Thorfire sent me their new TK01 1xAAA keychain flashlight for review. Since others have done it better if you are looking for a standard pictorial review, look HERE. There is not a lot that needs to be said about this light. I have two other 1xAAA flashlights, the 4/7 copper Preon and the Prometheus Beta QR. The QR lived on my keychain for years before I broke the lens. The Preon is on my nightstand and oddly enough, I tuck it behind my ear so I can read at night as our bedside lamps suck.
The TK01 is as simple as it gets. Twist on 85 lumens. Twist off. That's it. So whether you like this light or not will solely rely on the quality of the LED in my opinion. Thorfire did it just right with the 219C LED. Rated at 5000k and 83+ CRI, the tint on my unit was absolutely perfect.
If I am going to nitpick, the LED was off center (I don't care about such things in a light like this) and the manual states throw is 100 ft. Maybe if you are on a perfectly flat surface on a perfectly dark night. Otherwise I would say usable range is around 6ft. Ideal for looking for things I have dropped under my desk - the type of duty this light will see the most.
Thorfire sent me 3, 40% off coupons for the TK01. If you would like one, PM me. I will send the code to the first three messages in the next day or so. Considering that puts this light under $10 shipped, you can't go wrong.
Well I ran a run time test on it. Started with a fresh white label EBL 1100mah NiMh. I don’t have Eneloop’s, don’t buy them, too expensive and these EBL’s really do work well. After about 1 hour and 15 minutes it started to very very slowly dim. At about the 2 hour and 30 minute mark it finally made it to the sub lumen level. Still plenty of light to light find your way in a completely dark room. At the 3 hour mark it made it to Reylight AA moonlight level of 0.2 lumen for another 30 minutes before the light became unusable. The emitter was still lit but, not enough to be of any help. It finally gave up the ghost at 3 hours and 48 minutes.
So plenty of good light from a AAA for quite some time. I didn’t expect it to run for that long. Even at 3 hours it was perfectly useful for finding your way around. The wife and I had a bet. I bet 2 and a half hours, she thought 2 hours. We were both surprised. Okay well I was, she didn’t care about my “flashlight thingy’s”, she was just pacifying me I guess.
Thought I would add to this thread rather than start another one here on the TK01. Thorfire provided the light for evaluation with a 90% discount.
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The highlight for me is 100% the emitter. As Cellguy noted: “…the tint on my unit was absolutely perfect.” I agree.
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A quick summary after a couple of weeks with it:
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-Pros
Lightweight
Excellent emitter
Great output level for a keychain edc light
Captive head
Inexpensize
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-Potential Opportunities
May be difficult to lube threads if/when needed
Long thread travel between on and off (~full rotation)
More color options would be nice
A little slick (e.g., I really like the knurling on the Ti 2)
No clip (a Fenix clip might fit but I haven’t checked it yet. Unlike the others I did put the TK01 on my keys and plan to keep it there.)
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