Flashlight Advice for a Firefighter Friend

I did some searching and didn't find any current posts on this specific topic - please forgive me if I just happened to miss one.

I have a good friend that just got through Firefighter Academy and wants to get a nice flashlight he can mount to his helmet. They issue very cheap ones at his department.

I'm hoping we have some Firefighter flashaholics here on CPF that can give me some job specific recommendations/advice I can forward on to him.

Obviously he'll need a light that will function well in smoke and in high heat situations. I hesitate to ignorantly recommend LED based lights because of those two reasons.

Any advice would be happily welcomed!

-Guyzero

GuyZero said:

I did some searching and didn't find any current posts on this specific topic - please forgive me if I just happened to miss one.

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Hopefully some qualified, experienced (I am neither) members here can help you, but I think if you search on Google you'll find plenty of ideas on firefighting-specific forums. In addition, not all of the information in the Similar Threads area below is necessarily outdated, especially if you're shying away from LED flashlights.

GuyZero said:

I have a good friend that just got through Firefighter Academy and wants to get a nice flashlight he can mount to his helmet. They issue very cheap ones at his department.

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To provide a baseline, what make and model are the cheap ones? For that matter, how much would your firefighter friend be willing to pay?

By the way, helmet-mounted flashlights used by firefighters tend to be relatively inexpensive because they take a lot of punishment (including melting oo and have to be replaced more often than those used in other occupations.

GuyZero said:

I'm hoping we have some Firefighter flashaholics here on CPF that can give me some job specific recommendations/advice I can forward on to him.

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I'm not a firefighter, but I can tell you based on my reading which types of flashlights are well-liked among them. In general, it sure seems that 4xAA format plastic flashlights (plastic can melt but on the other hand it helps protect the batteries better than metal) putting out 30-50 lumens and running for 3-5 hours is at the "sweet spot" for many, if not most, and several companies manufacture such products that are specifically designed for firefighting and other duties in hazardous areas.

GuyZero said:

Obviously he'll need a light that will function well in smoke and in high heat situations. I hesitate to ignorantly recommend LED based lights because of those two reasons.

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You may be surprised at how popular LED-based flashlights are among firefighters these days, probably because they're brighter, run for longer, have a smoother beam pattern, and are more dependable in terms of not suddenly burning out due to short bulb life (a major issue with small incandescent bulbs that are used a lot). Some say that all flashlights are useless in heavy smoke, so they want a bright light and wide beam for whenever flashlights can be used, while others are convinced that incandescent (it's too bad that manufacturers don't appear to be using warm white LEDs in these products yet) and/or narrowly focused flashlights can penetrate smoke to a useful degree.

I couldn't tell you what the truth really is, although I can give you some examples of certified products that use incandescent bulbs if your friend would be more comfortable with them:

Streamlight ProPolymer 4AA (ATEX) - 34 lumens, 4 hours
Pelican StealthLite 2400 - 45 lumens, 3.75 hours
Underwater Kinetics UK4AA - 38 lumens, 4-5 hours

There are LED versions of these flashlights as well, which are advertised as having highly-collimated beams that help penetrate smoke (can't verify this myself):

Pelican StealthLite 2410 Recoil - 72 lumens, 7.25 hours
Underwater Kinetics UK4AA eLED CPO Front Switch - 120 lumens, 4-5 hours
Underwater Kinetics UK4AA eLED CPO Tail Switch - 120 lumens, 4-5 hours

The Streamlight ProPolymer LUX (ATEX) (42 lumens, 4 hours regulated, 2 hours declining) is similar to these flashlights and seems to be rather popular for this type of duty, but Streamlight doesn't make any claims of using special optics to help penetrate smoke, so I didn't know if you'd be interested, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. Its reflector appears to be quite deep, however, making for a tighter overall beam, and in fact it has greater hotspot intensity than the other LED flashlights despite its modest output, for what it's worth.

Streamlight also makes an interesting compact LED-based helmet-mounted light that is apparently based on their TLR-series weapon lights (very tough), the Streamlight Vantage (100 lumens, 4.5 hours regulated, 1.5 hours declining). Likewise they don't claim to use any special optics, but the reflector is deep and the hotspot is narrow and fairly intense (also has a high-brightness blue LED taillight so that others can better see where you are from behind, I guess). It's probably not what you're looking for, but I thought it was interesting enough to mention.

We were issued the UK 4AA incandescent and it's dim enough that it isn't much use at all. I replaced it with the Streamlight Vantage and I'm very happy with it. In addition to a useful beam, it's very low-profile with very little to get caught on something and it's lightweight. I have also heard from others that they always know they're behind me by the blue tail-light (I'm the only one who has invested in a better light). I also have a Surefire 6P with LED drop-in on the other side of my helmet with a blackjack mount, but rarely use it due to the blue-ish tint of the led. It's my backup. Mounted under the brim of my helmet, both light up the underside of the brim, making a small amount of glare, but nothing too bad. With my visor down, the Surefire causes a glare on the visor due to the angle the blackjack mount holds the light at. The Streamlight doesn't have the same problem probably because I can adjust the angle it hits the visor at. This also makes the Streamlight aimed closer to directly in front of me, although both are aimed close enough to be OK. I also carry a brighter handheld light (4 Sevens Maelstrom X10) for lighting up rooms and outdoor scenes where distances are greater or more lighting is needed. It's small enough to not be in the way, but bright enough to work as temporary scene lighting if needed. The Maelstrom is brighter than our Streamlight Lightbox and throws far enough to be useful for 99% of scenes where you would want a bigger light. Of course, there are other lights on the market that will also work, but these are the ones that I've found to work. Biggest things I would recommend looking for are: light weight, smaller sized, good battery life (at least 3 hours), simple on/off switch (like Surefire tighten the tailcap to turn on or Streamlight rotate the tailcap to turn on) and no more than 3 modes with no flashy modes. My department does not require ATEX (safe for explosive atmospheres) rating, but check to see if his department does. I hope this helps.

Mounting: I did a quick search, and it seems this is the go-to design.http://www.blackjackholder.com/

Heat dissipation: LEDs are pretty efficient, and can withstand high junction temperatures, 150C 302F. So in multimode lights, say a Fenix PD30, do not even consider turbo mode. Low mode is more than fine. Medium mode needs to dissipate less than 0.5 watt, High mode needs to dissipate less than 1 watt.
So use medium/high depending on actual operating temperatures.

I have used LED's on my blackjack, but have stopped and just put a camera there.

The incans do a better job cutting smoke than the high powered LED's in my experience. You could try one of streamlight's small polymer incan's in a blackjack, should hold it. The poly's hold up fine in all but the hottest fires. If my helmet doesn't get melted, neither does the light, so far.

Thanks for all of your great replies! I'm forwarding them all on to my firefighter buddy. I won't be surprised if he gets his own account before too long!

The Vantage looks cool - I wouldn't have thought about putting a blue "tail light" on a helmet light, but I can certainly see the safety advantages for firefighting work! Do your co-workers ever complain about being blinded by it? Or is it not THAT bright?

I'm also intrigued by the comment that poly cased flashlights help insulate the batteries in high heat situations. Never would have thought of that, but makes complete sense!

I'm surprised the Streamlight and UK, who make "firefighter specific" lights, haven't started using warm tinted LEDs for better smoke/fog penetration. Or if they have, that they don't advertise it better.

Thank you again for all of your replies! This will give my buddy a good frame of reference to work from.

-Guyzero

GuyZero said:

The Vantage looks cool - I wouldn't have thought about putting a blue "tail light" on a helmet light, but I can certainly see the safety advantages for firefighting work! Do your co-workers ever complain about being blinded by it? Or is it not THAT bright?
-Guyzero

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The tail light is bright, but not enough to be annoying. I think the fact that it is deep blue helps in that regard. You can see it from across a parking lot, but up close it doesn't blind you.