the light from the trash, I'll gladly pay shipping if you would send it my way. I don't use a pocket clip so it would work fine for me

 

[lampeDépêche]

I have purchased 15 - 20 Zebralights over the years, and have EDC'ed them for the last 6 years.

Never a single problem.

I have used the headlights for hours in crawlspaces, used the flashlights for hours of dog-walking, carry several with me every day. No problems at all.

Dunno. Either I'm extremely lucky, or the folks who report problems are extremely unlucky.

 

[Lumen83]

I bought 2 headlamps. One was dead on arrival. The other one has worked flawlessly for about 10 years. I'm undecided if I would buy one again.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

Dunno. Either I'm extremely lucky, or the folks who report problems are extremely unlucky.

This does appear to be the case. There are some users who report a horrible success rate with Zebralight. I presume most users are happy.

I'm not sure why the bad QC stuff seems to target only some buyers. Maybe just random chance? Maybe they're on a naughty list?

 

[JStraus]

I've had over a dozen without any issues FWIW...

 

[justanotherguy]

I have a few, the ones at home are flawless... I use them at work where they take a lot of abuse...and it seems I send them in every two years to get fixed...
Super nice generally...But like I said , they take a beating at work

 

[JimIslander]

I've had 10. One had an issue. Customer service was poor, but the lights are so good I would buy another in a heartbeat.

 

[koziy]

I have bought 9 Zebralights. One had a problem, a flaw on the LED. I returned it and received a replacement with noticeable whine on high as its replacement (it also came with some dirt on the outside and a used battery inside it). I returned that for a refund. My guess is that they fulfill RMA requests with other customers' returned flashlights raher than new flashlights or even QC checked returns. That is just my guess. Obviously I can't prove it. None of the other lights I bought had any issues at all.