Any info on the "World's Greatest Flashlight"?

[richardcpf]

I was surfing trying to find a very bright spotlight around $100 and then found this one:

http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1208115

World's Greatest Flashlight

• Our portable wunderkind illuminates objects hundreds of yards away with a halogen spotlight for up to 11 hours
• The equivalent of 15 million candles
• Swiveling 1W LED spotlight and soft area lamp

Looks like pro-grade-DIY-ish to me, anyone has info on this light?

 

[Flashanator]

LOL - to quote Luke Skywalker from A New Hope...




"What a piece of junk..." <------ :bow:

 

[Flashanator]

Looks funny... :laughing:

 

[Patriot]

LOL - to quote Luke Skywalker from A New Hope...




"What a piece of junk..." <------ :bow:

"She'll make point five past lightspeed. She may not look like much but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself."

Ok, I'm done with the StarWars quotes now.




richardcpf
The light is a typical 100-130W Halogen bulb with a SLA battery I'm guessing based on the price. In other words it's pretty average and lights like it have sold for as little as $30. I do think the round shape looks better that the rectangle though. It looks like the switches are recessed too which is a plus. The price is steep...eek. You can buy an N30 for that price.

http://www.batteryjunction.com/n30-3161.html

 

[BlueBeam22]

This light is exactly identical to my Sharper Image 10 million candlepower spotlight! It has all the same features, same body, the only difference is that this one has a larger reflector.

I own the N30 Patriot36 recommends, and it is clearly the better choice. It is nearly twice as bright as my 10 million candlepower Sharper Image and throws quite a bit farther. Plus, the N30 is only 1/3 the size and weight and stays at full brightness for a full hour whereas this light will start dimming after 10 minutes.

I also own a 15 million candlepower spotlight and a 17.5 million candlepower spotlight, and neither of them are as bright as the N30. The N30 is brighter than both of them by an easily noticeable amount.

 

[Cigarman]

Looks like one of those lights made by Sunforce...neato looking design but the price is a put off. Good candidate for HID modding if it could be had for the right price.

 

[Taboot]

Other than the LED swivel-jobby, I like the way it looks.

 

[Patriot]

This light is exactly identical to my Sharper Image 10 million candlepower spotlight! It has all the same features, same body, the only difference is that this one has a larger reflector.

I own the N30 Patriot36 recommends, and it is clearly the better choice. It is nearly twice as bright as my 10 million candlepower Sharper Image and throws quite a bit farther. Plus, the N30 is only 1/3 the size and weight and stays at full brightness for a full hour whereas this light will start dimming after 10 minutes.

I also own a 15 million candlepower spotlight and a 17.5 million candlepower spotlight, and neither of them are as bright as the N30. The N30 is brighter than both of them by an easily noticeable amount.

I knew that you'd know that light Bluebeam. You probably know what Chinese Factory they built that series in...lol

One last comment about the N30, it has it's own built in 7 LED array. It's also neatly place at the front of the handle and isn't cantankerously placed like in the case with this light. :green:

 

[BlueBeam22]

I wanted to add that you can get the "Professional's Favorite 17.5 million candlepower spotlight" from Advance Auto Parts for $39.99. It does look brighter than my 15 million candlepower spotlight, and will most likely be brighter than this.

If you are looking for the most powerful and farthest throwing spotlight available, I recommend the AmondoTech Mega Illuminator bought at BatteryJunction.com as it will be much brighter and throw much farther than a 15-20 million candlepower halogen spotlight.

Another cheap thrower to consider is the Vector Power On Board HID bought on eBay for around $50.00, as it will be brighter than this 15 million candlepower spotlight and last for over 1 hour at full brightness. I love mine.

Overall I still recommend the N30 as it is the best and highest quality light I have ever owned.

Patriot36
I knew that you'd know that light Bluebeam. You probably know what Chinese Factory they built that series in...lol

 

[jmccalip]

I knew that you'd know that light Bluebeam. You probably know what Chinese Factory they built that series in...lol

:green:

Not only that, he probably gets a cut of the profit for all his in forum advertising.:laughing:

 

[flasherByNight]

heh, I have to admit this is what prompted my research. I saw this very same light on uncrate.com.

Figured it was a pos (restoration hardware - rolling eyes)...started looking around, found this site

 

[OAM]

What I find interesting is that the spec say the ahlogen last up to 11 hours. Anyone believe it? I walked into a Restoration Hardware this afternoon and checked it out. It wasn't charged and there was a piece of tape covering the switches saying before first use please charge fully. didn't get to turn it on, but did pick it up and seemed way too light to have a SLA battery. any chance it could be lithium? would that explain the 11 hour run time? I might have to buy it and try it out, if it sucks I could return it.

 

[kaimaikid]

Looks like one of those lights made by Sunforce...neato looking design but the price is a put off. Good candidate for HID modding if it could be had for the right price.

I have visions of 1200w HID thrower for this one :naughty:

Just wished I had the money :mecry:

besides that funny looking led/handle thingy could be handy for lighting up the switches so that you hit the right one after being dazzled...

 

[LuxLuthor]

But guys.....it says it is the "World's Greatest Flashlight." How can you challenge that?

 

[kaimaikid]

errrrr its not HID ??? :thinking:

 

[BlueBeam22]

What I find interesting is that the spec say the ahlogen last up to 11 hours. Anyone believe it? I walked into a Restoration Hardware this afternoon and checked it out. It wasn't charged and there was a piece of tape covering the switches saying before first use please charge fully. didn't get to turn it on, but did pick it up and seemed way too light to have a SLA battery. any chance it could be lithium? would that explain the 11 hour run time? I might have to buy it and try it out, if it sucks I could return it.

No, all halogen spotlights that I know of use SLA batteries. There is no way a high wattage halogen spotlight like can have an 11 hour runtime on any type of battery. Even with a lithium battery it would only give you an hour or two of runtime.
It may use twin 6 volt SLA batteries rather than a single 12 volt SLA, which would explain why it feels featherweight. All of my spotlights that use twin 6 volt SLA batteries are much lighter weight than my spotlights with 12 volt ones.
The 11 hour runtime claim was most likey an error.

I would expect this light to have a runtime of 45 minutes at max. It should stay at full brightness for around 20 minutes before dimming.

This light is basically a 15 million candlepower "Thor" with extra features, and should provide incredible throw and illuminate objects up to 1 mile away. I predict you would be very impressed by it.:thumbsup:

 

[mdocod]

Just for the sake of argument, lets say you were to build something like it, crammed full of energy dense li-ion cells. You could probably fit something like 72 18650 size cells into something of that size. That would be around 600 watt-hours of energy storage. You could theoretically run a 130W bulb for over 4 hours with that, the cost to built it would probably come in right around $1000.

The 11 hour claim is obviously a mistake, the technology doesn't even exist on the mainstream market for the claim to hold up, let alone, at that price tag.....

The 11 hour runtime is probably referring to the LED lights on it.

 

[LuxLuthor]

You guys are just too cynical. It says the World's Greatest Flashlight, so clearly it must be using very clever, experimental technologies. You guys are just thinking too small.

 

[Flashanator]

Worlds greatest? Does it have the ""40MCP"" Claim like this one? No