Review - Orcatorch WR10

With recent hurricanes Harvey and Irma still fresh in our memories, I am reminded of how vital preparedness is and the significant role that flashlights have in a prepared home. Serving in both realms – needs and wants – flashlights can (and do) save lives, illuminate safe paths away from impending danger, signal rescuers, help identify potential threats, and serve as a calming influence upon frightened family members. A flashlight’s value isn’t diminished when the storm ends though: everyday, ordinary, uses run a course from safety purposes to simple enjoyment.

We’ve all witnessed what happens when some major weather event is forecast: people flock to the stores; emptying the shelves of milk, water, bread, canned goods, and batteries. If you’re one of the lucky people, you finished work just in time to go spend a chunk of your off-time in some crowded store. If you’re really lucky, that crowded store will still have a few items left on the shelves – better hope batteries are one of those few items, because you haven’t checked your flashlight’s batteries since the last major weather event.

Sound familiar?

I’ve been there and done that; most of us probably have. Go back some years and it wasn’t uncommon for me to need the flashlight, only to find that the kids had left it on when they put it away - or didn’t put it away at all - or the batteries had corroded. Naturally any batteries we did have were in the kid’s toys – and all but used up.

It seemed like I was constantly buying batteries, and flashlights that just didn’t do a good job at what they were supposed to do (even when I had fresh batteries).

Fast forward a number of years (OK – decades) and I find myself the owner of two dozen (+) flashlights – and that is after I’ve given quite a few away – all of which are high quality brands/models. Out of all those flashlights – and many others before them – there is one flashlight that I consider to be superior to all the others.

The Orcatorch WR10

It comes as a complete package: including a plastic case with a padded interior, a 26650 rechargeable battery, a sleeve for an 18650 battery, the charging station, cords for AC or DC charging (home or vehicle) spare O-rings, and documentation (owner’s manual and warranty card). (I downloaded the owner’s manual from the Orcatorch website – it’s easier on my eyes)

The WR10 is a superbly crafted, extremely high quality, tool with an anodized outer finish that looks great while also protecting your investment from scratches or other damage. The reflector is a smooth alloy aluminum and relatively deep for the size of the flashlight. The lens is coated on both sides and made from toughened glass – minimizing light loss. The body features an anti-roll design and the ability to tail stand with ease. The body and head feature nicely cut grooves that provide heat dissipation, as well as a very good grip.

At 6.12 inches in length and a head diameter of 1.77 inches, the WR10 is not what I’d consider an EDC pocket flashlight. It wasn’t meant to be. It is designed for home security, emergencies, vehicle security, outdoor activities and mundane things such as nightly walks with Fido. The WR10 is an always-ready-for-duty, no worries about it, capable of handling just about anything you can put it through, tool of amazing usefulness. It fills your hand with a no-nonsense feeling, letting you know you’re holding quality before you click the switch. It is sturdy, perhaps even stout – and that is a good thing.

Built in protections include overheat protection, overcharge protection, over-discharge protection, and reverse polarity protection. The WR10 is waterproof to 2 meters and drop resistant to 1 meter.

No more worries about having extra batteries on hand. The WR10 can use either the included 26650 battery, or an 18650 battery (not included).

Plug the charger into an outlet and sit the WR10 (butt down) in the charging cradle; the switch glows red while charging and glows green when fully charged. There’s overcharge protection too, so you won’t have to worry about damaging the battery. The switch will glow red (out of the cradle) when the battery needs to be recharged and the light will reduce itself to the middle mode when the battery has 5% of it’s capacity left.

The WR10 turns off (automatically) when placed into the charging cradle. Best of all, the WR10 turns on (lowest mode) when the electricity goes out – making it a softly lit lantern and illuminating an entire room (if located so the beam bounces off the ceiling) well enough to make it easy to see your surroundings. No more stumbling around, trying to find a flashlight, when the electricity goes out – making the WR10 the perfect flashlight for those times that we most need a flashlight.

User Interface

The user-interface is simple and straight forward: take the WR10 out of the charging cradle and the light automatically comes on (low mode). Click the switch one time to shut the light off. Click it again and the light comes on in turbo mode. Subsequent clicks change modes downwards until the light is off.

Each click goes to the next mode – On goes to turbo, click to go to high, click to go to medium, click to go to low, click to turn the light off.

A simple interface is exactly what is needed in a flashlight that is targeted toward demanding users who need a flashlight that will work when called upon – no matter the circumstances. I can’t stress the benefits (of this flashlight) enough – the WR10 turns on automatically when the power goes out, and from the off position, one click turns the flashlight on in turbo mode; the mode most likely wanted in an emergency.

The other two modes (strobe and SOS) are “hidden” but easily accessed when needed: simply press and hold the switch (2-3 seconds) to go to strobe mode. Press the switch again to enter SOS mode. Another press of the switch brings you back to the previous (regular) mode you were in.

Beam Profile

There is a lot to love about the WR10 – the beam is no exception. To my mind the WR10 features the most useful beam of any flashlight I’ve used: a bright hot-spot (center beam) with an incredibly smooth transition into the wide spill. It’s sheer joy – fun to play with and amazingly effective when things turn more serious.

The light itself is a cool white – not blue, but not a warm light either. I find the tint to be very effective and easy on my eyes.

Specs

LED – Cree XM-L2 (U2)

Constant current for consistent brightness

Beam distance rated at 311 meters

Turbo – 950 lumens with a run-time of 2 hours and 40 minutes. Amazingly, the WR10 will run (on turbo) for an impressive 20 minutes before stepping down.

High – 350 lumens with a run-time of 7 hours.

Medium – 50 lumens with a run-time of 55 hours and 30 minutes.

Low – 2 lumens with a run-time of 550 hours (that is 22.9 days). I think the 2 lumen rating is a bit low; I’d guess it is actually closer to 8-10 lumens, but I have no means of measuring that.

Conclusion

At three times the price, I’d still strongly recommend the WR10: it is a bargain at its current price and a tool that should be in everyone’s home. The build quality is equal to (or better than) any other flashlight I’ve ever used, its usability surpasses all other flashlights I’ve ever used, and the beam is delightfully effective. The WR10 is easy to operate, always ready for duty, and it works as it should.

I’ve owned the WR10 for awhile now, and used it heavily as I’ve tried to find some hint of weakness; something I could fault – if for no other reason than not wanting to seem so madly in love with the WR10. So far I’ve failed to find a weakness – even a minor one – so I am left with the belief that the WR10 may well be the perfect flashlight for the intended audience (the typical flashlight user whose needs cover everything from emergencies to finding that dropped item in the dark).

Does that include you?

Probably.

It certainly includes me; and that explains why I love the WR10.

I bought mine ($70.00) on Amazon: Orcatorch

Hi, thanks for your great review about WR10. Could you share with us more details of the charging time? How long time does it take in a full charging period?

I should’ve kept track of the charging times, but I haven’t done so.

When I got the WR10 the battery did have a charge in it, but it wasn’t full. I think it was roughly 1 hour to charge it to full that first time.

After using it - sometimes for several hours at a time - it has always recharged quite rapidly. I’d guess a maximum time (for me so far) is an hour before it is fully charged again. Most of the time (short use) it fully recharges in mere seconds.

I honestly haven’t paid much attention to the charging times because it is so simple to charge the WR10 - just sit it in the cradle and forget about it until I need the flashlight again. I can say that the WR10 recharges much faster than I would have expected.

Thanks for your new information~~It means a lot to other friends~~~

Very interesting light just found it on amazon then found your review, great review by the way and quite a coincidence as earlier tonight I also just read your review of the Wuben LT35.

A few questions on this light:

  • Can you explain how it charges? It appears there’s no electrical contact in the tail? I’m not familiar with that type of charging.
  • How is the stability when docked in the charger, looks a bit top heavy and the base looks relatively small, can it tip over easy?
  • Have you tried unscrewing the bezel or removing the reflector? I’m wondering what size is the mcpcb and if it’s glued down?

TIA

The base diameter is 2 & 3/8 inches. I’ve found it to be very stable and have never tipped the flashlight/base over. The base itself has a bit of weight to it, which makes the combination quite stable.

There is no contact on the tail - not in the traditional sense anyway. The base is akin to a socket that the flashlight “plugs” into by way of sitting the flashlight in the socket.

I can’t explain the technical aspects of how it works, but I’ll try to explain what happens.

The battery begins charging as soon as the tail begins to enter the socket (base). I know this because the flashlight itself turns off as soon as the tail enters the socket (actually just a hair above the socket). When removing the flashlight from the charging base, the flashlight turns on as soon as it clears the socket (probably 1/4 inch above the socket).

The tail is not magnetic; at least not to the point that it is attracted to ferrous objects.

My guess is that the electrical contact is made when metal touches metal (tail touches the inside of the base).

I did unscrew the bezel. It took a bit of force, but I did not have to resort to using a tool. The reflector comes out quite easily.

I’m not completely sure what the mcpcb is, but I am assuming it is the board with the led chip attached. That does appear to be glued, but I can’t be completely sure about that.

What I can say for sure is that I’ve had a good number of flashlights in my possession since writing my review of the WR10; many of which are very highly thought of, but the WR10 remains my favorite flashlight out of everything I’ve tried.

Thanks for the info, I’m still amazed on that (Inductive?) charging method.

Nice to know the bezel isn’t glued and reflector can be removed. yes the mcpcb is the board with the led chip attached, hopefully it’s not glued down, it may be just thermal paste under it making it appear glued, thermal paste is often (and should be) used under the mcpcb, if it’s paste and not glue you should be able to slightly move the mcpcb around.

I really like this flashlight. Wish it had knurling on it though. But the grooves in the tube look nice, well defined and deep.

Haven’t seen too many in this price with induction charging. I’m a little interested to dig into the auto on when power at charger base fails setup. Does the light have to go into the cradle on or how is the circuit set up to know it didn’t just leave the base. Power tends to go out in storms at 2-4 am here so a mad dash to the basement in the dark isn’t fun. The wall hugger nicd’s don’t last long with battery degradation. If a code ever floats around for pushing this to the low $50 or upper $40’s I might try it if it comes with a battery.

Mine is screwed down tight as a drum. Can’t get it apart with strap wrenches. Glued like a dive light.

But I agree with everyone else, Fantastic flashlight and charging system

I’m assuming it senses current loss on the AC side, not a change in power in the light itself. So it would appear the power loss circuitry is in the charger base itself, then throws a signal to to the light (for turn on) through induction?

That’s a pretty awesome feature too!

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Yeah that’s a nice thought, but I doubt we’ll see that since the $69.98 is already a sale price (Reg. $119.90)

Not sure how long that price is going to last either. Apparently it’s been that at least since this review back in September, but If your experienced with amazon you know how prices of items stored in your cart fluctuate up or down quite often.

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Also, it does include a 26650 cell:

Specification:

  1. Use one 26650 rechargeable battery or one 18650 battery(No Include)

And confirmed above in the review:
“It comes as a complete package: including a plastic case with a padded interior, a 26650 rechargeable battery……….”

Yes, it senses current loss on the AC side. As soon as you put the light on the charger base, the base resets the light in a standby mode, so when the AC current is lost, the light turns on in low mode.

When putting the light on the base, it resets the light whether the flashlight is on or off, but the AC power must be on in order for the base to reset the light.

Looks like Tahts got his in September, you got yours earlier? (judging by the amazon reviews) I wonder if they were glued earlier on,

Although Tahts did say “it took a bit of force, but I did not have to resort to using a tool”

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This light would be the ultimate if it had XHP50/70.

How cold is the tint? I prefer NW but Tahts said it wasn’t bluish, just wondered what you thought about it, pretty sure you prefer NW also, Could you estimate a CCT number on it?

Well, I didn’t try super hard with strap wrenchs, but I did try. Mine is definitely glued hard. The tint is cool white, but not intolerable. Here’s a picture I just took outside a few minutes ago. A little larger hot spot compared to a C8, but similar.

Robert…Thanks for posting, yeah the tint does look tolerable.

Thanks for the feedback and beam shot. I see that now on the sale price. Didn’t see it yesterday but now there is a S&S discount so could be as low as ~$63.

Maybe I don’t understand fully how Subscribe & Save works, I see it lowers the price when you check the box and select it, but from what I understand it’s for a item you will buy again and again, like diapers or a food item for example…

So if I select it for this they will automatically send another one of these flashlights every month??!!!

S&S can be cancelled anytime after your first shipment. It’s under your account settings, manage subscriptions. $69 has been the normal price for awhile, not sure on the S&S discount. There’s a website that tracks historical pricing using amazon listings. I’m still stuck on the price being a little above my “want” threshold trigger.

Delete the case and car charger (both are probably not practical in reality as its more clutter), offer it in a brown box @ $49 shipped and my interest goes way up. Or, go USB/USB-C (user supplied) on the base in a brown box at $35. I have a drawer full of 0.5 –2 amp charger bricks. A lot of Qi chargers are that way now.

Or an updated version with XHP50/70 and I’m in at $63!

But yeah I agree about the un-needed extras and USB compatible base. Thanks for the info on S&S, I wonder how many people buy something to get the discount then cancel, you would think amazon has some policy to prevent the abuse of it, like maybe you can only do that once.