All I need a light to do is to turn on when I click it. Every light I have ever owned has done that, except years ago a cheap metal light.
I always read comments that indicate that if the light did not work it would be catastrophic. If one is a professional, then get the light recommended by the dept.
However, I have not found the Sipik SK68 is unreliable. Understand that price does not necessarily equate to reliability. A statement that one cannot afford to use a specific light because it is unreliable should be backed by experience and numbers. If one does not believe a light, such as the Sipik, is reliable. Prove it.
Again, if all I ever had from this day forward were C or D Maglites and mini Maglites, I would not ever be without light. Not one has ever failed in camping, car, and other outdoor use. For less than $100 dollars I could stock my gear, house, and cars with Maglites. I realize that professional people who use them on duty need some specialized lights, but otherwise we are just playing with lights mostly. I do like small single cell AAA and AA lights that will fit in my pocket.
I assume that you two will eventually catch up with the rest of us on the “SK68 is cheaply made” front.
From my perspective there are 4 primary areas of potential shoddiness in a cheap light:
Shoddy driver. This may be shoddy assembly, shoddy components, or both. (many failure modes and schedules)
Shoddy switch. This is pretty straightforward. (Two failure modes: either won’t turn on or won’t turn off. The schedule could be today, or it could be tomorrow.)
Shoddy machine work. This is pretty easy to catch on to and something you can easily check for yourself.
Shoddy assembly. This is usually something which is easy to check for, but in the case of the SK68 and other lower-level cheap lights it can be difficult due to the use of press-fits.
I’m not picking on the SK68 & clones. The SK68 is an amazing thing! Not being a reliable tool isn’t directly correlated with the price payed. It’s correlated with all the things I mentioned above.
The easiest thing to pick on with the SK68 is the cheap switch. I think that those cheap boost drivers can also fail, but I don’t know how this compares with expensive boost drivers for 1xAA. AFAIK the biggest source of failures on these inexpensive small lights is the switch.
I understand what you’re saying. I have no doubts that the components may not be the same as a light that costs many times more. In fact, I’d hope a light that costs many times more would be many times better. But from what I’ve read, this isn’t necessarily the case many times. And I have to go back to that fact that I’ve been using my particular SK68 as one of my EDC’s for several years now without issue. I’ve given many away as little gifts. A couple went to my two handymen who use them far more than I do (under sinks, in the attic, inside an air conditioner etc). I told them to put them to the test and let me know. Last I heard they’re working fine and they just use it with a AA. So while it might be cheaply made, so far at least they’re far better than the price you pay.
I ordered five more off Amazon for less than $15 just to have a little personal stockpile and/or the occasional gift. And really, if/when they do fail me it will provide a good opportunity to monkey around with modding/fixing it.
I’ve sure gotten $100 worth of use out of my V11R sitting on the nightstand wherever I happen to be for the last couple years. Lately I’ve seen it as low as $46 without the extender. There’s also a Ti3 sitting next to it on the nightstand. There used to be a SWM V20C also on the nightstand complementing the V11R but I gave it away a couple days ago because I never used it. In the woods I mainly use the D40A.
In the next week I’m going to go live off the grid for a month or so on some acreage in WA state to test my sister’s “doomsday prepper” setup. I own most of the same budget lights as you guys do, which I’ll be bringing as backups, but I expect my trusty V11R and D40A to continue to serve my needs even when their use is going to quadruple.
Either way, two is one and one is none. And even far away from home, I’m looking at an L10, a Ti3, that little AAA group buy from GB and my trusty SF5 on the table in front of me.
Edit: Regarding those TF flame 14500s: I have a couple that are >3 years old and still test higher on the Opus than some new Olight 14500s I just bought from Illumination Supply. I don’t know if the TF flames are still the same quality these days and obviously YMMV. I did notice that HKEquipement is selling them and they are a trusted vendor, so I would be inclined to trust theirs, or at least take a chance on ordering.
I just ordered the TI3 a couple of days ago. And I ordered the Tank007 E09 this morning from FT as well. Looking to upgrade my EDC keychain which currently has the ML Solitare LED and ROV mini-led. I think the Ti3 & E09 will do quite nicely.
Eh? You got these recommendations
— from people you know personally?
— from people who have a record of posting here for a while? (look below the name for the total number of posts and date joined)
— from people known reliable?
Maybe you got advice from people you should consider reliable.
But they’re telling you “many were biased against them” — where do you think that “bias” comes from?
Just not liking the name?
Personal animosity?
Reasonable people may differ. But — it makes me wonder who’s giving you this advice[
Heck, it makes me wonder if Trustfire was using bots or employees to push their batteries.
Longtime readers here, as far as I am aware, never recommend Trustfire cells, based on the public record.
Hank, as far as I’m aware Trustfire uses unknown cells but may be head-and-shoulders above other *fire brands… best judged on a case by case basis. I know for sure that there are specific instances where real members here have recommended at least specific Trustfire cells.
That said, there was and is no resounding recommendation for Trustfire from BLF as a group. I read the the Trustfire stuff in a similar way to the “well it works for me! <shrug>” response on the SK68’s. (Granted that SK68’s don’t inherently entail li-ion safety concerns.)
You’ll like the Ti3, Dave. Personally I prefer it always come on in moonlight (unlike the I3S) because I tend to stay in places where it might be disruptive to shine a bright flashlight to use a restroom at night in a house or hotel I’m not used to, and tend to walk shin-first into all the furniture without at least a little bit of light.
Blasting out 100 lumens at the people sleeping around me just to get to moonlight mode would be both pointless and rude, so I always keep something I can start in moonlight mode nearby when I’m on the road. One good thing about the Ti3 as a nightstand light versus something like a V11R is that the Ti3 is light enough to put in your pajamas pocket or even the little pockets that come with some sleeping bags like my Coleman. And sometimes inside the sleeping bag I keep a little light like the Ti3 inside my pocket while I’m sleeping if I think I might need to pepper spray a bear on short notice. Who knows what will visit your tent here in the Northwest
That was one of the features that caught my attention as well. It’s shipped so hopefully I’ll receive it towards the end of the week. I ordered the Tank007 E09 today from FT. It took a couple of months to receive batteries from them but I understand that delay is specific to batteries and other items are much quicker…I hope :bigsmile:
Reviews on DX are favorable. People say they’re around 2300mah which sounds about right for a Chinese 3000mah rating. OtherFires are usually around 1200mah or so.
While none of HJK’s comments say “buy **Fire, they don’t exactly say ”don’t buy” either.
From HJK’s 2012 battery tests:
Trustfire 3000mAh 18650
The performance matches a quality 2600mAh battery, but I cannot say anything about how it will age. For a cheap battery it is a good battery.
Trustfire 900mAh 14500
The battery is good for a cheap battery, but the voltage under load is considerable lower than the best batteries.
UltraFire 5000mAh 26650 “Flames”
These batteries has a good performance for cheap batteries, except for the “low” current limit I do not have anything to complain about.
I think the message to take from the **fire discussion is just avoid them. Its a lottery at best, and only in regard to genuine TrustFire is there a chance it will be good, but even then it might not be. Its just easier and more prudent to buy a known item instead.
The blue wrapper trustfire batteries aren’t great. I have had good luck with the 2 14500 foil label trustfire flames myself. I wouldn’t buy any 18650 batteries though. I have so many more Li-ion batteries than I know what to do with at this point from laptop pulls and whatnot, that I don’t need to buy any more cheap cells.
Looks like pretty much any battery can be faked. So you stick with a trusted seller and report any problems you encounter. So far I’m comfortable with my TF flames and genuine Sanyo batteries from the dealers I’ve purchased from. Just ordered Efest so hopefully they’ll be a good experience as well. As long as the battery delivers then I’m not going to get hung up on a particular name or brand. And if I can find a good battery at a good price then that’s icing on the cake.
Why don’t bigger ‘name’ companies make batteries like 26650/18650/14500 etc? And at a fair market price? Unless I’m missing something I haven’t seen a Durcell 26650 or an Energizer 18650 etc.
hank - Calmaja and Deputydave are correct: eBay & etc have no shortage of fakes for any brand you want. FT is a good vendor and does it’s best to keep things “on the up and up”. (At one point they listed the wrappers Calmaja mentioned, they were quickly pulled after complaints from BLF users since the only purpose was building fake cells!) They don’t always get it right, but if I was going to buy TF cells it would probably be from there.
You’ve been around here for a while and you still haven’t caught on? The names we keep mentioning are the big names. Sanyo, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, LG, etc… they manufacture huge numbers of cells. None of these cells are for individual sale. They are intended for use in packs (generally with a BMS). That’s where the small fish like Efest, AW, and KeepPower come into play: they purchase those cells through the grey market. Then they add a protection circuit (or don’t) and re-wrap and sell.
Nobody who cares about liability wants to sell individual 18650’s or 26650’s.
