PT Surge vs. 3D Maglite

At 5:00 AM I took my workhorse 3D Maglite and my new Surge outside to compare, and
I'm still in shock. Both had new batts
and there is about an inch of snow on the ground. I thought the 3D ML would penetrate
better than it did but the Surge never
really gave up anything to the Maglite.
The Surge demonstrated superior light.
Oh well.....different lights for different
applications. The Maglite will remain the
workhorse in my house....but I'm still
wondering why.

It may come back to you when you whack something hard (accidentally or on purpose) with one of them....or buy batteries. Don't get me wrong...the Surge is on my "buy SAP" list, but very little competes with the Maglites on durability & functionality. Brightness & beam-shaping are more easily enhanced retroactively than quality of construction.

I still think of the 3D cell maglite as the real workhorse of the flashlight industry. You can just about pound in nails with it, and it will come back for more. And the burn time is much longer than the PT Surge. These two lights are really in different niches, as far as I'm concerned. The PT Surge is a light I would consier for 'light' duty, when I wasn't expecting long on times, or it getting banged around much. It's fairly lightweight plastic, compared to the machined aluminum of the 3D cell Maglite. The PT Surge packs a lot of light in a small package, but it's just not as tough as a 3 D cell Maglite is.

The Surge is made from a thick plastic, but yeah I would never want to try to smash open a toilet tank or drive a nail into oak with one. :-O
I've used Mag Ligts (3-D and 6-D cell) to put nails into drywall, but no more. About fifteen years back I did managed to BREAK a 6-C Mag by trying to hammer in a nail that was sticking out of something.

Neither the Mag nor the Surge will probably fare well if they're thrown or dropped while on. Instead of blowing out, the bulb in the Mag will often simply get all bent out of shape inside, so the light will never focus into any kind of usable beam again until you relamp it.

Not sure about the Surge, as I haven't finished my photometrics on it and i'm reluctant to start my drop tests until I have a couple of spare bulbs for it. But a thick, short, straight filament like that will probably just bust open and leave you in the dark. Same with Surfires or any other light that uses those high-intensity bi-pin xenon bulbs.