Just got my Ultrastinger (thanks Bulk & Gandalf)

[Bushman]

After talking to these gentlemen for awhile I decided to get the Ultrastinger. Went in to the shop and they pulled one off of the shelf It had a shiny reflector and a few facets near the bulb. The demo had a orange peel reflector... We cut off the lights and shone both on the wall... Lots of rings and generally displeased with the smooth refletor.

The orangepeel reflector looked great. Very near surefire quality with a generous fairly even corona. I asked to swap bezels and they said sure. Well... the newer light body was outside threaded (like a mag lite) and the older one was INSIDE threaded. Strange huh?
Was there a reason that streamlight made this change? I bought the demo and they let me take the lamp and battery from the new one.

I am very impressed with this light. From what i remember there is really no comparison to my old surefire 8x.

I am very happy...

Mike

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hehehehe...

 

[LEDagent]

Bushman...I'm glad to hear that you bought an Ultrastinger. I was thinking of buying one myself...but i am stumped on which charger i should get. I hear that there is a piggyback charger for the stinger line. At Arizona Gun Runners, there webpage says that they sell a piggyback AC/DC fast charger kit for the Ultrastinger. But a member here emailed Streamlight and they responded saying that there is no such thing as a piggyback charger for the Ultrastinger becasue of the size of the battery.

ANyway....what charger did you get? I'd like to get a second battery for the Ultrastinger in the future, but i'm thinking of what use the second battery would be if i had to put it in the Ultrastinger in order for it to be charged? And i really don't want to buy 2 Ultrastingers.

I'm glad that you like the Ultrastinger.

 

[Size15's]

Well done!
(hint! You'll need to update your tag to show your new light...)

Al

 

[Bushman]

mine came with two slow smart chargers. That means that they are slow 8hrs a charge i believe from a dead battery to full cap. But they are smart in that you can put it on the charger at any time during the "life" of the battery and it will top it off and NOt overcharge it... Streamlight actually recommends that the light be left on the charger when not in use. Pull up the streamlight product manuel off of the streamlight page.

the rapid charger is just that 1.5-2 hrs a charge and is smart in the same sense. But is 20-25 dollars extra. The cords are interchangeable on all streamlight products.

The Idea behind getting a second battery is to charge them both and swap them out but you are right the battery does have to be in the light to charge. I hardly ever use the light for over 20 min at at time so i don't think that haveing an extra battery is right for me BTW the battery has a one year warranty from streamlight.

Mike

 

[Sean]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bushman:
...It had a shiny reflector and a few facets near the bulb. The demo had a orange peel reflector... We cut off the lights and shone both on the wall... Lots of rings and generally displeased with the smooth refletor. The orangepeel reflector looked great.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmmm, that must have been what I saw when I looked at the Ultrastinger a few weeks ago. The beam quality was very poor and I couldn't understand why. I never would have considered getting one again until you posted this info.

Now, how would I order on of these and know which reflector I'm getting? Sounds risky, and the only place I know of locally is very expensive.

 

[Size15's]

There are a number of Dealers who give a damn about picky people like us here at CPF.

If I wanted an UltraStinger, I'd go to Tim Flanagan.

I claim to be one of the worst people to have to sell to. He's very good at sorting me out.

Al

 

[Bushman]

The only thing that i know to do for this is go through a smaller distributer like sableco and actually ask them to hand pick you one. Streamlight tells me that they just recently went back to the orangepeel reflectors (which are aluminum by the way) just a few weeks ago so you might be hard pressed to find a dealer with one unless they just got an order in... Call william at TTS and ask him about it... I bet he would find you one and his prices are good too.

 

[txwest]

I have the US that Bushman rejected (one like it). It's a little dimpeled but mostly highly reflective. I think for my use of this light, I prefer mine over the orange peel reflector. Reason being, I got this light for it's super long reach. On a wall 10-20' away, it might show some circles outside the centerspot. But at any distance, they don't showup & it doesn't mattter. For lights to be used less than 50', orange peel is great. 100'+, give me a smoother reflector for the LONG reach. TX

 

[axolotls]

might be a dumb question. but what's the closest SF to compare with the US? I have been fiending for a US w the AC and DC charger for sometime.

 

[sunspot]

The US I have is dimpled halfway in the bottom of the reflector. The top is smooth. I have no problem with the hotspot. Real good throw. If it can be made better, I need to check if Streamlight sells the new refelctor

 

[LEDagent]

Size15...what is the contact info for Tim Flanagen? I think i remember his name a WHILE back when i first wanted a Surefire E2. Is this the same guy....i dunno.

Anyway, i want to check out his selling price for the Ultrastinger with fast AC/DC charger.

 

[lightlover]

agent,
Tim "The Prince" Flanagan can be reached at
[email protected]

He's my dealer too, and the best guy around for SF deals.

lightlover

 

[txwest]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by phred:
The US I have is dimpled halfway in the bottom of the reflector. The top is smooth. I have no problem with the hotspot. Real good throw. If it can be made better, I need to check if Streamlight sells the new refelctor<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>If it's like the other smooth/dimpeled choices, the dimpels will give you a smoother beam, but you'll lose some of the long throw. TX

 

[Size15's]

Axolotls,

In my opinion, the closest SureFire model to compare the UltraStinger with is the 9NT or 9ANKT.

I understand that the UltraStinger has more batteries then the 9ANKT.
I suppose the UltraStinger is the light with the longest throw between the 9ANKT and the 10X in terms of output?

I am interested to find out how the 9ANKT compares with the UltraStinger focused to the same beam angle.

Al

 

[txwest]

From the lights I have, I would judge my 9PT with N2 as being closest to the US. TX

 

[Spork]

I just ordered a ultrastinger from tts. brightnorm suggested it to me as a "long throw" light in another post. does it need to be completely drained before I can charge the nicads and how much runtime do you get at full brightness? I'm hoping it has better distance than the surge.

 

[ToddM]

Streamlight told me their slow and rapid chargers for the US are smart charging so you should not have to worry about the state of the batteries before putting them in the charger.

From what I've read the ultrastinger should have no problem throwing a beam further than the surge.

Just a ballpark guess at runtime from the discharge curves I've seen of nicads. In general the first couple minutes are extra bright, then they level off for about 90% the runtime then the last 10% they drop off pretty quick. That would mean you should have a good 45-50 minutes of bright light. This could also depend on their 1 hour rating it may be you will get a full hour of bright light.

You could add about 30% to that by having larger capacity nicad packs made.

Todd

 

[Spork]

I had been wanting an ultrastinger for the longest time. if its as great as everyone says I'm selling my surge.

 

[txwest]

I would recomend keeping the Surge. These 2 lights compliment each other more than they replace each other. TX