Gerber Infinity trouble

I recently purchased a Gerber (formerly CMG) Infinity and for the last week or two I've been carrying it in my pocket. The few times I've tried to use it, sometimes the light doesn't engage right away. The tail cap is screwed all the way down, but it seems I have to shake it a couple of times for it to work. I had such high hopes for this light, and so far I'm rather disappointed.

Anyone else have similar problems? Ideas to remedy it?

Thanks

I have 6+ of the CMG Infinity Ultras in my family. I bought one for everyone in my family. 90% of all electrical problems are caused by a bad connection. Take a wooden pencil with a good eraser and clean the contacts at both ends where the battery will make contact. Make sure you keep cleaning the eraser on your pants or something so it stays clean. When you can rub the eraser on the contacts and it does not turn black it is clean. Then try the new Panasonic Oxyride 1.7 volt AA batteries. I put one in my Infinity Ultra about a month ago and it is still super bright. I also have to put some lube around the O-ring to make it turn easy. I have not tried the new Gerber.

<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

This may not be your problem, but I no longer shake flashlights any more. I use an anti-oxidizing grease called Penetrox. You can pick it up in the electrical dept of any decent hardware store.

Flash lights are made up of multiple electrical contact points that rely soley on a bit of pressure to complete the pathway (battery to spring, bulb to battery, switch contact to chasis of bulb, etc). If one or more of these contacts has oxidized or has minimal contact pressure the resistance goes up and the voltage goes down. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I look in the flashlight for all contact points for the current flow (battery ends, spring, base of bulb, side of bulb, etc). I use a pencil eraser followed by a bit of rubbing alcohol to clean the contact points. Last, I put a thin film of the grease on the contact points (including the battery ends). Sometimes I will tweak a spring or contact point a bit to increase the pressure.

It is truely amazing. The flashlights always have a consistant output (no need to shake to perk up the lumens). Many of my flashlights have been brighter after this treatment as well.

If this doesn't work your flashlight may be suffering from a cold solder joint in the tail cap or head.

D'oh! I just unscrewed the cap of my New Infinity to look it over and the *&%$# "O" ring broke! These guys need to do a better job with the O rings. My little Gerber AAA LED light has an O ring that is too small. The cap can unscrew in your pocket, or tighten up and inadvertantly turn on (not good for battery life). I put a couple of wraps of teflon tape on the threads, but it is not long before the thing is loose again.

Maybe time to buy and ARC <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Good luck, TR

Maybe?

When I tried to use it once, the light was on when I pulled it out of my pocket. The next time it didn't work, I thought the battery died, so I replaced it--thinking it was on in my pocket forever.

It's a new light, so I sure hope nothing has had time to oxidize, but I think I'll give it a check and maybe a grease treatment anyway.

What's your favorite ARC?

I like 'em all. But probably the Arc AAA. IMHO, the Arc LSH-P was the best CR123 light Arc made.

I haven't heard of this problem with the Ultra but some units of the old Arc AAA had a circuit bug that made the oscillator occasionally fail to start up. The failure was pretty intermittent and so the light would usually start within a few tries, sort of like an old car in cold weather. Arc LLC replaced those lights under warranty before they went out of business. I don't know if the current incarnation of Arc is doing anything about those old lights. My own semi-EDC Arc AAA has the problem but the failures are so rare that I don't let them bother me.

In your situation I'd just contact Gerber for a warranty repair.

Do the newer Infinities (with the tailcap switch) use a spring inside to help the connection? My older Infinities (the only kind I own) don't have a spring, but something in the back of my mind is telling me the newer ones do. If so, I'd suspect a spring problem. Maybe it's been over-compressed and is now failing at what it's intended to do - assure a good connection. Just a guess.

I thought I was the only one that greased the contacts. I have always just used a very light coat of Vaseline and it works quite well. I learned this many years ago from a TV repairman. Light years ago, TV tuners were rotary from channel 2 thru 13 and after some time they got dirty and the picture flickered and you were constantly spinning the tuner to get a good contact. The repairman took the tuner out and it was covered with many little knobs that made contact with springs and these contacts got dirty. He cleaned the contacts with an old bath towel till they were shiny and also the springs. Then he coated the whole tuner with a good dose of Vaseline. I know that sounds improbable but having been treated with the Vaseline, the tuner never flickered again. I always figured it was an "arcing" problem rather than a "dirt" problem though.

I know it works because I routinely put a very light film on both ends of batteries before I install them and never have a problem.

Switch to a Mag Solitaire?

Not if you're interested in high reliability. At least not in my experience, and that of many others. The Solitaire was quite cute when it first came out. I bought a couple of them. But they're really not in the same league as the newer LED lights we have access to these days. I would expect an ARC or CMG Infinity (at least the older models) to take a whack with a sledgehammer and come out of it still working fine. Not so a Solitaire. No offense intended - they're just not very robust in any kind of semi-hostile environment.

I don't own one yet. The company went teats-up for a while. They are now back in business with a sizable backorder list to fill. I believe at this time they are only manufacturing the AAA model with 2 options of LED. When the backorders catch up I'll probably order the brighter Premium model.

TR

The new Infinity Ultra has a different design than the old one. It has a spring but I don't think the spring helps reliability. CPF'ers generally prefer the old design.

Peak LED Solutions (www.peakledsolutions.com ) makes some nicer 1AA lights that cost a lot more. Supposedly the Arc AA will be re-introduced before the end of this year, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

For 1AAA lights, either the Arc AAA (now available again, www.arcflashlight.com ) or Peak Matterhorn are far better than the Mag Solitaire.

For a less expensive, extremely waterproof 2AAA light (about the size of a 1AA light), try the UK 2AAA eLED, about $12 from www.brightguy.com .

And I posted that question in responce to everyone who has said that my Solitaire is junk, even though it has NEVER given me problems that were not forseeable, and that what I REALLY needed was an Infinity.

I was being snippy. I get snippy when people insult my gear without being able to show a concrete example of why it sucks. The Solitaire is a $5 light that I can fix with everythign I carry on my person. If the switch breaks, I can fix it with a little fine wire. An Infinity has a IC in it, which can't be fixed if it fails. I'll take shorter battery life and a little bit more weather sensativity over if it breaks it can't be fixed, but until then, it has really good battery life.

No offense, that's just my opinion.

The Solitaire has terrible battery life compared to an LED light. It even has worse battery life than a coin cell light. And I never got mine to work reliably no matter how much I tweaked and cleaned the contacts. If you just want an upgrade from a Solitaire, PM me your address and I'll send you a Photon II knockoff for free.

Sorry. No intention on my part to call your equipment junk. All I can say is that MY Solitaires were no-so-spectacular. I could not recommend them on an emergency preparedness board where reliability and robustness are usually of primary concern. Maybe your Solitaires are better.

Our experiences obviously differ. My family has owned four(?) Solitaires over time. Every one of them has failed under light use. We now own maybe a dozen Infinities and ARC AAA's across the group of us. 75% of them receive heavy use. None of them has ever failed. I'd have to think hard to remember the last time we even had to replace a battery in one of them.

My intent was to point out what I thought was a more reliable alternative. Sorry if you took that to be an insult to your gear. That was not my intention by any means, although it may have come off that way.

I'm withholding judgement on whether the new Gerber design is reliable. The old CMG design was pretty good but even that went through several iterations. The new one is definitely cheaper looking and is made in China. Its design is quite a bit different than the old version and I don't think you can extrapolate from the old version's reputation. I won't say the new one is crap, it just seems less excellent than the old one.

If you want a bombproof 1AA sized survival light, try a Tek-Tite Trek Lithium. It's direct drive and uses a 3.6 volt lithium computer battery with very high energy density (not a normal AA cell). The battery has a 20 year shelf life. The light itself will stand ridiculous pressure extremes, like 1000 feet of water or something. The LED voltage bin is intentionally selected to keep the light pretty dim (still plenty for a low powered survival light), which means that it will run for 200+ hours nonstop without getting much dimmer. It has strap lugs for attachment to a pack or diving gear. You can get them from www.batterystation.com in the LED light section. Because of the dimness and exotic battery, it's not a good choice for everyday use, but is just about ideal for a ditch bag or lifeboat kit.

What about the INOVA X1? I have one and it seems pretty decent to me, even though the tail switch is not a marvel.
Regards

The X1 isn't very popular on CPF because it's somewhat heavy for a 1AA light, and its beam is very narrow due to the focusing optic. Generally, low powered lights are best for close distances and you want a wide beam with lots of spill. The X5 is more popular (5-led flood powered by two CR123's) and is on sale right now at Countycomm. I don't have either one myself.

The version that everyone on CPF wants is the Ultra-G, which is the government version of the CMG Ultra and is hard anodized. They were available brand new for $14.50 or so until early this year if I remember right. Used ones now show up on sale on CPF BST fairly regularly in the $20-25 range and quickly get snapped up at that price.

There is also the Peak Kilimanjaro which is a nice light but is around $40 in the ultra power version. And as mentioned, the Arc AA is supposedly coming back.

Maglight used to be a tenant of my father, so I had about 100 of them. Every time he went out to CA to check on the building he would bring one back (later he told me he had to buy them because Mag doesn't give freebies, but that's another story.) Anyway, the single AAA, 2 AA, and 2 AAA were great flashlights at the time, but LEDs are a really improved design and getting better all the time.

The maglights have a few problems. The first is a drop from shoulder or even pocket height while the light is on will kill the bulb. I've had it happen quite a few times. The next is the bulb will die without warning. I remember as a kid walking from my campsite to the bathroom and the bulb died, there I was trying to change it in pitch black, luckily mag includes a spare. I did it, but it wasn't a very good experience.

With LEDs you get shock/drop resistance, a bulb that will last basically for the life of the owner, increased battery life, no need to worry about spare bulbs, with basically no loss. I've converted all my Maglights to LED. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Keep it, I killed a Photon. The Solitaire has superior structural integrity- they don't die when they get stepped on. The only problem I've had in that regaurd is that the aluminum is softer than the steel of my split rings- to be expected, and for the cost, acceptable. Add a dab of silicon grease to the threads and it is suitably water proof. It has gone through the wash a few times on me, and it worked fine. Since my life keeps me on high ground, and mostly off of large bodies of water, I figure that is good enough.

And I understand that the stock Solitaire has inferior battery life to LEDs, but as I posted several times under my old handle, I have constructed very suitable, non-IC based LED conversions of the Solitaire that can be reconverted to incandescant operation with one of the two spare bulbs that fit into the butt cap and a scrounged/pre-packed AAA. I've used cheap 3mm LEDs, and I recently aquired some bright white ones. So far, they work well, and are almost as bright but more focused than the after market high intensity incandescent bulbs.

How did you kill your photon? I'm surprised. I don't know about cheap knock-offs, but my Freedom 2x doesn't die when I step on it. I just tried it - no problem. Doug describes them as virtually indestructible: "I've run over Photons with my 3/4-ton pickup with no obvious damage."

I've got both the X-1 and the X-5. I think the X-5 is a great gernal purpose light. The beam spread of the X-1 is very narrow, but it certainly does put a lot of light in one place. I like the solidity of both. I also have the X-0, which I thnk is as good as a Sure Fire any day.

Wasn't mine, and I kinda dropped a filing cabinet on it. Between the metal and the concrete there was a soft, kinda squishy crunch, and I owed a co worker a new photon. My thing is that is was an empty cabinet which weighed less than I do, and I have stepped on my Solitaire.