Question: When they say this T1 is waterproof, is that to mean resistant or proof? I doubt I'll go underwater with it but it would be nice to know.
They are waterproof in the sense that they have an O-ring, and thus are able to hold one atmo (~30 ft static) until such time as the O-ring breaks down (a long, long time, or until you soak the light in petroleum products). Some guy put one in a water bottle for days without any leakage.
Really, it's not hard to make a screw-cap waterproof to 1 atmo. As long as the O-ring physically exist somewhere near the threading and has some volume, and the designer hasn't overtly drunk on the job, it'll be pretty hard to make it
not waterproof.
Being able to take pressure, though, as with divelights, are a completely different matter altogether. Surefires aren't divable either, for example...
The thing about fenix, is sure there real bright, but how is the construction on them. Are you convinced that if you drop your flashlight onto the cement street any day of the week, you can just pick it up and continue use it, or will you have to fix it/ get a new one.
Yes, I would trust my Fenix to take any amount of reasonable abuse, including dropping it onto the street.
This guy took it to somewhat of an extreme. The Fenix was immersed for 6 hours, then dragged on a stony trail for a quarter mile, then dragged on cement for an eighth mile, then most of a mile in swampy mud, then another mile on urban roads. After more than
2 miles of dragging and impacts, taking care to abuse especially the head assembly, the light was still waterproof, works perfectly, and the only sign were a large number of small dents in the level-3 anodized aluminum.
An aluminum surefire can survive the same test. A Nitrolon-bodied Surefire leaked afterwards.
This is not a rant for or against Fenix, or for or against Surefire. I own and love both brands of lights. It's a notice for you to wake up and apply some basic engineering view to this thing.
It's a flashlight. Not a delicately honed knife edge, not a mechanically perfect pistol. It's a flashlight. The warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you see Sig Sauers and H&Ks being overbuilt is worthless with Surefires.
Why? It's not a durned mechanical device! It has no pins, no gears, no sears, no lugs, no brushed motor assemblies to break, no tolerances to loosen. The most complex mechanical part is the clicky switch! Everything is solid-state, and therefore barring physical circuitry damage, there is no easy way to break a modern LED flashlight - by which time you must have needed to completely destroy the body.
Failure rates from damage for both brands are pretty much nil. There's a few reasons to buy Surefire: better ergonomics, better aesthetics, better compatibility with firearms rails, better reflector design, better beam shape, and more choices for different roles. There's a few reasons to buy Fenix: cheaper prices, the latest and brightest technology. Reliability shouldn't be the reason though - because again, it's a flashlight
.
