Don’t get them from Gearbest.
You’ll probably get drivers soldered in, sometimes soldered in over a retaining ring, sometimes no retaining ring just solder.
It’s hard to solder those right, solder can crack sometimes, and that gives a poor electrical connection.
You won’t get customer service if there’s any problem.
Hi there,
to be honest (and no offense at all…!) when I read this:
the first thing that came to my mind was: if your security, health and/or life really depends on the flashlight working at the right moment, you really want to buy these on a budget? The convoy lights are good, don´t get me wrong, but for professional work I´d better search around brands like Klarus, ArmyTec, EagleTac …
JustMy2cents…
K.
As far as solid and well built, I’d put a Convoy M1 against any of those, and I do own lights manufactured by those companies. If I was in law enforcement, I’d have no qualms against carrying one as a duty light.
Hmm, it seems like the Convoy S2+ has one or two votes! I think I’ll give Simon a shout. Is there way to get ahold of him through PM or something? His Aliexpress link is giving my browser all sorts of trouble.
I figured I’d address this. Right now, they’re carrying some kind of Cree light that was probably around the $2 range and looks about as bright as a 2AA Maglite. Management doesn’t seem to care and won’t pay, so this would be entirely out of my own pocket. I’d like to do right by them and get a solid product, but I also don’t want to spend $200……
You’re a good man veovius.
I'd go for S2+ with 3x7135. These will still put out 400 lumens. More than that would mean shorter battery life and that the lights may start to overheat.
I think the official Convoy store on Aliexpress has the best price for a single light but FastTech gives a big discount for bulk orders. This one is grey with a neutral white (3B colour) emitter:
I second this!
Go for 4*7135 chips, longer runtimes, cooler and still easy 25m and a step up from what you describe as being used now
I own several lights much more expensive than my Convoys, but I don’t own ANY which are “better”. Every Convoy I own puts out light every time I click the switch.
The old “If your life depends on your flashlight, you need to spend more money” attitude has become dated. There are budget flashlights which are highly dependable snd the Convoy S2+ so many are suggesting is exactly that. The only real downfall (from my viewpoint) is the lack of a pocket clip which is inexpensive to fix by getting clips from Fastech, although they are somewhat of a hassle to apply. (I have arthritic fingers) I strongly suggest some blue loctite so you only have to do each one once. Somebody may know of a slip-on clip…
Here you go
http://m.aliexpress.com/item/32579921654.html
Have one on the S2+ works fine
I just suggested one or two Convoy C8’s in addition to the S2+, S3 convoys. Might come in handy. 
What are you planning for charging the cells your staff uses?
Since you say management gave them cheap cheap lights, I wonder —
Are they experienced with using li-ion cells?
It’s a surprise how fast the light goes dark (no long slow decline as with alkaline)
It’s a surprise that a lot of energy is contained in a li-ion that’s “dead” — that won’t light up a flashlight.
It’s a big surprise if someone puts a “dead” cell in a pocket with a keychain or trashes one carelessly
(do they at least know when not to inhale?)
The 3x7135 choice would extend the time the lights stay bright.
For Convoy directly, you email Simon, identify as coming from BLF, say what you want and wait.
One person operation, and some family demands and a recent office move have caused some delays not long ago.
For within the USA, I’d again recommend mtnelectronics; RMM is here at BLF and worth asking for what you want.
Could work out.
I’ve been putzing around here for a couple of weeks now and I’ve got a couple of Convoy’s ordered. But I keep seeing things like this and, as a small business owner myself, I’d really like to order direct from the source and lend support.
What I haven’t seen is a link or a website or any way to actually do this order direct thing. What am I missing?
Sully
Thank you! I’ve bookmarked this and will be browsing all night now.
hey, when you figure out what charger to buy and where, please post here as well. I too need one
The Thorfire VG10 is my favorite general purpose all around great 18650 flashlight.
+1 to that if you can spend a few more bucks! Like KB1428 said, it would be well worth it.
Yeah but $5 per light adds up to a little more then a few bucks
Besides the VG10 is really about the same price as a S+
But the question is not for something with decent throw, then I’d say VG10 for 15, C8 for 20.
S2+ is for easy use and floody up to 25M max
A S2+ with 3-4 chips will do that excellent with long cell life and fits exactly in the budget.
So pointing to more expensive is not really on topic right?
(I know it is a forum thing, happens everywhere, somebody asks for something for $X
“if you just spend a little more you can get….”
“Oh but wait now we are at $X+Y, you should surely check out that, it is just a measly Z more expensive”
“Say, now that $X+Y+Z is on the table, please consider this, it is nearly perfect, only costs you……”
$15 a piece was the question, for people not knowing a lot about flashlights coming from cr@ppy $hit.
Floody with a range of 25meters
Is there anything that has the build quality, ease to use and beam profile comparable or better then a Convoy S2+, for $15 or less?
Really I like to know this myself now 
In this application even the venerable old P60 might be a viable option. A decent XM-L2 @ 1A would satisfy your brightness requirements, and with an OP reflector would give you the floody beam you want. Heat wouldn’t be an issue at such a low drive current, and you would get good runtime. The P60 drop-in means you could keep a couple of extra pills built and ready to swap out in the event of any failure.
A good solarforce host is a bit out of your budget, but hopefully there are still some decent 501/502/504-style hosts available.
FastTech has some simple and inexpensive single-mode 1A regulated drivers available. I like using these in the lower-power lights…
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10001751/1127406