New Flashlight Checklist

When buying a good flashlight, I find it helpful to go through the following checklist before contacting customer service:

  1. Ensure all plastic discs have bee removed from the interior at either end of the tube
    • These are protective discs typically only used when the flashlight is shipped with a battery and prevents power from being drained from the battery or accidental powering up the flashlight.
  2. Ensure batteries are properly orientated
    • Examine battery for the + or -
  3. Ensure head and tail are fully tightened onto the tube
    • I missed this with my Sofirn Q8+ and only needed 1/4 more of a turn to properly activate the power
  4. Ensure there is the word "Sofirn"(or other vendor of the light), "Molicell", "VapCell", "XTAR" or "Samsung". Otherwise continue at your own risk.
  5. Ensure the batteries have been fully charged either through the internal charger or more preferably in an external charger
  6. Read the manual and verify the mode you are in and how to toggle intensity
    • finish reading the manual to know what all the modes are in
Modern flashlights are not the ones I grew up with. They rarely have a single mode and no longer have incandescent light bulbs. C and D-cell batteries have been swapped for rechargeable Li-Ion batteries which last way longer and are reusable.

Even one my smallest flashlights, a Wurkkos TS10 V2.0 has the Anduril operating system.


So dont feel bad. We all make mistakes. We hate reading the manual first. Charging the battery for the first time takes way too long.

What can't we just play?

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