Which LED light is my best option?

[The exterminator]

Hello all,

I've really enjoyed reading comments/reviews on your site. I own a pest management business and as I'm sure you can imagine, a good flashlight is a must in my line of work. There's nothing worse than being in the far end of an attic or nasty crawlspace only to have my flashlight fail.

For the past ten years now we've been using streamlight products (mainly the rechargeable polystingers) and they've served us quite well, although after half a season of use the battery life is usually cut in half. I was recently made aware of Streamlight's new C4 LED technology and purchased my first polystinger LED C4 flashlight which absolutely blows away the old xenon bulb versions. I am also looking at giving the Coast lenser LED P14 flashlights a go - they appear to be very comparable in size, cost and lumens (200+ lumens on the P14) to the polystinger. I'm concerned that I will be disappointed by the fact that they are not rechargeable. They claim to have a battery life of around 100hrs.
Do any of you know if that is true and if so I would assume it to be true
only on the lowest power setting? How long will batteries last when
continuously used on high power? I'm looking for the brightest flashlight
available but it has to be well built and useable in ALL weather
conditions. According to many reviews I've read, Coast Lensers fit that
description but will they also be able to provide my employees and I with
proper battery life without spending a lot on continuous replacement
of batteries? If I were to estimate, I would say my employees and I
typically have our flashlights on for about 15hrs - per flashlight - per
week (just a rough guess).

Is the Coast P14 going to surpass my expectations or be a
disappointment..... or do you know of any other flashlight that would meet
my requirements (size, durability, battery life, etc.). Or am I best off
sticking with the reliable Polystinger rechargeable C4 LED? Any suggestions from viewers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your suggestions,

Kyle - The Exterminator

 

[wingnut86]

For the price of the P14 I would imagine there are many options that would be better. I wouldn't take the runtime too seriously, especially since it uses 4 AAA cells.

My best advice is to research the many offerings out there. Even if that means researching for a week or so. Maybe check out the review section, or even search youtube for video reviews.

There are so many different lights for many different uses out there, that unless you know exactly what you want, it's near impossible to make a decision with out research. Especially when the price is $100+.

 

[carrot]

If you had a list of specific requirements we could more helpfully recommend you some lights to look into:

Helpful things to note will be:
- Size
- Expected runtime
- Specific tasks the light will be used for
- Rechargeable requirements (must use cradle?)
- Budget, price point

One choice might be the Inova X2 ($40), which is a relatively new model but quite promising and should be very good. Inova has a solid reputation on the forums and my sample of one X2 is quite nice, with excellent build quality and quite bright. It takes 2 AA batteries and claims to run for 3 hours, which sounds wholely possible and quite reasonable.

 

[John_Galt]

First, :welcome:

Second: I personally tend to stay away from Coast/LEDLenser lights for a few reasons.
1) They make ridiculous output and run time claims. They can do the 200+ lumens, 200hr. run time because the lights are direct driven. Basically, the light has no regulation circuit that maintains a certain output until the batteries can no longer sustain the current draw. Direct driven lights are bright at first, but under voltage sag from the batteries, the output reduces, thereby increasing the runtime. The light may make "200+" lumens for the first half hour or so, but once the voltage in the batteries drops, so does the output, usually very quickly.
2) The price point... They are priced too high, IMHO... For what type of lights they are, (non water resistant, cheaply made, cheap materials, only Annodizing II) you can purchase a much higher quality light from many other companies. They would be a good light, and I would support them, if only they were ~$20 cheaper...

The first lights I'll suggest is the TK20, available at 4sevens.com. Fenix lights are pretty well made to begin with, but the TK20 is a TANK of a light. Extremely thick battery tube, heavy build, and indestructible. It has two modes, available by twisting the head section either tight, or slightly loosened, and has a neutral LED, which will give slightly better color rendition than most cold tinted lights, and seem more like an incandescent...

The TK20 uses 2 AA batteries. I would suggest that for your first lights, you stick with rechargeable batteries that are time tested and durable.
Low Self Discharge (LSD) Ni-MH AA's from Eneloop are very high quality, and if you buy them as Duracell "pre-charged" (ones with the white tops only), it's ~$10 for a four pack. The Duracell 15 minute charger comes with 4 batteries, and only costs around $40.
Even if the charger damages the cells (which can happen with timed chargers), thereby reducing capacity, or increasing the self discharge rate, spending $10 every couple of weeks/months is better than spending $60 on a light and ruining it by using alkalines.

Hope this helps.

 

[wingnut86]

I possibly would recommend the Fenix TK20 as well. The light is one of the most solid well built lights I have ever handled. BUT, many of them are known to make a high pitched whining sound. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but it definitely annoyed the crap out of me. Also, the runtime on high is about 1 hour 20 minutes, and about 8 hours on general mode. Nimh or Energizer lithiums are basically required to run in high mode. Alkalines crap out in about 40 minutes on high:sick2:

I have put mine through the "paces" recently, since I really don't care for it any more, too damn loud, and it has stood up to everything I have done to it. Infact, I have destroyed the front battery from it landing so hard on the ground!

 

[The exterminator]

"Who is John Galt"?...... nice name choice, I'm about 2/3 of the way through reading the whole book right now. An intersting book to read during these troubling times.
Thank you all for your replys to my question.

in response to carrot and the rest of you:

1. Our streamlight stinger flashlights are around 8" long, bezel is 1 5/8" diam. and the handle/battery tube is 1" diam. This is the ideal size flashlight for what we do on a daily basis.
2. We need to be able to recharge these flashlights in our trucks between stops many times just to give us enough power to get through the rest of the day. It would really be much better to have the cradle charging option vs. removing batteries from the light each time to recharge.
3. Flashlight should have a strong source of light for at least 3-4 hrs a day. Because of this, i'm thinking i'll have to stay with a rechargeable flashlight.
4. Price is not really a big issue for me if i'm getting a light with all the above. My newest LED C4 Polystinger cost me around $130. Came with a cradle charger (1 hr.to fully charged) with ac and dc plugs and a pair of rechargeable batteries.
They have always been worth the money to me..... still have the first one we bought (at least 10 yrs ago) in use on a daily basis:twothumbs.

Certainly not as well built as many of the lights you guys have discussed though.... ours have pretty cheap lenses (easily scratched and they've cracked on us a cpl times before) and likely not as much time and care goes into putting them together.

I've looked at many of the lights that have been discussed on CPF over the past week of my research and they look amazing! I'll probably buy a couple of them just to try out but don't know if they would be ideal for our daily work routes or not.

Great website with interesting topics!

Thanks again,

Kyle

 

[carrot]

The Pelican 7060 should be of prime consideration then. It is, I hear, the new standard issue for the LAPD, and very rugged. It has gotten great feedback here on the forums. http://www.pelican.com/lights_detail.php?recordID=7060

You may also like the 5.11 "Light for Life", but I have not heard as much about it. Initial feedback has also been positive, however. http://www.511tactical.com/html511/static/LFLDemo.html
al.com/html511/static/dLFLDemo.html

 

[Nitroz]

A Lumapower Mentor would be a good light. Uses 2 C cell batteries and has 3 modes.

 

[wingnut86]

It sounds as though you already have the perfect light for your use. The Streamlight is a great light, and excellent customer service as well.

Maybe get some Streamlight Polytac LED lights as "Back up" to the Poly Stingers, for when they are charging.

 

[hyperloop]

I'm going to go a different route and suggest you take a look at the Fenix TA30, according to Fenix, the specs are as follows:-

• 3 brightness levels plus disorienting strobe (select by rotating dimmer system)
Low, 9 Lumens with 115 hours of runtime
Medium, 60 Lumens with 25 hours of runtime
High, 225 Lumens with 3.5 hours of runtime
Strobe, 230 Lumens with 7 hours of runtime

Chances are in a dark attic you arent going to need the full blinding 225 lumens, 60 lumens would be more than ample.

The reason i am suggesting this light is that it can run off 2x17500 cells which can be obtained from AW along with chargers. Get the light, 4 cells for each light and you'd be good to go.

1 load in the light, a spare load and you've got 50 hrs of light at 60 lumens which, when it's dark is really more than enough. I find that when its dark the 9 lumens is enough to find my way around, then bump it up to 60 by turning the ring and if i need even more light, another turn of the ring and i have 225.

After a day of work, unload the cells in the light, pop in the fresh load and the used load goes in the charger.

The TA30 can also run using:-

3xCR123s
2x14500s
2xAAs (less output but still usable light)
2xeneloop NiMHs (less output but still usable)

 

[carrot]

And just think, if you are willing to use your light every other few Hz you can use 230 lumens for SEVEN hours!