Was a somewhat early adapter (in my neck of the woods) of an RMR perhaps 2013. Unsure of that date. First one at my indoor range Got the version that is always on. Had not used that handgun recently so pulled her from the safe and the "dot" is very weak, unusable. Wonder what the typical life expectance of an RMR should be? Second question now in 2022 what is the recommended dot size/shape considering (a) old eyes and (b) a carry handgun that would rarely anticipate being used beyond 25 yards.

A 2013 RMR would be a Type 1 and I have no idea what the life expectancy would be. But, I would go fresh batteries, even a couple, to make sure.

As to dot size, I really don’t care. I’ve used both, carried both at work. I don’t think it really matters. Some people are rabid about the 3.25. Some about the 6.5. I can’t see a difference in speed and accuracy for me. To me really, it comes down to how much of the target do you want to cover at 100 yards? If you’re not going to train at that distance, it really doesn’t matter. You said you wouldn’t go much past 25, so it doesn’t matter.

My current duty guns have RMR06s on them. If I was forced to switch to an RMR07, I just wouldn’t care.

I've got a couple Type 1s. One has been on a 19 since 2014 with no issues. I would guess the gun has 15k rounds on it.

I agree with Jerry...try a couple different batteries before you call it dead. IF it is the optic, Trijicon will likely repair or replace for free.

Dot size? All fine. I prefer the small stuff (1 MOA RMRs and Holosun's 2 MOA dot), but have several 3.25 RMRs and have shot the 6.5s well, too.

I am unsure what model RMR you actually have. "always on" can be a couple of different ones. Is it a tritium/fiber collector with no battery or is it battery operated.
If its battery operated then change the battery and all will be good. There really is no "life expectancy" for these. If its the collector/tritium dual illuminated one and its weak then that's a Trijicon issue. In bright light they are very very bright. in the dark to me the tritium always seems pretty weak, but in any case Trijicon warranties that part of it for 15years.
But an RMR of that age is a Type 1. And when battery operated those can have some issues when slide mounted so you may want to consider your options for mitigating that if its a gun that you consider "serious" and this one has a battery.
As for dot size as jljones says RM06 or RM07 are just about a wash for all practical purposes. My self I prefer the RMR06 dot (3.25). Mostly because my eyes give me a very small amount of flair on the dot and on the 6.5 dot that can make it a bit big to me. I've shot a zillion competition rounds switching between the two to decide and net/net its a push.
Let us know what model you actual have and we can further this discussion.

That's a good point. I forget that those dual powers even exist.

Depending on what source you believe and how bright you run your red dot, the LED creating the red dot will last somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 hours.

So if you have it on 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, it will last somewhere between 8.5 years and 17 years.

My carry gun has MOTAC, so it turns on with movement and I find it's pretty sensitive. It does turn off after 2 minutes with no movement, but I don't know about when it's in the holster and I'm eating or watching TV or driving, so I just assume it's on then. So basically I'm figuring around 8.5 years for my carry gun.

Now, the Red dots on my ARs and MPX and some other guns are also MOTAC, but they sit in the safe turned off until I get them out to take to the range or clean or whatever and I expect a longer life for them.

I have a couple that are twenty three or more years old, though they don't have tons of hours on them or used on things with tons of recoil.

I hope the tech has evolved and advanced and that they're much better today, but I guess there's the normal battle between things advancing, all while being made cheaper and more poorly.

ETA: using RMR here as a general term, not talking about Trijicon products.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Depending on what source you believe and how bright you run your red dot, the LED creating the red dot will last somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 hours.

So if you have it on 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, it will last somewhere between 8.5 years and 17 years.

My carry gun has MOTAC, so it turns on with movement and I find it's pretty sensitive. It does turn off after 2 minutes with no movement, but I don't know about when it's in the holster and I'm eating or watching TV or driving, so I just assume it's on then. So basically I'm figuring around 8.5 years for my carry gun.

Now, the Red dots on my ARs and MPX and some other guns are also MOTAC, but they sit in the safe turned off until I get them out to take to the range or clean or whatever and I expect a longer life for them.

The BATTERY will last that long, not the LED emitter itself. Battery life estimates are generally at a low to medium setting and assume a quality battery. There are a lot of sub-par batteries out there and many optics do not have an auto-shutoff or motion sensitive feature (including the Trijicon RMR Type 1).

The OP specifically said "RMR" and we do not even know at this point if it is a battery powered model.

So is this one of the battery powered RMRs or one of the Tritium/fiberoptic RMRs?

My type 1 always-on LED RMR lasted over 3 years in regular use on the first battery. I’d change it every couple of years.

our RMRs from 2020 are still going on the original batteries.

I'm going to change them all this year during qualifications. Our Aimpoint PRO batteries are hit or miss, I have one now that is 7 months old and is dim. I'll just replace those every year and go with two years on our RMRs.

Don't really want to try 3 years on our duty guns.

quote:

Originally posted by 1KPerDay:
My type 1 always-on LED RMR lasted over 3 years in regular use on the first battery. I’d change it every couple of years.

That's exactly my plan. Sort of like changing the batteries in my smoke detectors, C0 detector annualy.

Tag for when we actually know what op is talking about.

Even the constant on Trijicon RMR can be turned off. Unless you mean the fiber optic models which suck and I wouldn't even consider unless I knew that it's going on a range only gun.

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:
our RMRs from 2020 are still going on the original batteries.

I'm going to change them all this year during qualifications. Our Aimpoint PRO batteries are hit or miss, I have one now that is 7 months old and is dim. I'll just replace those every year and go with two years on our RMRs.

Don't really want to try 3 years on our duty guns.

The 1/3 N for the PRO was a huge miss. So much so that I'm a little surprised Aimpoint never brought out a 123, 2032 AA, or AAA version. I've got one guy at work that has a PRO and we end up stocking that battery just for him. When he retires the gun or optic, we'll probably deauthorize it.

quote:

Originally posted by DaBigBR:

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:
our RMRs from 2020 are still going on the original batteries.

I'm going to change them all this year during qualifications. Our Aimpoint PRO batteries are hit or miss, I have one now that is 7 months old and is dim. I'll just replace those every year and go with two years on our RMRs.

Don't really want to try 3 years on our duty guns.

The 1/3 N for the PRO was a huge miss. So much so that I'm a little surprised Aimpoint never brought out a 123, 2032 AA, or AAA version. I've got one guy at work that has a PRO and we end up stocking that battery just for him. When he retires the gun or optic, we'll probably deauthorize it.

You've got to wonder what they were thinking when they used that 1/3 N battery.