Princeton Tec

That's a marketing department for ya'. I wouldn't let it reflect negatively on the engineers - they do a fine job on these products.

That is so sad.

I think I'll mail Princeton Tec, ask what the specifications really are.

lightlover

I remember a thred questioning 4W output from Princeton Tec 40. When a member called the company the answer was "4W for a very short time and then dropped to normal 2.4W". Now it seems like the Surge's ouput is overstated as well. It does not have a 8W output, more like 5-6W. This misleading info makes me think twice before buying a Princeton Tec.

I still like the Princeton Tec products too. ALL flashlights bulb wattage and light output goes down after they're turned on because that's the nature of batteries under a load, even Lithiums. The only way around it is with special circuits to keep the output constant, which is what the ARC AS LED flashlight has. As usual, the marketing dept. doesn't talk to the engineers about what the light is really rated at, just like when a car dealer talks about how much horsepower the new xxxxx car has.

I also like the PT products and I would be willing to bet the guys building the lights don't like what their marketing department is doing either. I can say that after running the lights for about a minute, the Tec40 is running 2.75w and the Surge is running 5.9w.

I don't think princeton tec is trying to be misleading, it is just marketing. I connected an expensive agilent power supply and gave the surge exactly 6 volts. When turned on, the current draw was exactly 1250ma. If you convert this to wattage (v*a)it is exactly 7.5 watts as the surge states on the package. They probably don't know what kind of batteries will be used in the flashlight but under ideal conditions, a good enough battery they would hope could supply the 6 volts under load, at least initially. Therefore their rating is correct at the specified run voltage.

I completely agree, but the problem is if you use lithium's to get the full 6v you will blow the lamp. And best of all PT specifically says to NOT use lithium's, so you can't get the full wattage out of the lamp. But I would agree if you pump 6v through it it should be right about 7.5w, for a minute maybe before the lamp blows.

Sort of like advertiseing that a car will go 180 MPH. Only problem is, to get it to go that fast, you have to drive it off a cliff, and the sudden stop at the end keeps you from doing it again. TX

While I was at SS2002, the flashlight companies often said that they had to inflate their Candlepower ratings because everyone else did, and if they didn't they customer would be confused because how could flashlights with similar output have wildly different Candlepower ratings?

So basically, by marketing lies, the consumer would be less confused.

Of course marketing puts spin on the "facts". I ignore an most of that blurb and go for the results that Brock has reported.

Al

Yup, I am the same way. It just drove me nuts wondering what the lights really put out in power. So I figured I would check them all the same way and see how they really compare.