Good day folks! Been an inconsistent lurker on this forum as well as CPF for many years, benefitting off all the wonderful reviews and knowledge! But LED technology moves so fast that I’m out of touch again.
So I have recently decommissioned an e-scooter and harvested its battery pack, so I have tons of 18650 cells of unknown brand and specs that I’d like to still use. And what better way to use them than in high powered lights!
I’m looking for big-ish lights that can output large amounts of lumens, preferably stock, and can take 18650. Not a big fan of soda-can lights, but I love the design of the Nitecore TM26 and TM28. Willing to go bigger than that but the weight balance and handling should be natural, and preferably can be holstered on a utility belt.
Actually, I really like the TM28, but I saw that its crazy high output only lasts not more than a couple of minutes, so just wondering if there are any others out there that would be a good fit.
I have an Emisar D4 (with 18650 tube) for flood and a Nitecore P30 (old) for throw to use at work. So if this big light can be used in daylight for inspections, that would be great too! You know how sometimes we need to check building structures for holes and cracks at the external, but due to the hot sun and the harsh shadows, we can’t see details in the shadow areas, so a high lumen light would really help here.
Looking forward to your recommendations! Assume no budget for now, as I’d like to see all my options.
For shadows in daylight that may be 10 or 30+ ft away a tight hot spot can’t be beat. The same thing applies for dimly lit basements or attics, or crawl areas that you don’t want to crawl into. And you can run a single emitter longer putting more light on the subject without as many heat issues and chewing through battery life. Have a look at the Acebeam L17. For basement use I like the Lumintop FW1A warm.
In daylight you probably need a concentration of light (intensity), which you won’t get with a flooder or multi emitter lights. A single emitter and larger reflector will help penetrate the dark areas, even in daylight.
Thanks for the recommendations! I thought the Acebeam L17 and EC4GT would be similar to my Nitecore P30, so I’ll pass on that. I also thought the FW1A would be similar to my Emisar D4, but realised it’s more of a thrower than a floody type like the D4. Definitely piqued my interest!
Nice lights! The Convoy seems like good bang for buck compared to the Astroluxes, Fenix, and Jetbeam! I’ll do some research into these.
I really like my Haikelite HK04 xhp50.2. Has 3×18650 so not as bulky and heavy as some other Soda Can flashlights. Very nice quality, feels great in my hand, has a good balance of flood and throw and has Anduril UI. It also is very bright (13000lm). At $62 I consider it 1 of my best value for the money flashlights.
Wellp, you probably want to spell out what specific features you want/need instead of (for lack of a better way of phrasing it) taking suggestions and shooting ’em down.
It sounded like you wanted to burn off a pile of 18650s in multi-cell lights, and needed something to be throwy(-ier) like your P30.
Heya! It’s been a few days, and between work and life in general, I’ve had the opportunity to read up on a few of the recommendations. For some reason, I’m leaning quite a bit towards the Fenix TK75. I’ve seen the runtime graphs of the older model where Turbo runs for 15min, then steps down, but can be stepped up almost immediately and it runs its course again, and again, and again. Does the 2018 version do the same? I also like that we can buy an extension tube so that it resembles the old Maglite D sized torches. I only wish the super high lumens can be sustained longer.
Sorry if it seems like I’m shooting suggestions down. I do, in fact, want to burn off a pile of 18650s. Haha! But I also want them to be actually useful, and my work sometimes do require such uses. I guess I don’t necessarily need something throwier… just brighter. P30 on max is 1000 lumens and even then, I find inspection in daylight tough to see. I’m in the pest control industry, so we need to look for pests that camouflage well in urban settings as well as holes and crevices where they can intrude into a structure. So in my mind, the throw of the P30 is actually sufficient, but I need a wider hotspot with much higher lumens, preferably sustained over as long as possible.
So far, small lights heat up fast, so they often step down the max pretty fast (like 30 - 120 seconds).
The Astroluxes seem to have an oversized head compared to the rest of the body, and the impression is that the balance is not as good compared to the Fenix TK75 or the Jetbeam T6 kinda size. Feel free to correct me there.