REVIEW: ThorFire VG-15S Flashlight

Bdm82

Flashlight Enthusiast
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May 27, 2016
Messages
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Location
Illinois
[Submitted as a REVIEW]


Introduction

This light was provided by ThorFireDirect for review and shipped from their Amazon distribution center in Kentucky.

Here's the key review details in one table:
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Packaging

The light was shipped with the product box inside a padded envelope. The VG-15S box is consistent with other ThorFire flashlight packaging: a simple brown box with label on top.
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Opening the box, we find the ThorFire VG-15S in bubble wrap with an instruction manual, a lanyard, and two spare o-rings. There was a thin layer of foam on the bottom of the box but none on top.
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Here is the user manual.
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Make note of the output ratings and quoted runtimes; these will be discussed more in the Performance section of this review.
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Design

The ThorFire VG-15S is a slim profile single 18650 light in the same size category as the Convoy S2+, Thrunite TN12, Nitecore EC20, and so on. The diameter isn't much bigger than the 18650 battery itself and both head and tail are kept similarly small in diameter so that it can fit into a pocket easily.

The VG-15S is an upgrade to ThorFire's own VG-15. Mode count is up from 4+1 to 5+1 (the "+1" being strobe on both models) with the additional mode exclusive to the VG-15S being a new Firefly mode. Max output as rated by ThorFire is up from 800 to 1070 lumens.
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I measured the overall length at 4 7/8 in, head diameter at 15/16, and body diameter at 15/16 in. The cooling fins added less than 1/8 in to the diameter in that section. Weight as tested with pocket clip but without battery was 67 grams or 2.35oz. For comparison, the Convoy S2+ tested at 2.55 oz – so the VG-15S is pretty lightweight.


The ThorFire logo and model name are on the side of the body tube; the printing is clean and clear. The knurling is a diamond pattern that looks nice but isn't very aggressive.
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The head of the light features a polished, crenulated bezel. The polished bezel is a nice look; it also helps tie in the raw pocket clip to the otherwise black anodized light. The bezel crenulations allow light to escape if the light is placed head-down onto a surface. They are pronounced enough to also be useful for breaking glass but not so pronounced to either be used as a weapon or to cause discomfort when carried in a pocket.
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Just behind the LED, the head has seven shallow cooling fins. There are five flat spots in the fins that prevent the VG-15S from rolling on very flat surfaces. They are very mild and not enough to prevent the light from rolling in most real-world uses. Still, if the pocket clip is attached, it will deter rolling quite well.
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The pocket clip itself works for head-down carry only. The clip is strong but slides well onto jean pockets and other moderately-stiff materials. The clip attaches to the VG-15S very securely – I could barely remove it by hand.
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The reflector is a moderately deep orange peel style reflector. The LED was well-centered. The glass is not AR-coated.
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The ThorFire VG-15S's tail features two holes for the lanyard; this is a very nice design aspect as tailstand capability isn't compromised by attachment of a lanyard. The switch itself is a reverse-clicky design with normal/moderate stiffness.
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ThorFire went with a unique approach on the lanyard design for the VG-15S, though. Instead of a simple string that gets doubled-back through itself, the VG-15S's lanyard has a metal clasp. It attaches and detaches easily and can attach through one or both lanyard holes. Unfortunately, the clasp is a bit large and sticks out from the VG-15 whether attached either way.
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The material of the lanyard also lacks a premium feel. I'd expect most owners to leave the lanyard behind.
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Removing the tailcap, we find nice square-cut threads. They were lubricated very lightly but the o-ring was dry.
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The tail has a nice gold-colored spring. The internals were clean, free of solder or other remnants of assembly. The tailcap assembly can also be disassembled if the switch needs cleaning or servicing in the future using snap ring pliers to unscrew the retaining ring.
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The body tube unscrews from the head leaving the light in 3 pieces. Like the tail-end threads, the head threads are anodized. The threads were lubricated but the o-ring was not. The light can be mechanically locked out at head or tail ends.
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Also like the tail, the head features a gold-colored spring. Having springs in both head and tail makes the VG-15S suitable for use in high shock environments like on a bicycle or mounted to a weapon. It also allows longer protected cells to be used. The downside is there's no mechanical polarity protection. ThorFire does not report the light to have electronic reverse polarity protection, so I did not test it. Be careful with battery direction!


With both ends having o-rings for water ingress protection, ThorFire presents the light as having IPX-8 water resistance to 2m underwater. I tested the VG-15S in a bucket of water and experienced no issues.
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To give some perspective of the overall size, here is the ThorFire VG-15S next to a couple of Convoy S2+ lights – they are very similarly sized.
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Looking at the heads, we can see the VG-15S has a deeper reflector:
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And the VG-15S next to a single 18650 battery:
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Performance

What's it look like when on?

The fairly deep reflector produces a definite hotspot though the orange peel reflector smooths out the beam's transitions from hotspot to spill smoothly. Still, the beam is not artifact-free. The bezel crenulations also produce barely noticeable shadows at the edge of the spill, which is typical.

Tested at 1.4 meters, the candela was 7840 – equivalent to 177m meters of throw. This is slightly less than the 200m that ThorFire rates the VG-15S at, but not alarmingly so.

This image shows the shape; see below for more accurate color comparisons.
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From above, the shape of the beam shows that the reflector is fairly deep.
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The hotspot is nearly pure white, but there are some yellows, greens, and blues visible working outward. The tint overall is cool; I didn't find it too offensive but it is noticeable indoors.

To demonstrate the color balance, here is the VG-15S with lights with emitters of various temps. (L to R: Lumintop Tool Cu with warm 219B, ThorFire VG-15S with XM-L2, Convoy S2+ with neutral XM-L2 T6 4C, Convoy S2+ with cool XLM-L U2 1B, Singfire BLF348 with 219B, Olight S1R with XM-L2.) As you can see, the VG-15's colors are cool but nearer to neutral than the cool Convoy.
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Perhaps more importantly, does it live up to the higher Turbo output claims over the original VG-15?

ThorFire rates the VG-15S at 1070 lumens on Turbo. I tested it using both a protected 3200mAh Olight protected Panasonic NCR18650BE and a 3000mAh LG H2 unprotected cell and got the same test result: 1019 lumens at 30 seconds. This is less than 5% off ThorFire's rating but within Cree's own +/- 7% tolerance on the XM-L2.

It maintained over 900 lumens for the first 3 minutes. At exactly 3 minutes, a timed step-down kicked in and reduced the output to about 390 lumens. It then slowly declined over the following hours with the first hour expiring at 323 lumens. After 2 hours, the VG-15S on Turbo was down to 268 lumens. After 3 hours, it was outputting 219 lumens. After hour 4 the VG-15S was about out battery, running at 143 lumens.

10% of initial output was reached at 4 hours at 13 minutes. What's interesting is that this Turbo runtime of 4:13 far exceeds ThorFire's own rating of 0:45 on Turbo – though some would argue that the stepdown at 3 minutes makes it a moot point.

From there, the VG-15S continued to reduce output until it was down to 65 lumens at 267 minutes (4:27) into the test. The LED started to flash, indicating the battery was nearly empty. It flashed for 5 minutes until turning off for good. (Note the increase at the end is due to the flashing; it is not constant.)
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While Turbo output tests produced similar results to those in ThorFire's specifications, the rest of the output tests did not.


High is reported by Thorfire to be 600 lumens, but my test found only 437 lumens. When left on, it reduced output over the next several hours in a linear manner. Hour 1 passed at 351 lumens, hour 2 at 282 lumens, and hour 3 at 184 lumens. Right at the 4 hour mark (240 minutes), the VG-15S was down to 67 lumens and began flashing to indicate the battery was nearly empty. Within ten minutes, the 2.8V low-voltage protection stepped in and the light turned off. This 4:00 runtime exceeds ThorFire's 1:25 rating.
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Medium is rated by ThorFire at 200 lumens. I found a much lower 97 lumens in my test sample. While wildly different, the 97 lumens level is actually a much better level to have than 200 lumens as it makes the steps between modes more differentiated and more usable.


Low is rated by ThorFire at 50 lumens; I again found a much lower 11 lumens in my testing. While I question how a 50 lumen rating was ever calculated, I will say that the 11 lumen setting is more useful – especially considering how dim the firefly/ultralow mode is.
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ThorFire rates the firefly (ultralow) mode at 0.5 lumen. It is in fact the lowest ultralow that I've ever experienced – and was so low that my test rig was not able to measure it. In total darkness it is still enough to be useful, so I suspect many people will really appreciate the truly ultralow mode.
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To illustrate how low the ultralow mode is, here is the VG-15S flanked by the Astrolux S41S (left) and Olight S1R (right) – with all lights on their lowest modes. Olight rates the S1R at 0.5 lumen – and you can see just how much brighter it is than the VG-15S.
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When left on Turbo, indoors at 72F with no airflow, the temperature of the light peaked at a very warm 139F just before the timed stepdown kicked in. The cooling fins were the hottest part – indicating they were doing what was intended of them. The rest of the light remained comfortable to hold.


The above VG-15S tests were all performed with 3000mAh LG HG2 high-drain unprotected batteries. ThorFire notes that its outputs and runtimes are based on ThoreFire 3000mAh batteries (not included). The manual specifically says that CR123A batteries are BANNED so they were not tested.


Outdoor Beamshots

All photos taken with a Canon SD4000IS camera. 1/4" exposure, ISO1600, Daylight white balance.
The night was clear but a very light rain was falling.
White deck railing is 15 ft. away, white fence in distance is 75 ft. away, and enter of boat hoist is 100 ft. (+/- 2 ft.) Pictures match what I see with my eyes pretty closely.

Control shot:
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Firefly/Ultralow:
Not pictured; output insufficient to change control picture above.


Low:
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Medium:
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High:
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Turbo:
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Interface

The VG-15S is a simple one button reverse-clicky design. On/off and brightness are controlled from the single tail switch. There is no momentary on; the light only turns on with the full press to click.

Half presses switch between Firefly, Low, Medium, High, and Turbo modes in succession. A fast half-press x2 activates strobe.

I did not find strobe easy to activate by accident when toggling brightness levels; it takes two very fast half-presses to activate strobe.

There is also mode memory; the light comes on in whatever mode last used – excluding strobe. The VG-15S manual says the mode is memorized in 3 seconds but in my testing I found the modes were memorized instantly.



Problems

No problems were experienced. The VG-15S has a 24 month warranty. Repairs after 24 months will be charged the cost of parts.



Commentary

ThorFire is a brand that is unfortunately surrounded by a number of other "Fire" brands. This is the second ThorFire light I've reviewed and I own a third – and I have been pleased with all of them. From a value proposition perspective, the VG-15S is a reasonable value.

Five nicely stepped modes – including a truly ultralow mode and Turbo of more than 1000 lumens. A linear and long output curve. Low voltage warning and cutoff. Ability to tailstand. A nice looking polished bezel. Spare o-rings. Pocket clip and lanyard. IPX-8 water protection. These are great qualities, and at under $25 – makes it a good value.

Nothing is perfect though and the VG-15S is no exception. The lanyard lacks a quality feel. The lens glass isn't AR-coated. Lubrication falls short. CR123A primaries are incompatible. And I can only speculate where the mid-mode output specs came from as they are off dramatically. Finally, the emitter does have a tint that won't work for everybody.

Still, given the build quality and price point – I regard the VG-15S well.



Meter: Dr. Meter LX1330B
Integrating "sphere": Homebuilt tube-style device calibrated on other known lights and test results. Numbers should be considered relative to each other but absolute accuracy is not guaranteed.

 
Last edited:

Thorfire Flashlights

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Messages
3
Thanks for the nice review. The reason why CR123A batteries are banned is to avoid the high temperature and heat that it brings.
 

Sarratt

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
473
Location
Ottawa, Ont. Canada
Sorry for replying so late but .... I just purchased a VG-15s and have not yet to been able to access ultra-low mode.
It's not a deal killer but I would have liked it for indoor use.
Is it possible that ultra-low is not accessible with a fully charged cell ?

Thank you for your review.
 
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