It has been a long time since I posted here on CPF, but I saw this spotlight at Costco today during my lunch break and I decided to pick it up. I knew that the good people here at CPF would have some comments about it.
I can answer some of the questions asked but keep in mind that I haven't opened my box yet and fired up my spotlight. I did closely inspect the one on display at my local Costco though before I bought mine.
Does it have a horizontally hinged back door for access to the 12V aux power source and 120V recharging cords?
No, it's a vertical hinge on the left side of the door. (With left being from the perspective of looking at the rear of the light like when you're opening the rear door.) The hinge's vertical steel pin can just barely be seen in TheRealDoodle's photo right above the rear leg of the stand.
The 12 V DC and 120 V AC cords are hard wired inside the light's body. They are not separate cords that plug into a socket on the outside of the light's body like my other two 12 V spotlights have.
The battery is a 12 V, 7 Ah SLA cell.
$47.99 at my local Costco. It's not too expensive considering that the body is pretty sturdy compared to other made in China 12 V SLA powered spotlights. It is a halogen H4 bulb though, not HID. What did the Costco HID spotlights cost when they were available? This new halogen one appears to have an identical body to that one. The only difference is that it lacks the ballast and other things necessary for the HID bulb. It looks like an ideal host for an HID mod, one of the reasons why I bought it.
The reflector on this light is huge. It's much larger in diameter and depth than my other halogen spolight, a Peak model. I suspect that it will throw much further, but I'll find out later this weekend when I take it out at night to try to spot Santa flying overhead.
BVH, what sort of charging system is in your Costco HID? Does it automatically stop charging when the SLA battery is fully charged or does it overcharge the battery if left plugged in to either 12 V DC or 120 V AC? I'm asking because I already have a peak detecting SLA charger that I use for my other two spotlights, but it would be a pain to connect it to the battery terminals on my new Costco one. To get the battery out of the Costco one to reach the terminals, you have to remove some screws that secure the battery inside and then slide it out. It's not a huge pain, but I've gotten spoiled by my other two lights that have a charge terminal on the outside of their bodies.
That is...assuming that the Costco HID spotlight has the same internal charging system as this new halogen one.