Review: New Thorfire TK4A 4xAA Flashlight (2016)

I really like 4AA lights… love my EA41.

Hope this comes into the 30 dollar range. I’d definitely pick one up…

There just aren’t enough budget 4xaa lights out there. Hopefully this settles down to $35 eventually.

I think it is quite reasonable if, and only if, the regulation is good. The current reviews are pretty sketchy being at the “Wow, this is good” level.

Mine is now using 4 alkaline AA cells. They were dirt cheap, €0.65 for 8
Awaiting the Eneloops.
I use it a few times a day for no longer then 5 minutes and first day a bit more, even during the day to see if and how it worked.
So it is used for about 2 hours now and I do not see it get dimmer, the trees at 50 meters are nicely lit and the owl screaming his/hers lungs out at night still chooses another tree much further away when I shine on him/her
Will do actual run test with rechargeable cells as soon as they are in :wink:
BUT 1 with the Q8 we work with Thorfire and 2 they send it for free, giving two strikes in terms of objectivity so only if I also would have commercial interests I would be a worse person to “review” it then I am now.

$36.10
http://www.top1price.com/thorfire-tk4a-led-flashlihgt-powerful-1100-lumen-cree-xp-l-light-ipx8-waterproof-torch-powered-by-4-aa-batteries-not-included-f5af5c5692cca51f.html

Beat me to it lightx. Also, the Amazon price is down to $45. It’s still not yet listed on the thorfire direct site. I might need to pick up some eneloops.

It was a bit premium at 42.99, but decided to buy. It seemed like the best option in its segment, AA powered high output lights(all 4*AA). No complaints except a very misaligned emitter, worse than I ever saw in a $5 light. Overall this makes me rate it one out of five at that price despite otherwise functioning flawlessly. Embarrassing as any AA light I buy is not for my own personal use. :smiley:

I don’t know if the code is still active but there was 20% coupon code which had brought the price on Amazon to $32.

Why not check the brightness using freshly charged NiMH? I guess either way it shows that the output is still great with depleted batteries.

This light can be bought as ThorFire or Sofirn on AliExpress for around 23 Dollars.
You don’t even get half a DQG ‘fat tiny’ for that. :slight_smile:

I think it’s an interesting light for those who don’t want to go Li-Ion.

Hmmm… WalkIntoTheLight did long runtime tests and his results show that the output is nearly flat and ~11 hours on Medium.

I only did a runtime test for 45 minutes starting from Turbo but the <15 minutes on Medium were flat.

This light does have timed stepdowns from Turbo and High though.

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Here is my TK4. Definitely more compact than Thrunite TN4.
Tint is 5500K which is quite acceptable, considering price I paid.
Modes are changin little bit slowly. Glass looks strange, like it is plastic.
Anyway, perfect flashlight for my car glove compartment.

Oh, I see I was mentioned in this thread. To clarify my results, I stick by my observation that this light is well-regulated (at least on medium, which is the only mode that can run without any step-downs). However, I do not have an integrating sphere, and my light-meter results are probably only accurate to about 5% or 10. So, it is quite possible that the light output might drop by as much as 10 over the entire run-time. IMO, that is negligible, and wouldn’t even be noticeable to a user. (My graphs are drawn with Excel and no curve-fitting, so that’s why they look so flat. I find curve-fitting the graphs may look better, but show inaccurate results in some areas.)

I did not do long run-time tests with alkaline batteries, so I’m not sure how it performs with those. I suspect, not very well.

If I compare this light to another 4xAA light, such as the Crelant 4VA, there is a large and noticeable drop in output from the Crelant over its run-time. IMO, the Crelant V4A is an example of a light that does not have regulated output. It has much higher lux than the Thorfire, but only when the batteries have good charge. I use both lights, but I find the Thorfire to be a better general-purpose light.

Just to add info.
The holster was awful and I throw it way.
In user manual is written that this light has 3 minutes step down in turbo and 30 minutes in high mode.
Did someone tested weather Nitecore diffuser NDF40 and traffic wand NTW4D will fit to TK4A?

I have the Sofirn (SF11) version of this light. I actually have 2. My original came with issues. It would turn on, or off, switch modes, all kinds of erratic behavior. Sofirn sent a replacement within 2 days that works great. Really like this little light.

I got the bad one apart. The bezel was lightly glued, but broke loose by hand. It has a pressed in shelf for the MPCB. It pulled out with minimal effort with a pair of forceps, after de-soldering the leads. The driver is held with 1 screw. I actually damaged the case taking the switch cover off, thinking it needed to come out first, before pulling the shelf. I didn’t want to damage the switch. It was not needed. I was hoping the issue was constant pressure on the switch (compared to the working light), but no joy. I haven’t had time to try and isolate the problem.
Here are a couple of terrible cell pics.


EDIT: I didn’t realize this review was done almost a year ago.

Nice little light, for sure. I was asked to disassemble the Thorfire version and they really didn’t want it disassembled!

I didn’t see an o-ring between the reflector and lens, nor between the lens and bezel. I could possibly have lost it but I don’t think so. I’ll go back and double check or find one that fits.

The Thorfire version was not lightly glued. Quite the contrary, it was very heavily glued and took a lot to get it apart. I mounted the bezel in my 5” chuck on the lathe and spun it up, hit it with a propane torch for 45 seconds, then used a large Boa Constrictor rubber strap wrench to unscrew the body. It was arguing, biting and screeching the entire way out! Ornery crittur! :wink:

Not sure what my buddy is going to do with it now, but I may end up buying one myself as it’s a neat little light for a AA power supply…

Any diffuser wand available for this type of light?

Funny you should ask ….
With a little whittling on the threads of the caps off of V8 Fusion you can have red, purple ,yellow,blue and probably 4 other colors pop on and off caps .
You can keep it on the tail too
I have one on my desk with a red cap on the front…three red rubberbands in the three cracks and another red cap on back end…kills lots of lumens but lots of flashlight fun for no money

Too bad it ain’t available in my country. So I would rather go for a dedicated diffuser.

it’s pretty common size cap . it’s just the larger of the two common caps on 1/2 gallon juice bottles . Gatorade is the same size too so you can add orange to the list of cool colors .
When i get almost any light the first thing i do is try to find something that will tightly pop on the bezel . this light is cool because tail and head are the same size so you can keep your diffuser on the tail when you want throw .

If you cut a hole in the top of the cap //just leaving the rim you can cut a piece of hard diffuser material about the thickness of a playing card and glue it in to make a pop on/ pop off diffuser . Again …really simple .If you need hard diffusion material or Dc fix just PM me I have lots of both.
I find the hard stuff to be really handy and have even used it in the place of a lens.