Disgusted with SMART lights

[snailracer]

Mounting a light where it gets blasted by road spray sounds unreasonable - even if it didn't leak, the spray and dirt would obscure the light and scatter the beam.

 

[subaqua]

ALWAYS, WITH ALL MAKES AND ALL ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT ON A BIKE put a smear of silicone grease round the seal and anywhere else moisture might enter.

The tube I've linked to should last you about 20 years (unfortunately it goes off before it's used up - after about 10 years)

I have dropped a 1w Smart rear light in a puddle on two occasions. It just goes on flashing and works perfectly afterwards. I've never had a problem in any downpour or similar with any Smart rear light and I've been using them since the 1/2 watt superflash came out That's because I put a minute smear of silicone grease on the seal each time I change the battery.

On another thread someone suggested doing the same but using vaseline. Messier but it should work if you want an even cheaper alternative.

Even professional electronic equipment costing 10s of 1000s of £ needs silicone grease on the seals to keep the water out, so what do you expect of bike lights.

and never ever ever use petroleum jelly as it will rot rubber very quickly

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Mounting a light where it gets blasted by road spray sounds unreasonable - even if it didn't leak, the spray and dirt would obscure the light and scatter the beam.

Point being that the poundland ones which I use as backups/supplementary aren't affected by the same type of relatively small amount of road spray as there was this morning

As for mounting....with a laden rear rack (2 panniers and top bag) there is little option of mounts other than the official smart brackets produced for mounting the smart lights on the end of a rear pannier rack

 

[Sittingduck]

I have a cheap Smart rear light on my commuter. Sure enough after a few days and the first wet ride, the light started behaving very oddly. Unable to turn on/off or cycle through flash modes correctly. After a fair while it seemed to go back to normal and I have found evidence of water / rust inside, by the switch. It does work ok at the moment but freaks out every now and then. Pretty dissapointing stuff and I will be sticking with Cateye or Blackburn in the future.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Could the fact the button for the Smart rear lights is on the bottom? And more likely to get water penetration than one on top?

 

[Sittingduck]

I dunno, rain comes down from the sky but spray comes up from the road... go figure

 

[HLaB]

When I use my SMART on the road bike (its clipped to the back of the saddle bag it fails quite often but it fails to on solid (rather than flashing) and I can't switch it off so I don't worry about it. Even my Mars 4 has done similar but it has to be really wet for it to fail, the Smart will just fail from the surface spray. On my town bike with mud guards and the lights seatpost mounted to my knowledge have never failed.

 

[fossyant]

With the Smart Superflash, it's weakness is the microswitch - slightest bit of moisture it stops functioning until batteries are out and the unit dried out. I would spray the microswitch with WD or similar, this cured one unit's problem I had.

I've had problems with fibre flares - their weakness is the micro switch - and moisture and if starts to fail - mine corroded over a few months - back to Wiggle they went.

Go for a full dry out and then make sure you use some silicon or similar on the seals.

 

[potsy]

I have 2 Smart's, a 1/2 Watt and an R2, never had a problem with either of them and it does rain a fair bit in Manchester. I have one mounted on the seatstay and one on the rear rack bag, have never put any kind of sealant on them.

I do agree though that one bad experience with a certain product/manufacturer and I will steer clear in future, my own funnily enoughis Cat-eye

 

[cyberknight]

My smart r1 used to fail in the wet and the cold, the replacement r2 has had a drenching and carried on working fine.

The brackets not holding the light tight enough i solved by gluing a piece of normal paper inside the bracket to make the gap the slightest bit smaller and now they are snug and i have never had a light fall off.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I have 2 Smart's, a 1/2 Watt and an R2, never had a problem with either of them and it does rain a fair bit in Manchester. I have one mounted on the seatstay and one on the rear rack bag, have never put any kind of sealant on them.

Another wet weather Manc here and my 1/2 watt is fine (2 years in!) - never had a problem. However I do have a Bromtpon with mudguards and it's mounted pretty high up under my saddle so guess it's protected from most water?

 

[dellzeqq]

I'm afraid that once you've bought a light a couple of times and they've failed, you never go back. I'll never buy another Smart light again.

 

[wiggydiggy]

No so smart then are they lol

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

No so smart then are they lol

Shame that when they are working they are bright, visible, come with a range of brackets - in fact I have loads of brackets for multiple lights on multiple bikes, trailer, trike etc, which is why after pontificating I bought the Smart

I think I'm going to go with some magicshine rears now they are back in at DX

However, I've put some of the Contralube in the microswitch (generous application but in terms of the contents of the tube hardly used any), I'm going to run both on the rack mount side-by-side, one with contralube, one without, and compare

I'm hoping that it negates the need to put sealant on every time I change/recharge the batteries (which is regularly)

 

[Davidc]

Shame that when they are working they are bright, visible, come with a range of brackets - in fact I have loads of brackets for multiple lights on multiple bikes, trailer, trike etc, which is why after pontificating I bought the Smart

I think I'm going to go with some magicshine rears now they are back in at DX

However, I've put some of the Contralube in the microswitch (generous application but in terms of the contents of the tube hardly used any), I'm going to run both on the rack mount side-by-side, one with contralube, one without, and compare

I'm hoping that it negates the need to put sealant on every time I change/recharge the batteries (which is regularly)

Not sealant, just the slightest smear of grease. As I said a 5ml tube should last the 5 years shelf life if you recharge all your lights once a week in winter 2 in summer.

I don't use magicshine, but a friend does and recons they're just as bad as Smarts without silicone grease on all the joints, so worth getting some for those as well, though some on here don't agree.