I have heard of numerous people having issues with this light.  The features are great and being on the receiving end of the strobe is quite an experience, but am I just hearing the "few" horror stories of reliability etc or is this not uncommon?  Service and warranty is great but not if I spend much of time sending a product back or awaiting its return.....

Quoted: I have heard of numerous people having issues with this light.  The features are great and being on the receiving end of the strobe is quite an experience, but am I just hearing the "few" horror stories of reliability etc or is this not uncommon?  Service and warranty is great but not if I spend much of time sending a product back or awaiting its return.....

My tailcap stripped, but it still works. I just haven't gotten around to calling BH to get it repaired.

I haven't had any problems with mine. Of course now that I said that Murphy will surely strike!

Quoted: I haven't had any problems with mine. Of course now that I said that Murphy will surely strike!

Don't expect any problems to manifest themselves as long as you read the tailcap replacement instructions. My light came without said instructions, thus my screwed up tailcap. It's by far my favorite day to day carry light, and I think Night-Ops could make a hellacious weaponlight if they'd drop the weight a bit and add a mount directly to the body.

-Cap'n

Just about everyone on my team uses one and seem to like it. One guy had some problems with his tail cap going bad, another guy dropped his from about 4' and size able chunk of the ceramic coating chipped off. I use Surefire products but appreciate the flexibility of what the light can do, especially the strobe function. All in all it is a great light. I have had the opportunity to use it quite a bit and liked very much.

I have beat the living crap out of mine and it looks like it needs a refinish... and that is the anodised version. No problems what so ever.  If you dont read the instructions you could mess up the tail cap when reinstalling but if you read it you can reinstall batteries in the dark no problem.  It is the best flashlight you can buy IMO.  I have never been more satisfied with a product.

Number 200 here and going strong!!!  Great light!!

The only problems I have had are with strong magnets being too close to the light. The tail cap uses magnets to do the switching and keep the light sealed-pretty neat way of doing it, but if you sit on a car seat with an electric motor too close to your ass, the light will come on and get hot. It's pretty surprising..  When laid up next to each other, my shaker flashlight will also turn the Gladius on.

Quoted: The only problems I have had are with strong magnets being too close to the light. The tail cap uses magnets to do the switching and keep the light sealed-pretty neat way of doing it, but if you sit on a car seat with an electric motor too close to your ass, the light will come on and get hot. It's pretty surprising..  When laid up next to each other, my shaker flashlight will also turn the Gladius on.

An MRI machine will really light that mofo up!

What part of the Gladius gets hot?

Thought LEDs stayed cold even on extended use?

The LED circuit board will generate a lot of heat.  Heat gets transfered to the bezel/body of the flashlight.

The Gladius has built-in thermal protection that only allows it to get so hot.  This does 2 things.
Lowers the probability of creating a fire hazard & preventing damage to the LED.

I've had one for several months, and it works great.

I bought two of them.  One for my weaponlight (Home Defense Rifle) and for my carry light.  

Quoted: I bought two of them.  One for my weaponlight (Home Defense Rifle) and for my carry light.

After being fortunate enough to take two classes from Ken, I bought a Gladius as soon as they were available.  It was one of the very first ceramic models, and had a problem where it wouldn't activate when the tail cap was pressed, about 1/25 of the time.  I notified Ken, who solved the problem within days.  Outstanding service, and fewer teething problems than I think most products experience.

I bought another Gladius to mount on my carbine:


After ~400 rounds yesterday, the activation button fell off.  I pushed the button back on, and the light still works on the 'bright-steady' channel, although the strobing & dimming channels can't be activated any longer.  I've already e-mailed Ken with the confidence knowing this problem will be solved too.  Strategos is one of only a small, small number of companies that I trust without reservation.  If anything is wrong, they'll make it right.  I'll continue to support them, as teething problems, resolved as the light evolves and improves, are worth the features of this light.

I've had one of these for a few months and I am pleased for the most part. I dropped mine from about 4 ft and the tail-cap cracked in half I e-mailed blackhawk and a new tail-cap is supposed to be on the way. I wish there was some way they could make a more sturdy tail-cap. It also is looking quite scratched up from sitting in the bottom of my bag. Any Ideas on getting it refinished?

Quoted: Quoted: I bought two of them.  One for my weaponlight (Home Defense Rifle) and for my carry light.   After being fortunate enough to take two classes from Ken, I bought a Gladius as soon as they were available.  It was one of the very first ceramic models, and had a problem where it wouldn't activate when the tail cap was pressed, about 1/25 of the time.  I notified Ken, who solved the problem within days.  Outstanding service, and fewer teething problems than I think most products experience. I bought another Gladius to mount on my carbine: webpages.charter.net/imglennr/forum_photos/light-close-up.JPG After ~400 rounds yesterday, the activation button fell off.  I pushed the button back on, and the light still works on the 'bright-steady' channel, although the strobing & dimming channels can't be activated any longer.  I've already e-mailed Ken with the confidence knowing this problem will be solved too.  Strategos is one of only a small, small number of companies that I trust without reservation.  If anything is wrong, they'll make it right.  I'll continue to support them, as teething problems, resolved as the light evolves and improves, are worth the features of this light.

We have been asking for an aluminum tail cap redesign but Night Ops is reluctant to give us what we want.  They feel a dropped aluminum tail cap could bend and render the unit 100% useless while a cracked or broken polymer tail section would still allow for reduced usabilty but still function.

Quoted: We have been asking for an aluminum tail cap redesign but Night Ops is reluctant to give us what we want.  They feel a dropped aluminum tail cap could bend and render the unit 100% useless while a cracked or broken polymer tail section would still allow for reduced usabilty but still function.

Just curious, but has there been issues like that with broken aluminum Surefire tail caps?  If there is I've never heard of it.  

Surely it can't be that difficult to make a rugged aluminum tailcap, right???

We did head to head testing with our competitor's best adjustable LED light, including drop testing at Motorola's independent test laboratory.  It is not an inexpensive procedure.

This particular test consisted of 5 series of drops on 26 angles/planes, raised 4' off the ground, onto concrete. That is a total of 130 drops for each light.

The test required 30 lights to be provided for each model of light to be submitted.  5 lights are randomly selected from the 30 for the drop tests.

4 of 5 Gladius lights sustained no structural or functional damage following the complete battery of drop testing.  1 of the Gladius lights started having problems on one channel after the drop test was completed.  It was later determined that there was an assembly issue identified with that light.

We also found out later that the Gladius would not do so well if the light was dropped when in the lock-out mode….No give or dampening.

We have since made some inline changes to address this issue.  To date, I only know of a handful of lights that have been repaired because of this

The competitors best LED catastrophically failed on the INITIAL drop for each light selected.  Failures included shattered internal clicable tailcap parts (including a punctured battery), shattered lenses, failure to function etc.

Not much to bust on a simple switch/on - switch/off light.  The Gladius is a totally different animal in tailcap.  Mike Noel of BlackHawk jokingly tells me, "Now that you built the Space Shuttle, can you do something a bit simpler??"

Not here to flame the competitors per se, it is not productive in the long run.

We tested the Gladius against best of breed to see where we stood.

All that being said, rather than point fingers at others, we have had to addresses our own bumps in the road as we identify them.  I am hearing loud and clear that folks want an aluminum tailcap.  
It is a perception issue, feel, personal preference issue that we need to keep in mind.

Aluminum on this part is not necessarily a better material for a variety of reasons based on the internal design of the tailcap.

If the current tailcap is shattered, the button and rotary dialed completely separated, you can still active your light in a pinch.  We had a Gladius on display at our last booth that was lost at a construction site for several days. Heavy equipment had run it over on gravel numerous times.  The owner subsequently found the light as surprised the light still worked.

Metal does not give way and transfers the shock-wave directly into the internal mechanisms of the tailcap without any damping effect.

Personally I think a metal tailcap would provide a better perceived strength and simply eliminate the customers initial objection to this material.  Still not convinced the customer would be actually getting a better light.

But we are still looking at alternative ways of improving the design/concept/materials.

Maybe rubber coating an aluminum part might be the best of both worlds???

Specialized Coating:
See: strategosforum.com/phpBBx/viewtopic.php?t=5539

If you have an earlier Gladius Light and it has Cerakote finish that is not holding up to your satisfaction, let me know I will get you one with a Type III Hard Ano finish.

Respectfully,

Ken J. Good
[email protected]

Quoted: I've already e-mailed Ken with the confidence knowing this problem will be solved too.  Strategos is one of only a small, small number of companies that I trust without reservation.  If anything is wrong, they'll make it right.

To point out the level of service Strategos provides, Ken returned my e-mail within an hour, on a Sunday.  Try contacting the head of most companies via e-mail, on a weekend, and watch the response.  I'm continually amazed by the level of professionalism displayed by Strategos.

Quoted: Quoted: I've already e-mailed Ken with the confidence knowing this problem will be solved too.  Strategos is one of only a small, small number of companies that I trust without reservation.  If anything is wrong, they'll make it right. To point out the level of service Strategos provides, Ken returned my e-mail within an hour, on a Sunday.  Try contacting the head of most companies via e-mail, on a weekend, and watch the response.  I'm continually amazed by the level of professionalism displayed by Strategos.

I did the same.  He emailed me 15 minutes later.  Outstanding.