Review: Liqoo CL06 lantern (Fenix Cl25R clone)

After reading this today, I went to ebay and found the one for $11.53 and ordered it. New seller(been there one week with 90% rating) but its ebay with their backing plus pay pal, so not too worried. Prices at $15, 16 and 20 and more. All seem the same manufacture? We will see :slight_smile:

Thanks guys! I have been a prime member for quite a while and have never paid attention to this.

Thanks for the review! Has any one seen these for sale on Ebay? Or some where that will ship to AUS?

I have 3 of these I purchased for $5-$7 throught VIPON.

Throw the battery away but other than that I think they are pretty nice. Hard to find 18650 lanterns.

Fasttech have this in 3 colours:
Blue , Black , Red
for $13.39. A little steep but with –15% coupon they offer around many holidays it might be worth it.

Where is the charge indicator on this lamp? Can’t seem to find it in any of the pictures.
Button on this one doesn’t seem transparent like on CL25R but the led could still probably shine through or be placed inside the lamp like in Blitzwolf BW-LT5. Is it red while charging or only lights up green when fully charged?

The charge LED is below the switch

To plug in the USB plug you need to compress the cover quite a lot

In middle and low mode you can hear PWM hiss

The color on Fasttech says 5500K I can confirm this its not cold as Cree 1A or 2B, but not as warm as 3D

Fasttech rates too high lumens
300-350 lumens at 780mA can be expected

I bought a second tested the batteries 1100 and 1500mAh not being able to run high currents as their internal resistance is really high like old laptop pulls

Thanks for the great review.

Just bought one myself, Nice, I would have liked the Fenix but far too expensive.

When being charged the clone draws 500ma and as it gets close to full, the current starts to slowly drop the lowest i have see is 30ma before the green fully charged light shows.

Power button orange/red while charging turns to green when fully charged.

John.

Convoy s2+ with diffuser is a best camping light. Again :wink:

Just ordered another 3 of these lanterns making it 4, replaced the included 18650 with a protected Panasonic 3400mah cell.

Great size and very bright though i only use it low mode inside, I wonder how durable it is to being dropped as it`s made from plastic, maybe it can be armored somehow.

John.

One thing about this clone is it makes a wining noise in the medium and low power mode and it can be quite irritating.

Does the Cl25R make a noise?

John.

Sounds like PWM. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard my CL25R make a whining noise and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t use PWM.

As with a lot of flashlights, you can disable CL06 by unscrewing the battery cap slightly, this eliminates any parasitic drain and any chance accidental activation.

My Baby`s

Notice on the lantern at the far right, the led`s look yellow, they actually look red to the naked eye.

Modes below, from left to right, HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, RED, red flashing not shown.

EDIT: I am capacity testing the 4 18650 2000mah cells to see what the real capacity is, 1 cell is 10g lighter than the other 3.

1: 1885mah

2: 1791mah

3: 1848mah

4: 1150mah

http://imgur.com/MwWSZYM

John.

That’s a cool wall plate John! I have to use a wall plug adapter to get direct USB outlets.

does anyone have runtimes for the different modes? i see 3 hrs on high, wonder what its on medium and low?

The highest white light drains 0.78A High, 250mA Med, 66mA Low, 137mA Red and 50mA Red beacon.

Do the math for 3000mA battery

Of course with low battery the brightness drops and runtime gets longer

not sure i know how to calculate it…
if i have a 3000mah battery and it draws 250mah/hr, does that mean i can run it 12 hrs?

can a battery be run down to 0 mah left in it?

In theory, but not always in practice.

Cell manufacturers nowadays determine their capacity figures by discharging the cell to 2.5V, but many flashlights and lanterns need 2.8V or even 3V to produce worthwhile amounts of light. This means that not all of the rated capacity is usable.

That’s part of the reason that our most advanced reviewers create and publish runtime charts showing output over time. These are the very best way to find out what a light will do in real life.

If you can’t find a runtime chart for the light you’re interested in, sometimes you can find a discharge graph for the cell you use or a similar cell. A discharge graph for the expected current can at least tell you how long you’ll get before the light shuts down.

At rock bottom, if you can’t find any applicable charts, you can derate the cell by (for example) 20%. On that basis, a cell rated at 3000mAh might only produce 2400mAh before the voltage drops too far to run the light. If you know your light needs 250mA to run, you can divide that in and say that your light will probably run for about 9 or 10 hours.

A word to the wise: if your use of a light is safety critical, always test the runtime under safe conditions before you rely on it. In other words, put a fully charged cell in and run the light until it shuts down. That way, you know exactly what it can do.

You can buy the dual USB receptacle online for about $12 in the US and around $9 from China. Use the search term Dual USB wall socket US. I have two of them on the way from China ($17.12 a pair) after getting tired of using the plug in converters. Not economical though if you have to hire an electrician to install them. Remember to specify US or you might end up buying the EU standard which is 68mm X 68mm and will not fit a single box here in the US.

HOW TO DISASSEMBLE

I took one of the no name clones apart to see what is in it. There is no way in twisting (will break cables) or pulling it. I found no other way than to destroy it and the autopsy revealed its secret. You need to remove the black decal that stealthily covers the entire bottom around the main button. It covers the four screws that hold the lantern together.

The lantern uses six 46.5*8 mm alu LED strips with four 3526 LEDs and a resistor each. Cables between the strips. The strips are gued to the main alu tube with mirror tape so they should be easy to replace if you want a different tint.
I like the size and design of the lantern but for my purposes it is too bright.

my first post, thanks to TBone for help with disassemble guide,
here is disassembled this one clone
photos link