# Zebralight H600 Water Leak. Reflector damaged.



## richardcpf (Jan 13, 2013)

3 Months ago I bought a ZL H600 Cool white. It worked very well for night walks around the park, working on the engine and a camping trip. 

It was when I took it to the beach with some friends to hunt for lobsters, that night I borrowed them flashlights while I sticked to my H600. 

While trying to catch a big one that was well hidden between the rocks, that I had to submerge my head into the water to catch it. *My ZL barely got wet for a couple seconds and the inmersion was less than 1 feet deep.* (Yes it was turned on, high, not turbo, and it have got pretty warm). A few minutes I was curious to see if my ZL was working fine, since it is the first time underwater, and indeed I noticed a small amount of moisture inside the lens and I inmediately washed it with fresh water and took the battery out and left it to dry. At the time it wasnt a big deal, the next day after It dried, worked perfectly fine, no signs of moisture.

However in the following weeks I started to notice something weird in the reflector. At first it started to show small dark dots around the edge, which eventually spread and got worse with time. 3 Months later this is how it looks:


http://imageshack.us/a/img96/7752/img0626cn.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img600/6047/img0627ll.jpg

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3796/img0629ci.jpg


Your images are too large and have been replaced with links Please resize and repost.
See Rule #3 If you post an image in your post, please downsize the image to no larger than 800 x 800 pixels. - Thanks Norm


The light still works fine in all its modes, but the beam has got a quite akward shape as 20% of the reflector is now useless.

I know many will say that the light was hot and submerging it was a bad idea, worse yet in salt water. But to be fair, that same day my friend dropped the PA40 while on turbo and burning hot, nothing happened to it. Also the TM11 got wet but only splash. I won't say the H600 does not pass the IPX rating, perhaps I got a faulty unit that did not have a proper seal.

Haven't tried contacting ZL yet, because they most likely will ask me to send it back for repair, but sending anything from my country is very costly and I prefer buying a new one before spending $50 for shipping.

What do you guys think about this?






BTW I've got a SC52 now. Very neat, best AA ever. Not allowing it to get wet by any means. *I'm saddened by the H600 malfunction, it is my favorite light.*


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## rojos (Jan 13, 2013)

Man, that sucks. I hope their customer service does the right thing and replaces it for you.

Zebra really needs to get their heads out of their butts and seal their bezels better. There are just too many reports of this type of thing happening.


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## Bolster (Jan 13, 2013)

It's the salt water working away at the reflective material. No fault of your own, the ZL should be well sealed for that sort of a dunk. 

Richard, if you've been reading this subform for a few years, you'll notice that zebralight seal failures occur more frequently than any of us like. It's THE main criticism of ZL. Many of us feel as Rojos does, that ZL needs to redesign their lights so they have a hefty o-ring to seal out the water, preferably, under a screw-in bezel. I have yet to meet a fan of press-fit. In this respect they should (IMO) follow Spark's lead. Sorry about your light, and sorry about the amount of time it will take ZL to get it fixed. Buy another to tide you over while the first is getting fixed!


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## iron potato (Jan 14, 2013)

Aww, its so sad of seeing these. I'd submerged my H600, but only in sink & many times in medium to pouring rain situation, so far its holding well.

About 3-4 months of usage, the button switch were acting strange, it needs a really hard press, at an angle to get it to work.

Lillian suggest to send it back to Shanghai for RMA & I did, lets see.


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## jorn (Jan 14, 2013)

I always dunk my lights when brand new. The first few weeks, my new lights always join me in the shower  Zebra has teriible waterproofing. 2 of 3 was not waterproof out of the box. Press fitting sucks.


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## markr6 (Jan 14, 2013)

That's too bad about Zebralight leaking issues. I rinsed my H600w off under the faucet the other night after running and even that got me a bit nervous. On the other hand, when I go swimming at night in the lake I always take my Fenix LD22 just because the beam looks cool under water and I never gave it a second thought. Unfortunately I don't even trust my ZL in a rain shower, so I will keep on taking my E11 for backup when backpacking. I hope you get it all worked out!


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## richardcpf (Jan 14, 2013)

Just contacted Zebra, hopefully they can do something about this.


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## davidt1 (Feb 1, 2013)

Your light is still under warranty. Zebralight should definitely fix it or send you a replacement. But still, it sucks that this happened to you. This post got me nervous and prompted me to test my 2-year old H51w again. 
Now that I am thinking about it, this would have been a stupid idea because if my light stopped working after this waterproofing test, I would have been poop out of luck since my light is 2 year old.

Luckily the light still works after this 30 minute dunk test.







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## richardcpf (Feb 1, 2013)

Zebralight told me they could do a $20 discount for my next purchase, did not even tried to reach me to get it fixed.

I think it is a pretty mediocre warranty policy they have, but I guess I have no choice.


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## phips (Feb 1, 2013)

Are you trying to say that you are accepting a 20$ refund for a defective 89$ flashlight that is practically new?
Again, I do not know if I understand you correctly, but I would certainly be a lot more insistent towards Zebralight.


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## jbrett14 (Feb 1, 2013)

This thread has me wondering if we all should be dunk-testing all our new lights, while within the warranty period. I never have, but it would be far better to know it leaks during the warranty period than after. 

It bothers me to hear this about ZebraLight. I have 3 of their lights but I am becoming more and more skeptical of their quality, based on the comments of others. I have yet to subject any of mine to water, but it would be nice to know they can handle it. Especially since I plan to use mine for some back-packing.


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## phips (Feb 2, 2013)

I am having a H600FW in the mail and will definitely test if it is submersible.
'Testing' the light under real conditions does not seem like a good idea.

Also I think you can tell a lot from a manufacturers' reaction to an obvious defect.
In my mind, if a company stands behind its product they should be very forthcoming in these kind of cases.


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## borrower (Feb 2, 2013)

richardcpf said:


> Zebralight told me they could do a $20 discount for my next purchase, did not even tried to reach me to get it fixed.
> 
> I think it is a pretty mediocre warranty policy they have, but I guess I have no choice.



Huh?

From http://www.zebralight.com/H600-Cree-XM-L-750Lm-Headlamp-18650_p_72.html
- Waterproof to IPX7 (2 meters, 30 minutes)
and warranted for 1 year (with proof of purchase)

So what is going on here? Are they calling you a liar? Have you lost your receipt?


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## jkid1911 (Feb 3, 2013)

Bolster said:


> It's the salt water working away at the reflective material. No fault of your own, the ZL should be well sealed for that sort of a dunk.
> 
> Richard, if you've been reading this subform for a few years, you'll notice that zebralight seal failures occur more frequently than any of us like. It's THE main criticism of ZL. Many of us feel as Rojos does, that ZL needs to redesign their lights so they have a hefty o-ring to seal out the water, preferably, under a screw-in bezel. I have yet to meet a fan of press-fit. In this respect they should (IMO) follow Spark's lead. Sorry about your light, and sorry about the amount of time it will take ZL to get it fixed. Buy another to tide you over while the first is getting fixed!



Well put and I must agree at least about the issue as to what affected the reflector. They are delicate and their coatings can pit very easliy (regretfully) when exposed to moisture. I don't have enough long term experience to comment about historicall speaking so I defer....real shame but hopefully Zebralight can make it right. Good luck...!


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## reppans (Feb 4, 2013)

jbrett14 said:


> This thread has me wondering if we all should be dunk-testing all our new lights, while within the warranty period. I never have, but it would be far better to know it leaks during the warranty period than after.



I see a lot of folks are purposely testing their ZLs for leaks and just wondered if anyone has actually had one leak and then had ZL repair or replace it under warranty? It just seems to me that you might get stuck in the OPs situation with a $20 discount coupon and a dead or damp new light. Course, if you bought it from a good dealer, I guess you can always always stick it back to them?

Lord knows I'm no ZL fan, but water tests (and drop tests for that matter) are really tough for a manufacturer to cover under warranty. While you may be perfectly honest that the conditions of the test, or real life exposures, were well within the IPX ratings, there are at least 10 others that have fished their light from the bottom of swimming pools, or the laundry. Once there's physical evidence of damage or exposure, things start turning really grey and you're really relying on the goodwill of the manufacturer to cover it. 

I don't purposely conduct water or drop tests - I just use them normally and carry back-up lights (at least one, usually two) if they happen to fail in the field. Most of my lights have long warranties, so I guess the pressure is not there to find out either. But then again, maybe there is some correlation between long warranties and reliability?


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## richardcpf (Feb 4, 2013)

This is the mail I recieved from zebra last week. The fact that it says "completed" means they do not care about customer satisfaction at all. I just replied them insisting to have my $89 light fixed.


----------------------------------

Ticket status: Completed

Department: Customer Service

Subject: H600 reflector damaged by water leak.

We can offer one time discount of 20.00USD for your next purchase.
Please refer to this ticket #XXXX as a note for the discount.

Sincerely,

Lillian Xu
ZebraLight, Inc.
8320 Sterling Street
Irving, TX 75063


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## Bolster (Feb 4, 2013)

jbrett14 said:


> This thread has me wondering if we all should be dunk-testing all our new lights...





reppans said:


> I see a lot of folks are purposely testing their ZLs for leaks and just wondered...



Well...yes! That's why this thread was created: 

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...l-quot-Is-Your-H502-Waterproof&highlight=dunk

A question for DavidT: Previous to the "Wet Poll" you had reported a ZL that failed--you didn't vote in the poll, but I reference you in the above linked thread (post #29) as having experienced a ZL leak. In _this_ thread, it appears your ZL survived. Different ZL? Same? Did I misunderstand your earlier reported failure?


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## davidt1 (Feb 4, 2013)

I bought and returned an H502 due to an odd behavior which I considered defective. As I do with all the lights I buy from all brands, I tested that light for waterproof. The light did not fail after the waterproof test. Although the odd behavior developed a week later. However, this was no concrete proof that the waterproof test caused the odd behavior.

The waterproof test I did above was the fifth one I performed on my H51w during the two years I have owned this light. I posted it here to show that my Zebralight H51w is a solid light in every aspect even after two years of heavy use.


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## Bolster (Feb 4, 2013)

davidt1 said:


> I bought and returned....



Ah, gotcha. Thanks. I'll go correct the "H502 Wet Poll" thread, where I had opined that your returned ZL had a water leak issue.

The "H502 Wet Poll" thread got about 1500 views, reported on 10 actual dunk tests, and got 1 actual failure. (One person reported a failure without actually getting a failure, which is why you see 2 "failures" in the bar chart.) Those are low numbers all around (except for # of views) so make of it what you will.

Here at CPF, I think it's common knowledge the consensus "wish" is that ZL would use a screw-down bezel over a nice fat o-ring, instead of whatever press-fit method they use now.


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## jonathanluu2 (Feb 22, 2013)

Hey richardcpf, do you have any update on the status of your defective leaky light? Did they ever agree to refund you? This is one of the first scenarios where I have not seen Zebralight process a return and I am curious if they will rectify this malady.

J. Ion


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## phips (Feb 24, 2013)

phips said:


> I am having a H600FW in the mail and will definitely test if it is submersible.


So it did test it after some initial hesitation, just put it in a bowl of deionized water and switched it on max.
After maybe 30min (I did not measure it) I noticed some flickering and immediately took the light out.
I let the light vent for some hours and the electronics work fine again but now there is some fogging behind the lens.
Super disappointed


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## LGT (Feb 24, 2013)

I just did a 30 minute dunk test on my H31, H51 and H600. All are working as they're supposed to. I wonder if any lights with leakage is due to a little bit of debris on the threads and/or O-rings. The smallest particle could allow water to seep in.


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## phips (Feb 25, 2013)

In my case I think that is not very likely.
Soon after receiving the light I removed to o-ring, cleaned the threads and re-greased everything.
Also I did not find any water on the bottom of the light after the dunk test.

However I have to say that although I am a bit disappointed I definitely still love this light.
Surviving approximately 30min completely dunked should be good enough for my purposes.
Also the light has a lot of advantages that more than make up for its deficits imo.


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## swebb (Dec 7, 2013)

reppans said:


> I see a lot of folks are purposely testing their ZLs for leaks and just wondered if anyone has actually had one leak and then had ZL repair or replace it under warranty? It just seems to me that you might get stuck in the OPs situation with a $20 discount coupon and a dead or damp new light. Course, if you bought it from a good dealer, I guess you can always always stick it back to them?
> 
> Lord knows I'm no ZL fan, but water tests (and drop tests for that matter) are really tough for a manufacturer to cover under warranty. While you may be perfectly honest that the conditions of the test, or real life exposures, were well within the IPX ratings, there are at least 10 others that have fished their light from the bottom of swimming pools, or the laundry. Once there's physical evidence of damage or exposure, things start turning really grey and you're really relying on the goodwill of the manufacturer to cover it.
> 
> I don't purposely conduct water or drop tests - I just use them normally and carry back-up lights (at least one, usually two) if they happen to fail in the field. Most of my lights have long warranties, so I guess the pressure is not there to find out either. But then again, maybe there is some correlation between long warranties and reliability?



The lens fell out of my H600 14 months after purchase. ZL gave me a RMA, I sent it back, and it came back about 8 weeks later. I can't ask for more than that.


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## Theron (Dec 14, 2013)

Anyone try putting sealing tape or silicone around the gap in the press fitting? 

I may do that with mine for some added protection.


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## mrredbeard (Dec 14, 2013)

I had a zebra light quit working and I sent it back and they replaced it. I became a dealer with zebra light think I would sell a lot of them because I was impressed with them at first. After using them for awhile I am less impressed. When I asked them about the switch coming on in my pocket they said no problem just un screw the battery cap. Not the response I would of though a company would of given me. I still use my zebra head lamp and I like it as we'll as my petzel. I am going threw the Chanel now of becoming a dealer for nite core and light. I am not going to water test because I don't want anything to happen to it. It's works so that is enough for me. If it breaks, well that is an excuse to buy another light.


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## jbrett14 (Dec 14, 2013)

mrredbeard said:


> I had a zebra light quit working and I sent it back and they replaced it. I became a dealer with zebra light think I would sell a lot of them because I was impressed with them at first. After using them for awhile I am less impressed.



Have you any thoughts on why it is that Eveready can build a cheap light for less than $10 which will last for decades without lenses falling out or any other failure, and yet for $90 we get lights that seem to be riddled with problems?

Is there too much focus on designing high light output and not enough on the quality of the light themselves?

And it's not just Zebralight. I have had several iTP's, OLights, & Thrunites just stop working in less than a year, with very light use. Although these were only $20 lights, they lasted no longer than a light from a dollar store. It's so frustrating.

Admittedly, I own 4 Zebralights, none of which have had a problem yet, but with so many negative reports on them, I am hesitant to purchase my next desired light, an H602. Can anyone offer any words to boost my confidence that my money will be well spent?


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## richardcpf (Dec 14, 2013)

I just recieved the nitecore HC50. It is a very neat headlamp, with a bit less output than the zebra but built quality seems top notch. 

You are right, the flashlights being made nowadays are more focused as wow-factor and collective items, rather than TOOLS.


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## jbrett14 (Dec 14, 2013)

That HC50 was on my radar as well. I could live with a little less output if I knew it was going to be more reliable. How do you like the UI? What about it's size?

My primary reason for wanting a new headlight was for more run time vs.my H502 & H501. These little AA headlights are GREAT as far as output, but it can be a pain having to replace the battery 4 or 5 times a day, especially when contorted in some crawl space or attic when you have already exhausted the spares in your pocket.


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