Which brand do you think is most durable? Your life depends on it and so does your family.

All lights fail in ANY circumstance at ANYTIME. Break down in choice selection is the Engineering Design, build material components, quality control, pricing, etc……

I have done some high impact, and other extreme tests on some of my reviews. I will give insights here.

Sofirn : GREAT

Maglite : WORTHLESS

Bushnell Pro : TOTAL JOKE

Wuben : GREAT

Klarus : GREAT

Thrunite : Decent

Olight : Decent

Fenix : Decent

Powertac : GREAT

SureFire : TOTAL JOKE ( friend gave me the Defender version) Cracked body one it hit hard concrete floor

Plus quite a others. Too long to list.

But to give you basic insight. Just because higher price point DOES NOT MEAN DURABILITY or BETTER QUALITY.

When my daughter went to Uganda for 3 years I gave her a Zebralight H502 and a Fenix AA. Both held up under rough conditions so I would not have any hesitation in depending on them on myself for critical situations.

i have dropped both my Jaxman triples many times on driveway and they keep on tarking

Be careful…there are people who believe that peanut cost “just in case” are only for crazy preppers.

Nonsense, just because i have a 3-4 month supply of food without “stepping down” our eating habits….or designing a house that is as safe as possible without making it look like bunker….is just crazy talk.

IMO, the only cells I trust to still have usable capacity left after 10 years are Eneloops 1900mAh and lithium AA/AAA primaries, along with 18650s being the prime choice for off grid use.
Actually, I would consider 18650s to be the prime choice for long term emergencies if you take care of them and have a capable charger along with a renewable power source(solar panels).

Why Eneloops? Well, Eneloops 1900mAh are absolute beasts, and have extremely low self discharge. I would trust my life with them, no problem, even after 10-13 years of storage.

Why lithium primaries AA/AAAs? As long as I don’t use them once, they will last 20 years. These are for absolute emergencies. I have 8x primary AAs in their package since I’ve bought them.

Why 18650s? They have high energy density, and most importantly, their charging efficiency is super high, above 99% even at high currents(2A+), and if charge to 4,0V, can last for a very long time.
That is very important if you don’t have access to a stable power source, so 18650s are prime when you have access to a renewable power source.

If the zombie apocalypse comes then you don’t want to be hampered by ‘what battery is suitable’……

:laughing: :laughing: :innocent:

I am a longtime Malkoff fan and have never experienced any issues. All of Gene’s work is beyond compare in my book. I EDC an MDC daily and would gladly put my trust in any Malkoff in my collection.

I still have a couple Surefires, (a G2 and a 6P) no doubt they are durable & simple, but in the case of your question redundancy is more important. A single flashlight can be lost or broken no mater of the brand. I did drop a Nitecore MT2A from 3 stories up on concrete while it was still on, and it stayed on & never broke. for flashlights any of the good quality time-tested light models by Fenix, Surefire, Streamlight, Nitecore, Olight, Pelican, Zebralight, Thrunite, Klarus, Jetbeam, Maglite, etc will do the job. I just make sure i have 2 or 3 lights in emergencies, long camping trips, or remote areas.

Hahahhahhahaa Nice one with the surefire, See him throw it ? I would KILL all my China lights before I could ever kill a SF. Possibly a bad HT on the body.

Retracted statement

Once you bump up the food , I like high end water filters MSR and Kataydn water filters. Then boil for virus destruction if needed. If the micron of the filter is not small enough.

Other people will die let them if they are not intelligent enough.

You did what to a Surefire?.
What version of the Defender.
I have eight versions of the Great Defender.
And maybe I don’t have ’em all.
None of ’em will ever hit concrete. They levitate.
They gave you a Chinese fake junk garbage.

Similar to the one pictured. With Surefire prices they charge : Not standing up to my tests at at all. Total JOKE. I would buy Surefire for collecting only. Not field use.

Other brand stood up to better abusive/impact test conditions than Surefire. And at a FRACTION of the cost.

The United States Armed Forces are in dire need of your professional advice.

Correct. My Dual Engineering Degrees would help them for sure.

Bachelor Of Science in Structural/Interface Design

Bachelor Of Science in Electrical Engineering

I’ve had 2 Surefires quit on me, both were the more modern LED variants.
I’ve had fenix quit on me. Not the eo1 though, it will never die.
I’ve had cheap ones quit, i’ve had expensive lights quit, the only real answer is to have many to choose from.
I have a few LED lensers now, while they are often not the first choice for flashaholics I find them tough and functional. One is rechargeable, one runs on easily sourced aaa batteries.

I had an HDS years ago which I stupidly sold, I wish I had kept it because that would be my answer for the one unkillable flashlight, the downside (for me) being that they ran on cr123. My preference these days is for AA, AAA or USB chargeable units.

one thing here is, everyone has had something fail.
those are just isolated incidents.
what would matter is some huge survey of things that lasted, things that did not, why, and what the use and application was for all of it

also, usually in surveys like this, the complainers are more numerous than the satisfied users.

another thing is, i don;t really think quality translates directly to cost
and some results here bear that out

there are many reasons why things may cost a lot
it may be an attempt at quality that still failed
it may be looks
it may just be marketing - charge a high price and someone will believe expensive must be better

wle

I think you are right wle. Anything can & will fail sometimes. I have never had a Convoy or Maglite fail…. but this does not mean it could not happen. It surely could.

I have had 1 Nitecore fail, a bad electronic switch; but that does not mean Nitecore is unreliable. It was an isolated thing.

I think for me what I want in a last ditch SHTF light is simple. Manual switch & simple controls. AA compatibly would suit me also. Eneloops are hard to beat.

If you want real unkillable light, get a Solarforce (Al) or NexTorch (nylon) with a real hotwire-bulb drop-in.

Won’t win any lumen-output awards, but it’ll outlast even the cockaroaches.

I’ve a slew of old ASP and Streamlight lights that have endured daily abuse. Since the turn of this century I’ve always carried a LRI Photon light on a neck chain. Extremely reliable and there when others were not.