Defiant Flashlights

I work for the Home Depot, and have seen these lights on and off for the 3 years I've been there. Recently they tried to push these lights into the market with bold performance demonstrations (sitting in a tank of water, videos of the light falling off a roof...etc). I finally decided to buy the AA model. Honestly, I was unimpressed. Here's why: the tail switch required a click to sift through the 3 modes (no momentary function). The light claimed to be "waterproof to 1M" I put it in the rain, and it developed condensation throughout. I tore the light apart to inspect and found the threads are machined poorly, and o-rings are thin. The light overall is built–in my opinion– to deceive the average person. Don't get me wrong. They are bright, practical for a non-enthusiast.

I agree. For my dollar, Mag is the best alkaline batteries design in retail.

Defiant is the HD store brand, so the flashlight is whatever the purchasing department/marketing department was able to source for a given time period. No doubt they come from many different factories in Asia.

I have an adjustable 600 or 700 lumen version that was about $20. It's suitable for what I paid and optical performance is half decent. I bought it as a host, but have not got around to the planned modifications.

Home Depot has just released 'Husky' lights. If I were a betting man I'd say Defiant is being moved aside at least during the initial push of the Husky monicker.

Now having lived through the "whack-a-lot" flashlight days (where you had to whack it against your hand to keep it lit) I found Defiants to be reliable vs the predecesors...the old slide switch type. But in todays flooded market of Asian made junky lights the Defiant was more of the same... junky, low end lights.... that as I said are way better than their predecesors.

I own a couple of Defiant lights. For the money they're ok. Yet like many other brands I passed up several models because I did not want strobe.
Imo they're as good as SolarForce (and other popular brands) in terms of durability.

See in the Asian factory you have some assembly lines where they hire QC folks to ensure they are good. Other parts of the factory send out products where the buyer is the QC guide.

Edit:
Welcome to CPF there, uh...Lonnz

I have two of the 1 aa polymer body Defiant flashlights from Home Depot. They look identical. They were purchased as loaner, don't care if lost lights. Purchase price was about 8 to 9 bucks. I became aware of them from a post here in Budget Light's several years ago. The older one has a flood beam and hour and a half runtime. The newer one has a throwy beam and three hour runtime.

They have been dropped, stepped on, muddy, greasy, dug out of snow, covered in brake dust. Several times I thought "they won't survive this I will just get another one". Washed in the kitchen sink they look almost new. I have loaned them to plumbers, hvac repairmen and neighbors. They have become my go to trouble light when something needs attention. They are not fancy, no multiple modes, no great tint or super long runtime. They just work. Never had that kind of luck with a Maglite (2aa Incandescent). In years past I went through several. None survived. I have not tried any of the current led versions. My 2 D Mag seemed tougher but it walked off.

Let me just say, these lights could fall apart any minute. I had my doubts about the durability of the switch boot and the plastic lens from day one. There's that rule though... Sometimes you're wrong.