Review: Fandyfire Rook (Cree XM-L T6 | 3 x AA or 3 x 14500)

I’ve seen this light look more of a greenish than gold. Is there a green version out there, or is it just a camera tint issue?

Oops, forgot to say - awesome review, makes me want one. Are there different versions of this light out there? ask because I’ve heard others say the standby drain is really bad, but this review says it’s not all that bad.

Man $11 is sick price for this light! Is that really the same light or is it a knock-off? …geez what has the flashlight world come to when there are knock-offs of already cheap flashlights! LOL

What would happen to “Low voltage warning” if 14500 LifePO4 (3.2V only) are used instead of Li-on?

The low voltage warning will still activate at the limit set for LiIon so LiFePO4 cells would not be used to their full capacity.

Nice form factor. I like 3 X AA lights, and this one is pretty small! However, the runtime is poor. Why do they continue to make lights with multiple levels, including a strobe, but no low level?

I was just about to pull the trigger on one of these. I love the fact that I can use standard AA’s in a pinch, but have the higher power 14500’s most of the time. That, combined with the size and output make it a very nice light (IMO). Unfortunately ‘parasitic drain’ is a deal breaker. I’ll need to research this issue more before I start spending a lot of money on flashlights.

A flashlight is worthless to me if, when I need it (after sitting for months), the batteries are dead.

If the low voltage warning level is anything under around 3.1V (certainly 3.0V) you would get pretty much the full capacity. There is almost no capacity left in a LiFePO4 cell below 3.0-3.1V

Great review!, nice light!
Looking at the nitecore AE4, this nice light lacks a low and lumens.
How long does it run on AA’s on low mode?
I am looking for an emergency light during pwer down situations hat will run for a long time on tons of AA’s that I have on stock

I have had mine for about a month now and I love it. I also have the Fandyfire UV S5 (SRK). I actually think that overall the Rook is more useful. It’s not the flood monster that it’s big brother is, but it’s also easy to carry in a pocket. It’s very bright and well built. It’s runtime is decent, the throw is good with a nice transition to flood. The switch on the side is nice.

I do agree that I would have preferred a low to the strobe, but you can’t have it all. Plus when you’re outside the medium is just about perfect for walking. I have not had a problem that I know of with parasitic drain. But then again I have been using it a lot and swap out the batteries once a week or so.

Not much of a warning when the batteries do go. On high it starts to blink then only runs on medium for a short while before you need to swap batteries.

If stolen I would replace it without a doubt.

Thank you for the awesome review the ! It answered all my questions.
This light looks really sweet except the low PWM frequency. That is a deal breaker. sigh.

Ordered one from Fasttech. Great review.

I have aproblem and maybe some can help me:

I sold my Fandyfire Rook a few days ago. I used it only for about 2-3 minutes. Ity it with one AA, with 3 AA and after this with one 14500 and at the end with 3x 14500. Everything works fine.I put in three 4,19V 14500, use it for a few seconds and left them in the flashlight for 14 hours. After this, each battery has 4,16V.

Then I recharge the 14500, put them in a batterybox and send everything to the buyer. The batteries are brand new and charged only 2 times. They are protected Trustfire, like in the selfbuilt review.

The buyer informed me now, that he has some problems:
He puts the 14500 batteries into the Rook, played 30 seconds (was impressed about the brightness), switch it off (battery left inside the Rook) and the next day it was really dim. Each 14500 has only 2,9V.

It doesn’t work with normal AA batteries 1,5volt or rechargeable AA batteries with 1,2 anymore. Has anyone a solution or an idea, which could be the problem or does anybody read about a similar problem in another forum?
The had the Rook since 15. Jan 2013 (bought from FT) and use it only for a few minutes.

Smells to me like driver failure(probably because it couldn’t handle freshly charged 14500 for a longer period of time (like couple of minutes or so)).

People have said that this light has what is called parasitic drain. This means that if the batteries are left in the light they soon go dead. This happens with the light turned off. When I am not using mine I unscrew the top until it will not turn on. I don’t know if mine even has this problem because I use it or unscrew it.

It shouldn’t have an effect on it working with regular AA batteries though. My guess would be that the AA batteries they are using are no good or have only a very small charge left in them.

I would suggest they charge the 14500’s completely and try again. Also they should try again with new high quality AA batteries. I don’t think that the light has a damaged driver or LED’s because if it did it wouldn’t be working with the 14500’s.

I love my rook, it’s one of my favorite lights. I hope this helps with the problem. If it doesn’t you should contact fast tech and let them know.

I had an situation where AA/14500 light worked fine with AA, then I inserted 14500 worked excelent but only couple of minutes, then went really dim, didn’t work on AA anymore and with 14500 was very dim… I had to replace the driver…

Sounds like you could be right.

O, and in that case I also used protected TrustFire 14500 cells …

I have read about the parasitic drain, but the wrote, that it isn’t really much. The same wrote a reviewer on CPF and I teste it for about 14 hours and lost only 0,03V (and it run for a few seconds), so the parasitic drain is less.

18sixfifty:
Could you please test this with your Rook: First you put in 3x 14500, use it a few seconds. Then put 3x AA inside and tell me, if it works without any problem.

I would be glad to try for you but I don’t have any AA batteries around.