Quick Review: Streamlight ProPolymer 4AA LED

Beam: 10
If you could only choose one beam shape, let this be it. The beam is a flood, but with a hotspot in the middle, which gives it a good throw. The flood of light illuminates the ground at your feet, and also the smaller branches and spiderwebs you might otherwise walk into. Meanwhile, the hotspot is lighting the trail ahead nicely. I would suspect this beam is good for at least 80% of all lighting tasks.

Construction: 9 Solid. I think I would barely flinch at all if I dropped this onto concrete. The shape is less thin that I would have thought from looking at online pix. It fills the palm of your hand nicely, without sticking out far enough to screw up the excellent balance. Also hard to see in internet pix is the crinkle finish on the polymer, which is very nice. I deducted one point for the slight battery rattle. On a lesser flashlight, I wouldn't have bothered, but it is really the only flaw in this light. Streamlight probably did it to make sure that any AA battery would fit, no matter how cheezy and out of tolerance.

-Polymer vs. Aluminum-
A polymer light like this won't quite give you the same fuzzy feeling inside as a finely finished aluminum light. It gives you a different feeling, one that is just as good: Invincibility. If you bang the hell out of this one, it won't bother you to notice gouges and such. It never needs to have aluminum powder cleaned out of its threads. It doesn't feel as cold to your skin when it's cold out. It is just super rugged and super low maintenance. You can throw it in your toolbox without a care in the world. Although aluminum is rugged too, most people wouldn't do that.

Overall: 9.8
Without being too wordy, I will just say that I don't believe there is a better all around flashlight to be found for $24. It is solid, rugged, and the perfect size and weight. Back pocket, glovebox, toolbox... whatever.

I agree! For $24.00 it's a GREAT 7 LED. I use lithiums in mine and it has a nice spot of light. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I give them out as gifts to non-flashaholics, they are always impressed at the brightness and clarity of vision with the bluish-white flood. Even my 79 year old mother loves it when she uses it during the night for a trip to the bathroom! A truly great light, even though it's overdriven and will probably burn up - but has a good warranty.
Rob

robk,

Since they have changed resistors from a 12 Ohm to a 22 Ohm, I doubt if the new ones will burn up. Maybe if you use lithiums, but I bet not. Stramlight is smart enough to know that someone will use lithiums or rechargeables and claim they didn't when they burn up, so they made it a moot point by beefing up a bit. (at no extra cost to production)

Here is an update on my yellow 4AA LED ProPoly: I have used it a few hours in the past week for walking in the woods. It seems that there is some chemical in Cutter bug repellant that takes the black paint off! The last few times, I have come back with a black smudge on my hands and I finally figured out what it was from. I think I will use some alcohol to take off the rest of that cheap paint; I was never a big fan of the label anyhow. The paint has kind of a rubbery feel to it... maybe Streamlight just couldn't find anything that would stick to polymer? Maybe they didn't want to throw down the $$$ to buy that special paint? I don't know. They are the ones who are losing free advertising, hehehe.

Lastly, (for now, hehehe) I have been using mine exclusively with Ni-MH batteries with no ill effects so far. I have not had it on for more than about 20 minutes at a time though, so take that for what it's worth. The 22 Ohm resistor allows less current to flow, no matter which type of batteries you use. Li-ion will push the most, with alkalines next, and Ni-Mh and Ni-Cad last.

I use this light on a helmet mount and have used it in several fires. It has taken some abuse but it seems the LED's are fragile. Streamlight is good about repairing things under warranty but it is a hassle. I my first repair was because I had an LED go out and then later the switch stopped working. They repaired it and were also nice enough to replace my scratched lens as well. Today I sent it back again (this is over a span of about 7 years of abuse) and this time I can't shut the light off or turn it on. What I mean is it appears to get a back feed of power. I had to clean it out because one of the batteries in the last batch leaked. These are Duracell Pro Cells. Hopefully Streamlight will do a good job again of the repair. It is good for general lighting and it makes me very visible in smoke filled environments.