Anybody Know of a Reliable Strobe?

[Web Monkey]

I have a Tektite Strobe 300. It's a 3 C-Cell strobe, and worked very nicely when I got it, however it died a couple of months after I got it, and it's replacement died about 8 months later.

Although Tektite replaced it the first time (never heard back from them the second time), I'm more converned that if I ever actually needed it in an emergency, it wouldn't work, since this is the second failure.

I bought it after I surfaced from a drift dive in Florida and found no boat. The boat showed up about 45 minutes later, but I had plenty of time to think about things that would make me more visible after dark. (The captain said he was picking up some OW students he was running at the same time).

The strobe doesn't get banged around, and has never been wet inside and in fact, hasn't had more than an hour's runtime. It's rated to 1000 feet, so depth shouldn't be a problem.

It stays in my BC pocket, and gets rinsed off after each dive along with everything else.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this just a cheap strobe? Does anybody have any recommendations for a bright, long lasting reliable strobe?

Thanks!

Terry

 

[Bonairetrip]

I forget the brand, but I have done well with a single cell C strobe. One was expensive (used a lithium cell) and that worked well until my brother dropped it. My replacement uses a rgular c cell and has also worked well. At $30ish each, you could even get two...