Thorfire TD26 Diving flashlight Review

hazard2036

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Throfire TD26 Dive flashlight Review​
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Hey folks its Chris here and today we will be reviewing the Thorfire TD26 basically the TD26 is a dive light so I am about school my self in how to write a review on a diving flashlights! This is my first time I am virgin with dive lights so please go easy on me! That's what she said! Farking right aye! Minus the flashlight part.
I will be using this light under water so if you planning on killing me soon please hold of seeing as I will probably do that my self by drowning! Save you some cash! Its funny I live so close to the beach but do not use it much!
This light was given to me by Thorfire so go and check them out links will follow here!
http://www.thorfiredirect.com/

This is my 3rd Thorfire light. So i have come to expect a certain level of quality! Which Thorfire delivers on in spades on the TD26. I bought the Thorfire S70 and I still believe it to be the best cost to output light you can buy! 4000 lumen at under $100 Aussie dollars amazing value! So now Thorfire constantly has to live up to this hype. So how does the TD26 do thus far?
The TD26 does really well in all departments that I have tested it in. I am yet to have the light under water for a substantial amount of time. Weather permitting I will do this is a few days I hope.
I did get some water proofing test done under a waterfall where I also slipped and scratched the anodizing on the TD26 tail where the lanyard meets the light.
I was thinking seeing as it is flowing water the water pressure will be greater then just leaving the light in a bucket? Probably could have just used a hose lol. I expected the light to pass and it did way to easy. Even after I damaged the light being a big goof! Der water and rocks equals slippery lol!



I have been EDCing the TD26 for a week now and its been good no glitches or issues what so ever it has been flawless. Its probably not an EDC style flashlight unless your the hulk! The Thorfire TD26 is a tad heavy that is the only reason i say you should not EDC the Thorefire TD26 because it weights 276 grams. (Excluding battery) all that weight helps keep all that water pressure out!. This also means if you drop this light it will end up at the bottom of the ocean.


To put the weight into perspective it weight as much as 4 Convoy S2+. Fair go but! This light is incomparable to any EDC flashlight! No small EDC flashlight can dive to 100 meters! I have to EDC all flashlights just to get a feel for them. After hiking 550+ meters down and then 550+ meters back up the waterfall. I would call the TD26 doable as a EDC. Just not recommended! Well by me at least. I am well lazy some times. Plus my pants usually fall down carrying smaller lights ha! Unless your a dive instructor then it could be used as an EDC flashlight. Touche.

Thorfire has already tested this light to a 100 meters diving distance some one at Thorfire personally test dives every single TD26 by diving to 100 meters! Just joking they would test the lights by putting it in a pressure chamber. It works just as well and its a really good idea! You can buy this light with confidence knowing it will work at 100 meters straight out of the box!
The Thorfire TD26 is a single cell dive light. You can either use a 26650 which is supplied with the light or you can use a single 18650 and use the supplied adapter. So the 18650 doesn't rattle! Always comes in handy safety first! Thorfire also includes a Charger with the TD26 package the charger works great. Its a basic single cell charger with an LED indicator Red= charging and Green= finished it also stays orange when it is almost finished. The charger is universal compatible 100-240 volts and its output is 4.25 volts @ 1amp. The included 5000mah 26650 will take about 5 odd hours to fully charge. Maybe a little longer because current needs to drop at the end of the battery charging cycle to properly charge a lithium-ion if using the CC/CV algorithm.
Red means charging.

Green means fully charged so bright in the picture.

The TD26 uses a Cree XPL in a neutral tint its hard for me to tell the exact tint but I think its a little below 5000k . This is an awesome tint to use it makes every thing look more natural and eliminates the glare from using such a throw orientated beam pattern. When using the TD26 fairly close up of course if your like me and shine it on sand no one can help you! Throfire worked out a good mix between throw and spill with the TD26 I am not sure how much spill is needed in a diving light. How useful will spill be underwater? I think most diver would be using more then one flashlight while diving juts like we do on land.
Using the Cree XPL gives a good mix of output and throw. Its die size is smaller then a XML2 so that should help increase the throw while still being able to output a big number of lumen.

Throfire TD26 outputs

  • Low mode: 30 lumen @ 48h

  • Medium mode: 200 lumen @ 2h 45min

  • High mode: 500 lumen @ 1h 25min

  • Turbo mode: 1000 lumen @ 45min

  • Hidden strobe 1000 lumen
The TD26 has 4 standard modes as you can see plus 1 extra hidden strobe mode. I think a beacon mode could have come in handy on the TD26. But not completely necessary seeing as most divers would carry a second smaller light and probably use this flashlight as there main.


The TD26 uses a what appears to be a C8 reflector or at least very closely matches to a C8 size reflector. I am yet to take the light apart to be fully certain. The reflector size mean you get a peak CD of 9800 which equals to 350 meters about the same as a stock C8 but I am yet to see a stock C8 with such a neutral tint. This means you will be able to light up any sharks in the distance. I will add now i have been diving with such a tight hot spot using the light close up you will need to switch down modes from turbo to a lower setting it creates a bit of glare on the sand if you are way to close. High mode does not create glare even close up. This will also depending on how deep you are diving.

The TD26 is a tough looking light its about medium size because of its overall girth it not large by any means just not tiny either. It comes in at 148mm (14.8cm) long and its head diameter is 50mm (5cm) and the body diameter is a tad thinner being 35mm (3.5cm) but it still manages to fit a 26650 easy. Their is not a whole lot to look at with the TD26. Its power button appears to be a magnetic switch so not much force is needed to activate. Which is great for when your diving. The TD26 doesn't have much feeling in the switch. The mechanism is not directly in contact with the switch there is a tiny delay when changing modes turning the light yield no delay. This slight delay in changing modes is all to be expected because you are not physically activating a click type switch. It is by no means bad! Changing modes is easily its done by just simply pushing the power button no need to hold the button to change modes.
You do not want to be fiddling around with a button while you are busy diving . Using this type of switch also makes the light fully water proof because the switch is sealed of from the rest of the light.

The Thorfire TD26 also has memory mode so if you turn the TD26 of on high mode it will switch back on high mode. This is an awesome feature I hate lights that change to next mode when using memory mode.
The glass on the TD26 is super thick its hard to explain but it looks like it is reinforced with an acrylic layer but i am not sure about this? The retaining ring that holds the glass in is massive in depth. I guess being my first dive light I am not sure what to expect!
!!​
Its better to make it properly once! The TD26 battery tube fits really deep into the head of the TD26. Okay Okay that's what she said! The threads are really thick and long and deep. I can not only be that has a dirty mind right? In a high pressure situation they play an important roll. The threads are made like this to keep water and debris out. I have never seen such thick O-ring on a flashlight like the TD26 its cool! I done some research and at 100 meters the amount of pressure/force is equal to 11kg in sea water. This equation is depending on water temperature but naturally water does get colder when we go deeper. Class is now is session. The TD26 doesn't have knurling as such its more so got thick chunky lines on the body of the light that will give you lots of grip when you are wearing gloves. This style of grip will also help you feel where you are holding the TD26 if you can not see the light. The button is also raised so high for this reason so you can feel it when you are wearing gloves.
Little addition like this help separate diving flashlights from standard flashlights this light is very finished for one main reason diving. On the back of the battery tube there is a very thick lanyard hole and the supplied lanyard is super thick and robust. The lanyard is long so you can fit around your hands with your wet suit and gloves on. The lanyard also has a rubber tube on it to help with grip so the lanyard will not slide of easily when you are moving through the water. The lanyard also have a clip style lock so you can secure the lanyard in place easy but still move it around easy if need be. The Lanyard is about 30cm once attached to the light little things like this make this complete as a dive light!

The TD26 has cooling fins which are not need the light stays cool even on land after long periods of use. After having mine in the water a few little rocks got stuck inside the fins nothing to bad was easy to clean. With the switch being so high i had a build up of water in the switch compartment so just make sure you dry it once your cleaned up on land. The anodizing on the TD26 is type 3 hard anodizing and the TD26 is made out of Aircraft grade alloy. The Type 3 hard anodizing gives the light a matte look i did manage to scratch mine when falling over. I didn't do any damage to the light when diving oblt when i was being a goof! I will add after having this in the water and turned on for 30 minutes mainly on turbo mode run time on this light with a 26650 is amazing I checked the battery voltage it only fell 0.20 volts the battery stared fresh @ 4.20 volts and ended up at 3.98 volts that is an amazing effort! You will get a very long dive out of a single charge!




  • [*=center] Ultra Bright Led Flashlight: With 1000 lumens max output. Oowered by one 18650/26650 L l-ion 3.7V rechargeable batteries. Super bright and more practical.
    [*=center] 5 Brightness Mode: It has five modes, start from Low (30 lumens)/ Mid (200 lumens)/ High (500 lumens)/ Turbo (1000 lumens)/ Hidden Strobe (1000 lumens)
    [*=center] Best Diving Flashlight: Waterproof IPX-8, diving depth 100m. Good for diving and scuba.
    [*=center] Premium Quality : Made of durable aircarft Aluminum and High-efficiency reflection lens, with Lanyard, conveniently carry and use underwater.
    [*=center] What you get: ThorFire TD26 flashlight with 26650 rechargeable battery / US Standard Plug Charger / Double O-ring/ Hand Strap/Manual/Slip, and 18 months warranty with warm customer services.



All in all the Thorefire TD26 is a great light. It is built for one purpose diving and it excels at diving I can see lots of little touches and addition that went into this light for the main purpose of diving. I applaud Thorfire on there efforts with building this light and still being able to sell the TD26 at a very reasonable price (I checked out other diving lights wowzer). How they do it I am not sure but this light get a big thumbs up.

I tried to take an underwater picture and it ended out like this! Better of just waiting for the video!


This was the light on the floor at a whopping 6 meters deep.

This is included in the package. This will set you up ready to use you do not need to buy any thing else!​
Package Includes
1 x TD26 Flashlight
1 × 26650 3.7v rechargeable battery
1 x US Standard Plug Charger (multiple voltage)
1 x Manual
2 x O-ring
1 x Wrist Strap
1 x Battery Tube








TD26 on low mode
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TD26 on medium mode


TD26 High mode


TD26 on turbo mode


TD26 @100 meters
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TD26 left and Stock C8 right


TD26 on the left and Convoy S2+ on the right
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TD26 on the left and Jetbeam Pro 3m on the right




Thanks for reading!
Regards Chris

 
Last edited:

mdorian

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Jan 20, 2016
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[h=3]Thank you for taking your time for the review! :thumbsup:[/h]
 

Led Astray

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Jun 11, 2014
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Perth, Australia
that was one of the more entertaining reviews I have read!

Well done, lots of information there to pick through but I couldn't find (or missed) the real-life run times for the battery type & capacity (or if your times differed from the spec) - you mentioned run times but not which battery was used...and if there is low-voltage protection, if flat-tops can be used, and if alternative tints or drivers are available as on the C8.

Looks an interesting light and worth a closer look.

Loved the review!

thanks
 

hazard2036

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Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
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Location
Sydney,Australia
Hey mate Thanks heaps!
Yea because it comes with the 5000mah battery i didn't think about that info my bad.
It has double springs so all cells will work. The Thorefire run times where done with the included 5000mah cell. My run times with the same cell. I am not sure about the overall run times but the light doesn't step down so mabye that is why the run times are rated low. My cell hardly budge after 30 mins of use so i think run times will be longer i might do that test now.
I am not sure about the low voltage protection but the included cell has discharge protection. Thorefire only sell this in a package so maybe that is why i can not find all the specs on the light.
No different tints or drivers i think they chose a good tint if there is only one. I think its always a hard chose of tint vs overall output.

Thanks!
 

hazard2036

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Joined
Aug 17, 2014
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I done my own run time test on the highest mode with the TD26 using the supplied Thorfire 26650 and after 3 hours the light was still very bright. Not as bright as the start but maybe 300-400 lumens.
 
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