Gerber multi-color LED pen light at Costco

[jsr]

Picked up a Gerber set yesterday at Costco that included a mid-size multitool, a small (keychain) multitool, and a 2xAAA penlight that has 4 interchangeable different color 5mm LED heads. I was looking to pick up a multitool anyways (was going to get the Gerber Suspension, or possibly a Leatherman, but the Leathermans are so much pricier). This Gerber multitool looks similar to the suspension, but isn't skeleton-framed, still nice.

Anyways, on to the light...the body is made of aluminum with a rubber sleeve. The heads and tailcap are made of plastic. They thread roughly into the body, but work well enough. The end of the body that the head screws into has a spring to contact the metal contact in the head. The tailcap is a press for momentary, twist for constant on. Build quality is just decent, but output is actually quite decent for all the colors. The White LED is a bit bluish in the center, but not too bad. The Green, Blue, and Red leds are all quite useful in color. I didn't think I'd like the light and thought I might return it if I didn't like the multitools either, but I actually like all the items. I got the package for $40. It comes with a pouch to hold the penlight and 3 stretchslots for each of the heads. Just thought I'd put this up cuz I actually like this quite a lot.

Here's some pics:

Light with 4 heads:

Penlight in included pouch:

Penlight and all heads inside pouch:

 

[ringzero]

Picked up a Gerber set yesterday at Costco...Just thought I'd put this up cuz I actually like this quite a lot....

Thanks for a nice mini-review and pics jsr.

I'm a big penlight fan, and I like the 2AAA form factor in general. I'll probably add a Gerber Foreman onto my next order from Brightguy.


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[wjb3]

The heads and tailcap are made of plastic. They thread roughly into the body, but work well enough. The end of the body that the head screws into has a spring to contact the metal contact in the head.

I bought one from brightguy.com and had trouble. It came with the white head installed. The white and red thread on easily. The blue took about a half hour (while watching television) to get on the first time. The green took the rest of the evening to get on. Once I got the green on, I left it for a few day and it seems to be working better.

The heads on mine seemed to be have left over plastic shavings. I also kept messing with the metal tab in the green and blue head to get it screwed on.

-wjb

 

[Roy]

Here are my runtime plots for the Gerber Foreman:

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=148212

 

[jsr]

I didn't even know about the Foreman or that it was offered separately. I've been playing with my Foreman (hmm, that sounds weird) during the weekend and I like it much more than I anticipated. Thanks Roy for the runtime charts...nice to see it's got very good regulation. My threads aren't too bad. They do seem to have plastic shavings, but it's not cross threading. All the heads have smoothened up a teeny tiny bit on threading, but whatever roughness I felt the first time is still mostly there when I thread it on, even after I applied a bit of lube. I'm not sure what I'd use the various colors for, but I find it fun to play with.
Oh, and I really like the clip...so much so that I spent an hour when I first got it trying to remove it so I could flatten it out (the round attachment part) so I could use it on one of my knives. Couldn't get it off though.

 

[LiteTheWay]

hey ringzero, if you are into penlights how do you feel about the Streamlight Stylus?

 

[ringzero]

hey ringzero, if you are into penlights how do you feel about the Streamlight Stylus?

Frankly, I've been a little disappointed with my Stylus.

I haven't used it all that much so I can't really comment on how durable it is.

Stylus's big selling point is that it's slim. It is slimmer than AAA penlights, but it's also nearly an inch longer than some 2AAA penlights. If you want a slim light for breast pocket carry - something that will blend in with pens carried in your pocket - the Stylus is a viable option.

Output is good on fresh cells - nothing amazing, fairly typical for a 5mm LED. Stylus is decent for low power penlight type applications.

I can pick up AAAA cells for it at a few local stores, but still don't like to carry around a light that uses an odd cell size. I want to be able to grab fresh cells right away at the closest store whenever I need them. So, my Stylus mostly stays in a desk drawer and is rarely used.


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[greenlight]

How much more would it have cost them to just make 4 whole led flashlights? One dollar?