A warranty on lights is a year, but the battery is expected to last 2-3 years, fine, but.
It leaves a bitter taste when your lights pack in after fourteeen months of being used once maybe twice a week only over winter.
Even more annoying when my Joysticks been going much longer all year round as well as on night walks and runs.
As I've now got to dosh out another £300 who offers the best back up, or is it always going to be one year and that's that?

What lights are they? Just because they are over 12 months old doesn't mean they have no warranty. I'd expect lights to last far longer if I had spent £30o on them.

Niteflux Photon Max.
Finally got a reply after two months of waiting. They have offered to repair! the battery if I get it to them in Australia!!

best back up… has got to be Hope. L&M are also good and have some fab lights in that price range. (Although, personally I think that is a silly amount to spend on lights)

niterider, but then i'm a bit biased 🙂

The EU warranty is 2 years IIRC – friend of mine took Currys to small claims court over a washing machine that went 16 months after purchase. He got extra to cover the hassle too. Trading standards supported him through the whole procedure.

Wasn't it mentioned yesterday that all electronic have a minimum 2 year warrenty by EU law, regardless of what the manufacturers tell you… no idea if this cover 'consumables' like batteries though.

.
As I've now got to dosh out another £300 who offers the best back up, or is it always going to be one year and that's that?
.
Why? Either was either buy a DX light or contact Smudge about getting a replacement battery pack.

probably wont help you but when my L & M lights packed up after just over 2 years i sent them back for a quote to repair them and they sent me a brand new set!

as already said might be worth considering L & M and/or hope

They have offered to repair! the battery if I get it to them in Australia

So send it to Australia? Stick it in a jiffy bag, take to Post Office, pay a few quid, get battery fixed, it's not any different to sending it to Hertfordshire so Fishers can do nothing with it for 3 months.

or just put it down to experience buy a £50 DX light and be happy.

I had a Niteflux halogen setup that did me a couple of years tops, had numerous blackouts, numerous start of rides with no charge, and eventually just had only 1 of 2 lamps working even after spending another £30 on a proper charger with a full charge indicator.. I wished I had bought Vistalite at the time..

The fact that you've used them only 1-2 times a week, only in winter would probably count against you. Batteries don't like that kind of treatment.

HOPE! had mine just over a year when i started having problems with a dodgy connection. sent em back and received a package two days later with my lights with new wires. they didn't ask any questions or ask for payment. brill!!

Winter doesn't effect them does it?
I assumed six hours a week i.e two night rides would be fine. Then just a discharge/charge every now and again over summer would help.
And as I said I have a Joystick for summer nights.

The Niteflux was good while it lasted. I really liked the fact that you could do a 24 solo on one battery and still have good useable light.

And anyway there is still this possibility that there was a common fault with these. Niteflux have not commented on this.

Which £300 light to replace them with……………..

I'd get 6 DX's and get jiggy with the wiring to allow any combination of battery/lights. Would need one of those bar mount thingies to fit them all on though.

MMMMMMMMM 5400lumens 😀

I don't think many manufacturers offer any warranty on the batteries as they have no control how they are managed – underchaged, overcharged, incorrect storage etc etc.
USE warranty their lights and chargers for two years but exclude the batteries. However,I understand they do look at early battery failures sympathetically on a good will basis.

PS oldgit – I am in no way inferring you have not looked after your batteries.

but the battery is expected to last 2-3 years, fine

In work (large multinational computer company) we only cover such things as laptop battery's / UPS battery's etc for a year as we class them as a consumable, similar to ink jet carts / laser toner.

The only batteries we cover for longer are the raid controller back up battery's – but then the controller reconditions them every 90 days…

David.

I think I'll have to draw a line under this and move on. The light sets seemed to drop in price big time, at about the same time as they became an issue. Did the dealers know something? as they seem to have got rid of stock and never replaced it.
I'm leaning towards USE after the good use! I've had from my little Joystick.
This is the first set of any 'proper' off road lights that have ever been an issue, my year 2003 Lumis are still going strong on the same battery.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8253915.stm

Lumicycle have given me faultless customer service and thanks to their willingness to refurbish batteries I'm still getting good run/recharge times from a five year old Li-ion battery…..

…I'd never use anyone else for lights (except trout of course if I ever wanted to 'go ballistic')

what about a troutlight?

The niteflux photon max is still the best helmet light out there I reckon. Shame about the backup. Mine lost one LED so I sent it back and after 7 weeks of nothing I just got a refund. As has been said, Smudge will be able to sort you with a battery but there is certainly no need to spend 300 sheckles to replace it. A full set up Ay-Ups is less but I can't see past the DX at the mo. It's <ahem> blinding value.

The other issue is that Niteflux bigged up the wonders of their inteligent battery and charger system, implying that gone were the days of getting up in the middle of the night to make sure you didn't upset the cyclic whatever of your batteries.

And what was clearly a major issue earlier in their use I just took as expensive electrical things playing up a bit after all that riding in the horrid UK weather.

I'm getting myself all cross again now .

Here is a possibility, the fact they are not working might not be a ctastophic failure but something tiny inside the said battery or the charger or the light unit, is it possible you could send it to someone like smudge or trout to investigate for you? might be worth giving someone a drink to get an otherwise good expensive lightset up and running?

tinsy
Good idea.

The only bit of good news is that the shop has found someone with a s/h set that he'll sell for the price of the refund?

Did I explain how they finally went?
I was using them one night (poor weather)and they were working fine with no sign of fading at all. We stopped for a chat, and as we were out all night I switched them off, they never came back on after that.
Holding the switch on they would give the faintest glow for a second before going out again. Nothing has got them going again.

If I were you, I would start another thread, with a title to draw the lighting experts in, explain what lightset you got, and give a link to it so experts can check it out, then give you description of how they broke.

Now I now f all about lights and how to fix em, but it doesnt sound catastrophic failure.

[Captain Mainwaring mode]

Yes well done that man

[looks at watch]

I wondered how long it would be before someone else thought of my idea.

oldgit, out if interest what was the failure mode of your nitefluxes?
Mine have started cutting out this year, but then working fine later. I've a feeling that it might be the overheat circuitry but can't say for certain.

/Ah just seen you've answered my question above. The perils of wandering away from the computer mid post 🙂

I'd either send the battery back to oz, or to 5mudge on here.
I'm sure he could build you a new battery if he couldn't fix the old one. Often its just one cell in a battery that has gone.
As for new, my experiance with Lumi and Hope has always been excellant, people say good things about exposure.

Well the good news is that I finally got a replacement (used once set)

However they are utter utter pants compared to my first set. My old ones were great and I was surprised at the STW test on them, but after using them last night the STW test was more than generous. The beam was so narrow that I was constantly off course. I let a guy borrow them for a bit last night, he had used my originals at D2D and thought they were great, but he concluded that these were worse than useless.
I did notice that the LEDs when switched off had a green hue! to them, at first I thought it was something reflecting in them but it's not they do look green when not on. My old set were definately different.
Even on the full 980 Lumens I couldn't see my way, just an intense spot. I stood in the middle of some double track and it wouldn't light the sides.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

2 x SKU12060.
Thats all you need.

I've had my niterisder minewts replaced under warrantly when they developed a problem after 13 months. Pretty sure the warrantly is 2 years.

The same ame problem happened again and they were replaced again. And they actually failed again this morning – lights come on for a few seconds then turn off. But they seem to be working now though. I have a feeling the 'power module' isn't waterproof at all as it was pishing it down on Monday when I last used them.

Customer service has been greaT BUT i'D RATHER NOT HAVE TO USE IT.

Batterys start to decline even at 6 months.

If the product is not fit for purpose and fails at 14 months then trading standards is best way to go for advice.

If it's the battery can't smudge help?

Stick em on Ebay