Wtb wicked lasers torch, and arctic III

[Mrricht]

Im looking for a wicked lasers torch and 1watt blue laser,if you have one you would like to sell please get ahold of me or if you think there is better out there let me know thanks!

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

In every respect, there are better options out there. Just do a little research and you will see for yourself...

In the meantime a little light reading to get you started:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f65/33-reasons-not-buy-wicked-lasers-56289.html

 

[yobresal]

I have heard the Torch is an awesome Light to behold. I wouldn't mind grabbing one myself. Never owned the Arctic, Not sure if they have worked out the issues they had initially but I wouldn't be surprised. It isn't too hard to get 1W out of these diodes. Also the turnaround time on their orders has improved vastly. I placed an order from Wicked and got it in a week.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

I have heard the Torch is an awesome Light to behold. I wouldn't mind grabbing one myself.

I wouldn't mind buying one strictly for the novelty factor, and for taking pictures at night... but strictly as a tactical search light, it sucks, and buying from WL is historically a loosing proposition. I'm not willing to simply throw money away

 

[Haloid95]

I have heard the Torch is an awesome Light to behold. I wouldn't mind grabbing one myself. Never owned the Arctic, Not sure if they have worked out the issues they had initially but I wouldn't be surprised. It isn't too hard to get 1W out of these diodes. Also the turnaround time on their orders has improved vastly. I placed an order from Wicked and got it in a week.

I keep hearing that too, I think they are improving a little bit. Still for now, I dont think I would order from them.

 

[Ash]

I have both the arctic and the Torch.
I will say that they are really novelty items.
The torch is fun to light and melt stuff with (cigs, paper, plastic, etc.), but the 18v torch battery doesn't last more than a few minutes and the light gets almost too hot to hold... but it's fun and impressive to some. Great as a flood light for a minute or two, but it dies so fast that it is imoractical as an illumination device.
I won't even get into how much of a shoddily constructed device the Arctic is, the reviews are here.
Mine is a G2 with smartswitch putting out over 720mW steady.
:evil:
I would be willing to sell both for $500.00 (shipped).
Do you have safety glasses?... I mean:
Do you have any experience with lasers? :undecided:

 

[yobresal]

Yeah the novelty factor is the main selling point for me. It is a novelty. If I buy one it is going to be a showoff flashlight. Not something I depend on during a 2 week camping trip. So what it is made for I would say it succeeds. If you are looking for a long runtime, bright, dependable small form light go with a 5X Q5 running on 2 18650s. The price of those is GREAT, they don't heat up, long run times, if one LED goes out you still have 4 more, they aren't too huge (still not pocketable) I can post a review of mine if anyone is interested.
As for Wl being historically a losing proposition I would have to disagree. I have been around buying lasers for many many years. For a while Wickedlasers was the only provider of >50mW green laser pointers. They had a simplistic website with the "advances" 50mW, "Phoenix", "Nexus" 95mW and "fusion" 125mW pointers. They were highly sought after and high quality CNI pen lasers (same gold and black CNI sells) They rarely had any issues.
Once they expanded their hosts and color selection they still provided nice lasers. The first "historic" hic-up they had was with the release of the Original "spyder 300" It was an extremely heavy clunky piece of laser. There was a huge delay in production and the modules they received had defective pump diodes. Despite losing a fair bit of money on the production of the first run they promptly released the SpyderII and sent everyone who had any issues with their first spyder the SpyderII In most cases they even let their customers keep their original Spyder. After that things went back to normal. That is until years later when the Arctic came out and they were bum rushed with thousands of orders. We all know what happened there with the Gargantuan wait for orders placed and paid for. The first run of production had issues but those were identified and resolved. Most of the negative reviews of Arctics we have seen are from the first run of production. Those 2 issues are the majority of the reason so many people still hold a grudge against WL. I know a few things about WL. One of those is that they have some of the sexiest hosts around. Two is that unless there is some huge production problem like the previously stated or the item is listed out of stock; they will promptly deliver you your laser. Three is that is for any reason you have an issue with your laser or your order they will allow you to RMA for a replacement or a refund. I have owned more Wickedlasers lasers than any other Brand of laser and can tell you from first hand experience they have some quality lasers. The centerpiece of my collection is My Spyder III 532nm which has the best divergence of any green I have owned, perfect TEM00, tiny beam diameter and 650-700mW steady average output. I am planning on ordering the E3 tonight actually despite the fear mongering that still lingers here.
Sorry for the incredibly long rant. I am very bored tonight.

 

[Ash]

Thanks for the rant and the history. I actually like wl as a company as they have never personally let me down, and there hosts are nice.
Lately they have been really good about fast shipping and rma's. (Friend had krypton replaced within 4 weeks for mode hopping).
I'll be buying their next big laser. :beer:

 

[lasersbee]

Im looking for a wicked lasers torch and 1watt blue laser,if you have one you would like to sell please get ahold of me or if you think there is better out there let me know thanks!

WL still has a VERY long way to go before they convince me that I
can trust what they say. In the mean time read this....

33 Reasons NOT to Buy From Wicked Lasers


Jerry

 

[lilcomposer]

He's right. There are some pretty cool and cheap lasers out there. Some people even build them themselves! This forum is packed with reviews for certain companies so there is a lot of information available here

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Yeah the novelty factor is the main selling point for me. It is a novelty. If I buy one it is going to be a showoff flashlight. Not something I depend on during a 2 week camping trip. So what it is made for I would say it succeeds. If you are looking for a long runtime, bright, dependable small form light go with a 5X Q5 running on 2 18650s. The price of those is GREAT, they don't heat up, long run times, if one LED goes out you still have 4 more, they aren't too huge (still not pocketable) I can post a review of mine if anyone is interested.

Since when has anyone on this forum not wanted to see a review?

As for Wl being historically a losing proposition I would have to disagree. I have been around buying lasers for many many years. For a while Wickedlasers was the only provider of >50mW green laser pointers. They had a simplistic website with the "advances" 50mW, "Phoenix", "Nexus" 95mW and "fusion" 125mW pointers. They were highly sought after and high quality CNI pen lasers (same gold and black CNI sells) They rarely had any issues.
Once they expanded their hosts and color selection they still provided nice lasers. The first "historic" hic-up they had was with the release of the Original "spyder 300" It was an extremely heavy clunky piece of laser. There was a huge delay in production and the modules they received had defective pump diodes. Despite losing a fair bit of money on the production of the first run they promptly released the SpyderII and sent everyone who had any issues with their first spyder the SpyderII In most cases they even let their customers keep their original Spyder. After that things went back to normal. That is until years later when the Arctic came out and they were bum rushed with thousands of orders. We all know what happened there with the Gargantuan wait for orders placed and paid for. The first run of production had issues but those were identified and resolved. Most of the negative reviews of Arctics we have seen are from the first run of production. Those 2 issues are the majority of the reason so many people still hold a grudge against WL. I know a few things about WL. One of those is that they have some of the sexiest hosts around. Two is that unless there is some huge production problem like the previously stated or the item is listed out of stock; they will promptly deliver you your laser. Three is that is for any reason you have an issue with your laser or your order they will allow you to RMA for a replacement or a refund. I have owned more Wickedlasers lasers than any other Brand of laser and can tell you from first hand experience they have some quality lasers. The centerpiece of my collection is My Spyder III 532nm which has the best divergence of any green I have owned, perfect TEM00, tiny beam diameter and 650-700mW steady average output. I am planning on ordering the E3 tonight actually despite the fear mongering that still lingers here.
Sorry for the incredibly long rant. I am very bored tonight.

Actually thank you for the rant. It helps put things somewhat more in perspective, but doesn't change in the least how I feel about them.

My opinion of WL is also based on my personal experiences with them, not secondhand experiences.

Yes, this did occur during the arctic fiasco... but is that an excuse? Imo no it's not.

You don't have something in stock, you stop selling it until you do.

You don't take people's money and hold on to it for months at a time.

You don't ignore emails and phone calls.

You don't lie that the laser has been shipped.

You don't lie about what has actually been shipped.

Currently what they sell are nice looking hosts, with sub par components. The green lasers are no longer using CNI modules, and well, there are a ton of reviews about all the other lasers... seems like there are more negative ones then positive ones.

Aside from cheap chinese drop shippers can you name another company that sells so many underspec lasers? I'm also not talking about history here, I'm talking about right now.

WL continues to practice extremely deceptive marketing schemes.

WL continues to sell junk in the hope that people who receive lasers have never see one in their life and don't have an LPM, so they will be impressed by 50mW when they should be getting 300mW.

Bottom line to me is WL has a very very long time to go, before they can earn back my trust, or recommendation.

 

[SRESAL]

The green lasers are no longer using CNI modules

Are you sure about this, :thinking: or did you just say this because you heard it somewhere else.

 

[yobresal]

People tend to post about negative experiences a lot more than they do about positive ones because they are pissed off and need to vent and seek advice. WL has thousands of customers so when you see 20 bad reviews keep in mind that this is a small percent of orders. I am not defending anything that happened during the Arctic fiasko. They handled most of that situation poorly. I was also one of those who had to wait months and month and months until I finally tossed in the chips and got a refund. Aside from that I have received lasers that are all in spec. If you read the specifications page they list a min and max output power. Most people expect the output to meet or exceed the max rated output but that is not the case with WL. I think they label their lasers as the max output to compete with all the other Chinese dealers who make ridiculous power claims and trick noobs into buying cheap lasers. At least WL states right on their site that the laser may be as much as half the labeled output. Gives you an idea of what to expect.
WL has been around a very long time and they earned my trust a long time ago. Maybe I have just been lucky about the lasers I have received, maybe it's because I have made sooo many orders with them.
BTW their Kryton lasers still use CNI modules. Not sure about the pen style lasers they carry.

 

[lasersbee]

Aside from that I have received lasers that are all in spec. If you read the specifications page they list a min and max output power.

Come on Yob...

If I sold you a car and told you it had a speed range of
50mph to 100mph and the car would only do 55mph...
you'd be pi$$ed off because it couldn't do 100mph as claimed...


Jerry

 

[yobresal]

Yeah I would be pissed that I couldn't even go on the freeway. I get your point though and maybe WL needs to consider changing the way they label their lasers. I prefer the CNI method because you are almost always hit with a pleasant amount of power over the stated output. Instead of labeling the lasers as their max output maybe they should label them in the middle of the max and the min. That would be more accurate and prevent much disappointment.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

@SRESAL - The module inside one of my WL lasers is exactly the same as in all the others I've seen from olike, lazerer, dx, and rayfoss. I haven't taken apart the wl e2 I have, but I'd be surprised by anything out of the ordinary.

@Jerry, thank you for covering essentially what I was going to say.

@Yobresal, thank you for hearing it, and agreeing.

The biggest problem I have with WL right now is with their deceptive/misleading marketing.

If they start advertising their 1W lasers as 500mW but likely overspec... it would be a different story, but as it is, it's not.

Based on my experiences with them, I'm also hesitant to give them another shot.

As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...