Thought I'd resurrect this thread from the dead since I picked one up about two weeks ago. Sort of a love/hate thing though.
I stopped in my local Harbor Freight for other items and they had these lights marked at $19.95, I believe.
Anyway, it's about the length of a 3D Mag and the head is noticably larger than the Mag. The lens was a bit scratched up, but I wasn't too worried as I figure if this ever gets any serious use, it will probably get banged up from outdoor use and whatnot. It runs on 5 1/2D cells. Threads and O rings were lacking ANY lubrication so I fixed that. The head is removeable and leaves the bulb exposed and it has a flat bottom so candle mode is no problem at all. The bulbs are marked 'HALOGEN 5.5V1A' and the foam around the spare bulb was completely torn across so it doesn't provide a wrap unless you manually wrap it around the bulb and carefully place the wrapped bulb in the spring but the spare bulb did work.
Anyway, I first charged it up using the car carger and tried it out. At first, the only Mag I had to compare it to was a 3D running a 3D Krypton bulb on 4 C cells. Obviously the non-stock Mag was brighter. I didn't do a runtime test, but it seemed to hold up better than I would have guessed given the low price. After use, I put it back on the car charger. Over the next couple days, I charged it up and ran the cell down by using the light about four or five times using the home charger. Eventually comparing it to a stock 3 cell Mag and stock 4 cell Mag, the beam is more artifacty than even a Mag with a stock reflector if you can believe that but I suspect most non-CPF members would be happy with it. The 4D Mag using a 4 cell Krypton bulb is definately brighter and a 3D Mag using a 3 cell Xenon bulb is brighter as well. I started wondering if something was wrong with the Harbor Freight light since I expected it to be at least as bright as a stock 3D Mag.
Anyway, just today, I opened it back up and looked at the cell to see how many mAh the pack was rated: 'Ni-Cd 1/2D2200mAh 6V'. I also noticed some bad signs on the pack... two of the cells have begun to leak. I could look past one of the cells leaking and I would just assume that it was a manufacturing defect, but two cells? Seems to me that either the chargeing system is set wrong, or I overcharged them - I measured them at 8 hours each on the home charger and about 2 hours on the car charger.
Overall, seems like a decent package for an as cheap as possible rechargeable large flashlight as long as your cells don't leak. It's nice to be able to charge the cell while still in the light and it's nice that both car and home chargers are provided, but two cells leaking after less than 10 charges... obviously not acceptable.
Pics to follow.
