Walmart Carries Lithium Thrower

Looks like lithium lights are really starting to hit the mainstream. I saw this light on sale for $19.xx at Walmart today. What struck me is that it appears to be 2S 18650 configuration. It was in a cardboard center isle diplay with knives and other outdoor items. Appeared to have XML. Includes charger and built in charger port.

Sorry, my old phone can't really take pictures and export them. Here are some pictures from an ebay ad:

2 cheap unprotected batteries in series + using noname car/home charger + mainstream ignorant people = potential pipebomb. >)

Hopefully it uses a parallel 2 x 18650 battery pack.
Really should have a blow out safety vent but somehow I doubt it.

Those were my first thoughts too. I wonder if it at least balance charges. If I didn't have so many gosh darn lights, I would have purchased one just out of curiosity.

Buy, disassemble, review, reassemble, return!
:bigsmile:

I just did that recently for a different light. Someone else can do this one.

I could be wrong, but this could mean that much of the alarmist attitudes here is unfounded. This is WalMart, I have to believe they know what they are doing. But then again, maybe not. WalMart has thousands of stores and will sell quite a few of these. You can bet there will be greater quality control than the cheap Chinese lifghts we buy. Soon we will have a good data set of unknowelgeable users doing all kinds of stupid things with them to draw conclusions.
Already there have been millions of iPads and other tablets with huge mAh cells in them and not many problems. How many people here charge their Li-ion cell phone each night and never give it a thought? How many people here are not willing to give up their “priesthood” in the flashlight kingdom? Face it, these lights have gone mainstream.
Having said that, I still either charge my cells in a metal bucket with a mechanical timer connected to the charger, or in my van parked in the driveway, away from the house. :bigsmile:

Obviously they don’t, their job is just selling legal merchandise and making the most money out of it. Their experts is only of sales, management & marketing. Their research only goes into the elaborated card-box packaging and marketing campaign. But yes, even in the worst case scenario it is still relatively safe to use or else they should have been many more accidents since then.

Cellphones use high quality batteries digitally controlled and of safer chemistry but there is still accidents, but hopefully they are extremely rare and don’t explode.

The light seem decent but desperately need a side switch.

I think the price is pretty amazing considering I bought Dorcy 220 lumen rechargeable light from Sears several years ago for $50 which only had a Cree XRE emitter (it's still listed for that price btw). Quality was on par with the typical budget lights. Also, the USB charging feature in this one is a welcome addition.

However, that being said I would agree with the safety concerns regarding questionable battery and charger quality. Still, not a bad deal for a mainstream light if only for the XML and host. I've seen/bought similar lights from China (DX, KD, etc) in that price range that do not come with batteries, charger, or USB cable.

We definitely need a review - perhaps they will go on sale for Black Friday??

I believe most cellphones do not use a safer chemistry. They use li-ion polymer batteries with the same LiCoO2 chemistry as many panasonic or sanyo 18650s.

BatteryUniversity types_of_lithium_ion
BatteryUniversity li_polymer

Nice find, great price, although I do have some safety concerns with the li-ion cells.

I hope the charging circuitry isn’t some cheap Chinese crap.

Since the charger takes USB 5V in, the batteries may be in parallel? I can’t imagine putting a boost charger in that light.

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
Somehow we all managed not to notice that! Yea, strongly suggests parallel.

I looked at it a week ago, but didn't get one. It's very cheap looking and I had no interest to review it. From working in companies that sold to Wal-Mart over the years, I can tell Wal-Mart does not worry about Quality Control. Those companies would send out anything, even with defects. The returns were not necessarily defective, but instead Wal-Mart would send back thousands of items that just simply didn't sell and the Mfgs would eat all that product and not be able to selll to anyone else, due to "Wal-Mart only" contracts. Wal-Mart is only interested in one thing - Sales. Plain and simple, nothing more.

Yes, we will probably see "lithium explosion videos on YouTube soon", from bad cells and bad chargers, just like the vape videos of people injured. It's just throwing fuel onto the lithium controversy by selling to an uneducated public, but as long as they sell well, it won't matter much.

When the charging circuitry fails, the cells may get overcharged to 5V+, which is… quite catastrophic.

Hope Wallmart has product insurance!

If projected_profit > lawsuit_costs then

Sell:= True

Endif

It's about time. This should be safe enough for consumers if it's a single cell light, or at least if multiple cells are run parallel.

WTF?!? They might as well put a self destruct button where the switch is.

It's almost a quote from Fight Club.

man my walmart wants $40+

My uncle just bought one, $50 at his Walmart. I told him of my concerns about the battery.

Good thing I did a search before posting! (I haven't been following BLF so close lately.) I just found this light at my local Walmart on Saturday in a cardboard display case where there are a bunch of seasonal Christmas "while supplies last" items being sold. I think the displayed cost was about $20. I am suspecting this is only a single lithium ion cell light. I just can't see the 5V usb charging two cells (unless perhaps there is significant charger circuitry in there and I doubt it). I think the 1 hour runtime on high also makes sense for a single cell.

Here are a few pics I nabbed while my wife wasn't looking :) :

I'm 98% certain it's a first generation XM-L emitter. Oh and the driver is Hi-Lo-SOS.

So anyone buy one to try?

-Garry

I’m pretty sure someone got one and said they liked it… no idea in what thread I read that though. It was a brief first impression type of comment iirc.

Nevermind, that was about the defiant on sale for $20, I believe.