Defiant flashlights from Home Depot

[StorminMatt]

I picked one of these lights up a week ago. And as others have said, it's a VERY good light for the money. I mean, where else are you going to get a C cell powered XM-L light for $20? I have to say that it doesn't seem to be the best built light around. But for $20, you can afford to go wrong. Brightness is, of course, quite good. And, although it's not as bright as the Coast HP550 I recently picked up, it definitely throws better than that light. I'm not sure how good the included alkaline C batteries are. But I get about an hour and forty five minutes of solid runtime with 4000mAH Tenergy Centura LSD batteries. You could probably get over two hours of use with HSD batteries, such as the Tenergy Premiums, if you charge them and use them immediately.

 

[cccpull]

Brightness is, of course, quite good. And, although it's not as bright as the Coast HP550 I recently picked up, it definitely throws better than that light.

Are you saying the Defiant out throws the Coast? The specs on the lights puts the Coast at 325m and the Defiant at 244m.

 

[StarHalo]

Are you saying the Defiant out throws the Coast? The specs on the lights puts the Coast at 325m and the Defiant at 244m.

Package specs are a no-no, especially made up ones like "range".

Also, for those of you thinking about picking one of these up:

I would strongly recommend doing the in-store pickup; I got one yesterday but it took me about 20 minutes to find it. Home Depot goes a little wacky with how they display everything for the holiday season, so rather than putting all the flashlights in one place, there will be some lights in a display in one isle, then some more in another isle, more on the end of some other isle, etc, and Defiant makes at least 20 different kinds of lights, so it's quite a lot of searching. Same thing with the batteries, not only were the $7.88 Rayovac 40 AA/AAA holiday combos stranded in an inconspicuous area, but there was nothing advertising the price on them, so if you didn't come to the store knowing about the deal, you didn't get it..

 

[violatorjf]

Any owners have a guess on the realistic lumen rating? Was reading one of the reviews on the Home Depot website, guy called himself 'FlashlightGeek' and below is an excerpt...

What it does NOT have is a 550 Lumens capacity, at best this is 220-240 lumens. Using high quality batteries would kick that another 20 or so. Dont get me wrong, this flashlight is worth every penny of $20, just know that it is nowhere near the stated lumens , if it were your three C batteries would be dead in 30-45 minutes, not the 4 Hrs. estimated.

 

[StorminMatt]

Any owners have a guess on the realistic lumen rating? Was reading one of the reviews on the Home Depot website, guy called himself 'FlashlightGeek' and below is an excerpt...

I think the brightness is quite accurate. Let's just say that it's ALOT brighter than a 200 lumen light. I'm guessing that this guy probably doesn't even own the light, and is going by stated runtime. But here are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all, tailcap current on this light is around 2-2.5 amps (thus the 1:45 runtime with 4000 mAH NiMH). This is fairly typical for an XM-L. Secondly, when using alkaline batteries, you can typically get a very long runtime if you are willing to let the light dim down to next to nothing. And I'm sure this is what is happening when the manufacturer says it will last 5 hours.

Are you saying the Defiant out throws the Coast? The specs on the lights puts the Coast at 325m and the Defiant at 244m.

It sure looks like it to me. The Coast HP550 is actually a REALLY floody light, even when zoomed to create the tightest hotspot.

 

[jhc37013]

Any owners have a guess on the realistic lumen rating? Was reading one of the reviews on the Home Depot website, guy called himself 'FlashlightGeek' and below is an excerpt...

I've compared this light to several other light's that I have that I know for sure are 400-600lmns via ceiling bounce and I can and have said this Defiant light is ~500-550 lumen no doubt about it. The guy who said 220-240 doesn't know what he is looking at or talking about or both.

 

[violatorjf]

Thanks Matt and jhc, in that case I think I will suck it up and invest in some C cells!

EDIT: Any beamshots yet? I searched the forum for 'defiant' in the thread titles and only found 2 threads on this light.

 

[StorminMatt]

Thanks Matt and jhc, in that case I think I will suck it up and invest in some C cells!

In my opinion, the C cells are one of the best things about this light. At 4000mAH (LSD) or 5000mAH (HSD), they're pretty high in capacity. So the light has a pretty decent runtime despite its brightness. And unlike the HP550, when the batteries are drained, I simply throw the three C cells on the charger. On the other hand, with the HP550, I have to recharge 9 AA batteries. This is a ROYAL pain in the butt since my charger can only handle four batteries at a time (a high volume AA charger like the Tenergy TN170 12xAA charger would help here).

True C cells are not that expensive, either. Tenergy C cells (whether Centura LSD or Premium HSD) only cost about $8.50 for two. The only catch is that, if you don't have a charger capable of charging C cells, you will need to buy one. But I got my Tenergy TN190 for around $25, which isn't too bad for a charger that is capable of charging anything from a AAA to a D (or even a 9V, if you use them for anything).

 

[StarHalo]

rolling bump

 

[StorminMatt]

Speaking of the Defiant, my friend was having problems with his car tonight. So when I went to help him with it, I grabbed the Defiant light. I have to admit that it was GREAT for the job. With 550 lumens, it was almost like having a droplight without a cord. And since it only costed $20, you're a little less concerned about it getting beat up than a more expensive light.

 

[violatorjf]

Last night I went on the Home Depot website and found my closest store showed 4 in stock, so I placed an order for 2. (1 for me, 1 for my dad for xmas)

This morning the store called and said they could only find 1. They offered me a Maglite in place of the other one.

I respectfully declined and said I'll just come get the one you have and you can either refund me for the other one or give me store credit. So that's the plan...

 

[mikekoz]

I think they are putting these in odd places where THEY do not even know where they are! When I got mine, I looked everywhere in the front of the store, then in the flashlight aisle, and in the endcap areas. I had to ask a saleperson and he led me all the way around to an aisle at the left center end of the store! They had a bunch of them! They would have probably sold all of them very quickly if they were in a more noticable spot.

 

[jayke]

I picked one up yesterday. I was surprised at how bright and clean the beam was when I tested it out last night. It is a massive thrower and like others have stated, has a good amount of bright spill.

 

[StarHalo]

Any of you owners see an output difference NiMH vs alkaline?

 

[violatorjf]

Just got mine today. Star, I don't have any rechargeable C's so I can't answer your question. Here are a couple pics of the packaging, as I haven't seen anyone post it yet. As you can see I opened it before I remembered to take a pic

It's a solid flashlight no doubt! It's daylight but I can tell it's significantly brighter than my 200 lumen Coast PX25.

You're telling me Mike! I looked around for a good 10min before asking where their lights were. Center aisle along registers...up around the stuff on sale for the holidays...at the battery center...nothing. As I mentioned earlier the website said my store had 4 in stock, then they called and said they only have 1. When I got to the customer service desk I saw there were 2 more of these lights sitting in cubby holes behind the desk. I asked her about them and she said those are reserved by other people. I asked her if they go out of inventory between the time someone purchases online and comes to the store to pick it up; she didn't know lol.

 

[StorminMatt]

Any of you owners see an output difference NiMH vs alkaline?

DEFINITELY better with NiMH. Then again, with a tailcap current around 2.0-2.5 amps, this is precisely what you would expect.

 

[StarHalo]

DEFINITELY better with NiMH. Then again, with a tailcap current around 2.0-2.5 amps, this is precisely what you would expect.

That's what I figured; and of course because it's a 3-cell, you'd need a more expensive smart charger to manage the batteries.. Ah well, my dad can make do with alkalines, maybe I'll gift him the charger and cells later down the road.

 

[HighlanderNorth]

I got one for my dad for xmas. Every year I buy him a 3xD MAg LED, and every year the batteries corrode and the tailcap cements shut!!! I'm hoping this light breaks that cycle.

I used to use nothing but alkaline batteries in almost all my electronic stuff, but when I began buying more expensive battery powered products like the more expensive lights talked about at CPF, I decided to give away almost all my newer alkaline batteries and replace them with Ni Mh Eneloop and Tenergy Centura batteries so that I dont ever have to worry about alkalines leaking and ruining my stuff.

 

[CreeCrazy]

Just picked one up after reading this forum. This thing is pretty bright. Like others said its worth the $20. Also I'd say the 550 lumen rating is correct. It's brighter one of my other lights rated at 800 lumens, it throws pretty far too. Just checked the Home Depot website some of the lights are listed as Defiant but the pics show that they are Brinkman.

 

[lightinsky]

Just picked one up after reading this forum. This thing is pretty bright. Like others said its worth the $20. Also I'd say the 550 lumen rating is correct. It's brighter one of my other lights rated at 800 lumens, it throws pretty far too. Just checked the Home Depot website some of the lights are listed as Defiant but the pics show that they are Brinkman.

I picked one up yesterday at Home Depot and this thing is definitely bright and well constructed aside from the platic lens but hey it's only 20 bucks. I compared it to my Inova Niteize x03 dual mode 200 lumen on high and the defiant is much brigher all around including the hot spot which by the way is brighter than my Surefire G2's with an XML in them.

Great buy and light for the money and runs on C cell batteries.