3D diver
Contributor
Did the price change? I'm seeing $99 on the Karik and Dive Gear Express web sites? Must have missed a sale.
Karik K1000B handheld light?
- Thread starter ccooper
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3D diver
Contributor
Ah, misread.
I have had the pleasure of being able to dive with every light Karik makes in openwater, wrecks, and caves and can tell you this is a top performing, qualty product. The reviews I've posted on my website were written after diving with these lights often in some demanding conditions and after getting the opinion of some very experienced divers. I'm pleased that others share my opinion about Karik lights and I want everybody to know that the owners of Karik have been first rate in their dealings with me and the people I know.
Richard Black
Florida Dive Connection
Florida Dive Connection Your connection for insider discounts and information on Florida scuba diving shops, gear, charters, trips, lodging and more.
Richard Black
Florida Dive Connection
Florida Dive Connection Your connection for insider discounts and information on Florida scuba diving shops, gear, charters, trips, lodging and more.
roestreyev
New
Just ordered one, and I'll be testing it in 35 degrees water on sept 1st... Hope I won't be disapointed! 
roestreyev
New
As I expected, I lost a little bit of burntime because of cold water. But still impressed by this little light!
Very powerfull!
I see they don't have it at divegearexpress anymore. Why?
I was gonna buy a second one...
Very powerfull!
I see they don't have it at divegearexpress anymore. Why?
I was gonna buy a second one...
Jon Nellis
Contributor
I'm guessing quality issues...
I bought a K1000 and K1200 for a trip and took them apart to make sure they would survive. Here's what I found.
The dealer had already changed out the tail cap o-rings because of problems with the o-rings being too soft, too small and leaking. He also changed out the batteries because the stock cells were proving to be unreliable.
So I took off the head and found:
1) There were two o-rings installed, even though there was only one o-ring groove. The second o-ring was in the thread relief area, which was not big enough to fit it, and it was severely cut from having the head torque on anyways. Additionally, these orings were also too small (overstretched) and extremely soft (like 30 durometer) One of the light heads had a sharp burr on the corner that passes over the o-rings before seating and the second light, someone had removed the burr and the anodizing with it, so it is sure to corrode now.
2) The spring for the detent ball under the on/off ring was highly magnetic and was corroded on one of the lights, straight out of the box. It's not a corrosion resistant material and won't last long in saltwater.
3) The magnet on the inside of the ring was simply a nickel plated neodymium magnet glued in a groove. My experience with nickel plated neodymium magnets in sea water is that the plating eventually fails and the magnet turns into a ball of rust shortly thereafter.
4) The LED was not secured to the heat sink and the thermal path between the heatsink and the housing had no thermal grease. There was a small spot of thermal grease under the LED PCB, but since it was not making solid contact with the heat sink, it was not doing much good. The LED itself was a Cree XM-L which could put out 1000 lumens if properly heat sinked, but the lack of cooling in this light will make it fall short and die sooner. There's no way the two cell light will hit 1200 lumen and was actually a little dimmer out of the box, indicating the actual LED emitters are not binned very close.
5) One of the chargers did not work out of the box and after opening the charger, I found one of the wires going to the plug prongs from the inside was not actually soldered to the prong, but just melted into the plastic next to the prong.
So I killed one LED chip trying to adjust the hall switch with the light on and shorted it out and took the second light on the trip after putting it back together. It flooded within 2 minutes of hitting the water and I quickly took it apart and managed to save most of it. I later found that a small amount of seawater got between the LED chip and PCB after the LED popped off the board revealing the cold solder joints.
I repaired both lights by replacing the LED PCBs with Cree XM-L2 units that were thicker and actually allowed the reflector to compress them onto the heatsink for better thermal contact. Probably what the original design was supposed to do, but the stock LED PCBs were too thin. To get around the corroding spring issue, I took a piece of that soft o-ring and stuffed it under the detent ball to act like an elastomer spring and it works pretty good.
These lights now reside in the shop and truck as dry use only flashlights. I was really hoping these lights would workout, as I hate the backup lights that you have to twist the head on and off, since o-rings were not meant to do that repeatedly. I guess I'll just have to design my own light now, since my hypercritical personality can't seem to find a dive light it likes. I was really hoping to avoid that...
I bought a K1000 and K1200 for a trip and took them apart to make sure they would survive. Here's what I found.
The dealer had already changed out the tail cap o-rings because of problems with the o-rings being too soft, too small and leaking. He also changed out the batteries because the stock cells were proving to be unreliable.
So I took off the head and found:
1) There were two o-rings installed, even though there was only one o-ring groove. The second o-ring was in the thread relief area, which was not big enough to fit it, and it was severely cut from having the head torque on anyways. Additionally, these orings were also too small (overstretched) and extremely soft (like 30 durometer) One of the light heads had a sharp burr on the corner that passes over the o-rings before seating and the second light, someone had removed the burr and the anodizing with it, so it is sure to corrode now.
2) The spring for the detent ball under the on/off ring was highly magnetic and was corroded on one of the lights, straight out of the box. It's not a corrosion resistant material and won't last long in saltwater.
3) The magnet on the inside of the ring was simply a nickel plated neodymium magnet glued in a groove. My experience with nickel plated neodymium magnets in sea water is that the plating eventually fails and the magnet turns into a ball of rust shortly thereafter.
4) The LED was not secured to the heat sink and the thermal path between the heatsink and the housing had no thermal grease. There was a small spot of thermal grease under the LED PCB, but since it was not making solid contact with the heat sink, it was not doing much good. The LED itself was a Cree XM-L which could put out 1000 lumens if properly heat sinked, but the lack of cooling in this light will make it fall short and die sooner. There's no way the two cell light will hit 1200 lumen and was actually a little dimmer out of the box, indicating the actual LED emitters are not binned very close.
5) One of the chargers did not work out of the box and after opening the charger, I found one of the wires going to the plug prongs from the inside was not actually soldered to the prong, but just melted into the plastic next to the prong.
So I killed one LED chip trying to adjust the hall switch with the light on and shorted it out and took the second light on the trip after putting it back together. It flooded within 2 minutes of hitting the water and I quickly took it apart and managed to save most of it. I later found that a small amount of seawater got between the LED chip and PCB after the LED popped off the board revealing the cold solder joints.
I repaired both lights by replacing the LED PCBs with Cree XM-L2 units that were thicker and actually allowed the reflector to compress them onto the heatsink for better thermal contact. Probably what the original design was supposed to do, but the stock LED PCBs were too thin. To get around the corroding spring issue, I took a piece of that soft o-ring and stuffed it under the detent ball to act like an elastomer spring and it works pretty good.
These lights now reside in the shop and truck as dry use only flashlights. I was really hoping these lights would workout, as I hate the backup lights that you have to twist the head on and off, since o-rings were not meant to do that repeatedly. I guess I'll just have to design my own light now, since my hypercritical personality can't seem to find a dive light it likes. I was really hoping to avoid that...
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Hmm, I wonder why DGX stopped selling them...
They don't sound that great from the above post. Personally I'm a fan of German dive lights, Mb-sub, in particular, well designed, reliable lights albeit a little spendy and yes I'll admit I'm bit of an Mb-sub "fan boy".
They don't sound that great from the above post. Personally I'm a fan of German dive lights, Mb-sub, in particular, well designed, reliable lights albeit a little spendy and yes I'll admit I'm bit of an Mb-sub "fan boy".
I wondered the same thing since I bought one a few weeks ago and liked the output, burned for more than 2 hours over the course of 2 dives and I didn't see any diminished output. The charger sucked, to put it bluntly. I ended up using a different charger that I already owned.
I was going to get a second light for my son and saw that they are on the clearance list at Dive Gear Express, so I called. Jeffery said they had battery burn time issues and Karik was working with them to get improved batteries, for future lights. So I ordered a second light thinking I could replace the battery with little to no issue.
However, (and this is a huge HOWEVER) I ordered two 4000mAh batteries directly from the Karik website, on August 30. They said they were much improved and I wanted back ups. I have not seen hide nor hair of the batteries. I got a confirmation email that said my order was accepted but no update. After a week, I tried to call Karik and could only get voice-mail. I emailed and got no response. On Monday, I tried to call for the 5th or 6th time and the number was "No Longer In Service".
Does anyone have any information? Did they go bankrupt?
I have also been trying to get a hold of them since I am a dealer for them. This was about one of the KB5000's for someone. Emails and calls went unanswered. Got a FB message from Rick that they had been traveling, the big lights are 6 - 8 weeks behind due to a quality issue and he was supposed to call me Monday night. Never got a call.
I have to say that I am disappointed. Traveling these days is no excuse to not check email and phone messages.
I have to say that I am disappointed. Traveling these days is no excuse to not check email and phone messages.
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