Review: BTU Shocker (3 x XM-L T6 NW | 3 x 18650)

Brother, no amount of logic is going to penetrate that haze. You know this…. The boy has been anti BTU from the word go. Despite all the people who have bought them & love them. The only question I have? What was his hire date @ Fenix… LOL

Good one dale!

TK70: Hey, in defense of my twin brother, the BTU, this is what I have to say

1. BTU is way cheaper now - $100

2. Add another $50 - you get the SRK.

3. Add the 2 light together, 5000 over OMG lumens. Huge throw and flood. For the money - how to fight the BTU
with the TK75?
Will outshine and outdo even Olight X6.

4. Formidable weapon in defense and attack due to heft and reach.

5. Versatility - Leds and driver easily self replaceable and or upgradeable. So you can drive it like crazy - no
worries here. Marginal replacement cost. Dedome or not, U2/ U3 / XML2 U2 or neutral white - up to you.

6. TK75 breakdown hurts - huge shipping cost, plus lost time.

7. Turbo - BTU at 3 mins and repeatable (heft and size adequately handles the heat); TM26 at 4 mins; repeatable
1 min. each time; TK75 - 20 mins.

8. No AR coating is not a big deal. Clean the AR lens often, the coating will wear down as well.

9. Feeble battery holder - resolved easily. See Shaquille beefup do-over.

10. Stepdown after turbo - BTU high mode - 2000+ lumens and TK 75 lumens at high ??

Given the new price, the BTU is formidable in every respect.

OH GOD!!! NOOOOOOO!!! NOW HE’LL ARGUE ALL NIGHT!!! …I’M GOING TO BED. Seen this show to many times…

I know many won’t admit they bought a worse product. Luckily fact is fact and not changeable by anyone.
You have been ignoring all the bad thing about BTU. Its weight, lousy UI, lousy battery carrier, etc.

BTU is cheaper now, you know why. Think about it.
If BTU is selling for $100 now, it should be correct price for it(I once said it should be $120). It was aiming $180, remember?

Not targeting anyone here though Dale accuse me as being Fenix employee. I am not.
You can love your BTU, but you should not boast around its 3 minutes performance and that will lure newbies to buy it.

The facts put forward by RDR. Look if you don’t like the BTU. Thats your right. But the curious thing. RDR & even myself concede what a great light the TK75 is. We have all conceded that it’s a matter of personal preference. Yet you continue to slander the BTU as sub standard. Being that Mrs D has her masters in psychology. I know that all behavior is purposeful. Bearing that in mind I can’t help but wonder… Whats your motivation behind the behavior. Even when confronted with facts you ignore them. It’s like you have a personal vendetta against a flashlight or something. Were you violated with a BTU or something? If so there are several private self help groups I could point you to.

Big + 1 and LMAO
That pretty much sums it up.

I’ll highlight some of your arguments which are not correct:
“You have been ignoring all the bad thing about BTU. Its weight, lousy UI, lousy battery carrier” and “but you should not boast around its 3 minutes performance”
They’re not ‘bad things’ being ignored - because they’re not “lousy”, and I’ll tell you why.

  • The weight - It’s approximately 1kg without batteries (and 1.2 with). While someone who may struggle to lift this may find it cumbersome it comes with its merits. More mass means a longer time before the body becomes saturated with heat which translates to better cooling for the LED (in short bursts).
  • The modes (or UI) - It has mode memory, and cycles from low to medium, high and then turbo then repeats. I do not see how this is “lousy”.
  • The battery carrier - It has copper discs on each terminal to reduce resistance which is the primary factor in controlling the amperage in direct drive (which can be used in the DRY driver). It isn’t aesthetically pleasing? Suck it up, it goes inside the light. Nobody complains when I spill coffee on the inside of my suit.
    It’s weak and flimsy? No, it has a metal frame. Even if it was made of hot glue it wouldn’t matter, as long as it fits snug there will be no stress applied on the carrier. The battery carrier rattles? This is a misconception - it does not.
  • Lens - It’s clear enough, plus AR lenses will be available soon and Ric may send them to owners free of charge (I had to email him, but he’s sending one to me when it’s available).
  • Reflector isn’t as shiny as the TK75 - Fair enough, it may not be as shiny but in terms of output the Shocker still beats the TK75.
  • Three minute turbo - This seems to be your main argument. After it steps down from turbo to high after 3 minutes you can just half depress the button to bring it back up to turbo. It’s not much of a visible difference between high and turbo in real life usage, and isn’t a big deal. The High mode on the Shocker is still over 2000 lumens, which again is not visibly different from the TK75. Remember you need 4 times the output to perceive a double in brightness. Eg, a Shocker @ 3k lumens will only look twice as bright as a 700 lumen P60.

You seem to dislike it and say that the owners will not admit to buying a bad product, but have experience with it. Not all the Shocker owners are asying it’s good if you haven’t noticed already. You’ve been openly bashing the Shocker without even trying it. It’s a multi-emitter light with crazy throw. It combines high total output with long throw (and they usually aren’t associated with each other) in a relatively small package. Why hate?

I own a TK75 and love it to death but can not for the life of me understand how someone can hate on a light that obviously has an almost perfect balance of throw and flood like the BTU does. I am amazed at the performance of both lights every time we take them out. When both lights were evenly priced it would be hard to choose between them. Now with the the BTU at $100 it’s almost a no brainer that the shocker is the super deal.

The TK75 and the BTU Shocker, performance-wise, are very close. Owners of both lights have shown this with quite good beam shots.
DENGOH, can you explain why you believe these two lights are so far apart (i.e. one is great, the other is a bad product)?
It appears that you are not basing this comparison on the full set of information presented before you by the owners/reviewers.
In other words, your opinion appears to be biased, but please (in a civil way) correct me if I am wrong.

+1

DENGOH: Since we are comparing TK75 and BTU, why TK75 can have same output in Turbo for 20 minutes even it is lighter than BTU? The weight sure help BTU, but I am saying it is not performing as good as TK75 that is lighter.

DENGOH: You can stand up, hold BTU in your hand, try switch it on with one hand. Then you see why I say it is lousy tail clicky. It is such a heavy light, it should be side clicky.

DENGOH: I myself find the battery carrier to be very ugly so springs protruding out. You can compare it side by side with TK75 battery carrier picture. I don’t know what happen to those after sale services. It is good Ric is filling up the gap where BTU is stated to have AR lens.

DENGOH: rdr already confirm TK75 has slight higher output than BTU after 10s, or I should say they are equal in output. But BTU does it with very high driving current though some claim it will not harm LED, but it is out of CREE recommendation. The point is BTU has to go beyond manufacturer limitation to be equal with TK75. TK75 is not driven as hard as BTU even though rdr assume it is because someone already measure TK75 using power supply.

DENGOH: I agree with you not much difference. The point is since the whole thing is about boasting BTU Turbo performance, so I point out BTU weakness that it can only do it for 3 minutes. RDR claim no problem to use BTU in Turbo mode as long as he likes, but he doesn’t try it. I asked rdr before to switch BTU on for 10 or 20 minutes, always put it back to Turbo mode when it step down, and record the output with light meter. Seriously, I think we should think about why BTU limit it to 3 minutes in first place.

DENGOH: I dislike bad quality product that charge for premium price. If BTU is selling at $100 now, I am okay with it. But it looks like it is not as it involve SRK in the purchase. When I see people boasting about their product, I can’t help to voice out. I don’t openly bashing BTU everywhere, it is only after someone boasting BTU and I will voice out there are better choice.

Sorry to others who like attacking, attacking statements are ignored by me. I don’t study psychology but I am not easily provoked.

See my reply to Slewflash. I don’t think I am biassed though. If BTU is selling at $100 in current package, and I am still bashing it, then I am biased.
Remember it was aiming $180 and use $150 to lure everyone to buy in current package. Now Ric is filling up at least one gap, that is AR lens, I look forward to see how the lens look like.

Yes, in my review I also questioned the choice of using a tailcap switch.
At the time of announcing it was one of THE best lights out for the price (TK70 head with 18650s? Ingenious). I agree that the TK75 may look better but they’re for different purposes. Neither is better than the other.
If someone wants throw and high output why would you recommend a TK75 when the Shocker is clearly the better choice? But of course if you want more flood and high output you can just get a TK75, or if you want even more flood then a TN30.

Technically the BTU Shocker is still $150; you get a $50 coupon to buy more items from Fancyflashlights. It has nothing to do with the SRK (unless you want to use the coupon to buy one).

Since their output is about same, TK75 flood better, BTU throw better, might not noticeable to human eye, then I think from usability or quality point of view, TK75 is the better choice.
1.Longer runtime
2.Lighter
3.2 years warranty
4.Better UI
5.IPX8
6.AR Lens
7.Shiny Reflector
8.20 Minutes Turbo

DENGOH: It is not $100 like you say.

IS the ar lens available for the btu ? I hope Ric sends me one after i told him im a fasttech customer now

Ric should make available for the BTU ...AR lens , diffrent reflector designs ( for flood or throw), diffrent digital drivers if choice !!!!,the driver holder ring,the leds can be purchased as newer and more powefull once get available, battery carrier is already available and an upgrade would be nice , and this light would be the mother of all hosts for modding and upgrading since heat decipation is a non issue with its thick body ! itl stay with the pack for many years to come. This is a flashaholics light after all so needs lots if optional parts and accesories available .selling parts and accesories for the btu will get him more cash then selling the light itself :) I know i would buy a "flooder " reflector design.

Hey DENGOH, the TK75 throws like a little girl compared to the BTU. The BTU is the undisputed throw king of multi-emitter lights. That’s why people buy it, duh. I don’t know what your fascination is with the TK75 having magic xmls that produce more light with lower current.

can anyone with a lux meter ,take readings with lens On and then take reading with the lens off and tell us the diffrence.