[Review] Klarus G35 supplied by Banggood, partially review as I killed the driver

Review Klarus G35 3x18650 flashlight supplied by Banggood
The light was supplied by Banggood, no compensation other than the light itself was received for this review

The price can be lowered with Mad Max coupon here

This is my 6. light that was supplied by Banggood for a review, I am honest and will judge the light as it is with its pros and cons

Manufactory specification:

Product name: Klarus G35 XHP35 HI D4 2000LM LED Flashlight
Brand: Klarus
Model: G35
Emitter Type: XHP35 HI D4
Material: Aluminum
Total Emitters: 1
Mode: Low, MId, High, Turbo, Strobe, SOS
Max Lumens: 2000LM
Max Runtime: 210h
Battery Configurations: 3 x 18650 batteries (Not included)
Switch Type: Clicky
Switch Location: Tail cap + Side
Beam Intensity: 252506cd
Impact Resistant 1m
Range: 1000m
Lens: Reinforced ultra-clear tempered glass
AR coated for scratch resistance
Waterproof: IPX-8
Weight: 371g(Without battery)
Size: 160.2mm(L) x 73mm(Bezel) x 45.5mm(Body)

Features:

  1. Newest XHP35 HI D4 LED, 50,000 hours life.
  2. Max beam distance 1000M, best suited for outdoor adventures; search and rescue operation
  3. Dual Switch design for convenient and easy operation- Independent tail and side switch, each with full set of features and easily adapted to any scenarios
  4. Unique lockout mode prevents accidental operations; avoiding battery drains during storage or travel and prevents unintended direct shining into eyes
  5. Battery capacity indicator display enables controlled usage based on remaining battery charge
  6. ITS (Intelligent Temperature System) temperature control monitors internal temperature and adjusts outputs for balanced brightness;
    protects the LED and internal components; ensuring safety, stability and optimal performance
  7. Dual Switch for one-touch turbo and one-touch low, plus mode memory
  8. Reverse-polarity protection prevents damage due to incorrect battery orientation
  9. Integral body design eliminates battery holder for superior comfort
  10. Aircraft-grade aluminum alloy (Mil-Spec HAIII), lightweight and abrasion resistant
  11. Tempered glass lens with AR coating; scratch resistant
  12. Updated reflector design, coated to provide the perfect beam spot for exceptional distance illumination
  13. G35: With its Extreme output, Easy interface, Far-reaching beam, and Long run time all packed into a compact body, far outperforms the competitors
    There are some errors in the original specs
    offeatures,

The parcel arrived after 10 days shipping with to Germany which is very fast from China.

Package and content:

The lights box came packed well with a plenty wrap around and in a plastic bag

The light comes in a package typical for Klarus

In the box is a plastic inlay with the light

It comes with 1 spare o-ring, lanyard and manual

Photos of the light


Comparism and teardown:

Size compared to other 18650 lights the G35 compared to my other lights the biggest but not heaviest

after over 2 hours I got that bitch opened up to get to the driver
first heat gun with heating the head to 140°C was not enough to get it open

even 1 hour with acetone did nothing at all, no way even massive force

I roasted the head section topping at 250-300°C with an autogenous welder with 3200°C flame to get the glue open,
I melted my microfiber towel that I used to get grip

it worked the massive heat on the head did not had time to flow to the tube and damage things like I had with my Nitecore P12
the tube heated only to about 120°C when I had the head screwed off

Just one image for now that shows the process after removing the head,
also a bitch to get open, but if you own M4 thread cutters its doable

Unfortunately I killed the driver somewhere in getting to it, I dont think heat, maybe a tiny metal chip from cutting the threads even if I checked the driver and blew it off very carefully
After looking at my pictures I think this killed the driver

Beam color is cold around 6500K with a Cree XHP35 D4, the beam has a very very focused hotspot with some spill
the beam pattern has no rings or artifacts

The LED is very good reflowed and the MCPCB is perfectly flat, but not polished or gold plated
The heat paste is applied in a good amount and squeezed in an uniform thin layer

The reflector has some tiny imperfections and is free of dust particles that can be seen when the light is off

Most dirt is from first testing

Light color missing as I damaged the driver
from left to right the lights get warmer, picture taken @5000K camera setting
left Astrolux MF-01 Nichia 5000K, Nitecore P12 XML2 U3-3D 5000K, Klarus G35

The light is heavily glued with blue locktite and the LED shelf is pressed in the tube, it is very hard to get to the driver
The light has a tail cap with a hole for a lanyard
The light stands on the tail, but the switch is like 0.5mm too high
The lens is really big and thick, and coated

The head has a diameter of 77mm and 60mm visible reflector

The light can be run by one, 2 or 3 batteries 18650 batteries

(1 x 18650 or 2 x CR123A can be used in emergencies per instruction)

The driver is the hardest thing to get to, first the head is heavily glued to the tube
And the LED shelf is press fit inside the tube

The driver has total of 5 FETs with a single coil on the driver, likely to run from the different battery channels

I can’t test if the light can be locked out with the tail cap
The Head

The big reflector with a single LED gives a lot of throw with a pretty small hotspot

The slave board for the switch has a green and red LED

The shelf is 3mm thick and the really big 1mm thick copper MCPCB does a good job spreading the heat, can’t say how the light gets hot as I killed the driver

The MCPCB is s true copper DTP, the back of it is bare copper
The MCPCBs back is perfectly flat

The light is waterproof, the tail cap and bezel threads are lubed, but the amount is a pretty low

The lens is hardened AR coated glass

Tube and Tail

The tail cap is fully anodized, the tail PBC contains a switch, and 3 battery contacts and can freely rotate and is lined up with 2 bolts, I wish they would have put a little grease in there so it rotates smoothly



The switch cover is screwed in and almost identical to XT11/12GT lights

the tube is build for 3 batteries
with unprotected flat tops the spring force is really low they easily rattle inside

The tube threads are square cut and fit nicely

The tail switch uses a single contact

Driver and Battery


can’t do visible PWM test

The light has a some mass to absorb and surface to spread heat, but I could not test how long it takes to heat up and how hot it gets

The light is build for protected and unprotected batteries, unprotected are very loose and rattle

the light uses double springs from steel

The mode spacing is OK, the moonlight has about 10 lumens, the high is a bit low like for the G12 and Turbo is thermal regulated

The light uses a boost driver and has 2 0.1 Ohm sense resistors

no current measurements as the driver is dead
LED current for modes

The side switch status LED shows the battery level
! http://www.klaruslight.com/uploadfile/2017/0426/20170426115223178.gif!

Modding:

First thing was to bypass the springs on the tail cap

Using heat for the head to get the glue melted
For the tail PCB acetone was enough to soften the locktite

You can also see that I cut threads in reflector centering piece holes to screw lift the press fit shelf from the tube



when I lifted the driver a spring fell out which is connecting the driver to the shelf, even if most of it ahs contact to it

Driver does only deliver 8 Volts when I was prepared to do current measurements I discovered the driver dead

added a bit grease to the ail cap PCB

Beam shots

no beam shots possible
about 2m from Light to ceiling
Klarus G35

Klarus XT12GT

Nitecore P12 XML U3-3D NW

User Interface

The light has 4 modes and UI similar to other Klarus lights

Conclusion
Can’t do a full conclusion, as I killed the driver somehow

Positive:

- mechanical very good production and engineering

- very solid head, DTP MCPCB screwed on the 3mm shelf

- AR coated glass lens

- good hotspot and massive throw

- proper LVP and low battery warnings

- low resistance double springs

  • the UI is good

Neutral:

- 18650 unprotected batteries are rattling almost no pressure from the springs

  • High mode with 400 lumens too low

Negative:

There is a good review for the battery use and brightness here availiable in german
https://www.lilahand.de/2017/05/17/laufzeitmessung-klarus-g35/

Did you open the light because it died somehow or just to inspect the inside?

I was hoping for a runtime graph :frowning:

I did open the light as usual for my reviews

somehow a metal chip fell on the driver, I cleaned the driver and inspected it, but I didnt see it
the shape of it indicates its not from cutting the threads, as those are curved, likely it fell off from the press fit shelf

I copied this runtime graph from a german test, the light keeps quite at a very high output for 45 minutes
at 110 minutes the driver switches over to the single 18650

with fan cooling the output keeps a little higher the first 40 minutes

you just commit a murder :laughing:

I’ve never heard of a 6500k neutral white beam…that should be very cool white at 6500k.

Only 400L on high. WHY. ??

I’m completely stupefied by the driver design… 2P 1P… You have non symmetric discharge. Why? If the light can run on one cell, then why not just make it a 3P light, with cells all facing the same direction?

very very focused hotspot with some spill
the beam pattern has no rings or artifacts - my unit didn’t came well focused,too mucho spill ,like a xml2u2, couple of rings too - the hotspot has inner parts brighter than others,never again Klarus for me - muy first and last one, Klarus answer was: deal with the seller - screw em

hope you`ll make it alive again.
i see that you put a lot of affords here, sorry driver is dead (

thanx for photos! if you don`t. mine, i`ll steal them for my russian review (with link to this one)

I repaired the light lately with XPL HI and Narsil driver, modding the battery configuration 1S/3P

I got the replacement driver later, but I like the light as it is now

about 2m from Light to ceiling

BLF Q8

Klarus G35 XPL HI modded

Klarus XT12GT

oh, i don`t see cross-like shape around hotspot, like is is with XHP35 stock LED.

glad you got it working.

I posted the beamshots and I like it with Narsil too much
I wont do go back to the replacement driver with XHP35 LED

XPL HI V3-3C 1185m throw
14050 lux at 5m
351k lux @1m

Some pictures from the mod

stripping all parts and solder mask

Battery configuration changed to 1S/1-3P

Driver prepared with positive wire and thermal glue

Driver ground ring soldered with the main driver on a large surface to get a thermal bridge for the 7135 cooling

Also applied some Arctic Silver 5 between the shelf and tube

The illuminated side switch with Narsils Indicator LED output

XPL V3-3C

Excellent job ,i am wondering how a xpg2 would do on that reflector?

My G35 is dying ,not used more then 10-15 minutes - will light up but on turbo there is smoke inside the reflector - bangood sais warranty they cover only 6 months - i talked to klarus and they said warranty is 5 years for all their lights ,but they said they would not assume the repair or any other thing that ask bangood to deal with it - my klarus light is brand new always sat in the shelf,what should i do now? Is it worth to buy again a light from bangood or klarus? Besides the dificult to open it up,there are no parts for spare

I have Klarus G20 flashlight and it features looks similar Honest Review: Is The Klarus G20 3000 Lumen Flashlight Any Good? but size is bigger than the g20. Also, the lumen is not high as the G20 flashlight.

A year ago I ordered this torch at GearBest.
The consignment was lost.
After a long time and many emergencies I received a spare delivery.
The torch was used and somebody tried to fix it. Without success. The flashlight just flashed.
The next day I contacted GearBest. I was told the DOA deadline was exceeded. I wrote that I filed the complaint the following day. Without explanation, the announcement was that the deadline had been exceeded.
The GearBest Warranty is imaginary.
No compensation has taken place!
I contacted Klarus.
Klarus’s behavior was great !!!
They provided me with a new light from a neighboring state.
Klarus told me that there are many complaints about Gearbest in dealing with complaints.
Thanks to the Klarus approach, I have this lamp, which I consider to be very good.

I am sorry for my bad English.

Well,in my case, Klarus won’t help much

In my case, it was about sending a dead lamp.

I have also sent them messages with a very arrogant GearBest action.
Despite spending a few thousand dollars at Gearbest.
From their behavior, it was obvious that they were so damaging not only me, but also the name of Klarus.

From Klarus I waited for the driver to send, but they were really great and sent a new flashlight.

Dont even try with them, banggood played the usual games of make videos multiple emails, and klarus did the same, light only had a few hours on it and still under warranty and still nothing. Several weeks and 20 emails, no replacment, Conclusion, Klarus for me atleast is like flushing money. others experience may vary

Well, It seems i am not the only one affected ; definetely ,my last option was to make this issue public,as there is a big question if it is really worth to buy lights this way? Besides, is it still worth to buy from Bangood Many of us are probably wrong thinking that we are covered by a somehow warranty,when it is not really true