Are the 4Sevens Preon 2 lights over-rated?

B

ben317

Joined
May 10, 2011
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111
I'll be honest. I bought a Preon 2 because of nutnfancy's glowing review of them. I was very pleased with mine at first but I've come to really think of them as almost being too fragile to carry with me every day. First problem, as many have already pointed out is that they just click on too easy. I've kept mine clipped to my pants pocket and if you just barely tap the top of it accidentally they will click on in your pocket and you wont notice until the light is very hot and you can feel the heat through your pants or until your battery is dead. I've killed dozens of AAA batteries this way. But beyond that... I've just had these weird connection issues where I click the button sometimes and it just doesn't turn on until I shake the thing or bump it against my hand or whatever. These lights were so popular that when I first started experiencing these types of problems I chalked it up to the fact that I must have gotten a bad one. Now I'm on my 2nd and I started experiencing the same issues not a month after I got it. Just last night I took my light and put 2 brand new batteries in it and then clicked the button and it didn't turn on. Then I took the batteries out and put different batteries in. Still no light. Not until after I took the top off and on and shook the thing a little bit did it finally turn on. I don't feel like I'm particularly tough on my stuff. I just keep it clipped to my pocket like I would anything else. But now I'm starting to feel like these lights are just a little flaky. Anyone else experience this?
 
I have mine in daily use for about 8 months now, and it hasn't failed to turn on a single time. It has survived a couple drops on concrete and tiles without a problem, too.

Maybe one of the contact areas is dirty?
 
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I've had a few Preons (both single and double AAA versions) pass through my hands of ownership. My absolute favorite was their Hi-CRI XP-G Preon 2 from 2-3 years back. Recently, I had picked up another one (used) in a trade and experienced the same symptoms you did. Here is what mine was doing (although if I shook mine it would light up as well):
[video=youtube;Jjpn-nBrVMY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjpn-nBrVMY[/video]

Send Foursevens an email, they may have you try different things to troubleshoot it. Either way, it's under warranty, they warranty their lights for 10 years. They have been great to me with any issues or inquiries I have had.
 
My problem was that I over tightened the bezel holding in the button causing it to not click correctly. After I loosened it up a hair there were no problems on mine. It's survived two drops on tile so far as well so it is sturdier than I imagined with no scratches to the coating even. As for clicking on in the pocket, it's happened to me a few times as well. After I swapped places with my knife so it's on the far side of my pocket it's been a lot less likely to happen though. For now I swapped tail caps with my preon 1 so the little guy is a clicky while my preon 2 is now a flat ended twisty.

My main complaint is the clip. Its weak detent even after bending it a little coupled with the short length results in mediocre pocket retention.

It's not perfect, but still a great light. There are things I wish they'd change such as making it a flush button cap and a better clip. I've seen pictures of some people that take the metal tail cap off so the rubber button cap is exposed but flush if that works for you. Good luck.
 
The light is great.....

The clip is crap though..... Something you would expect to see on some China made WalMart special.
 
I hate to admit it, but I'm having similar issues with my Preon2, it's very VERY finky about turning on and switching modes. I'm probably going to send it in and hope they fix it, because it's to the point where I simply don't trust it. Too bad, because I love the light, and absolutely love my MiniX CR123 (that has never failed me).
 
If you send the tail cap to zodiac engineering in orange,ca they will modify it so that the cap will not click on in your pocket. But I think they light only do that to the ti tail cap.
 
I carry mine in a range bag that gets knocked around a lot. It has clicked on a couple of times and completely drained the battery. To totally prevent that, I now loosen the bulb section enough so the tailcap switch will not fire it up if the switch is accidentally activated. I also put a rubber O ring between the tailcap and the main body to put more pressure on the pocket clip and I have never had any issues since.
 
BoxANT said:
I hate to admit it, but I'm having similar issues with my Preon2, it's very VERY finky about turning on and switching modes. I'm probably going to send it in and hope they fix it, because it's to the point where I simply don't trust it. Too bad, because I love the light, and absolutely love my MiniX CR123 (that has never failed me).
Click to expand...

Yes, thanks BoxANT. That is exactly how I'm starting to feel about mine. I am just starting to not trust it.
 
moshow9 said:
I've had a few Preons (both single and double AAA versions) pass through my hands of ownership. My absolute favorite was their Hi-CRI XP-G Preon 2 from 2-3 years back. Recently, I had picked up another one (used) in a trade and experienced the same symptoms you did. Here is what mine was doing (although if I shook mine it would light up as well):
[video=youtube;Jjpn-nBrVMY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjpn-nBrVMY[/video]

Send Foursevens an email, they may have you try different things to troubleshoot it. Either way, it's under warranty, they warranty their lights for 10 years. They have been great to me with any issues or inquiries I have had.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I actually called them about the first light I had that started experiencing these issues. They said they couldn't do anything to fix it because a battery had melted in it. At that point I chalked it up to bad luck. But when my replacement light started experiencing the same issues a few weeks in I was really just starting to get fed up with the lights.
 
Theres a solution tothat Ihad done it to my preon 1 with the clicky cap,


Open where the button fits, not the part thats conected to the flashlight, then remore the metalpart of the button, close it with only the rubber, proffit.

Still waterproof and wont be clicked so easy and has a better feel when clicked
 
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