I got two bravos and a charlie. All with my name and phone number engraved on them. I always tell people “If you get an Elzetta, you won’t be sorry… Until the day you lose it., at which point you will be quite sorry indeed.” That’s why I put my number on them, one of my bravos was returned to me after being lost for two weeks. There’s still a few decent people still out there.
I had had some bad experiences with nitecore, and went searching for better reliability just at the time the bravo/charlie thing first happened. This means my elzettas are pretty close to as old as they get, going on six years now. At least one of them has been with me, all day, every single day since I got them. I believe the construction job I do is just about as punishing an environment they could be in. The amount of water and dust they have to put up with is extreme. I do a lot of plumbing, and it’s more than adequate for the purpose.
The flood lens (LENS, not reflector) is completely awesome for close up work. It surpasses ANY other system of reflector or diffuser. I cannot say enough good things about the flood lens. It must be experienced to see just how good it is. The throw lens on my Charlie is also extremely nice. In my opinion it’s these lenses that keep Elzetta a hair above Surefires of the same brightness.
Forget waterproof, you can take any Elzetta apart and put it back together WHILE IT’S UNDER WATER. One time an idiot dropped one of my bravos into a bucket of latex paint, I didn’t even think twice, I just hosed it off and put it back in my pocket. It pays to keep the threads screwed down tight, but the head tends to not light if it’s even a little loose… so it’s always tight. But it wouldn’t matter if it was a little loose.
Tough? I used to tell people, “Go ahead, throw it down the street as far as you can.” AND THEY DID. Five times it was thrown, I had to file off a small burr once. No damage to the light but it does hurt the batteries, so i had to stop throwing it.
No, they are not the brightest, but that’s really the point. You are not overdriving the battery, the LED, or the electronics. Long runtime! How often do you really need more than 650 lumens? Take it easy, cowboy. Just today I left it running under a dishwasher and went out to the truck for half an hour. It was barely warm. Still had enough battery to finish the install. I get about 75 minutes on a 3400 ma/h battery, and 60 of those minutes are at near full brightness.
The only thing that’s a little wonky is the high-low switch. It’s not perfect but it does hold low well, after you fidget with it for a second or two. The only time i use low is when the battery is low, and i need stretch time.
About this time you’re wondering if I’m getting paid, and the answer is no. I’m just an extremely satisfied customer. After six years, what’s not to love?
If you’re collecting, I could see passing it by. But if you’re going to trust your life to a light…
I say again: If you get an Elzetta, you will not be sorry… until you lose it.
More:
I got all of mine bored by Overready, but going forward I’m not so sure they’ll be doing it forever. You might be stuck with the Bones light if you don’t want 123’s.
Never really cared exactly what the emitter is, it’s 650 lumens of great tint and just about the highest CRI there is, You can rest assured that Elzetta is not using jenkem emitters.
Elzetta’s spokesman, Dave Barnett, is also just about as good as it gets. Highly recommend going to Elzetta’s blog page and he will clarify any concern you have. The two “beam” vids are must-see.