This is a flashlight I really don’t need. The original version had a classic/nostalgic look that I really liked. But I heard people mention the output was reduced a lot with NiMH, so I managed to not give in and buy one. When this new one came out, the look is not quite as classic (mainly the head looks weirder). But with 250 lumens, even if it had half the output on NiMH it would be reasonable (to me). And the UV seemed neat. Plus I have some EBL NiMH D-cells w/ no real use for them. So I pulled the trigger.
It turns out, I recall why I don’t use the EBL’s. They are incredibly annoying to charge. The only charger I have they fit in is a Nitecore “New i2” which only puts out 1A max, and only to a single cell. So charging two 10,000 mAh batteries at 500mA takes a heck of a long time. Also, the self-discharge of these sucks. I charged them up 6-12 months ago, and it took about 20 hours to recharge them to do this test.
To get the rest of the annoying aspects out of the way, I was prepared to do a reasonably long runtime test, I was thinking like 6h maybe (Energizer claims 7h, but often alkaline run longer because they drop in output so much sooner). When I saw that in under 2 minutes, the output was cut in half, I knew it would be a long test that I was unlikely to have the patience for. So I didn’t feel too bad when I had to stop the test early. And given the pain of recharging I doubt I will attempt it again. I might try it with two Eneloops since it will be shorter.
It takes about 90 seconds for the drop, and turning the light off and back on starts the timer again. What was also interesting to me is it seems to have several steps. Like the fall from ~240 to ~230 lumens seems to be steady. But then it drops to 213 for a few seconds, then 197 for a few seconds, and so on until it is at the bottom of the drop.
With the included alkaline AA’s and adapters, it made about 270 lumens at turn-on, so NiMH isn’t at much of a penalty there.
The body really captures the feel of stamped steel. It’s claimed to be aluminum but it’s very thin, feels cheap and tinny when empty, and screwing the tailcap on feels rough. Plus the springs are absurd so you have to really push it to get the threads engaged and it feels easy to cross-thread. Just like the old cheap flashlights of my youth… It feels much better with D-cells. With AA’s it feels cheap because it is so light relative to the size.
The switch is great. There is no movement at all until you finally have enough pressure and it crisply clicks. The UI is less great. I can click it, count one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand and click it again, and it will engage the UV. You have to wait about 4 seconds from turning it on in order for the next click to turn it off.
I can’t quantify the UV output, but I can give a comparison. I have a D4v2 UV 8x5w UV mule. I don’t know what level it turns on to as the default after you disconnect the battery. But whatever level that is, the Energizer is pretty similar. The Energizer has more visible light, but white paper and socks and stuff glow about the same brightness. It’s a decent strength considering it’s also a mule with only two emitters and driven by D-cells.
You can see the two UV emitters (slightly out of focus) around the outer edge of the reflector. Also you can see the odd emitter setup and the faceted reflector:
Using an Opple LM3, the center of the beam is ~5430K and 83.4 CRI with a Duv of -0.0008
The beam has a lot of tint shift and rings. It looks better further from a wall, giving more of an old-school ringy look to it. Closer to the wall you can see the petals from the offset emitters. I’ve no idea if this setup was chosen carefully for an old-school look or what:
There is no flicker in the first 90 seconds to speak of. After the stepdown there is, but the LM3 says it is not objectionable, and it doesn’t seem strong enough to account for a 50% reduction of lumens:
So it’s a nostalgic light with a reasonable UV mode, nothing really terrible about the beam, that runs on batteries that are somewhat terrible (alkaline or my annoying NiMH D’s) at a price that isn’t overly high (around $20 now and if it follows the pattern of the old one, might be $10 or so in a few months).
Reading reviews, one of the recurring complaints of the first design was the batteries destroying the collectible box. They addressed that in two ways. They don’t include D-cells with it now, and they put the AA batteries inside the light w/ a plastic disc to interrupt the connection.
