Xtar make some pretty cool dive lights with variable dimmers but I’m not sure they’d hold up like a UK would.
Pelican, if they made a dive light would be good too.
I’d suggest leaning towards a 4aa 100 lumen light, it’ll have a tight beam and 6-8 hours of useable runtime. I use Pelican and Streamlight 4aa lights on my hardhat. There durable, trustworthy, great warranty and single mode. My Streamlight still outputs 80 lumens at the 6 hour mark.
Forgot to mention the 26650 light I linked to only costs $23 shipped and are small enough to fit in a BC pocket.
If you already have 18650 batteries and a charger its a very inexpensive way to go for a bright light.
At 2.6a on high it should give about an hour of run time from a 2600mah 18650 and much more on the lower modes.
With Trustfire flame 26650 cells which have about 4200mah, I would expect about 90-100 minutes on high.
Also, these lights are brighter on the second to lowest mode than the 8x AA lights we were using.
They are put together with 2 halves apparently based on a seam presence. There is an obvious small ridge running down the threads and under the O-ring area. The bezel that screws on also has small ridges in the part that mates with the O-rings. These may weep under pressure and get worse as the O-ring ages.
In addition the first one had an obvious chunk out of the plastic under the top O-ring, a glaring defect. There was a kind of unevenness just off to the side of this flashing ridge. I spent the better part of a half hour cleaning this up as best possible with 1000 and then 2000 grit sandpaper. #1 survived an empty test dive to 140 feet. On the next working dive it functioned fine but had a few micro drops inside that would have been easy to overlook in an empty case. The outer silver part of the head came off when I tried to unscrew it. I epoxied it back on and it’s holding. I retired this light from diving as not trustworthy in the long run. This would not make a reliable backup unless you overhauled and checked it each dive as water would accumulate and destroy the electrics after awhile.
Number 2 is similar except does not have the gouge under the top O-ring. It still has ridges where glued together in the head and O-ring area along with some manufacturing anomalies under the O-ring area. It needs magnification to see, but it’s there. Water under pressure will find any flaw. Problem areas have been sanded down as before as well as possible. The 2nd one came with 1 extra ‘base/bottom’ square O-ring added in this model. This could provide additional protection. This new one has not been dive tested yet but appears more promising.
For not much more money and apparently a MUCH better light is this 1200 Lumen 12W Cree XM-L T6 LED 100m Diving Flashlight Torch for $20. It has a tighter spot with a smoother spill is made better, and will take a 26650 Lion. With a fresh battery it’s almost up to the standard of my $400 canister light.
There is more discussion on this light, including a breakdown (possible problems with thermal transfer), here: New cheap 26650 diving light at DX
Yes, the 26650 light is the same I gave my thoughts on earlier today.
I also provided a link to the thread with the mod for thermal improvement, that thread and this one is what made me decide to try one.
The thermal path improvements detailed by the OP in the DX thread would no doubt help, but I believe the OP of this thread has been cave diving with these lights as is without issues.
The advantages the 26650 light has over the plastic XM-L diving lights seem to be: they are much less likely to leak (properly maintained), additional lower modes for longer run times if needed and additional battery capacity if 26650 cells are used.
Hi MRTdiver! I love talking about SCUBA. Sometimes I wish I were born a fish. :bigsmile: I dont think many people realize how important the reliability of SCUBA equipment is or why redundancy is so important. Its life support equipment. Ive done some penetration and overhead but prefer open water & night dives. I used to have a dive boat in Monterey Bay, CA… so cold water/dry suit/argon/deep was the norm. Im thinking about the Cenotes in Florida next year but heard the ancient waters have been disturbed and vis is down. Not at all what it used to be.
For open water dives, my primary is the Xtar D35. I like it for its size, ruggedness, and ease of use. It has a magnetic rotating mode selection ring (no guess work for the proper mode), 3 x XM-L and uses 3 x 18650’s in parallel (safer than serial cell configurations, especially in salt water). The reflectors are deep for great throw, with a moderately tight hotspot to penetrate clear waters. It also puts out a great spill beam. IMO, the quality is top-notch and comparable to larger Olight & Fenix flashlights. Comparing high mode to high mode, it actually puts out slightly more lumens in my light box than a BTU Shocker (241k vs 227k). I measured current at 8.5A in high mode, so the emitters are well driven. I usually run mine in medium or low mode.
I got my D35 (along with an S1) from Mike over at http://www.e2fieldgear.com His kit includes the optional handle, light with case, lanyard and o-rings. Great US based seller, fast shipping and was there to answer all of my questions.
I also carry a pricey modified DiveRite 125w HID canister (and 2-3 other lights). It lights up the world and allows me to take most of the lead out of my BC.
The Cenotes are no doubt a facinating place to dive.
The wife and I dove the Cenotes of Tulum MX in 2009, and it was the clearest water I’ve ever seen.
Much clearer than Cozumel which we have dove many times and can reach 200ft vis.
I use the Xtar D06 for diving, I like that it just fits in BC pocket until I need it. Output is a bit disappointing though. I wished it pulled more amps, as underwater overheating and thermal lag isn’t a problem.
When the magnetic switch is set to high, it’s puts out around 800 lumens with a U2 emitter, continuously running it doesn’t even get warm. No idea exactly how many amps it pulls though…
Curious, as I have a few old school dive lights. Dacor and Iklite that used plain old primary batteries. The cheap Dacors used to flood regularly but were easy and cheap to rebuild and used a lot in commercial diving.
What happens to these fantastic new 26650 lights if they flood? These batteries die peacefully?
IMO, water (and especially salt water) are potential recipes for disaster when mixed with lithium cobalt oxide cells contained within a small sealed metallic housing. While many cheap lithium powered dive lights have flooded without incident, the potential for catastrophic venting is still present. Given the right conditions, an 18650 can make one hell of a ka-boom. Water will also corrode everything: from protection circuits, drivers and everything else metallic in the light. A descent dive light should NEVER leak if inspected and maintained properly. If you cant easily disassemble a dive light to lubricate and maintain orings and seals, it probably shouldn’t be submerged.
100% agree, which is why I use a quality torch and batteries. Also, any dive lights should have double O-rings, which should be removed, cleaned and re-lubed after every dive.
Cutting corners on equipment that could cost you your life is dumb beyond words. Reliable lights for cave diving are an absolutely necessity! Anything from SOLA would be a great choice for your primary dive light. They run from $299 up to $1000. Check them out. If money must be saved, save it on the backup lights. Princeton is a good choice ($60 - $200). There are some serious professional dive lights available (the Polarian Abyss comes to mind) but for $2K you could buy 2 or 3 top of the line SOLA models. There are several other top quality dive light manufacturers available. I only mention these three companies because I am familiar with them.
I never had any of these dive lights flood on me. Me and my dive buddies use a lot of Li-ion powered dive lights - actually we ONLY use Li-ion dive lights now. I don't ever use xxx-fire cells.
Remember in my first post I recommended dive lights with only 1 opening. So the chances of water leakage is minimized. And to regularly apply silicone grease to the o-rings - believe me this is where we fail most - in basic dive light care.
No need to buy expensive $100+ dive lights. I've bought them. Not impressed. In fact one of my $200+ back-up lights was one that failed from a new Alkaline battery that leaked. Destroyed the battery carrier inside.
It was about 1 or 2 years ago that I realized this after reading a post from Forrest over on Cave Diver's Forum (CDF) and then buying and using these so-called "cheap Chinese lights"
If you don't believe me then try some of those I mentioned above. They're inexpensive as far as dive lights. The Brinyte DIV05 - I think you can run over with your car and it would be fine. I'm also very interested to see how the X-Beam dive light fairs - it has a magnetic switch - so it's not another opening to the inside.
OK, so never buy cheap lights for cave diving, yes “dumb beyond words”, no? I was fishing for info, trolling to speak 0:)
I was a habitat ET for Taylor Diving based in New Orleans during the 80’s. So, the lights used during that time frame, were all primary based with both plastic and metal housing. In the commercial environment, they all flooded. Today, in a commercial environment, I dive ROV’s to 3k meters. We use 40 led 110vac modular lights. These and just about every 1 atmosphere and oil filled can or cable has flooded on these subs. Point fingers and critique all you want but any equipment in rough daily year round use floods by human error or act of the gods.
By the tone of the posts, most of you would not leave the boat without LiIo lights and that all can still type is a very good sign and a vote of confidence. I would think that, advertising dollars aside, the dive magazines would publish warnings if people were regularly injured with these lights.
Looking at the lights I would feel better if the lights had end caps, secure by 0-ring grooves, that would allow end cap to vent if flooding and gassing were to occur. I have had issues with cans that flood at depth and are under great pressure on the deck. Our halogen lights have glass globes that allow pressure to vent from their sealing O-rings when coming to surface.
yeah Illuminaria, I knew from your first post when you mentioned "commercial" that I couldn't recommend or give advise for that application, that is just wayyy too deep.
Hopefully if I helped in any way I want recreational and technical divers to see that there are some inexpensive alternatives. Because many, especially tech. divers think that they need to spend $75-$300 for a good backup dive light. And $400-$2,000 for a quality canister light.
I'm just trying to find an alternative, even if means modding a light. Like for example the Ultrafire W200, which I have a simple & inexpensive way to mod that light making it more dependable, plus a little GITD.
stock the W200 is crap - many reports of flickering. So this is only a light to buy if you intend to mod it.
Are there guys out there that currently own this light and it flickers? See my mod here.
with GITD (glow-in-the-dark) o-rings added. Glow lasts about 7 mins. Whenever the light is turned on the o-rings are re-charged
Those are large O-rings. What’s your source? I’ve been looking for some replacements for some of the standard lights. Some of them aren’t made very well with seams and bits hanging off. I even went to an O-ring local store and they had little that would fit properly.
im looking for a good diving light(under 40:money_mouth_face: with magnetic switch without parasitic drain. Does it exist ? ( except those yellow cheap flashlights )
