Flashlight Purchase Pain Points (Why You Buy or Don't Buy a Light)

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

I wanted to dedicate a topic to the things that you contemplate most when making a purchasing decision or a decision not to purchase. What are the “pain points” or worries that affect your decisions? here are mine…

1. Size (jacket pocket and smaller): Will I be able to carry this light or will it become a shelf queen?
2. Forward clicky (tactical use): Will I be able to “play” with it and signal or quickly light up a spot?
3. Throw (mid range or greater): Depending on the task, of course.
4. Mode memory (separate switch or twist head): Or, failing these, a programmable one-mode driver?
5. No accidental activation (no “hot pockets”): Does it appear the light will come on by accident?
6. Ergonomics and weight (not head-heavy): Ergonomic appearance and perceived pleasuere handling can be a big factor.
7. Driver (regulation only): Dimming — nope!
8. Temp step-downs: One is sometimes necessary, but multiple temp step-downs are a guaranteed turn-off.
9. Reputation: Have others had trouble with the light? Any design flaws?

Too often, I will put a light in my cart and get ready to check out—only to soon realize I won’t enjoy my purchase, so out of the cart it goes.

2

Usually price. In fact, almost always price.

I’d loooooove a W30, but can’t see myself spending hunnids in a “toy”. Not denigrating the light by calling that, but I’d really only be using it to play with, hence, “toy”. Same with the bigger GTs (’mini and ’micro are all that’re useful to me, as they’re cheap enough).

And price is a factor in how much I’d be willing to throw away if the light crokes. I don’t trust warranties, because even if they make good, cost to ship there and back might be the cost of a brandy-new light.

To a lesser extent, the UI. Blinkies are almost always a turn-off, especially if too easily accessible. The Astrolux(?) LEP got knocked completely out of my consideration just because of the f’n blinkies. I like the Acebeam probably because it’s 1-mode, as it’s only useful at loooong distances and not close up, and probably don’t need different brightness levels, and certainly don’t need blinkies.

3

I became member of BUDGET light forum because of the budget thing, unfortunately, i spent hundreds of dollars by now. (Probably passed the 1000 mark)

Exactly the reason (like LB said) i would really like a decent LEP, but its expensive.

However, i do own a GT90, but rarely use it, because its not very pocket friendly.

So when taking a walk, the L21A is probably the biggest light i take with me (and no, it does not fit my pockets)

4

I’m the same, my main thing is price and 2nd is the UI. If I can’t disable the disco modes I’ll skip right over it.

5

Oh, i agree, UI is very important!

  • I hate blinkies
  • It needs a real low mode (not 10 Lm, but smaller than 1Lm)
  • Preferably, modes can be programmed, or it always has to start in low mode

Exactly the reason i try to swap drivers or get rid of lights with annoying UI’s

6

Like every time I got interested in the Wuben C3, I re-recalled something about the UI that talked me out of it. Forgot what offhand, but there was something.

(And I generally like Wubens, and got a bunch.)

7

3 points.

1. Quality. reviews/recommendations.
2. Price. i can wait for a deal.
3. Shipping. like from China.

8

Ohhhhh yeah. No more from China. Every single order sans one, I’ve had and am having huge issues in shipping.

Worse, no one wants to cancel’n’refund without giving it like 6mos sitting in subspace somewhere.

So if it’s not from Amazon or Illumn or whatever, forget it.

9

what do i care about:?
small size, price, and ui (controllable many-level light levels)

what do i not care about?
batteries bigger than 18650
super throwers
color index warmer than NW
internal charging
magnets
lanyards
colored anodizing
multi cell
mod-ability

what do i hate?
pointy ends
next-mode memory
break when you drop them once
zoom
3xAAA 9 led lights
16340 [no decent cells but there should be]
chinese customer service
strobe in middle of UI cycle
strobe if you press buttons too fast
long-press for on or off

10

Thrust to weight ratio. New high-performance emitters, such as the SPT 90.2.

Full size spectrum of very small, small, medium, large, very large flashlights.

Dedicated throwers, pure flooders and power throwers. Five size classifications and three beam profile classifications equals 15 flashlights. When emitters come out, it’s time to upgrade.

Flashlights are cheaper than cars, rare coins, and guns. Also, I buy a new light with a new unique configuration comes out. I love everything from D4V2 to MT90. I like the medium budget range, I avoid the most cheapest no-name stuff and the most expensive jewelry lights.

11

I need to buy lights that can be upgraded or modded, so type, then price are my requirements. :wink:

12

If it's not in-place programmable (i.e., flashing with pogo-pins), that's a deal-breaker for me.

13

must use off-the-shelf batteries, nothing potted, have a decent emitter (though I`m prepared to swap it out if it`s a good light otherwise), I don`t care for fancy tubes or colors I`m happy with basic black or maybe gray, price is important too.
I`m not bothered about internal charging (I don`t use it anyway), if the company even Mentions tacticool I`m outa there!
any light where you can hide/disable the strobe stuff is on the winning side, and I prefer flooders over throwers.
If it looks a bit unusual or quirky I`ll be interested esp if it looks like it`s something out of Star Wars :slight_smile:
IPX 8 rating is always good too and usually means they took at least Some care in manufacturing. Brand names don`t mean anything to me and won`t persuade me to buy a light just because X company made it. I don`t like tailcap clickies and much prefer a side or top button, magnetic tail caps I only want on my 90 degree lights, Aux lights are a plus.

There, that about covers the basics for me :smiley:

14

There are a lot of “cool” lights out there with electronic switches and Anduril interfaces, etc that come in olive green and cyan. If you want a dependable light, that will work when you need it most, you want a Convoy S2+ type light with a mechanical switch and a no- nonsense interface. If you have to carry a cheat sheet with you on how to operate your light, this is not the light you want to have during an emergency. Not to mention, the electronic switch will drain the battery when the light is sitting idle and when you need it, it will be dead. There is cool, and then there is functional. I like both but if I had to pick one, I would take functional.

15

not true, most good lights will only draw micro amps and would take years for them to “be dead”, which would be your own fault anyway for neglecting them and not using tailcap lock-out.

16

I respectfully disagree. I would rather have a dependable functional light in an emergency . The problem is you don’t know when an emergency will happen. Can you guarantee me that your son or daughter wont screw the tail cap in and not tell you? The point is that you don’t know. You don’t know when the emergency will happen, you don’t know how long your light will last from slow drain, you don’t know how long you will need your light in an emergency. And because you don’t know, you should not take unnecessary risks.

How foolish will you feel if your car went off the side of a cliff, and you made it to the bottom badly injured. You manage to get your FW3A out of the glove compartment and you cant remember how to activate the beacon mode so others can see you and save you. Or you activate it and the battery dies after 4.5 minutes.

If this sounds far fetched, its not. I love cool lights and I have half a dozen FW3A’s however this is not the light you want in your car for an emergency.

17

my light are ALL serviced regularly and my EDC lights weekly, I also carry more than One (even in the car), yes I`m sure I will have light whenever I need it. :wink:

18

I'm fairly new to this hobby, but I quickly got turned off by proprietary anything (batteries, chargers). And I just don't get the super high lumen turbo modes, that the flashlight can't handle the heat and needs to step down very quickly, or the batteries can't maintain and go dead after 15 mins. I dont see the practicality in that, maybe its just a wow factor from a collectors perspective? But I only buy a light that has a practical usefulness.

19

The Astrolux LEP’s have a magnetic control ring and a rear clicky. Want a one mode light? Just leave it on high and use the rear switch. It actually peaked my interest when I found this out, as it does what the Acebeam and Jetbeam do, plus more. The thing holding me back at the moment is a little on the price, but mainly because at the moment it appears that Banggood aren’t shipping to the UK. Also I’m a little hesitant over LEP’s at the moment. Similar point to yours, warranty. If something goes wrong with a ‘normal’ LED light I buy, I’m fairly confident I can fix it most of the time. But LEP’s I’m not, and it’s a chunk of money to potentially loose on, as you put it, a ‘toy’.

20

Well, that’s the issue, regular “service” on lights, vs most normal people who just buy a plastic 2D light and toss it in a drawer/glovebox to be forgotten about ’til the power goes out or ’til a hurricane hits.

Ironically, we had a blackout a few days ago, 70mph gusts or wind knocked over (also ironically) a Christmas tree right onto the block’s powerlines. Fried the whoooooooole length of cables from one end of the block to the other.

Kudos/Props/Whatever to ConEd, who worked straight through from early the next day well into the night and early morning to restring all those cables and get power back in 18hrs, at least on my side of the block.

Anyway, I had my whole assortment of lights all ready to go, mostly all topped off: GTmicro, MH20, MH20GT, SP31v2, SC31pro shorty, Tacklife (26650) whatever model, and DC7, as well as Xeno E03 and Wuben E05 and SP10B with alkaleaks. Also had my Zanflare lantern (the one with the touchpad on top that goes WW/CW/mix with ramping). As well as a nice-outside/crappy-innards “hurricane lantern”.

Also had a few topped-off powerbanks where just one let me top off my phone from ~40% and let me also top off my GTmicro from 3.6V after “investigating” the powerline situation, and it still had plenty of juice to spare.

Gas was still on, so I had plenty of hot water and could use the stove/oven all I wanted, but no house-heat (needs electricity to fire the boiler!). Not fun when temps dropped into the 20s overnight.

Hell, even that lantern that I had cranked up to mid-brightness for some decent light was on pretty much its last gasp when the power came back on. Oh, I had extra loose cells on the table and could tap into dozens more if ever needed, so I knew I was good as far as light and cellphones, and could cook all I wanted (canned pea-soup was soooooo good when temps inside dipped into the 50s, and I was able to take a nice long scorching shower to warm up late that night).

The point? Point being, I was loaded for bear. Or so I thought.

I wanted coffee the next morning. Could make a fast-grab in the fridge for the milk and not let out too much cold air (only time I opened it at all). Could heat the water no problem. But how’m I gonna grind the beans? Oh! I got that Rockpal(?) thingy that has 12VDC/24VDC/usb/120VAC outputs, the last up to 300W. Easy to plug in my grinder into that for just a few seconds of grinding, eh? Wellp, not if that battery (Pb-acid :confounded: ) is dead.

Had to lay out the beans and “mince” them with a knife and try to not have half of them jump off the plate. Best I got was a coarse grind, and not steeping enough in near-boiling water, it came out pretty weak.

The real point is, no matter how prepared you think you might be, there’s likely gonna be something you forgot. So something as simple and retarded as forgetting to check the light(s) in a car, bugout bag, etc., will leave you high’n’dry when you need it most.

So I wouldn’t discount coming upon a dead light if it’s just forgotten about in a car. Any extra step as far as reliability could mean the difference between having it or not.