Light Recommend

Don’t hold your breath.
It takes a lot of effort and money to ensure that manufacturers’/sellers’ claims are true.
It’s way easier and cheaper to not ensure that manufacturers’/sellers’ claims are true, so that’s what the different platforms will most likely do.
From the consumers’ point of view, the best that we can do is try to be informed. :thinking:

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Figured it was a money thing. It’s all companies these say care about

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There’s a famous sports commentator named Tony Kornheiser.
He likes to say, “The answer to all your questions is money.” :dollar:

Haha amen to that brother! I have to start using that, saying could not be more true

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Hi @Surprised_Pumpkin. Welcome aboard. I hope I didn’t offend you. it’s just that your expectations are pretty high. I’m not sure what to honestly recommend. The Fc11 is good. The FC13 is also good. For you I suggest the Sofirn IF22A because I think you’ll like it.

I thought the answer to everything is 42.

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:grin:

I find that most people hate that answer, though.

“'Scuse me, but where’s the bathroom?”
“42.”

“Hey, is that Mike over there by the pool?”
“42.”

“Is it supposed to rain tonight?”
“42.”

“You feel more like pizza or bbq for dinner?”
“42.”

“You going to the post-office anytime soon?”
“42.”

Etc.

I’m beginning to question that axiom.

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I apologize if I came across as harsh. And welcome to BLF @surprised_pumpkin. This is a really great community who are always more than welcome to share knowledge.

A little more info on zoomies. The slide mechanism is a place for dust and water to enter the light. They can be ok if you don’t slide them very much and keep them in the flood position. But, what would be the point of having a feature you can’t really use? Given this, they will usually fail.

This is why we would never recommend one. Instead, we can recommend a hundred other lights that are reasonably priced and can far outlive a cheap zoomy.

While the Wurkkos brand is Chinese and is kinda cheap, they build solid lights. And the FC11C is a really solid light, with one of the best LEDs currently made: the Nichia 519a, for a decent price.

If you want something with a lot of throw, also from Wurkkos is the TS11S. It comes with an SFT40 LED, which again, great LED, and again can be bought for under $30. This little light will impress! It has a pencil thin beam that can light things up hundreds of feet away. It’s great!

Both of these come with batteries as an option and have built in USB-C charging. So, they’re great for entry level.

And for what is worth, I own both of these lights and have recommended them to my best friends. Especially the FC11C.

As for American made lights, there really aren’t any that fit in this price range, especially as a zoomy.

Thank you for this info, was very helpful! I will probably buy the fc11c you mentioned. Looks to be a pretty popular model huh. Saw it recommend quite a bit on the other website (reddit I think it was)

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Glad to hear it. When you get it I’m genuinely interested in what you think of it.

Feel free to ask more questions. We’re all to here to help.

Hi @Surprised_Pumpkin , it looks like you’ve already been pretty well covered for suggestions but, just for fun, this is a legitimate 200,000 lumen flashlight : IMALENT MS32 Brightest Flashlight - IMALENT®

Also, here are some trustworthy review sites to start you off:

https://1lumen.com

https://zeroair.org

https://tgreviews.com

Zeroair is pretty obnoxious without an ad blocker but the content’s good.

It is more likely that mode 3 had a around 100 Lumen output. You should be fine with a FC11C

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The most powerful flashlight currently made per what I can find is the Imalent MS32 and it is honestly rated at 200,000 lumens. That is the equivalent of about 125 100 watt old fashioned incandescent light bulbs which when new which put out circa 1600 lumens each. For this it uses 32 Cree XHP70.2 LEDs, has fan cooling built in and costs about $637 on Amazon with a 15% off coupon currently offered. Also listed as having a shipping weight of 12.78 pounds with the case and accessories so can give you a workout too when walking your dog. :smile: BLF has a test per a Google search as does 1Lumen so you can Google for both with a search for “Imalent MS32 Review”. Currently the listings on Amazon for many lights are ridiculous with their claims of 1 to 2 million lumens for under $50 single LED lights just like the claims for 9900 MAh capacity 18650 batteries from no name foreign sources. Amazon apparently has absolutely no fact checking of listings created by sellers so they can claim impossible performances like those for the original light the OP wants to replace. As a result name brand and proper capacity listed 18650 lithium batteries have basically disappeared from Amazon’s listings. The bad has driven out the good. You need to go to Illumination Supply, Battery Junction, Mountain Electronics or other sources for honestly listed lithium ion rechargeable batteries.

For a budget of $15 I doubt that there is anything on the market with more than 2000 actual Lumens no matter what the sellers claim.

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The most recent reviewers I have looked at are Lumencraft on YouTube, who I’ve been watching for years, 1lumen.com, and zeroair.org. All three actually perform their own measurements when doing their reviews vs just repeating manufacturers specs. I know I’m leaving out some really great reviewers, but it’s been a while since I have been shopping around for new lights, so my memory is getting a bit hazy.

I usually just search for “light name review” (insert whatever light I’m interested in) and look for results that have actual measurements and beam shots, and for bonus points, tear downs and info about the light’s build. When I really want to know more about a light, i come here and search for relevant threads.