Light Cannon

[sharpenu]

I bought an HID light cannon from Underwater Kinetics. It cost $199 and I have to say it is the brightest light I have ever owned. On my fourth dive with it, I was getting back on the boat when one of the divers asked me what happened to my light. I looked down and the handle was still attached to my BC, but the light was no longer on the handle. I brought it back to the dive shop and they said they will check with the manufacturer to see if they can cover it under warranty. All I can say is that I feel that a $200 light should be attached to it's pistol grip better than that. I will kepp all of you posted.

 

[wetman]

I thought it was a pretty bad design myself. And i love the light as well.

s

 

[Uncle Pug]

...hopefully it will be replaced.

 

[Burke]

I have one to and I don't like the handle design at all. When I first put it together I screwed the little screw down so tight that it almost punched through the light. I have never even thought about checking it to make sure it is still tight, you may have saved me from losing my light to, thanks. I am sure UK will replace it if you just tell them you where worried about punching through the light houseing and they don't tell you how tight to make the screw so you had now way of knowing how tight to make it and it just came off, totally their fault.

 

[The Chairman]

I use a loop of bungee cord around my BC strap to finish securing my lights... including the my Light Cannon. Clip on the top, bungee near the bottom. I just don't like danglies at all, and the Light Cannon just feels better when it is next to me. Hope they warranty it too!

 

[Mitch421]

I bought a UK Light Cannon over one year ago when they first came out. Recently, the bulb broke for no reason on a dive. I returned the light to UK explaining that the bulb broke prematurely. They agreed and replaced the light for free, which I thought was fair and honorable.

In your case, you failed to tighten the screw in the handle when you assembled the handle to the body of the light. This, to me is so obviously your fault, I don't see how you can require UK to be responsible. The UK Light Cannon comes with the handle unattached to the body for packaging purposes. Attaching it is simply a matter of sliding the handle on the body and tightening the screw.

Furthermore, for another commentator here to suggest that you lie to UK and say that you didn't tighten the screw because UK didn't say how tight it should be and that they should replace the light because of poor design is pure B.S. Common sense should tell you how tight it should be (tight enough so it doesn't slip off).

Every manufacturer sets aside an amount for covering replacements of bad units. When a company has to dip into that reserve to cover the mistakes of its consumers, it ultimately has to raise the price of the product for everyone else. Or it can just decide not to replace lights for customers that have a legitimate complaint.

Quite frankly, if I had a dive buddy who told me this story, I would be concerned about their mechanical ineptness and wonder how well they put together their other gear. You're lucky it was just your light that failed. Maybe next time your tank will slip out of your BC tank strap or your first stage will slide off your tank valve or something, God forbid.

 

[The Chairman]

A little harsh there, huh? I am not sure that you or UK could determine that the screw wasn't in tight enough. No torque specs given, so "tight" becomes a bit ambiguous.

I could think of other scenarios that could have resulted in a handle not holding... even a screw that was TOO tight, causing the plastic to split. You talk in absolutes without even having seen the light, er handle. I don't see how it is possible for you to determine that the light was "mis-handled" at all.

Here is another problem with your diatribe... I got my light already assembled from the LDS. If I lost my light, I would not care who took care of it... UK or the LDS... I only hope that one would do just that. Heck, Sharpenu and I may have bought our lights from the same spot... we live in the same town.

So take a couple of deep breaths, and ASK Sharpenu if that was the case, BEFORE you so quickly assign guilt. Heck, it might have been all of Sharpenu's fault... it's just that you seem to be attacking him, rather than reasoning with him.

 

[Burke]

Do you own stock in UK, or are you just looking for a fight, either way you sound like a jerk. As I said, when I put my handle on, being the inept person I am, but not wanting to lose my light, and not having been provided with any torque specs, I simply tightened the screw "tight" and it pushed about half way through the body of the light, had I tightened it maybe 2 turns in either direction it would have either fallen off or flooded. That sounds like a problem to me. By the way, I love my light, it is very bright and very tuff, my buddy has one to and awhile ago we both managed to get bounced against some rock pretty good on a shore dive, we both thought we had busted our lights, but they both worked fine.
I think UK should replace sharpenu's light and then they should relies that they have got a nice light with one major flaw, and they should fix it, maybe even offer a recall (just kidding) it would be so easy for them to have a little metal bracket on the light housing for the screw to screw into and that would solve this problem. But do you think that UK is going to bother with doing that if no one complains, I think not.

 

[Mitch421]

It not a matter of absolutes. You do not need to have precise torque specifications to figure out how tight a simple phillips head screw should be just to tighten the handle of the UK light Cannon to the body. Obviously, it should be tight enough that it doesn't slip, but no so tight that it breaks through the plastic. Do you really need to have this explained to you?

When I got my Light Cannon, it came in a box with the handle unattached. Same thing when I received a replacement. In a number of stores I checked before I bought my Light Cannon, they were in the box. If you say that you both got your lights already assembled at the dive shop, and that in one case, the dive shop didn't tighted the screw and in the other case the diveshop overtightened the screw, I hope you are not getting your regulator tuned up at that same dive shop.

As for attacking anybody, I am simply pointing out that it is rather brazen to suggest that the person who lost their light because they failed to tighten the handle make up a story that they didn't tighten the screw because UK didn't put in the directions how tight it should be and therefore, UK should somehow be required to replace the light.

Personally, when I got my Light Cannon, I took it apart completely before I ever used it to make sure as best I could that it was put together correctly. I don't want to leave anything to chance. If you or the other person who lost their light had done this, you would have seen that there was a loose or overtightened screw before your dive.

My buddy and I go over our equipment often in order to decrease the likelyhood that these problems don't crop up underwater. Once you have a problem, its too late to fix it. If you don't think you neen to check everything over on a regular basis that all attachments are tight and secure, then that's your choice. Myself, I would not want to depend on the manufacturer to tell me to tighten the screw so the light doesn't slip off. If you need to be reminded of these things, maybe you should take up a safer sport like hang gliding or bungie jumping.

 

[Burke]

If you had actually read my post it would be pretty obvious that I put my light cannon together myself, and you say that the screw should be tight enough that the handle doesn't move, but not so tight that it pokes through the light, well I don't think that is even possible, why don't you check your light, try to slide the handle out, if it doesn't move at all then take out the screw and see how deep the hole is. What I did is place a folded up piece of paper underneath the screw and then tightened the screw done on that, it has worked fine for me. Obviously I got my light cannon in the box, however my dive buddy got his already assembled, for $50, it was the display model, it works great and he has checked the screw tightness, but that is not something everyone would think to do. If you go buy I new car do you check the lug nuts before you drive it home? What about if you have the tires replaced? I think for what UK charges for these things they could fix this one little problem. And as far as making up a story goes, I didn't say that he should, I said that he should tell them that it fell off because of their design flaw.