# How bright are tritium vials supposed to be?



## jlomein (Mar 26, 2007)

I received my Cree Raw Ns a couple days ago and have been happy with it. However, it has a blue tritium insert and I find it practically useless.

With average house lighting on, I cannot see the tritium glow at all and the vial looks white. With dim house lighting, there is no glow, but I can notice the vial is slightly blue instead of white. In complete darkness, it is faintly blue, however it is very dim, and the glow does not reflect off any close by object.


Here is a picture in very dim house light, too dim to read under






Here is a picture beside a dim LED clock. The clock looks very bright in comparison with the tritium.





Finally, here is a picture of the tritium next to a piece of paper (not visible), notice how there is no glow being reflected by the paper.


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## tussery (Mar 27, 2007)

The green night sights on my pistol are not much brighter than that, but I believe the green is easier to see in the dark.


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## Manzerick (Mar 27, 2007)

Ok..you motivated me to get my trit and shut the lights.


Mine in comparison to my clock just like yours was dim. I tried the PD and some trit I have on a QIII...


Expectations may be too high.. It's visable but not "beaming"


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## Patriot (Mar 27, 2007)

Yeah, that's just about right. You wont be able to detect any glow with normal house lights washing everything out. Those green alarm clock digits are actually pretty darn bright. You'll notice that if you let your eyes adjust for 10 minutes that those clock numbers will illuminate the room slightly. The inserts are just bright enough to be seen in a dark place. The one on my Orb Ns looks exactly like your pic when next to my alarm clock.

As far as tritium sights go, you're usually viewing the glass flask "end on" while encased in the sight body. They always appear brighter that way...kind of like viewing the end of a fiber-optic.


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## sideman7 (Mar 27, 2007)

The blue ones are quite a bit dimmer than the green ones. I'll go snap a photo of my Raw (with green trit)...


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## greenLED (Mar 27, 2007)

jlomein said:


> With average house lighting on, I cannot see the tritium glow at all and the vial looks white. With dim house lighting, there is no glow, but I can notice the vial is slightly blue instead of white. In complete darkness, it is faintly blue, however it is very dim, and the glow does not reflect off any close by object.
> 
> Here is a picture in very dim house light, too dim to read under


All of what you describe is normal. Once your eyes are dark adapted, though, the trit will become more obvious Blue ones are not as bright as the green ones the latter you can easily see from across the room once your eyes are dark adapted).

Whenever you can, get trit from [email protected] - he's got the brightest vials I've seen.


sideman, unless you take those pics with the same camera settings as the ones posted here, they won't be directly comparable.


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## sideman7 (Mar 27, 2007)

Here are a couple of photos. Obviously they can't be a direct comparison to your light, but this should make it clear that the green ones are brighter... 

This is with a bit of ambient light, but you can still see the glow. Raw next to a 15 year old tritium watch (these vials have faded), and a watch with glow in the dark markers:





Another, but quite a bit darker:





I did have one raw with a blue trit (but sold it), and it emitted about the same amount of light as yours. I have since stuck with green...


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## Gryloc (Mar 27, 2007)

I always noticed how bright the glow powder mixed with clear epoxy was when seeing people's mods. That alsways seems bright. How do the green trit inserts compare to the nice glow powder? That is pretty dissapointing to me (the blue trit). What does it look like when you charge it with another bright LED flashlight? I have some small glow in the dark adhesive stars for ceilings (green, of course -yet blue would be awesome), and with a charge from my nicer flashlight, will light up a wall in front of you. The glow probably doesnt last as long as compared to glow powder and the trit capsules. I understand and agree that your eyes do have to adjust for any glow in the dark material to be impressive. I hope things work out for you...


-Tony


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## [email protected] (Mar 27, 2007)

Thanks for the kind words ducky.    :nana: 
Here's a relative comparision pic with green, red, orange,darkblue and icablue vials.  The spheres are darkblue as well, but much brighter due to their higher tritium content.





For reading you would need a lot more trit, like a sphere or a torch.


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## jlomein (Mar 27, 2007)

[email protected],

What are the sphere like ones on the top left for? They look very interesting.

Your green vials seem to have about the same brightness as the blue ones, but attract the eye much more. Do you know if I can just remove the trit vial in my Raw Ns and replace it?


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## [email protected] (Mar 27, 2007)

To be honest, I don't know, your guess is as good as mine. :shrug:  

Sure you can replace a vial, but please make sure you have the right size, because it looks like the RAW uses a different size from what I will have. (~1.5x5mm) 

Applying a flat white coat and clear epoxy will enhance brightness as well.


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## VidPro (Mar 27, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> Thanks for the kind words ducky.    :nana:
> Here's a relative comparision pic with green, red, orange,darkblue and icablue vials.  The spheres are darkblue as well, but much brighter due to their higher tritium content.
> 
> For reading you would need a lot more trit, like a sphere or a torch.



ahh BART, i want a green sphere, those are soooo cool, and soo expencive.
------------------

when its really dark, and your flashlight is lost on the path back 2 miles, a 2mm vial of barely visable tritium is the difference between finding it and not.


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## Illum (Mar 27, 2007)

[email protected]'s trits is definitely a :thumbsup:

when did you restock? I hadnt heard it


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## Darkmatter2222 (Jan 27, 2022)

To help lost googling souls. I have authored a blog post detailing the actual brightness of tritium vials: https://blog.hobbytimewith.me/2022/01/true-brightness-of-tritium-vials.html

Spoil warning:


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