Help please- problems with my 3 month old Nitecore MH20GT

[jgmoosehunter]

In December, I bought a Nitecore MH20GT with the Nitecore 3400mah (NL1834) battery recommended for it from a good dealer on EBay. Up to now, I have loved it. After a month of non use, I recharged the battery with my Nitecore D4 and gave it a run-through. For some reason, it will not stay on turbo anymore. It will go to the bright turbo mode for a split second (just a brief 'flash') then revert immediately back to high. So essentially, there are only 4 brightness modes at this point: moonlight, low, medium, and high. Also, when I load a battery through the tail cap and screw the cap on, it will no longer emit the battery status with the blue flashing lights on the switch button. However the blue light does come on while charging through the provided USB cable. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I just notify Nitecore and ask for a replacement? Are they a stand-up company in terms of warranty? Any help or feedback is greatly appreciated here. BTW, the voltage on that battery was 4.2, according to my D4 charger, so I do not believe the battery is the issue.

Thanks, guys!
jgmoose

 

[kalel332]

Sorry to tell you but Nitecore is not really good with warranty. You try to contact the seller, because that is what Nitecore will tell you first. With my short knowledge I could tell it could be a battery issue, but I'm no expert.

 

[jgmoosehunter]

Well, like I said earlier, the battery looks normal according to my charger. And I am a rookie here as well, so still hoping to hear some thoughts from anyone with help.

 

[mikekoz]

Sorry to hear you are having problems with your light, but the first thing I would do is try another battery, even though your charger says they are the correct voltage. It would be the easiest and quickest thing you can do for troubleshooting. I have a set of AA NIMH cells that charge, and my charger states they are the correct voltage after charging, but they are bad, and the lights I put them in do some of things yours does. According to specs, the light will also take 2 CR123's. Do you have a few of those laying around you can try? If it is not the batteries, then I would contact Nitecore.

 

[archimedes]

A quick look at the specs for that flashlight suggests a couple of obvious possibilities ....

* high current draw on "turbo" will definitely stress a suboptimal battery - even if its open circuit voltage is normal, voltage sag under load can be substantial, enough to cause mode shift

* it claims to be thermally regulated - if / when the sensor reaches its temperature limit, output is cut

Each of those possibilities could be pursued with further troubleshooting.

 

[jgmoosehunter]

I thank you for the responses. The seller on EBay has assured me that I may warranty it through them, so I will be sending the light and the Nitecore battery back. The battery operates just fine in ALL other modes including strobe, just not turbo. It may indeed be a suboptimal battery. But if that was the case, why would it fail to show ANY battery level indications? It's only 3 months old and I shouldn't have to spend my time troubleshooting it.

 

[rcc003]

I have a Nitecore P25 that I got in December. I also have issues getting turbo on. I found that since it draws so much juice, only a new 18650 or 2 never used CR123s will allow me to use turbo. I just found it's not worth the drain.

 

[vincent3685]

Sorry to tell you but Nitecore is not really good with warranty. You try to contact the seller, because that is what Nitecore will tell you first. With my short knowledge I could tell it could be a battery issue, but I'm no expert.

+1. I have also had problems with Nitecore honoring their warranty.