Is 1,200 hours good for a light?

iPete

My trusty and 'bomb' proof light has developed a loose connection and was left at home this morning.

I'm no expert but is 1,200 hours or 2 years of use a good innings?

On a plus side the model was revised this year and now has a 15 hrs – 200 hr hour run time :shock:, more lumens and Osram Oslon LEDs [whatever that means!].

menthel

Sounds fair to me if it was all weather use.

iPete

Day and night, rain or snow every single day of the year but the unit does cost £80 without battery.

Wrath Rob

I'm expecting my Ayup to last for a lot longer than 2 years. After getting through over £100 of lights in 2 years I bit the bullet and spent £130 to get a light that should last a very long time. 3 years later and I'm still very happy with them.

jonnyboy77

iPete wrote:

Day and night, rain or snow every single day of the year but the unit does cost £80 without battery.

Which light is it out of interest?

Jon

iPete

Wrath Rob wrote:

I'm expecting my Ayup to last for a lot longer than 2 years. After getting through over £100 of lights in 2 years I bit the bullet and spent £130 to get a light that should last a very long time. 3 years later and I'm still very happy with them.

Truth be told I was expecting a few more years of use which is why I'm curious if in terms of hours it has been good value for a LED light (?).

With a bit of luck I can repair it myself.

jonnyboy77 wrote:

iPete wrote:

Day and night, rain or snow every single day of the year but the unit does cost £80 without battery.

Which light is it out of interest?

Jon

Hope District.

Cost aside it does have other tangible benefits, like being visible in yesterdays fog and at night cars genuinely give me more room, good in low sunlight situations etc.

slowbike

Depends if you can get to the loose connection ...

Kieran_Burns

I think it worth checking it's the light and not the battery. My 1st district 3 failed on the light connection (but then I did kind of crash and it bounced a bit) but the replacement started having problems and it was the battery connector not the light.

I upgraded to an 'epic' battery for this Winter (running a vision 2 on the same one) and it's working fine now.

iPete

I thought it may be the battery but it was working OK with my Hope 2 front light.

May post it off to Hope, see how economical a repair is.

edit: 30% off at Ribble = £68.40, bargain! Might repair the original and end up with two..

davis

iPete wrote:

I thought it may be the battery but it was working OK with my Hope 2 front light.

May post it off to Hope, see how economical a repair is.

Have you tried taking it to bits to see if you can fix it?

FWIW I'd be a little grumpy about it breaking after 1200 hours; the lifespan of the LEDs is measured in the 10s of thousands of hours, usually.

iPete

I'm not exactly blown away but stuff happens, I've not had a chance to inspect it properly but will do later. Useful to know the lifespan, is most certainly a connection issue then.

edit: I've ordered a replacement with battery for good measure, impatient I am & couldn't refuse the ribble prices it does however mean the castelli gabba is off the shopping list!

vermin

You will no doubt recall my headaches with these lights over the last couple of years. My bet is it's the connections. Hope fixed mine on a couple of occassions without charging me. Just give them a call.

iPete

Aye, thanks, going to see what they can do with the broken unit, hopefully a free fix. If I end up with two, bonus.

Kieran_Burns

davis wrote:

iPete wrote:

I thought it may be the battery but it was working OK with my Hope 2 front light.

May post it off to Hope, see how economical a repair is.

Have you tried taking it to bits to see if you can fix it?

FWIW I'd be a little grumpy about it breaking after 1200 hours; the lifespan of the LEDs is measured in the 10s of thousands of hours, usually.

slowbike

Kieran_Burns wrote:

davis wrote:

iPete wrote:

I thought it may be the battery but it was working OK with my Hope 2 front light.

May post it off to Hope, see how economical a repair is.

Have you tried taking it to bits to see if you can fix it?

FWIW I'd be a little grumpy about it breaking after 1200 hours; the lifespan of the LEDs is measured in the 10s of thousands of hours, usually.

That's my job ... 9 times out of 10 you don't hear from them again ... so I can actually get on and do something more important!

iPete

haha snap, saved to send to people.

This also gets frequently sent when some questions come in..
http://imgur.com/KBNcZ

Kieran_Burns

Just to embed it

gbsahne001

been to a number of those meetings....

My MiNewt 150 died after 18months, replaced under warranty with the 200 version and touch wood that's been through the last 2 winters, thought it was dying towards the end of last winter but then realised the glass needed cleaning!

kieranb

Been using lumicycle for 10+ years, started off with halogen bulbs and now running an led one in the same fitting. In all that time I had to get a new battery pack and replace the bulbs a few times but no problems otherwise.

rjsterry

davis wrote:

iPete wrote:

I thought it may be the battery but it was working OK with my Hope 2 front light.

May post it off to Hope, see how economical a repair is.

Have you tried taking it to bits to see if you can fix it?

FWIW I'd be a little grumpy about it breaking after 1200 hours; the lifespan of the LEDs is measured in the 10s of thousands of hours, usually.

They do, but unfortunately, the circuitry driving them is not necessarily as long-lived. The other thing about LEDs is that they chuck quite a lot of heat out of the back of the LED; not as much as a filament lamp, but enough to make it overheat if there isn't a good heat-sink.

rhext

Contact Hope customer services and ask them. They'll certainly repair it for you, whether they charge you or not probably depends on whether they agree with your question above. I understand they're usually pretty good though.

iPete

Massive kudos to Hope.

Got home to find a brand new MK2 light at home.

spen666

Wrath Rob wrote:

I'm expecting my Ayup to last for a lot longer than 2 years. After getting through over £100 of lights in 2 years I bit the bullet and spent £130 to get a light that should last a very long time. 3 years later and I'm still very happy with them.

Ay up do a fantastic exchange on the head unit for $60 AUS they will provide a new head unit. I've just got one after around 5 years or more with the old head unit. The new one is so much brighter and a bargain at the price - much cheaper than a new set of lights

Koncordski

iPete wrote:

Massive kudos to Hope.

Got home to find a brand new MK2 light at home.

Sent a battery pack back to them after it started to develop a connection fault, they replaced it without quibble. Nice engineering quality to the housings as well.

stuaff

iPete wrote:

Massive kudos to Hope.

Got home to find a brand new MK2 light at home.

My Vision 1 (bought April 2009, and having done a lot of overnight rides & more recently commutes) started playing up after water ingress on an FNRttC a few weeks ago. It went off to Hope on Thursday. Back today, fixed free of charge. Brilliant service.