SL Stylus Pro not water resistant at all.

Yesterday i put my Streamlight Stylus Pro under running water from a shower head and was suprised that some water managed to penetrate into the reflector through the lens. Luckily my dealer is willing to do a one to one exchange for me. But i have no confident for my replacement piece as well:ironic:

Has anyone encountered the same issue? And i realised that those LEDs being used for the production of Stylus Pro are of different brands. I got two Stylus Pro and both has different LED profile as in physical appearance and light color output. One produce white light while the other produce yellowish light on the hotspot area.

Welcome to cpf. Does the stylus pro state it is waterproof? I tossed the packageing on mine. It is a great light...especially with 2x AAA e2 lithiums in it for long runtime. I think that water under preasure is more likely to enter a light than if a light was to simply to fall into a puddle.

I think your dealer is being Very generious to replace your light. If you need to use a light in the shower(???) I would recomend something from Underwater kenetics or PT....a light that was designed to be used in water.

Again, welcome to cpf.

I still have the packaging from mine, bought very soon after their release. (I knew it would come in handy someday!)
The Stylus Pro does say "Waterproof O-ring sealed".
The MicroStream purchased at the same time makes no such claim even though the lights appear to be identical except for the body length.
I've never felt like the tailcap switch cover would be waterproof and would be the most likely point of entry for rainwater. But I've never tested mine and don't plan to so I could be wrong.

I can't answer the first question but I can answer the second one.

Each white LED would have a different tint from each other. Two LEDs of the same make and model can have two completely different tints.

:welcome:

I don't use flashlight during my shower but just to test is it really water resistant:nana:

woodrow said:

Welcome to cpf. Does the stylus pro state it is waterproof? I tossed the packageing on mine. It is a great light...especially with 2x AAA e2 lithiums in it for long runtime. I think that water under preasure is more likely to enter a light than if a light was to simply to fall into a puddle.

I think your dealer is being Very generious to replace your light. If you need to use a light in the shower(???) I would recomend something from Underwater kenetics or PT....a light that was designed to be used in water.

Again, welcome to cpf.

Click to expand...

I tested mine on the tailcap switch and water didn't managed to get in. I inspected the lens area with 10x magnifying glass and found that the lens is not evenly sealed. This could result water to penetrate into the gap under certain pressure.

RebelXTNC said:

I still have the packaging from mine, bought very soon after their release. (I knew it would come in handy someday!)
The Stylus Pro does say "Waterproof O-ring sealed".
The MicroStream purchased at the same time makes no such claim even though the lights appear to be identical except for the body length.
I've never felt like the tailcap switch cover would be waterproof and would be the most likely point of entry for rainwater. But I've never tested mine and don't plan to so I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

I've got both of these great little StreamLight lights and I can tell you for certain I am not going to "shower-test" either one.

The water from a shower would seem to be travelling at a higher velocity than a rainstorm, or even a quick dunk in a puddle.

YSMV. (Your Shower May Vary) :laughing:

When I used to sell some water resistant cameras they were okay to submerge in a puddle, etc, but they warned against rinsing them under high pressure water, like from your sink's tap. Most shower heads squirt out the water at even more pressure than a sink tap, so it's not surprising that holding a water proof light up to a shower head may result in water getting into it.

Someone could probably figure out how deep in the water you'd have to go to equal the same amount of pressure that the stream of water from a typical shower head would generate, but that someone isn't me.

IIRC... somewhere around here, I believe someone else mentioned his own impromptu water-resistance test, and though not able to see actual leaking through the bezel/lens interface, it seems the reflector and/or lens fogged up a bit.

At this price point though, especially given the nice looks and overall performance, that the Stylus Pro/Microstream line may not fare tremendously well to higher than average useage water pressure testing, is not that much of a flaw. So far, it's looking like they'll stand up to use in adverse weather conditions, and a quick drop in a puddle (knock on wood), which should cover about 99.9% of the situations these things were designed for.

On tint... Intially, I almost considered myself unlucky to wind up with a Microstream that seemed to have an even more yellow hotspot than typically described. It's actually projected as a defined rectangle of yellow (even at 20 ft.!!... says great things about the optics though), surrounded by a cool-ish corona. Turned out to be a bit of an advantage though, as the warmer spot helps (sort of) to compensate a little for the slightly flat-ish, 2D appearance LED's tend to give to objects. Compared to some other LED's in the 'ol collection, this made the grain of a Mahogany guitar 'pop' out a little more than usual. Anyway, I suspect both the SP and MS use the same emitter. Just luck o' the draw as to what you get.

Back to water resistance, it would seem these items are quite well up to the job for inexpensive EDC duty.

So, this is probably a bit off topic. I've got 2 microstreams and I love mine. For you guys that have both it and the stylus pro, which do you like best? Is it worth getting both? What advantages do each have?

--Matt

Mundele said:

So, this is probably a bit off topic. I've got 2 microstreams and I love mine. For you guys that have both it and the stylus pro, which do you like best? Is it worth getting both? What advantages do each have?

--Matt

Click to expand...

When I bought the microstream, I thought I finally found my "always have on me edc light" I keep a AAA e2 lithium in it for flat runtime. It did go from bright....very quicly (within 30 sec or so) to dead on me once. I then decided to buy the styluspro and found it is every bit as easy to edc, being smaller than most pens, and I like it multiple hours of runtime and slightly brighter light on 2x e2lithium AAA's.

Both are great lights, but I find myself normally always carrying the styluspro.

Mundele said:

So, this is probably a bit off topic. I've got 2 microstreams and I love mine. For you guys that have both it and the stylus pro, which do you like best? Is it worth getting both? What advantages do each have?

--Matt

Click to expand...

The Stylus Pro is noticeably brighter than the Microstream.

For me the Stylus Pro is too big for EDC -- the Microstream is perfect. I always bring the the Stylus Pro on trips.

The Stylus Pro has fantastic runtime; I've measured 9 hours room temp using 1000 mAh Duracell NiMh -- well under 2 hours for the Microstream. Runtime is the compelling reason to get the Stylus Pro.

For the price (well below list through Lighthound), IMO, it's worth getting both.

For great runtime in the MicroStream, I recommend the Duracell E2 lithium. Of all the lights I've ever tested, the MicroStream has the best performance gain in going from an alkaline to the E2 cell.

Sorry, I can't comment on the waterproofness of the lights. My MicroStream has gotten wet (never dunked) without issues.

I have a Microstream and have played with a Stylus pro. I would not count on either one as waterproof. Around the lens does not look to be sealed. Having said that, I'd consider it rain proof if you hold it tail up. I also did some informal testing and got nearly 2:30 runtime on the included alkaline and nearly 2:00 on really old 750 mah MiMH's. The Stylus pro will obviously get much more runtime but IMO is not worth it for the extra size. YMMV.............

BTW, my Microstream has really good tint/beam. I actually EDC it now (due to it's tail switch) with my LOD as golden backup. Both are GREAT lights!

Something I always do with my lights (maybe I am just crazy). I put my mouth around the front of the light and switch cap... and BLOW... or suck really hard. If I feel any air leaking in or out then I know for certain it is not water tight.

kramer5150 said:

Something I always do with my lights (maybe I am just crazy). I put my mouth around the front of the light and switch cap... and BLOW... or suck really hard.

Click to expand...

A man's gotta' do what a man's gotta' do, eh? :green:

J/K... lol.

woodrow said:

When I bought the microstream, I thought I finally found my "always have on me edc light" I keep a AAA e2 lithium in it for flat runtime. It did go from bright....very quicly (within 30 sec or so) to dead on me once. I then decided to buy the styluspro and found it is every bit as easy to edc, being smaller than most pens, and I like it multiple hours of runtime and slightly brighter light on 2x e2lithium AAA's.

Both are great lights, but I find myself normally always carrying the styluspro.

Click to expand...

Hehe, I thought exactly the same thing. In fact I've carried my Microstream every day since getting it and have bought a backup for myself and one to give away to a friend. It's a great little light. I run it on Lithiums. I may have to pickup a Stylus Pro eventually.

--Matt

I got my email replied from Streamlight regarding the water resisitant and diffrent LED profile issue. Please read below for more info.
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Good day. I am writing in response to your questions and comments regarding the Stylus Pro. We have been producing and selling this light in two basic versions (Stylus Pro and Microstream) since August of 2007. As the Product Manager for these lights I can tell you that at no time have we changed LEDs. To clarify, there should be no difference in the LED profiles. This light has only been produced using 0.5W LEDs produced by Seoul Semiconductor. If you have lights where this does not appear to be the case then I need to see them in order to do a proper evaluation; can you please forward them to me directly.

Regarding the "color" of the beam, it is possible that you are seeing different color ranges. We utilize (6) different bins and it is possible that the lights look slightly different in terms of color. We have tested all of the bins for color temperature and forward voltage and verified that the lumen output is within an acceptable range.

As far as water resistance goes, these lights are rated as water resistant in accordance with IPX4 in accordance with specification EN 60529:1992. In order to meet level 4, as stated, the light must meet the following specification:

"Protected against splashing". " Water splashed against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects".

Reference: EN 60529:1991, Table III, Pg. 11

"Washing the light under a shower head" as you note in your email is not how this test is done. In fact the light would have to meet IPX6/IPX7 per the specification, and the light was not tested and verified to that specification.

I hope this clarifies the LED and water resistant issues that you have. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,
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