Fenix CL05 Liplight Review. A sturdy marker light with levels and colors, Typical Fenix quality, very well made.

This light is billed as an EDC Emergency light. It is a Lipstick sized marker light with white, red and green LED illumination. This seems to be a well thought out emergency light, one that you can actually use in non-emergencies. I got this light from Banggood in exchange for a review. I did not pick this light, it was one they simply wanted me to review.



What is an emergency EDC light? It is not an emergency to not have a rear blinking light on your bicycle, but it could be an emergency if you get hit by a car that doesn’t see you. If you have this light, with you, you have a blinking or steady red light to hang from your seat if your regular tail lamp goes out or gets stolen. Or if you want a green marker for some reason, same thing, this light fills the bill. The white modes are moonlight, and low. There is also a SOS function at the end of the UI in white, but the white does not have a blinking mode otherwise. There are enough modes and colors to fit most situations. It seems this light is a good one to carry in case of an emergency, or to prevent one by flashing an alert.

The output levels of this light are all on the low end of what they could be, but this allows the run-time to be long enough to get you through whatever situation you may be in, at least overnight… you can read by this on moonlight or the 8 lumen level if you need. The red and green are also bright enough to light the area and not kill your night vision. The SOS is bright enough to be noticed, but not a xenon strobe or anything. The blinking red and green modes blink at about 3 times a second, urgent but not harrasingly so… Hung in a tree when you know people are looking for you, it would allow me to sleep without worry someone will walk by and not notice it at night, either the white sos, or the red or green blinking modes. Fenix has a reputation of putting out good lights with good UI, this one continues the tradition. There is no mode memory, so after about 2 seconds of being off, it resets to the white moonlight mode.

I really like this light, but I just have no current use for it as I have many other lights. I suppose if you were to want a loved one to carry a light and this was all they carried, you could feel good that they had a light. There is enough light to walk a path at night, or to put out as a nightlight on moonlight. The blinky modes are not something I normally like, but on an emergency light like this, they are very appropriate. If you have to get out on the side of a road, and this were clipped on your belt-loop in the back, blinking red or green, you would have some sort of visibility that could help other drivers see you if you did not see them. Same with putting it on your dogs collar or kids backpack, enough light for a good marker, you can keep an eye on them at night…. Or clipped to your life jacket when you are out in a canoe or kayak…

The light is overbuilt for a single AAA light, which is what you want for an emergency light. It is thick walled aluminum and plastic. I am fairly sure it would survive being run over by a truck and keep on functioning. The clear plastic end of the light has a thick ring of sealant keeping water out, and you will void the warranty if you remove this cap.

I do not know how you would do this with the sealant in place, but someone will eventually. The plastic part will scratch over time, but on this light, it will actually increase the visibility of the light as the scratches will “conduct” the light. Look at the threads in the pics with the lights on to see what I mean. A light scuffing with sandpaper at 1000 grit would make a nice frosting for this if you wanted. Sometimes in low output lights, the larger area that is showing illumination makes it easier to see for the same output.

The anchor point on the light seems pretty sturdy as well, it comes with a nice split ring and clasp to attach it to yourself. I would feel confident tying the light to a few feet of string and swirling it above my head as a signal, the persistence of vision would make a big circle appear, and it makes signaling someone that much easier. With this light you even have the option of red for NO, and green for YES… White, I guess is the international signal for WTF?

Fenix also talks about eliminating standby drain, something that can sap your batteries without even using them. This is where there is a small drain on the battery when the light is ready to run, but in an “off” state. Most of the time, this is more likely to happen with an Electronic switched light, as the switch requires a small drain current to remain ready, even when “off”. In twisty switch lights like this, there is still a chance that some stray current could drain the battery when the battery poles have contact with the flashlight body. When you need your light and it doesn’t work, you look at the name on the side and swear you will never buy that brand again… Ask me how I know…

Fenix has just about eliminated this chance by fully anodizing the body and tail cap. The only contact on the body is the ring of removed anodizing on the end of the tube. The spring in the tail cap is removable and covers the tail cap so the end of the body tube can make contact with it and complete the circuit, lighting the light. The full anodizing in the tail cap means there is no conductivity (anodizing is not conductive) when the circuit is open and the light is off.

In the old days, you reversed a battery to prevent drain, but sometimes it still did not work, or the batteries leaked and your light was kaput. Now with Lithium Primary batteries, the 1.8V type L92, you can keep a battery in your light with almost no chance for leaking. Modern alkaline are also much better, but I would go with the L92 for long term storage and the fact they work below freezing much better.

In conclusion, this is a tough little light that only has one limitation, the colors it comes in. Blue or Purple are the only colors right now. The simple function coupled with the modes and colors seems to cover all bases I would need in an emergency EDC light. You could drop one with a lithium primary battery in a glovebox, purse, go-bag or boat tool kit and forget about it for 10 years and still have a light when you need it.

I would have a hard time looking for more or less features in an emergency light that could do what this one does. I would like to see brighter colors for the body like Red, Orange or Yellow, but that is about it for now.

As for improvements in the next generation, I could wish for a magnet in the tail cap, removable of course, and with the north pole marked so it could be used as a compass in an emergency. Perhaps a lanyard hole that goes through the tailcap edge, to make an even tougher attachment point for this light. The stock one seems plenty sturdy, but it is a wire bail type and those can fail way before a through hole attachment.

I am not going to use this light, so post about a use you would have for this light and I will do a random.org drawing in a couple of weeks to ship it off to the winner. I will keep a list at the bottom of the OP and do the drawing the 29th of January 2016 . I hate that I have to say US only for the giveaway, but the international shipping will kill it for me sending it off, so US only for the giveaway.

If you are interested in a better price for this, let me know and I will be keeping a list and will get a code from Neal for this. This will be via PM as there will be a MAP issue on posting a price on this light.

I would like one of these as a pseudo alarm for my Fiat Abarth. I would hang it on something inside the car and let it flash on one of the color modes. Thieves would see it, thinking it to be an alarm, and move on to another car :bigsmile:

wondering what a ‘good’ price would be on this light?

thanks for the review!

I’m interested this, and I’d like a code :slight_smile:

Well, at least two so far for the giveaway…

I do like the fake alarm idea…

I have a 9 yo daughter who is involved in sports. We live about 2.5 blocks from the school in small town middle America. I am not afraid of the boogie man getting her, but I am afraid of cars! She does not have sidewalks all the way home and crosses 2 streets. I have looked at some of the other beacon lights that are white or red and they were either really cheap, ran on a CR123A and where expensive or they were simply to expensive without good function.

This looks about perfect!

Please put me in the draw.

Thanks Matt

Nice review. It’s a shame this light doesn’t have a longer runtime, if it had similar to the Maratac’s claimed 200hrs@1.5lm this would be close to a perfect emergency light.

You can buy a purpose built device for <$5.00 that will do this. They are a simple three wire hookup and turn on and off automatically.

Great Idea I'd like to clip one onto our dog's collar when she goes out in the big DARK back yard at night for a break. EZ to see where she is.

Interested in this light , please pm me for code :slight_smile:

I like to have one for a backup for my bike tail light. - I have lost one going over a bump before (in the daytime) and never did find it.

Thanks!
-Chuck

This would be nice for a Bug out Bag.
A pitty the runtime is not better - maybe an AA or CR123 version would be better?

Please send a code if you get a better price.

I agree, aa would be nice

Any updates for a code for this light :slight_smile:

That’s nice. Can I get a code for this please?

I’d like to use it as my first colored emitter light - how can one know if they need/want colored emitters until they try ’em?

sub

this is nice. light for dogs. additional light for those who do bike night ride.

Good review, this looks like something that would be great for marking a campsite so you can find your way back in the dark.
I’d be interested in a pm with the code when you get it from Neal.

My apologies for blowing past this drawing, it was supposed to happen the 29th of Jan…

So here is what I did, I listed the respondents in order, then used Random.org to select their drawing numbers…

5. Saypat
7. Lightmog
4. Mattlward
6. Streamer
2. Beachlogger
3. Chuckhov
8. Mauison

  1. Martini

I then turned away and clicked on Random.org’s generate button a random amount of times and came up with:

So it appears Beachlogger is the winner. I will send a PM and work out the details, should something come up, I will redraw the light.

I will get a code for this right after the holiday, my apologies for the delay…

congrats Beachlogger!

Thanks, forgot all about this :slight_smile: