Hello Gentlemen..... and ladies whose names begin with A,
I’ve been researching single 18650 flashlights for my next purchase.
Not 100% set on the characteristics but good throw and a bit of short range spill would be useful.
There’s already plenty of information on flashlights that fit those requirements but unfortunately being the difficult tit that I am, I have set my heart on a side clicky/switch.
This has seriously limited my choice as it seems not many manufacturers make side mounted ones any more, apart from Maglite of course.
The only semi decent options I found all have internal charging features which are a bit of a concern.
Could anyone please tell me if there is anything I should be wary of with the following flashlights and would their modding potential be limited by the internal chargers?
Also a bit of a long shot but I don’t suppose anyone knows if the internal charging circuitry could be removed easily as I doubt I’d ever use it anyway?
I like the design of these, look like they'd have good external heat dissipation but can’t really class them as budget flashlights, not much detail on the emitters either.
Still, from what I see above, a side switch costs you around 15$ and limits you to inefficient LEDs (around P4-Q3)... OK, excluding monsters like Olight Intimidator, but that's not a budget light ;)
Thanks very much for the suggestions Admin, I might have gone for that G&R light, despite the bling, if it didn’t have those multiple LEDs.
It looks like Anduril is correct, the price premium isn’t too much of an issue for me but judging by the comments and reviews it does seem like pretty much all of the side switched 18650 lights are very old models, hence the ageing inefficient emitters.
I bet if I ordered any of them I’d find that they were no longer available.
I know I’m being a total breast implant but as I’m still learning about the different emitters, reflectors and lenses, a large part of my decision making is being driven by looks for now.
If it had a side clicky I would jump at the Solarforce Skyline I as I really like the style of it......oh and it just happens to be a really good performer as well.
I was just about to ignore my budget and buy a Luma Power MRV SK (Side Kick) until I found out that the side switch only controls the modes and you still have to turn it off and on at the tail.
Perhaps it is time to start a Maglite style 1 or 2 x 18650 modding project.
These are cheap enough that I wouldn’t worry about making a mess of them as I learned.
I'm not very informed on the high end light arena but from my quick research of the Olight Intimidator it occurs to me if you really want a light saber may be try taking off the head and then poking the battery pack with a sharp object? I don't know how well the can be disassembled but if you can get access to the raw battery pack positive and negative you could try shorting them for the same effect. Needless to say you should actually try this unless you're applying for the Darwin Awards in which case remember to do it in a very secluded location (perhaps a desert?) so you don't hurt anyone else (which will disqualify you, amongst other things)
Yeah, I’ve never sold anything on ebay but it looks like maybe either the listing fee or Paypal fee is calculated on the item price only, excluding the postage so the seller has transferred most of the cost over to the postage to pay less in fees.
Still, can’t complain about the service ‘so far’, flashlights ordered at 7pm Wednesday and received notification at 9am Thursday saying they have been shipped.
Not expecting much from the them but as long as the build quality is reasonably good I’ll be content.
Might be worth a look. From the look of the reflector it'll throw for miles. Not ultra budget - it is $5 more than the HS-802 and is longer as it has to be to accommodate the side switch.