Vortex Sparc Solar Fail

[stomridertx]

I've had an AR equipped with a Vortex Sparc Solar in a Reptilia mount for a few months. I had several instances of pulling it out of the safe with the dot not on. I could get it back on with the up button, but it was an obvious failure of shake-awake. I also had some crazy battery drain on Duracell batteries and was getting maybe 2 months, a crazy stat for an optic trying to boast 100,000 hours. I saw enough and sent it back to Vortex. Vortex being Vortex, they sent me a new one promptly. I got the new optic Zeroed and all seemed to be well. This weekend the same thing started happening. I removed it from the rifle case after a range trip and had no dot. I turned the dot back on and put it in the safe, and when I checked it today the dot was off again.
I have no more confidence left in the optic and will likely get another warranty replacement and sell what I get in return. I like Vortex, but I think their red dots are dead to me. I've had good luck with Holosun and Sig red dots in comparison, but this may have pushed me into the Aimpoint or nothing crowd.

[WobblyPossum]

Wake27 said he had some battery drain issues with one of his as well.

[Wake27]

I did, more than one I think. I’m starting to get the details blurred but I sent two, maybe three back. Interestingly though, I haven’t noted an issue with any of the replacements, and I’ve been checking my primary HD far more often than before I’d sent it in.

Mine also never registered as a failure of the shake awake. They were either dead or the battery was so low that the dot was dim and couldn’t be turned up until I replaced the battery. I don’t remember any instance where I noticed an issue but adjusting the brightness had any effect.

[Colt191145lover]

I had to send my first one back for shake awake failure as well. My replacement ate through the factory battery extremely fast, so I'm keeping a eye on it. Mine is on a test build for work stuff, not on any life support equipment.

[stomridertx]

It's definitely a shake awake failure this time around. I've pulled the gun from the safe every night this week to make sure it's really broken, and the dot was off every time. Manually turning it on will bring it back to life and it has full brightness available, so the 6-week-old battery isn't the issue.
In true Vortex fashion, I dropped them an email last night and woke up this morning to a notice that the replacement is already headed my way with a return shipping label for the faulty optic.
It'll go for sale on my local groups immediately, I'm not taking a chance on it again. I actually think this has pushed me over the edge to move my Razor 1-6/offset dot combo to this lighter weight 14.5 rifle and turn my 16" BCM into an SPR as its accurate enough for the role.
There's something up with the fundamental design of this SKU optic as there's more stories like mine all over. Vortex obviously doesn't have a handle on it.

[Wake27]

It's definitely a shake awake failure this time around. I've pulled the gun from the safe every night this week to make sure it's really broken, and the dot was off every time. Manually turning it on will bring it back to life and it has full brightness available, so the 6-week-old battery isn't the issue.
In true Vortex fashion, I dropped them an email last night and woke up this morning to a notice that the replacement is already headed my way with a return shipping label for the faulty optic.
It'll go for sale on my local groups immediately, I'm not taking a chance on it again. I actually think this has pushed me over the edge to move my Razor 1-6/offset dot combo to this lighter weight 14.5 rifle and turn my 16" BCM into an SPR as its accurate enough for the role.
There's something up with the fundamental design of this SKU optic as there's more stories like mine all over. Vortex obviously doesn't have a handle on it.

That's a bummer, it may be enough for me to ditch mine as a serious HD option. I really hadn't seen issues other than my own. I've been pretty opposed to anything Sig for a while now but the Romeo 4XT Pro has my eye, maybe that'll be the next one I try out.

[WobblyPossum]

That's a bummer, it may be enough for me to ditch mine as a serious HD option. I really hadn't seen issues other than my own. I've been pretty opposed to anything Sig for a while now but the Romeo 4XT Pro has my eye, maybe that'll be the next one I try out.

There’s also the 4T Pro which is the same except it uses CR2032 batteries if you’d rather stick with those instead of the 4XT Pro’s AAA battery.

[DMCutter]

I got one 2 years ago at a black Friday sale and the shake awake died in short order. They sent me a new one but I replaced it earlier this year with a R4T because I always saw a double dot under magnification. I was keeping it as a backup but just recently it died and won't come back on at all, even with a new battery. I guess I'll send it back for another one and sell it. I have Romeo 4s on all my rifles, 3 4Ts and 2 4S's. With the solar backup I can't see swapping them out for the newest iteration.

[davisj]

That's a bummer, it may be enough for me to ditch mine as a serious HD option. I really hadn't seen issues other than my own. I've been pretty opposed to anything Sig for a while now but the Romeo 4XT Pro has my eye, maybe that'll be the next one I try out.

For what it’s worth I have two 4XT Pros and am very happy so far. The first was for a new rifle that now has almost 1k through it so still very new. The second replaced a Duty RDS on another and has less than 100 on it. The glass is much clearer and the dot is a dot to my eye and not a cluster of grapes like the Duty. This is even more noticeable with a 3X magnifier.

[DMCutter]

I got one 2 years ago at a black Friday sale and the shake awake died in short order. They sent me a new one but I replaced it earlier this year with a R4T because I always saw a double dot under magnification. I was keeping it as a backup but just recently it died and won't come back on at all, even with a new battery. I guess I'll send it back for another one and sell it. I have Romeo 4s on all my rifles, 3 4Ts and 2 4S's. With the solar backup I can't see swapping them out for the newest iteration.

I have to post a retraction. I put a brand new fresh Energizer in and it works. I guess the battery I swapped before was not new. My apologies to Vortex.

[okie john]

I have to post a retraction. I put a brand new fresh Energizer in and it works. I guess the battery I swapped before was not new. My apologies to Vortex.

This is not an easy post to make.

Thank you for your honesty.


Okie John

[Wake27]

For what it’s worth I have two 4XT Pros and am very happy so far. The first was for a new rifle that now has almost 1k through it so still very new. The second replaced a Duty RDS on another and has less than 100 on it. The glass is much clearer and the dot is a dot to my eye and not a cluster of grapes like the Duty. This is even more noticeable with a 3X magnifier.

I was tempted by the Duty early on but I see a lot of very lightly used ones up for sale. Seems like a lot of people find something they don't like almost immediately.


I have to post a retraction. I put a brand new fresh Energizer in and it works. I guess the battery I swapped before was not new. My apologies to Vortex.

Was it the stock battery you replaced? Part of why I've started losing track is that I've wondered if issues were partly related to that battery and I didn't initially record what type of battery was used.

[DMCutter]

I think the stock battery is the one that died. I know I didn't run that one long enough to have had to replace the battery. The one I swapped in came out of an RMR I took off a 229 and it hadn't been used much so I thought it would be okay, but I didn't check the voltage first. I need to be more methodical with that type of thing.