Energizer Hard Case Tactical Impressions and Pics.

[gorn]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

I have to touch and try one first, but on paper it seems military-capable and is a huge improvement over whatever they're issuing nowadays.

I just asked my Son who is a Scout Sniper in Iraq what type of flashlight he had been issued. His response was "Are you kidding me? They don't issue us flashlights". I was totally caught off guard by that. I know some units get them but I couldn't believe an Airborne special unit wasn't one of them.

I've had to buy him alot of equipment to replace poor quality issue gear, or gear they just don't provide. I guess now I will be looking to get him and the other soldiers in his squad at least a decent AA light. They only have access to AA and AAA batteries otherwise there would be a Gladius on the way to him.

 

[rycen]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

"Higher power incandescent? My Cree modified Nuwai QIII produces over 100 lumens on 3 volts using a BadBoy Nexgen 1000 driver. SureFire's brightest 3 volt lamp produces 15 (fifteen) lumens. That's only a little brighter than a MiniMag. Their standard 6 volt lamp produces 65 lumens. That's only as bright as the stock QIII. Do you lament the obsolescence of incandescent lights in lower voltage applications?

Bernie

A stock QIII produces nowhere near 65 lumens.25 lumens for a good one.

 

[Monocrom]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

To: FirstDsent-

For that much, 6P and a case of lithium batteries.

~~~~~~~~~

To: gorn-

Don't be so surprised.... most Soldiers also have to buy their own knives. PXs mostly sell Gerber folders.

I think it's retarded considering most troops use their knives for mundane chores far more often than they use their rifles.

 

[ace0001a]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

So if the our soldiers aren't provided with flashlights (or a lot of other equipment for that matter), when were those old style olive drab bent-necked flashlights ever officially used and "provided" to them? To my knowledge, those flashlights go at least as far back as Vietnam right?

 

[ace0001a]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

Still I'd like to see this Energizer flashlight more affordable. I think if it were say $40 or lower, it could be worth trying one out.

 

[gorn]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

To: FirstDsent-

For that much, 6P and a case of lithium batteries.

~~~~~~~~~

To: gorn-

Don't be so surprised.... most Soldiers also have to buy their own knives. PXs mostly sell Gerber folders.

I think it's retarded considering most troops use their knives for mundane chores far more often than they use their rifles.

Yeah, I am not suprised, he is carrying a benchmade nimravus that I got for him.

 

[gorn]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

So if the our soldiers aren't provided with flashlights (or a lot of other equipment for that matter), when were those old style olive drab bent-necked flashlights ever officially used and "provided" to them? To my knowledge, those flashlights go at least as far back as Vietnam right?

Those light go back to WWII. I've had several over the years. They aren't bad for what they are. This energizer looks like a huge improvement over them.

 

[jcoldwater]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

If the beam is anything like the 2AA Hard case I may pick on of thse up when the price falls. On a side note, It may be cheaper to pust an LED bulb into an old MX991/u (the army angle heads).

 

[ace0001a]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

Elektrolumens sells a modified MX991 for $60. Suppose to be a vast improvement over stock configuration:

http://elektrolumens.com/AngleLux/AngleLux.html

 

[FirstDsent]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

A stock QIII produces nowhere near 65 lumens.25 lumens for a good one.

OK, I'll swallow that one. My QIII had a U-bin and a Flupic in it when I bought it from Litemania.
I stand corrected, However I am quite sure it has over 100 lumens now as I have confirmed the current at the LED at 1.01A @ 3.54 volts. The Cree revolt has resulted in the first (as far as I know) 3V 100+ lumen lights. It's quite astonishing compared with the SureFire E1e.

Bernie

 

[blake711]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

yeah i did a little googling and seems its routinly called the G.I. Anglehead Flashlight. Supprisingly most of the places I found them said US Made if they were 10 bucks or more some less than 5 bucks said import. Lots of sites say Millitary issue though. Funny to say the least.

Blake

 

[Illum]

Re: Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight

I like the "survives a 30' drop test" part of the specs. If that's really true, it'll be one tough light.

somehow this reminded me of the propoly test down the elevator shaft....

 

[woodrow]

A few days ago I saw a thread about a elbow neck flashlight called the Energizer Hard Case Tactical. I have always been a sucker for lights that will take AA lithiums. I like them for their heat/cold resistance and light weight. I also like them because my gps runs on them and you can get them most anywhere. So when one reply mentioned that Sportsman's Warehouse had them, I went to look at one. After asking the sales guy to take the light out of the package...(I was not going to pay $69.00 if the light totally sucked) I put a couple of AA's in it that I brought with me and was decently impressed enough to buy it. A couple of days later, here are my impressions...

First, build. The body feels tough, but light. It uses tough polymers with 3"x3/4" steel plates on the side. Again, it is not at all heavy, but does feel solid.
Pic. of side view.

Pic of endcap and battery tube:

Tje main beam is activated by a recessed push button switch on the bottom of the light. The two switches on the front control the blue and red leds. One nice thing about the light is you can have both blue and red (and the main if you wanted) on at the same time. The red led casts a wider dimmer beam than the blue. Together you get a purple circle surrounded by a red corona.
Bezel picture:

pic of map with both red and blue leds on at 3'

Infra Red togle switch

The middle led is a infra red led with both a pulse option or constant on. These are controlled by a lever lower on the handle and cut power to the lights other leds. If the room is dark, you can see a red dot if you look CLOSELY at the middle led...no other light is visible to the naked eye. Pressing the main button on the bottom while in IR mode toggles constant on/locator pulse.

Its main beam sadly is no Cree. It is most likely a lux1 led driven decently. It has a medium spot surrounded by a squarish corona. I took a horrible beamshot at 12". It does show the beam pattern next to a MMagLED 3AA. The MMag is maybe about 15% brighter than the Energizer.

Overall, I am very happy with the light. It will remain my backup camping, car, and arround the house light. Its red and blue leds are great for not disturbing anyone while walking around the house at night. Its main beam is not as bright as many I own, but is more than adaquate for most things I need it for. I love the fact that the main beam (advertized figures) is stated to run for 8 hours. (the packageing says nothing about regulation) and the blue and red leds are quoted to last 70 hours. With this light and a extra 4 pack of lithiums, you should have light for a very long time in not much storage space. The swivel head is nice that it will point slightly down to straight ahead like a regular flashlight. I am using it with the blue lled pointed slightly down now to illuminate the keyboard without having to turn the room light on.

Bottom line: When you pick up the light you can tell that a little engeneering went into it. It is light and tough, (it has 8 screws + 2 on each steel plate holding it together.) rated to survive a 20' fall. It runs a long time on light weight batteries availible everywhere. It floats. And it gives me an excuse to buy a night vision monocular to check out the infra red led. Not bad for $69.00

 

[martytoo]

Anyone try this 3 watt Hardcase for about $26.95 at Home Depot?

http://www.servicelighting.com/catalog_product.cfm?prod=EF01850

 

[woodrow]

I need help...I have to keep posting links instead of having the pics apear on the thread. Unfortunately I am not smart enough to figure out how to do this. I have tried a couple of differnt things, including putting a [ IMG] befor the rest of the link. Please tell me what I am doing wrong.
Thanks,
brad

 

[Newuser01]

You get the location of you image by right click on the image (on the web page where is the actual image is.) and select copy image location.
EG. The image location is at (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/381410531_e5385300b6.jpg).

So you would type in {img}http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/381410531_e5385300b6.jpg[/img]
replace {} with [] on above line.

Sorry... Looks like double the info!! haha

 

[Skibane]

I believe part of the problem is that you're trying to post web pages as images, instead of the actual images themselves. The web page contains the image, but it also contains a lot of other HTML crap (which is why putting the

tags around the web page address doesn't work).

You need to put the address of the actual image between the

tags:

For example, the address of your first image is actually http://farm1.static.flickr.com/167/381410528_0233825d42.jpg

Paste this address between the

tags, and it should work.

 

[shoe]

Why don't you just click the image button? It's the one to the left of the hyper link button. It looks like a yellow box with mountains and a postage stamp.

Enter the link to the picture you want to post in the popup box.

 

[ringzero]

Thanks for the great review and pics woodrow!

Been hoping someone would review this light. It looks like a really cool, highly functional light. Seems a little pricey, but might be worth it for all the features it offers. I'd need answers to a few questions before I'd think of getting one of these lights:

Couldn't tell from pic how battery compartment opens - does it unscrew?

Does light appear well sealed against water intrusion?

The switches are slide switches? Are they waterproof?

How does current pass from battery compartment through to the swivel head? Any chance of a pic of that part of the light?

Thanks again.

 

[woodrow]

Thanks Newuser01, Skibane, Shoe for the help. Hopefully next time you will see actual immages...we can hope.

ringzero, The battery compartment does unscrew and apears to seal very tightly. It also hase one of the most robust spring mechanisms I have seen in a smaller light. You simply unscrew the tailcap to have battery access.

The light does apear very well sealed, but I do not see "waterproof to ... meters" anywhere on the package...It is supposed to float with lithiums in it though.

The red, blue, and main switch are push button, also very quiet ones, not like the loud click of my survivor. To activate the infra red mode, you roatat the lever just above the tailcap 180 degrees. That turns the ir on steady. To activate the ir strobe, push the primary (recessed by the way) button at the bottom of the light.

The wires have to pass throught the sides or side of one of the two holders of the lamp part of the light. I tried to look for this, but they did a good job, and I cannot see the wires. About a photo, I am still saving for the digicam I want. I use film with a photo cd...it might take me a little bit for the roll of film to be done...sorry.

Again, I can say that the light is well made, and I can understand why they charge what they do for it. That being said, I bought it as a novelty and back up light that would give me an excuse to get a night vision monocular. It would have to fit your "needs" Yeah right, thats why most of us get flashlights...I bought it because it did a bunch of cool stuff, and I have actually been pretty impressed with it, and I am glad I made the purchase.
Hope that helps, Thanks again for the info Newuser01, Skibane, Shoe.
brad