radioactive_man
Enlightened
Update, Jan 17th 2012: Since this thing refused to die, I submerged it in water in a food storage container and put it in the freezer. It still worked after 20 seconds underwater, but there were bubbles forming at the head so I was confident that the light was finally gonna buy it. I decided to combine this with a runtime test on the low stage, so the light was turned on while under water in the freezer.
After a night in the freezer (approx. 12-15 hours) the light had shut down. The low stage was supposed to last for 45 hours on fresh batts, so I had finally killed it ... or so I thought. I thawed out the light by putting the container under the warm tap and letting the water run, and as soon as the warm water got to the light, it fired right back up. The batteries in the light were alkalines, and since this chemistry quits working in cold conditions and the light had been frozen at -23 deg. C, this extreme cold shut down the light ... temporarily. There were some condensation on the lens on the inside, but the light still works. The light is noticeably dimmer, but this is due to the partly drained batteries. This thing is definitely unregulated.
I can't drop test the light from higher up than 5 meters/15 feet, and Varta rates it as drop proof to 10 meters/30 feet, so someone suggest me something I should try next. Throwing it out of a moving car? (under safe conditions of courses).
Frozen solid and dead(?)
It's alive!
Original post, Jan 14th 2012:
For pics and descriptions of the light in question:
http://www.rayovac.com/Products/Lights/Work/Virtually-Indestructible-LED-2AA-Flashlight.aspx
I recently purchased the Varta 2AA Indestructible. Varta is the Euro Rayovac brand. I wanted to test the "indestructible" claim; and, yes, yes, I know, Varta defines "indestructible" as impact proof up to 10 meters and a water ingress rating of IPX-4. But I wanted to take this light to the limit.
The light has a forward clickie, which feels kinda cheap, but is easy to activate and not too easy to click. Is has two levels, low and high, and the high is claimed to be 100 lumens. The runtime on high is claimed to be 15 hours, which seems to indicate, that the light isn't regulated. There is no noticeable PWM on the low level, and I normally notice any kind of PWM right away. The light switches between the levels just like the Surefire G2X Pro - lightly press to change modes, click for constant on. The high mode comes on first (are you taking notes, Surefire?) and there's no mode memory. The light can tailstand, and throws well due to the deep reflector. It actually throws as well as my Quark at distances up to 50 meters. The beam has some artifacts, probably due to irregularities in the reflector, but it's way more symmetrical than the beam off Maglite's LED lights (*cough* Mini Maglite 2AA LED *cough*).
The unsuspecting victim
Bezel view
It has the walls of a main battle tank
Box contents: The tailcap is the only part of the light, that screws off, so leaky alkaleaks may be a problem
Beam on high mode. Pretty symmetrical. Also, I didn't make my bed.
I started my long journey towards killing the light by throwing it into the air 5 times and letting it hit the floor. Predictably this did nothing to harm the light. I then decided to test the waterproofness of the light. I did the following:
5 minutes in cold atmosphere: -19 deg. C (freezer)
2 minutes immersion in 90 deg. C water
2 minutes immersion in 10 deg. C water
During the immersion in the cold water, air bubbles were leaving the light due to the change in pressure. Afterwards I found some water intrusion in the tailcap (a few drops). I took a closer look, and found out that the tailcap is plastic, which means that it's dimensions probably change with temperature. Still, the result is more than I expected from a IPX-4 rated light.
Immersed in water that is almost boiling
I dropped the light 5 times onto the bezel from 1 meter, and put it back in the freezer for 15 minutes. I then rinsed it under warm tap water. No ill effects.
I decided to step things up: I lubed the tailcap O-ring which was bone dry, and immersed the light in 40 cm of clear, cold tap water for 30 minutes. I put it in with the tailcap facing down, to increase pressure on what seemed to be the primary ingress point. A few drops of water entered the light but rendered neither the light nor the batteries inoperative. I've actually seen worse from lights that were rated IPX-8, so water ingress protection is quite good, once you grease up the light properly.
*blub* *blub* (actually no air bubbles escaped during this test)
I proceeded to impact test the light. The factory drop tests the light from a height of 10 meters and it weighs 191 grams including batteries. This corresponds to an impact energy of 18.8 joules. This roughly corresponds to the maximum IK rating, which is 20 joules. However, if the light is simply dropped, the rubber ends will make it bounce so I opted for a different, harsher approach. I dropped a 5 kg weight(!) onto the light from a height of no less than 75 centimeters (and up to roughly 200 centimeters, but it was kinda hard to hit from this height) corresponding to impact energies between 36.8 and 98.2 joules. The light was placed on a piece of wood. With this impact testing method the light had nowhere to bounce, although it did manage to get thrown off to the sides a few times. The results were as follows: 4 hits at energies greater than 50 joules did superficial damage to the body, but there was no deformation of the battery compartment. The anodizing was scratched, but that's it. One hit to the tailcap made the light come on and stay on even if the tailcap was pressed. The light could be turned off by unskrewing the tailcap thereby breaking the connection. A second hit knocked the switch loose again but obliterated the constant on function, so I was left with a momentary light. A direct hit to the front of the bezel did damage to the lens, and a sideways hit to the bezel deformed it visibly. Apparently the bezel and head is plastic just like the tailcap. Boo! Hiss! :thumbsdow
Do you expect me to talk? No, Mr. Light. I expect you to die.
I went outside and ran the damaged light over with my car about 10 times. I ran it over from different angles in order to try to destroy the tailcap or bezel even more, but no luck. I proceeded to throw the light as hard as I could onto the ground five times. This tore off the tail cap boot.
When I went back inside, I tore a loose plastic ring off the tailcap, and to my surprise this got the constant-on function working again. The switch seemed a little bit unstable, but this instability and flickering turned out to be due to battery damage so I replaced the Varta batteries with Uniross Hybrios. So I'm left with a working light, that is a little hard to activate, because the switch is recessed from the multiple impacts. Also the beam is less than perfect due to the lens damage, and the waterproofness is shot to hell, even though I replaced the tailcap boot with a 4sevens boot I had lying around.
Some nicks in the body. These were made by dropping the weight from 2 meters. The anodizing is pretty good.
Lens damage form direct frontal hit.
Tailcap damage, primarily from throwing the light on the ground in a parking lot.
Button top of the rearmost battery impacted, so it is flush with the top.
Tailcap boot and plastic ring, after I tore it off. It's dead, Jim.
Recessed clickie, but it still works. It does take some effort to press, though.
Beam on high mode. Not that symmetrical anymore.
All in all, this light may not be indestructible, but it is way tougher than advertised and certainly tougher than I expected. This is a perfect loaner or cheap backup for the enthusiast and the perfect glovebox light or emergency light for the non-enthusiast and grandpa, in part because it runs on readily available AA batteries. There's also a 3C version.
I hear that these lights sell for 15 bucks in the US, which makes this an excellent value light. I got screwed out of nearly 49 dollars, but that's European prices for ya.
After a night in the freezer (approx. 12-15 hours) the light had shut down. The low stage was supposed to last for 45 hours on fresh batts, so I had finally killed it ... or so I thought. I thawed out the light by putting the container under the warm tap and letting the water run, and as soon as the warm water got to the light, it fired right back up. The batteries in the light were alkalines, and since this chemistry quits working in cold conditions and the light had been frozen at -23 deg. C, this extreme cold shut down the light ... temporarily. There were some condensation on the lens on the inside, but the light still works. The light is noticeably dimmer, but this is due to the partly drained batteries. This thing is definitely unregulated.
I can't drop test the light from higher up than 5 meters/15 feet, and Varta rates it as drop proof to 10 meters/30 feet, so someone suggest me something I should try next. Throwing it out of a moving car? (under safe conditions of courses).
Frozen solid and dead(?)
It's alive!
Original post, Jan 14th 2012:
For pics and descriptions of the light in question:
http://www.rayovac.com/Products/Lights/Work/Virtually-Indestructible-LED-2AA-Flashlight.aspx
I recently purchased the Varta 2AA Indestructible. Varta is the Euro Rayovac brand. I wanted to test the "indestructible" claim; and, yes, yes, I know, Varta defines "indestructible" as impact proof up to 10 meters and a water ingress rating of IPX-4. But I wanted to take this light to the limit.
The light has a forward clickie, which feels kinda cheap, but is easy to activate and not too easy to click. Is has two levels, low and high, and the high is claimed to be 100 lumens. The runtime on high is claimed to be 15 hours, which seems to indicate, that the light isn't regulated. There is no noticeable PWM on the low level, and I normally notice any kind of PWM right away. The light switches between the levels just like the Surefire G2X Pro - lightly press to change modes, click for constant on. The high mode comes on first (are you taking notes, Surefire?) and there's no mode memory. The light can tailstand, and throws well due to the deep reflector. It actually throws as well as my Quark at distances up to 50 meters. The beam has some artifacts, probably due to irregularities in the reflector, but it's way more symmetrical than the beam off Maglite's LED lights (*cough* Mini Maglite 2AA LED *cough*).
The unsuspecting victim
Bezel view
It has the walls of a main battle tank
Box contents: The tailcap is the only part of the light, that screws off, so leaky alkaleaks may be a problem
Beam on high mode. Pretty symmetrical. Also, I didn't make my bed.
I started my long journey towards killing the light by throwing it into the air 5 times and letting it hit the floor. Predictably this did nothing to harm the light. I then decided to test the waterproofness of the light. I did the following:
5 minutes in cold atmosphere: -19 deg. C (freezer)
2 minutes immersion in 90 deg. C water
2 minutes immersion in 10 deg. C water
During the immersion in the cold water, air bubbles were leaving the light due to the change in pressure. Afterwards I found some water intrusion in the tailcap (a few drops). I took a closer look, and found out that the tailcap is plastic, which means that it's dimensions probably change with temperature. Still, the result is more than I expected from a IPX-4 rated light.
Immersed in water that is almost boiling
I dropped the light 5 times onto the bezel from 1 meter, and put it back in the freezer for 15 minutes. I then rinsed it under warm tap water. No ill effects.
I decided to step things up: I lubed the tailcap O-ring which was bone dry, and immersed the light in 40 cm of clear, cold tap water for 30 minutes. I put it in with the tailcap facing down, to increase pressure on what seemed to be the primary ingress point. A few drops of water entered the light but rendered neither the light nor the batteries inoperative. I've actually seen worse from lights that were rated IPX-8, so water ingress protection is quite good, once you grease up the light properly.
*blub* *blub* (actually no air bubbles escaped during this test)
I proceeded to impact test the light. The factory drop tests the light from a height of 10 meters and it weighs 191 grams including batteries. This corresponds to an impact energy of 18.8 joules. This roughly corresponds to the maximum IK rating, which is 20 joules. However, if the light is simply dropped, the rubber ends will make it bounce so I opted for a different, harsher approach. I dropped a 5 kg weight(!) onto the light from a height of no less than 75 centimeters (and up to roughly 200 centimeters, but it was kinda hard to hit from this height) corresponding to impact energies between 36.8 and 98.2 joules. The light was placed on a piece of wood. With this impact testing method the light had nowhere to bounce, although it did manage to get thrown off to the sides a few times. The results were as follows: 4 hits at energies greater than 50 joules did superficial damage to the body, but there was no deformation of the battery compartment. The anodizing was scratched, but that's it. One hit to the tailcap made the light come on and stay on even if the tailcap was pressed. The light could be turned off by unskrewing the tailcap thereby breaking the connection. A second hit knocked the switch loose again but obliterated the constant on function, so I was left with a momentary light. A direct hit to the front of the bezel did damage to the lens, and a sideways hit to the bezel deformed it visibly. Apparently the bezel and head is plastic just like the tailcap. Boo! Hiss! :thumbsdow
Do you expect me to talk? No, Mr. Light. I expect you to die.
I went outside and ran the damaged light over with my car about 10 times. I ran it over from different angles in order to try to destroy the tailcap or bezel even more, but no luck. I proceeded to throw the light as hard as I could onto the ground five times. This tore off the tail cap boot.
When I went back inside, I tore a loose plastic ring off the tailcap, and to my surprise this got the constant-on function working again. The switch seemed a little bit unstable, but this instability and flickering turned out to be due to battery damage so I replaced the Varta batteries with Uniross Hybrios. So I'm left with a working light, that is a little hard to activate, because the switch is recessed from the multiple impacts. Also the beam is less than perfect due to the lens damage, and the waterproofness is shot to hell, even though I replaced the tailcap boot with a 4sevens boot I had lying around.
Some nicks in the body. These were made by dropping the weight from 2 meters. The anodizing is pretty good.
Lens damage form direct frontal hit.
Tailcap damage, primarily from throwing the light on the ground in a parking lot.
Button top of the rearmost battery impacted, so it is flush with the top.
Tailcap boot and plastic ring, after I tore it off. It's dead, Jim.
Recessed clickie, but it still works. It does take some effort to press, though.
Beam on high mode. Not that symmetrical anymore.
All in all, this light may not be indestructible, but it is way tougher than advertised and certainly tougher than I expected. This is a perfect loaner or cheap backup for the enthusiast and the perfect glovebox light or emergency light for the non-enthusiast and grandpa, in part because it runs on readily available AA batteries. There's also a 3C version.
I hear that these lights sell for 15 bucks in the US, which makes this an excellent value light. I got screwed out of nearly 49 dollars, but that's European prices for ya.
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