Surefire flashlight fortitude

If this has come up before please excuse my ignorance but:

What amount of abuse will the personal line of Surefire flashlights (6P, 9P etc) take before the bulbs go?

I am a Volunteer Events medic and a QA manager who starts work in far too early and has to fix things that are an places that are not designed for human bodys to fit into.

I am trying to decide between getting a 6P and a 9P or an M2 and an M3.

With my medic job I could be doing anything from working a fair, sports, working in/on/under vehicles/boats, running around some very steep hills with them in a cargo pocket, droping them, haing them throwen into my medic bag.

On my other job I could be using it around hot steam/equipment, water, in a freezer, in/on/under heavy equipment

They would be carried in the two outside pockets of a Maxpedition Thermite Versipack outside of work.

Any ideas :candle:

Surefires will take most abuse including what you mentioned, but eventually the bulb WILL fail on you, so I would recomend the L5 from their LED line instead. It's very versatile and bright, and built like a tank. The 5 watt Luxeon LED won't suddenly go dead on you, and you will have a constant reliable output of about 100 lumens for one hour. It is however a little more expensive than the 6P and 9P, but well worth it IMO. It has a wider beam, so it won't throw as well as a 6P or 9P, but if that's what you need, Surefire has got the KL3 head that fit the L5, 6P, 9P, M2, C2, C3 bodies.

Jan

With your needs, I would probably go for an L2 or an L4.

Surefire makes, IMHO, the best incan lights available. The surefire hallmark of ruggedness is also visible in the L series. The L2 will give you 2 levels but at the cost of physical length. This may be an advantage as it will more readily stay upright in a cargo pocket. The L4 will only give you one level of light but comes in a nice compact package.

Runtime may be a concern for you and you may have to switch batteries frequently. There are rechargeable batteries available for the L2 and the L4 which will slash the cost of running the light. Have a search on the forums for a member called AW who sells these cells.

Any of the surefire LED lights should be able to withstand at least as much abuse as your body.

i will advice you to get the m2 and the m3.

becuase led lights especially the luxeon V ones isn't going to have a long live in hot steam conditions. so unless you work you a real cold place everyday, the leds aren't really for you.

the m2 and m3 have a shock absorbing bezel, which will take away most of the shock to prevent the e.g. recoil from guns causing the filament to burn out.

or you can get a led and an incan e.g. the M3 and L6 (note that because they are of the same size )

use the l6 in freezing condition will be real nice as leds like working in colder condition

the m3 in hot conditions. and both for water

and for heavy equipment, both.

Working around electrical powered gear a plastic bodied light might be safer. An L5 dropped between a buss bar and ground would make a spectacular "exhibition". I wonder if you should just consider the Streamlight multi-LED ProPolymer 4AA for your repair jobs, and a SL 4AA Luxeon for emergency responses.

I LOVE Surefires, but it sounds like your life style might be highly prone to the loss or damage of the light if forgotten or dropped...Streamlights are working tools you won't cry over, but an L5 lost would be a big deal to me. Also you could pick up a TL-3 to have a cheap beater with some throw. Both ProPolymer LED versions and an incandescent TL-3 will cost less than a single L5. With money left over for getting a rechargeable AA battery system!

Try the Streamlights, and if they are found lacking for your duties you can transfer them to the "emergency kit" every prepared individual should have for power outages and natural disasters anyway.

Paladin

For lights that would take abuse, I would purchase a G2 and another one for backup.

A consideration for your medic work, these lights will possibly be too bright for checking pupils.
I too make the suggestion of using rechargeable power if you use your lights so often. there are many options (i.e. streamlight Strion).
What is the budget? And are you adverse to having more than one light?
And look into good lanyard and wrist strap for helping keep the light "handy" and in reach.
There are hand made lanyards and straps here in the forum you can read about and inquire about if you're interesred.

I would look at a streamlight strion.

I gave on to my 2 year old daughter to play with when I wanted to see just how much banging it would take to blow the bulb.

We live in a house with a bare concrete floor (stained and scored). She banged it all over the living room for about 30 minutes. She used it as a hammer.

It was turned on the whole time and the bulb never blew. The bulb didn't even die a premature death later on.

I got several good dents in the bezel but no blown bulb.

What kind of life does the Strion have on a charge, before needing to be re-charged?

-Kev

Run time by specification is 70 minutes, though in the real world, factors like usage, ambient temperature, age of battery, and battery condition, are all subject to lowering the run time.

LawLight said:

What kind of life does the Strion have on a charge, before needing to be re-charged?

-Kev

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no matter what you choose, incan or LED, bring a backup...even as small as a photon or a stylus...when the bulb of your light does fail...you wont bang your head into all the obstructions while "fix[ing] things that are an places that are not designed for human bodys to fit into."



Good Luck, regards

turbodog said:

I gave on to my 2 year old daughter to play with when I wanted to see just how much banging it would take to blow the bulb.

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:laughing: Little kids are the best flashlight testers!

My son was playing with my L1p the other night, and my wife says: "Have you ever thought that if you gave that light to any kid his age, they wouldn't know what to make of it, yet your son knows what it is and how to operate it?" Ah... what a proud Daddy-Flashaholic moment that was!

With the details that you gave us, I also vote for a Streamlight Propoly. I also work in the same environments as use described. I carry a Fenix L2P but my main work light is a Mag 3D LuxIII. If your not set on an SF, I would strongly suggest you think about the Streamlight line.

http://www.streamlight.com/propoly_family.htm

greenLED said:

:laughing: Little kids are the best flashlight testers!

Click to expand...

Someone ought to start a thread about children and flashlights.

My not quite 2 year old son is definitely a hotwire addict. He always goes for my Mag mods. The brighter the better. I've got the Gordon 3C hybrid (clone of the Streamlight TwinTask 3C?), and he invariably turns it on to the xenon lamp, every time. I switch it to the LEDs, and he hollers and stamps his feet. Then he clicks the button until it's on the xenon lamp again.

My almost 5 year old daughter seems to have a thing for my red L1. She calls it the "blood" light, and always wants to tell "ghost stories" when she sees it. She has mastered the HDS, and can double and triple click to change levels. I was out working on the car brakes, and asked her to bring me a light. She grabbed the U2, brought it to me, and told me she had already "turned it to brightest" for me.

And yes, more than one of my lights have a ding or a scratch or worse from the kids.

Trying to get back on topic, are we sure the Surefire M series are truly shock isolated in all axes? I thought the shock isolation was primarily intended to protect against firearm recoil, which ought to be mostly in one direction. And as far as Surefire L series LED lights being unsuitable for anything other than "freezing" enviroments, I'm not sure I agree with that one either... :thinking:

DUQ said:

With the details that you gave us, I also vote for a Streamlight Propoly. I also work in the same environments as use described. I carry a Fenix L2P but my main work light is a Mag 3D LuxIII. If your not set on an SF, I would strongly suggest you think about the Streamlight line.

http://www.streamlight.com/propoly_family.htm

Click to expand...

I second that! :rock::rock::rock:im thinking of buying a couple more 4AAs...one for each bathroom and one to hang on each exit door...same way one would hang fire-extinguishers in every room

the SL luxeon propolymer rocks.

either the 4aa or 3c will rock your world!

PLZ PLZ PLZ don't use it to check the pupil of the eye.

they will see some nice spots after that which will last for a quite long time.

As I mentioned in my last post I will not use them on a pt's pupils! unless they get on my bad side - that is not a very easy thing to do but there have been a few of those :devil: