PCa Ikelite

[Skyeye]

I was in my local Goodwill thrift store this morning and spied a brightly colored little flashlight in a bin of other lights. It caught my eye because of it's bright safety pink color.

Further examination showed that it was a "PCa Ikelite". I got it for a horrific .99cents.

After I got home I googled the company and found out that it is a dive light used by scuba geeks all over the world. It has a "O" ring sealed body with a unique ring clamp that squeezes the big "O" ring for a pressure seal. Loading the 6 AA batteries is a task but once you get it loaded up it is solid water tight.

I turned it on and the little halogen bulb shot a very bright pencil thin beam! It's as bright as any of my maglites. Pretty small so I have decided to put it on a lavaliere around my neck for night walking. The little halogen bulb gets pretty hot on the glass lens but it's tolerable. Here are the specs for the light I got from the WWW.
Size 6.5 x 11cm ~ 2.5 x 4"
Intensity 7.2 watts
Beam Concentrated spot
Lamp Halogen 7.2 volt
Batteries 6 alkaline** "AA"
Burn time 2.5 hours
Weight in air 250g (0.6 lb) w/bat
Depth rating 90 m (300 feet)

The Ikelite website shows it sells for $39.00 There is also a 5 watt LED in the same body for $90.

I am most happy with this purchase!:twothumbs

Here's some pics.

 

[Skyeye]

I just night tested this light and I was surprised on the throw! It's just about as good as my 6 cell Maglite Krypton! I took them with me and both nicely illuminated objects a half block away with the exception being that the Ikelite had a much smaller beam area. Phenomenal performance!

 

[offroadcmpr]

A couple of my friends had one of those that they used while diving. You are right, I do remember it throwing really well.

 

[Skyeye]

Yes, it does have a decent throw however I did notice a lot of mottle or artifact up close. In the distance it's not as noticeable. This light is clearly designed for the diver as the oversized on/off switch and attached BCD clip are telltales.

Nice additon to my growing collection.

 

[petersmith6]

just remember to clean your o ring and aply a little silicon grease to the o ring. then it good for 300ft or REALY heavy rain.

 

[DM51]

I had one about 2 years ago which I gave to someone else. I was a good light with plenty of throw, as mentioned above.

The criticism I had was that it was quite fiddly to open, to change cells etc. The seal doesn't look as if it will be effective, although it is, and I dived with it a few times. There's another model called PCm, which runs off 4xAA, IIRC.

If you got it for 99¢, that was a superb deal.