I stopped into Home Depot today while I was having a tire repaired. They had the G20’s on sale for $3 ea. So I bought all 3 that they had (1/5 of a Lumatic Standard Purchase).
These say 36 lumens on the package. So I tossed each one into the Sphere ’o Many Mysteries.
Guess what? It looks like Coast buys their lumens from China! Actual output on alkalines was 9.5 lumens. 12.5 lumens on lithium AAA primaries. Is Coast Yet Another Scum Sucking Lying Sack ’o Feces seller?
What is interesting is the tail cap current is around 200 mA with the lithium cells… that’s 0.6 watts. Amazing how they can only get 12.5 lumens out of 0.6 watts in.
Overstating your output by a factor of 3.75 seems downright criminal… I think that I’ll see if the Texas Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission agree. Coast is not a no name Chinese company that can’t be bitch slapped by the Long Arm of the Law.
Then again, LOTS of things are overstated. For instance, stereo equipment is notorious for having overstated power output figures. This has been the case for DECADES, and it hasn’t caught the attention of the law. I’m guessing that athere really aren’t any laws which prohibit optimistic lumen ratings for flashlights.
Needless to say, this flashlight is REALLY dim. I picked one up myself. And 10 lumens is just about right. Not to mention that it has a rather strong, blue tint. As it is out of the box, this light is not much more than an emergency light to keep in the glovebox your car. It’s certainly not a good EDC light. On the other hand, the build quality of the body of this light is at least decent. And it might make a good host for modding, especially at $3.
