Do flashlights have shelf lives?

[bykfixer]

I never have been a fan of the XL50 either double x. I like the snoot style beam that comes from it, but not enough to carry it very often.

I tried the XL200 but it was not for me so I gave it to my son to use as a bed side table light. He likes gadgets that do a bunch of stuff so when I told him all it could do he said he wanted one someday. I said "here, someday is now, you can have it". Come to think of it I'll ask him if it still works next time we talk.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

I have about 20 Mags that I use regularly, all but 2 are LEDs, most of the LEDs are 5-10 years old and my incan 4D Mag is 35 years old. And I have owned many more Mags over the years. The only real failure, not caused by leaking batteries, I had was a XL50 that had a switch that got stuck in the ON mode and wouldn't turn off. Sometimes Mini Mags can get a little sluggish over time, but blowing them out with compressed air and cleaning the tail cap contacts has always fixed that for me. The only maintenance normally needed is keeping the threads/O rings properly lubed and not storing alkalines in them, or better yet, not using alkalines at all.

I am not much of a fan of the XL series Maglites – I don't like lights that use 3 AAA's/battery carriers. I had a XL100 for a while that worked fine but I could see the battery carrier wearing out over time with heavy daily use. I think the Mag Tac is a better option than the XL's.

Yup, I still have my old 4xC and 4xD maglites. They're great lights, and very reliable. The beams suck, but that was the case for almost all lights 25 years ago. Even my incan mini-mags and AAA incan solitaire were okay, for back in the day. A little glitchy at time, and flickered a bit, but still usable today.

Its the LED mags I find suck. Horrible switches, and way too unreliable. I would not trust them for an emergency light. Maglite lost their way when they tried to make the switch from incan to LED. They used the same design, and that really sucks for LED. (Awful heat-sinking, bad beams, etc.) They got 5+ years behind the rest of the industry and stayed there.

 

[xxo]

I never have been a fan of the XL50 either double x. I like the snoot style beam that comes from it, but not enough to carry it very often.

I tried the XL200 but it was not for me so I gave it to my son to use as a bed side table light. He likes gadgets that do a bunch of stuff so when I told him all it could do he said he wanted one someday. I said "here, someday is now, you can have it". Come to think of it I'll ask him if it still works next time we talk.

The beam on the XL50 was pretty good as I recall, better than a typical AA Mini Mag LED. The XL100 is a great light for someone who likes gadgets - fun light to play with and very innovative considering it came out a decade ago....BUT I do think the XL100 may be the most un-Maglite, Maglite. Seems like Mag was trying to go the Chinese route with a bunch of toy features of questionable utility on the XL100. They simplified the XL100 with the XL50 and XL200 but I still don't like the 3 AAA/Carrier set up - should have made them run on a single C cell instead.

 

[bykfixer]

XX, I have a few aaa carrier lights that have a generic casing so I can use a nice gentle solar lamp 18500 in them. Kinda cool where Maglite chose a proprietary setup. Perhaps the one they did best in the modern era is the ML25 since it is all mechanical using the long lasting minimag type switch operation. Not advertized but a slight loosen of the tailcap cuts power so you can also morse code with it.
I use Imedion rechargeables in one, eneloops in others so the potential for a leaker is gone as well. Shelf life for that one should be decades from now. Being regulated may be the weak spot though.

 

[fireonhigh]

Sure, but they're double or triple the price, and simpler design, so I'd expect them to be tough.

oh yeah, they are not cheap but you plan on using the rest of youre life!:thumbsup: both modlite and malkoff have a life time guarantee.. theres 50$ off at big tex outdoors for the modlite, pm me if any wants the code.

 

[Fireclaw18]

oh yeah, they are not cheap but you plan on using the rest of youre life!:thumbsup: both modlite and malkoff have a life time guarantee.. theres 50$ off at big tex outdoors for the modlite, pm me if any wants the code.

Get a flashlight to use the rest of my life? ... so in 30 years when everyone else has a fusion-powered 1 million lumen adjustable focus penlight I'd be stuck with an ancient 1,000 lumen light???!!!!

... no thanks!

 

[fireonhigh]

Get a flashlight to use the rest of my life? ... so in 30 years when everyone else has a fusion-powered 1 million lumen adjustable focus penlight I'd be stuck with an ancient 1,000 lumen light???!!!!

... no thanks!

lol,you might die tomorrow, so yeah buy a Chinese made pos , save your money ...what im saying is i need to trust the light i use for edc.. to each his own.

 

[Kestrel]

oh yeah, they are not cheap but you plan on using the rest of youre life!:thumbsup:

If your life depends on your flashlight, one might conclude that most any light you'd be using would last you the rest of your life.

 

[raggie33]

i never had a light over 2 years i lose them . i swear i think im senile.

 

[mountaindewer]

Yes absolutely right regarding capacitors.

What does a bad capacitor act like?

I took another look at the xl50. Installed fresh batteries and clicked it on high and let it run for 5 minutes and it worked good. I sat it down to go eat and came back about 30 minutes later and picked it up and clicked it on. It came on, but not as bright as high should be. Still brighter than low, but I could tell it wasn't what high should be. It started dimming and flickering like crazy. In random quivering motions. I set it down and let it run like that to see if it would straighten up. After a few minutes when it was clear that it wouldn't, I picked it up and gave it a hard flick with my fingernail on the head and it straightened up and was fine. I shut it off and back on. Worked good. Did it 3 more times, trying low and strobe and everything was good. Tried it again and it came on bright, then dimmed after about 5 seconds and started acting up again. I tried tapping the tailcap and that didn't fix it, but a smack on the body did.

 

[chillinn]

What does a bad capacitor act like?

It is what it looks like... bloated. In my experience, bad capacitors come in batches from bad years of manufacture. I do not recall exactly what year in the early 2000's, every capacitor made was bad, all ended up bloated, or exploded, depending on your terminology.

These are huge, but shows what bad caps do, note the bulged top. I have seen more extreme effects

 

[mountaindewer]

Ah ok, I see, thanks.

That leads me to another question. When/if a bloated capacitor like that pops, is there a fire hazard? Like a bloated lithium cell phone battery or something?

 

[chillinn]

Ah ok, I see, thanks.

That leads me to another question. When/if a bloated capacitor like that pops, is there a fire hazard? Like a bloated lithium cell phone battery or something?

Not like that, but certainly it can short circuit other components, so there could be a fire hazard.

 

[Frijid]

That leads me to another question. When/if a bloated capacitor like that pops, is there a fire hazard? Like a bloated lithium cell phone battery or something?

I'm not the best educated on this topic but I believe the answer is no. If I recall correctly it just acts like an alkaline battery and vents its "guts" everywhere. Maybe makes a "pop" when it goes, but I don't believe it makes an immediate fire hazard.

The paste it spews is conductive, so if it vents on a circuit board it can cause a localized short circuit. But that would only pose a problem if it happened to a device that has power running to it, like a tv that you're watching or one that is off but left plugged it. If the device is unplugged and has no power going to it and the capacitor pops, you'll never know about it until the next time when you plug it in and power it on.

I remember what chillinn was talking about. There was a name for it. The capacitor apocalypse or something. I would like to say those days are over. Unless you're getting very very cheap ones from china maybe. But now I would assume even standard ones from China would draw attention from UL or ETL testing.

But as far as a bloated capacitor popping and catching fire like a bloated cellphone battery? Nope. I see that happening about as quick as a dead and bloated deer on the side of the road busting and catching fire lol.


I know a guy who's into retro games and he bought one that wasn't working. I think it was a genesis. He took it apart and there was a capacitor that had vented itself on the circuit board. Not sure if that was the problem of why it wouldn't work or not, but I remember it when he took it apart. I never followed up with him what was wrong with it.

 

[chillinn]

I remember what chillin was talking about. There was a name for it. The capacitor apocalypse or something.

You reminded me, it was the Capacitor Plague, and it wasn't just a year, spanned several years, and it wasn't all capacitors, but a great many of them. Those poor capacitors.

 

[Frijid]

Those poor capacitors.

Lol

Speaking of shelf life and faulty capacitors, I just found a good excuse to dust off my old dreamcast, N64, Nes, Snes, genesis and ps1 that hasn't been touched for awhile and see how it goes. Might be calling my buddy for some repairs lol.

 

[chillinn]

Lol

Speaking of shelf life and faulty capacitors, I just found a good excuse to dust off my old dreamcast, N64, Nes, Snes, genesis and ps1 that hasn't been touched for awhile and see how it goes. Might be calling my buddy for some repairs lol.

Maybe pop the cases open first and examine the caps?

 

[xxo]

XX, I have a few aaa carrier lights that have a generic casing so I can use a nice gentle solar lamp 18500 in them. Kinda cool where Maglite chose a proprietary setup. Perhaps the one they did best in the modern era is the ML25 since it is all mechanical using the long lasting minimag type switch operation. Not advertized but a slight loosen of the tailcap cuts power so you can also morse code with it.
I use Imedion rechargeables in one, eneloops in others so the potential for a leaker is gone as well. Shelf life for that one should be decades from now. Being regulated may be the weak spot though.

Mag must have spent a lot on those carriers, they are about the best I've seen but they still have the disadvantages inherent with carriers with all those contacts.

The ML25 maybe the modern classic Mag – great for anyone seeking a simple, inexpensive, no nonsense work horse light that they don't have to coddle. Not much to go wrong on a ML25 mechanically and even if the switch gets gunked up a little, the powerful C cell size tail cap spring is likely to keep it from hanging up.

Not much to go wrong mechanically on the ML50/ML300 electronic switches either. Some have managed to wear out the mechanical push button switches on the old C/D Mags and any mechanical clicky switch will wear out eventually, even those from the most expensive brands. Since the Mag C/D cell electronic switches have no moving parts other than the button itself and a metal disc that acts as a spring, there is very little to wear out – these things can probably go for many millions of presses before the even start to show any wear. Of course there are electronics involved, but I'm thinking that most of these will last a good long time as long as none of the components is faulty and fails early on and unless they get corroded by leaking batteries or knocked loose by impacts/drops. Time will tell how well LED Mags hold up, but I am guessing that they will last longer than most Chinese lights because they are built better to begin with.

 

[aginthelaw]

The problem with the caps was with the Chinese espionage team that stole the formula for them. Figuratively speaking, they stole pages 1-10 to make the capacitors. They should have also stole page 11 which kept the caps from self destructing.

 

[chillinn]

It had to do with poorly formulated electrolyte.