Sportsman Warehouse - Ultra-Power 3 Watt on sale

I just bought and am testing a two 123 - 3 watt LED flashlight from Sportsman Warehouse. Anybody got one of these? They normally run $49 and they are on sale for $29. I couldn't resist.

I can't find it on the internet and there is very info that comes with the light. Its aluminum looking a lot like a Streamlight. Made in China, Had a tail clicky with high low mode. The bulb end has a bubble type optic and the beam is pretty narrowly focused. The general fit and form looks every bit as good as Streamlight; however, this is my first 3 Watt light and, although it is brigher than my 1 Watt lights, considering it has very little sidespill, doesn't seem to be producing 2 times the light. Its the pits now having "any" information on a new light. I'm most interested in know if, and to what degree, it may be regulated. Perhaps that is why its on sale. Can anyone help. Many thanks.

I saw those months ago and was unable to get any info about them. They look vaguely like a Nuwai light.

Can you post any pictures? I've got a webhost if you need webspace.

Sorry, don't have a digital camera; however, it looks very much like the Streamlight 2L Task Light 3 watt except that the swtich is a tailcap instead of on the bezel. It has a high/low setting just like the Streamlight. The other big difference in that the Sportsman has a bubble type optic. I'll try and attach a link for the Streamlight here.

http://streamlight-flashlights.com/tl-2l-lithium-3-watt-luxeon-led.html

Just came back from a late night throw/brightness test using four 1 watt 2AA lights. The 3 watt Sportsman light using two 123s has marginally better throw but is very focused giving the appearance of less total light output. Not impressive for a 3 watt and a very square and a little yellow/dog pee green tint - but not unbearable if not directly compared to a truly white light.

The dim mode on the Sportsman is most disappointing. Just the right amount of light, but too focused for the close up chores one does on low light levels. I found the Infinity Ultra-G a much better broad beam and better color light for up close work. Also, the low beam is considerably more yellow than the high beam to the eye. I convinced that the Sportsman is a well made light a possibly the same as the much more expensive Streamlight 2L Task 3 watt light; however, I suspect the quality of the LED is not up to snuff and I do not like the square and narrow beam of the Sportsman. The SL has a much broader, whiter, and probably brighter beam - from all that I've read. I wish the Sportsman wasn't using that funky optic. Still, the Sportsman is probably certainly worth the 29 bucks.

As far as color, like many lights, such as has been talked about it other threads example-the Surefire U2, I'd suspect the Luxeon Lottery in play, some yellow, some green, some bluish...

I bought one of these lights a couple weeks ago. I figured for $30 I couldn't lose. Anyway, I got it home, took it apart and found that my light had an SWOK in it. The same as many mass market Luxeon III lights. Also, there is no regulation. Just two resistors on the board that "powers" the LED. They each measured 2.2 ohms and appear to be run in parallel. I have pics of the light and the board if someone can host them for me.

The head houses (from bottom to top) the resistor board, an aluminum spacer, the Lux III star, another aluminum spacer, oring, optic and another oring. The tail cap houses a two stage switch. The first click gives the "low" setting and uses 100 ohms of resistance. The next click gives the "high" setting and has no resistance except for what is present in the stock components (0.4 ohms by my meter).

I am going to take some measurements to see if I can replace the bubble optic with a reflector or more conventional optic. If I get ambitious I may even replace the resistor board with something else.

Kevin

P.S. The light also comes with a holster and two CR123 Panasonic batteries.

Re: Sportsman Warehouse - Ultra-Power 3 Watt on s

I've got several pictures in my review.

It's not a bad unit and $30 is a good price.

Re: Sportsman Warehouse - Ultra-Power 3 Watt on s

[ QUOTE ]
idleprocess said:
I've got several pictures in my review.

It's not a bad unit and $30 is a good price.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice review, thank you.

Any idea of the run time on it?

Re: Sportsman Warehouse - Ultra-Power 3 Watt on s

No one has mentioned it, but both the light that I bought, and the one on display, has what I consider an ugly yellow tint. I don't have another LED flashlight with as yellow of beam. Not a problem for the average Joe, it works, but be prepared for yellow.

Re: Sportsman Warehouse - Ultra-Power 3 Watt on s

I got a nice white tint on mine (probably got a SWOK), and I just grabbed the second one back on the second peg. There weren't any demo models to play with. It's not as bright as the Txxx in my LionHeart (driven past 1000mA) and seems almost as bright as the VIP's Txxx (driven around 740mA?).

Run time? It's pulling 800mA on high and I estimated 60 mA on low (based on the 100ohm resistance in the tailcap), so I'd guess ~90 minutes on high and >24 hours on low.

Here are three pics of the innards of this light. Thanks to ALex for hosting these.

Kevin

Nice pictures. I wonder how much light is being lost inside the unit with the (apparently sizable) air gap between optic and LED?

I couldn't get mine open. Maybe I need to use a vise and a strap wrench since there appears to be no shortage of thread-locking compount on mine.

Is there an O-ring between the head and body?

Looks like there's room for improvement in the heatsinking as well.

To open up your light place it in a sealed zip lock freezer bag. Bring a pot of water to a slow boil. Than put the bag in the water with the light in it (remember to seal it!). Keep it in there for about 60 seconds. Remove the bag and quickly take the light out. I dropped the light onto a kitchen towel and used to towel to hold the light. I then unscrewed the head from the light without any problem.

There is an o-ring between the head and the body. There was also a lot of epoxy that I had to scrape off with dental picks before I could screw the head back on. If I didn't then the oring would get torn. I used acetone (nail polish remover) to soften the epoxy. Later.

Kevin

Re: Sportsman Warehouse - Ultra-Power 3 Watt on s

Ah - another application of the "standard method" to defeat threadlocking.