'SMART' lights

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JohnW
Posts: 6667
Joined: 6 Jan 2007, 9:12pm
Location: Yorkshire

'SMART' lights

Post by JohnW »

By 'SMART' lights, I mean the brand, not something clever.

I have several 'SMART' rear lights, and I have recently bought two of their higher powered (and priced) two-part sets, the front light are called 'egg white 2 watt' and are a pretty good 2watt, and the rear are labelled '1w super flash'.

My experience with the former (rear) lights is that the lights are champion, particularly for their size, weight and price. However, the switches on all but one are dodgy to use and becoming unreliable with time. One has begun to switch itself off when in use, and I've had to throw it away, for safety reasons.

The 'egg white 2 watt' front lights are also champion, but whilst the switches are not easy to use - they have not become unreliable (not yet, anyway).

There has been another problem with the two-part sets. The batteries are "EXCELL" brand and come in sealed packs made of cellophane (or something similar). In one of the two part sets, both packs of batteries were leaking within the cellophane packaging - I just put that down to 'one of those things' and disposed of them.

In the other two part set, the batteries seemed initially OK and I put them into the lights. These batteries do seem to give a lot of hours of use, but the other 'egg white 2 watt' light (about four or five weeks old) began to flicker and intermittently go out this evening. Examination of the light shows that both batteries have begun to leak at both ends and mess up the contacts with some sort of gel. Experience of leaking batteries in times past makes me concerned that the gel will corrode the contacts.

This is one cyclist suggesting to other cyclists to be wary of "EXCELL" batteries.
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TrevA
Posts: 3551
Joined: 1 Jun 2007, 9:12pm
Location: Nottingham

Re: 'SMART' lights

Post by TrevA »

In my experience, SMART rear lights are prone to water ingress. The last one I had got wet from a rain shower and it wouldn't turn off. I had to take the battery out to switch it off. It did dry out and work normally again, but subsequent wet rides produced the same result. Eventually it stopped working altogether.
Sherwood CC and Notts CTC.
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JohnW
Posts: 6667
Joined: 6 Jan 2007, 9:12pm
Location: Yorkshire

Re: 'SMART' lights

Post by JohnW »

Ah - that sounds familiar Trev - one of my rear lights became unreliable, flickering, eventually stopped working and then wouldn't switch on again, after one rainy ride. I'd perceived the problem to be in the switch, but without X-Ray eyes I couldn't be altogether sure.

Thanks for that.
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