I think some units can last long. Great deal if so. But there is probably a functional reason (shortcoming) why they are cheaper. After having multiple units fail on me, I’ve relegated them to non-critical duties around the house. WML, hiking, off road, any more critical usages where sudden failure would be a significant issue are surefire from now on. I have no confidence in them and am tired of chasing good money on them. I have greater than a 50% failure rate. Zero surefire failures. I’m decided.

Interesting, I've never had problems with the switch and I've literally bought dozens of them. (Had several of my own, then started ordering them for my crew of 28 at work)

I have had issues with the charging port on two of the the USB rechargeable ones.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
So I bit the bullet and ordered a SureFire Titan Plus to replace it.

That light is a piece of shit. Its not even worth $10.

The head operates by the screw down method. You screw it down to get high. Unscrew it, screw it back down to get medium. Unscrew it, screw it back down to get low. Its extremely annoying user interface. Plus, since its a screw down head, the head WILL come off in your pocket. So when you reach in to your pocket to grab your flashlight, you come out with a battery, a head, and a body, in three separate pieces.

I have many thousands of dollars in Surefire flashlights in my house (collect them) and the Surefire Titan Plus is the worst flash light I own.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Get a Lumintop flashlight for small daily carry. Cheap. And MUCH better user interface.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
So I bit the bullet and ordered a SureFire Titan Plus to replace it.

That light is a piece of shit. Its not even worth $10.

The head operates by the screw down method. You screw it down to get high. Unscrew it, screw it back down to get medium. Unscrew it, screw it back down to get low. Its extremely annoying user interface. Plus, since its a screw down head, the head WILL come off in your pocket. So when you reach in to your pocket to grab your flashlight, you come out with a battery, a head, and a body, in three separate pieces.

I have many thousands of dollars in Surefire flashlights in my house (collect them) and the Surefire Titan Plus is the worst flash light I own.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Get a Lumintop flashlight for small daily carry. Cheap. And MUCH better user interface.

Too late, but I'll post how it works out for me.

Based on a recommendation here - I recently bought and received a Malkoff Devices light. It's the M61HOT model. (mid size)

650 lumens and made in the USA.

I'll put it through the paces next week.

Disappointing news, but I'm guessing you found the one bad one in the lot. Streamlight has been phenomenal to me over the years and they still have great CS. Were they able to help you out?

quote:

Originally posted by Legal Beagle:
Disappointing news, but I'm guessing you found the one bad one in the lot. Streamlight has been phenomenal to me over the years and they still have great CS. Were they able to help you out?

As I mentioned in my original post, from what I read Customer Service would fix it, but it would just die again, and I demand absolute reliability from my daily carry flashlights so I bought a SureFire to replace it. I'm seeing how that goes now.

Edited to add. It's been almost a couple of weeks and here are my impressions of the SureFire Titan Plus.

Very well made, solid and not just thin pieces of metal for a body.

Stays off in my pocket, turns on/off easily and I found it easy to switch between the 3 outputs, 15 lumens, 75 lumens and 300 lumens. The bezel doesn't turn while it's in my pocket and I wouldn't expect it to as it's fairly tight.

It's a wide beam light, pretty much lights up my whole back yard from my patio and I'll see how the battery life is. FWIW, it's a single AAA NiMh which I will replace with an Alkaline or possibly Lithium.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Flash-LB,

quote:

Originally posted by KevinCW:
Really?


I have 4 of them, 2 AAA versions and 2 of the USB rechargeable ones.

Never had a problem with any of them. The AAA ones are 5 years old, and one of the USB ones is 4 years old. The other newer.

(I lost the AAA one, bought a new one then found the old one. Same with the USB.)

For what it is worth, I keep it clipped in the "change pocket" of my jeans, or to the right front pocket of my shorts or pants with the tail cap pointing up at the opening of the pocket.

Yes, really.

I just had my other Streamlight product break on me Thursday morining. 5AM, taking the garbage can out in the street and using my not too old Streamlight headlamp for light to find my way. Just got past the garage and the light went out and I felt something slide down my cheek.

Pulled out the SureFire I always carry and finished up, then went inside to see what happened.

Turns out the plastic battery latch on the Streamlight broke off. Looking at the broken off end, there's a void that fills most of the latch area, maybe 3/4 of it and the remaining part decided it was time to let go. The thing going past my cheek was the 2AAA batteries.

I think the lighting Gods are trying to tell me something so I'm done with Streamlight.

I carry a surefiire light everywhere, and when I go to bed it's on the nightstand next to me. Otherwise,it's clipped to my belt, whether in a suit, uniform, or just heading to home depot. I use them constantly; never had one fail, despite a lot of heavy, frequent use.

I've had a bunch of streamlights, all kinds, and with three exceptions, they've all failed. My streamlight sidewinders have been bounced around cockpits, around the world, dropped out of airplanes, kicked across floors, submerged, you name it, and they're still working fine. I carry one for work, in my bag. I have several TLR-1's and 3's that work well and always have, on rifles and handguns. My bedsight pistol is a G21 with a TLR-1HL, suppressed, magazine extension, for those nights when I have to see what's screwing with the garbage can. The TLR's. have been fairly bulletproof. Otherwise, every streamlight I've had failed, often the switch. The only other one that hasn't quit, and I wish it would, is a streamlight stylus penlight that got frozen to my lip years ago (and pulled the skin off), and for that reason, I don't like it. But it sits in a flightsuit pocket anyway, because it fits, and it doesn't quit. I want it to, though.

I don't use streamlight batteries. I buy Surefire batteries and use those, even in the streamlights that take CR-123's. My carry flashlight is a G2X-MV, and it gets used more often than socks.

Have two handheld Streamlinght TL-3 three-cell lights. No issues over ten years of use. One xenon, one LED.

Have Surefire Sidekick. It failed. Was replaced under warranty, after the warranty period had expired.

Use Pelican 7060 lights at work. The old fashioned lights continue to give us battery issues. But they live in a police car, are baked all day in the summer, and sit on a charger for eons. Not really good practice, but I can't fix the habits of our unit.

Use Pelican 7600 at home. No issues. Love the changeable colors.

Enjoy the Fenix lights I have also. Not sure how they will survive, but I am a light light user.

Three brands have failed at some point. With reason. And, all three brands support the users. I can't see damning a brand for a bad design of one light.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:

Three brands have failed at some point. With reason. And, all three brands support the users. I can't see damning a brand for a bad design of one light.

I originally damned it for one light based on the number of other users who posted similar things about their Microstreams on the net as I mentioned in my original post.

However, in light of my headlamp dying, I guess I'm now damning it based on 2 lights failing.

Geez, and I just posted a video on YT Friday about the recharge time after being used on low/high for x number of minutes.

From the video, 15 minutes of use on low (50 lumens) took 34 minutes to fully charge again.

I did cover if it was genuine based on my research.

If you have four minutes to waste check it out. No ads.
(Shameless plug, first video in three years)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixcXgjeptus

I don't have to worry about the reliability of any flashlight, since I'm certain to lose it before I can break it.

I don't have a Microstream but I have (4) Polystingers that I rotate in between (3) chargers.
I even have a couple of them that originally had the incandescent bulbs that I subsequently upgraded to after market LED.
In general they are fantastic.
Last a long times between chargers.
I have had to replace a few battery packs over the 10+ years I have had them but other than that they have been great.
Never had one die because of dropping but have had a couple times had to replace the battery pack when left on indefinitely.
You would think it should auto turn off and let you recharge but on a couple of them no go, would not recharge.

I bought the pelican penlight and it broke after a year. I mailed it in and they sent me a new one and it broke about 6 months later. My go to now is Surefire or Elzetta.

I bought into the Streamlight USB and overpaid for a Blue when visiting OKC. The biggest gun store there was across the highway and I splurged. The different colors put a different set of the Ten Tap features up front, overall its the same mechanics. I got Blue so that I could literally see it if dropped - previously lost a black one for a few hours when the seat belt stripped it off, and avoid Orange because those will disappear in Autumn foliage. Coyote would be my choice but again - out of sight is lost.

USB offers the separate replaceable 3.7v lithium battery if you need a quick replacement, for EDC it's no big deal - I just grab another of my older lights while it's charging. On high it's all I need plus some for finding stuff that rolls under furniture, bottom shelves of auto parts warehousing etc. I'm set until this one is lost or wears out. The Blue anodizing is beginning to wear but that's patina, not a defect.

I've run Surefires and will buy their batts for other lights but the front door price of one of their units is like buying a Benchmade knife (I have) you are paying for Tribal Accreditation to join the Club. I have better things to do with my money and don't have the front line operator MOS that needs it. I donated the last one - it reputedly went to Afghanistan - it's as close as I ever want to get to Egypt again.

quote:

Originally posted by Tirod:
I've run Surefires and will buy their batts for other lights but the front door price of one of their units is like buying a Benchmade knife (I have) you are paying for Tribal Accreditation to join the Club. I have better things to do with my money and don't have the front line operator MOS that needs it. I donated the last one - it reputedly went to Afghanistan - it's as close as I ever want to get to Egypt again.

That's pretty insulting and definitely bitter.

You sometimes, but not always, pay more for better quality and the difference in quality between SureFire and everybody else is huge.

Here's another thought. I was doing the California State Supreme Court and 12 other rooms in the SF Civic Center building, but staying in the East Bay and commuting over on BART, the local subway.

Was between Montgomery Street Station and the next station and the train stopped. Sat there for an hour while the train operator freaked out and kept broadcasting that he couldn't talk to anyone.

He finally decided to coast the train downhill into the Montgomery Street station and asked that anyone who had a flashlight to take 20 or so people up and out, around 150 feet or so. The emergency lighting had failed and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

I led them out and then thought about the fact that it could have happened halfway through the tube under SF Bay and I would've had to walk 20 people out around 3-1/2 miles.

I was carrying a Maglite and decided then and there to get the most dependable flashlight I could get my hands on and also carry extra batteries for it. That's why I carry SureFire.

For those who don't remember, this was in 1998 when the entire city of San Francisco lost power for around half a day.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Flash-LB,