darksuckers extraordinaire

(Click on all pictures to enlarge.) So a short while ago, I availed myself of some of the limited revenues this weblog generates, and purchased a Surefire 6P Defender. For the better part of the last four years, an Inova X5 flashlight has been hanging on my belt, and while it meets most of my requirements for a carry flashlight, it did have a few annoying aspects. First, it does not have a constant-on push-button endcap – rather, to leave the flashlight on constantly, you have to screw the endcap down all the way, or just push the momentary-on push-button continuously. Either way, it can be a little inconvenient/uncomfortable at times. Second, while the five LEDs are more than bright enough, they also lack a lens or reflector to focus their lights, and thus tend to diffuse rapidly, reaching more-or-less uselessness within about 20-25 feet. With all of this in mind, I did a little shopping around, and a name that came to mind immediately was, of course, Surefire – as I have noted many times in the past, I tend to be a little destructively rough on things (not intentionally, it kind of just happens), and that company has made a point of making durable, reliable products. Sounds like my kind of people.
The 6PD showed up in the mail, and I have to admit that it lived up to its reputation right off the bat – the flashlight feels durable and well-designed in you hands, with all of the various parts and pieces fitting together perfectly. Furthermore, it has a fully-functional push-button endcap (capable of both momentary and constant illuminations with just a push of your thumb), as well as a prefocused reflector good out to easily 40 feet or more while still providing more than sufficient lighting. Oh, yeah, and it just happens to have a nicely-crenellated bezel, making it even more useful in terms of carry purposes… After all, you cannot carry a firearm or knife everywhere… but not many places will give you grief over a flashlight. And holy flying carp this thing is bright… (yes, I tested it on myself… no, I will not be doing that again). It fits snugly in the nylon holster I ordered with it, which, in turn, fits on any belt I own (primarily because the belt loop on the holster is adjustable). The flashlight is a bit thicker than the old Inova, which took some getting used to when carrying it around, but after a while, I hardly even notice it any more. And as a random, further use, it turns out that 6P-series flashlights can be relatively easily mounted to my M1A, or any other Picatinny-compatible system, by a variety of methods. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, now we come to the not-so-good portion. A few days back, while I had the flashlight out on one of its many convenient uses, I happened to notice a funny rattling noise coming from its internals. I unscrewed the endcap, and along with it and the two batteries falling out, a spring and two little plasic pieces took off for the hills. After a hurried few minutes trying to track down the spring and figure out what the little plastic bits were, I have to confess that I was a litle disappointed. If you look at the inside of the endcap on the 6P, the spring is held in place by three plastic catches, arranged in an equilateral triangle – two of those three failed to the point of breaking off entirely, and the remaining one was insufficient to hold the spring in place while I was disassembling things. (The picture is really inadequate to illustrate it properly, but if I tried taking it at an angle, things went out of focus… suffice to say, the spring should not be laying like it is.) After a little fiddling and finagling, I was able to snug up the spring underneath the one remaining catch long enough to reassemble the entire package, but this was only a temporary fix – eventually, I am going to have to replace the batteries, and the spring would almost inevitably try and escape once again. And, for the record, the flashlight has simply been living on my belt, being used for normal flashlight-y things for its entire, short life… nothing terribly destructive or whatnot.
When I got the chance, I hopped on Surefire’s website, and shot them a quick email explaining what happened, what I thought was the problem, and that I hadpictures of the broken pieces if they wanted one. I offered to mail the defective part back as well, if they wanted it, but due to traveling a lot at the time, I was not relishing the thought of trying to work out the timing. Their response? And I quote…

Please provide us with your name, current address and contact phone number and we will have a replacement tailcap sent out for your 6PD.

…Well. Now that is rather impressive. No demand that I mail the defective part back, no request for the entire flashlight, no RMA headaches, just, “Ok, tell us where you are, and we will send you a new part.” Alrighty then. Some other companies I have had to deal with in the past should definitely take some notes as to the meaning of “customer service”, and Surefire deserves some pretty substantial credit for their interpretation of that phrase.
The final verdict? Well, when it comes to the flashlight, like I said, I have to admit to a little disappointment. Externally, this thing is built like a tank, and seems like it and cockroaches would be about the only things left over from a nuclear holocaust. Internally, though, I find it a bit odd that Surefire would have chosen parts or materials that would fail so easily under such a short period of what I would consider to be light use, especially considering the environments and applications most flashlights of this brand find themselves in. However, when it comes to the company as a whole, if they keep sending me replacement bits and pieces to correct what breaks, I will keep using their darksucker, and not really have a whole lot of complaints… aside from having to wait for those replacement parts. Hopefully, my situation was just something of a fluke, and a random failure (they do happen to the best of products, after all) – if it happens again, though, I will definitely let you all know, and if anyone has any similar experiences, feel free to share.