[Review] Folomov 18650s

sacrileizei · 2018-11-14T07:57:12.000Z

Review copy was sent in by Folomov to me here in the Philippines, whom I thank for the confidence afforded to me.

Preface:
Folomov actually means, follow me to move on ;) This light is the newest line-up and sought after light from Folomov to date. It is very compact and has very dynamic range of options that it boasts 15 modes and functions depending on user preference. Folomov has definitely the consumer in mind when they designed this light.

Packaging:
It comes in a black and orange standard retail packaging with description on sides and some quick specs at the back.

Inclusions:
1 x Folomov 18650s Nichia 219D 15Modes 900Lumens LED Flashlight
1 x Micro USB rechargeable 18650 (2600mAh) 3.7V Li-ion
2 x spare o-ring
1 x Clip
1 x Lanyard

The battery is micro usb rechargeable

Quick Features:
-High transmittance glass
-Perfect parabola reflector
-Copper gold plating LED PCB and FR4 gold plating LED driver PCB
-Aero grade aluminum alloy with Type 3 military grade hard anodizing.
-Skid resistance pattern design
-Stainless steel clip
-Gold plated springs
-IPX-8 waterproof,Low voltage caution
-Short circuit protection
-Over-charge protection
-Over-discharge protection.
-Battery can be charge by micro USB cable
-Input:DC 5V, 1 Amps
-Utilizes Nichia 219D LED with a lifespan of 50,000 hours.

Max brightness:900 lumens
Other modes: 300 lumens(HIGH), 150 lumens(MED), 50 lumens(LOW), 10 lumens(ULTRALOW), 0.5 lumens(MOONLIGHT)
LED color temperature: 3000K,yellow light is more comfortable for eyes and pierces through the fog.
Max beam distance:167 meters
Max intensity:6940cd

Manufacturer Specifications:

Product name: Folomov 18650s Nichia 219D 15Modes 900Lumens LED Flashlight
Brand: Folomov
Model: 18650s
Emitter Type: Nichia 219D
Peak Beam Intensity: 6940CD
Range: 167m
Mode: Turbo, High, Medium, Low, Lowest, Moon, Strobe, SOS, Beacon
Lumens: 900LM, 300LM, 150LM, 50LM, 10LM, 0.5LM, 900LM, 900LM, 50LM
Runtime: 5H, 7H, 12H, 30H, 200H, 700H
Battery Configurations: 1x18650 Li-ion Battery(Included)
Switch Type: Clicky
Switch Location: Tail Switch
Material: Aluminum alloy
Impact Resistant: 1m
Waterproof: IPX8
Carrying Strap: Clip
Color: Black
Weight: 50g
Size: 99mm x 25.4mm

Warranty:
- 15 days free replacement for any manufacturing defects.
- 1 year free repair, from normal use
- limited lifetime warranty, will provide lifetime repair but will charge for parts.
- free warranty does not cover any damage or failure caused by:
a. normal wear
b. rough operation
c. battery leakage

Nicha 219D Led,Max 900 lumens,with one 2600mAh protected USB charging battery
15 Modes,include five brightness modes,strobe,SOS,beacon,moonlight,tactical modes,lock,memory and timing functions
Only 3.9 inch length,smallest size and lightweight,compact tactical flashlight
IPX-8 waterproof,can be resistant to under 2 meters water,it's very reliable outdoor
Hard anodizing,gold plating spring and perfect parabola reflector,it's high quality

Operation:
Normal modes and moonlight function
ON:
Option 1. Press and hold the tail switch for 0.5s to access to MOONLIGHT. Then press tail switch quickly to access to memorized mode.

Option 2. Quickly press the tail switch to access to a memorized mode.

When in the memorized mode, quicky press the tail switch to cycle ULTRALOW--LOW--MED--HIGH--TURBO--HIGH--MED--LOW--ULTRALOW.

Option 3.Double press the tail switch to access to a strobe mode,then double press to SOS,beacon to strobe circling.press once to memory illumination modes.
Option 4. Press and hold the tail switch while OFF to access instant MOONLIGHT

OFF:
Press tail switch for 0.5s to turn OFF the light.

Tactical mode and normal mode functions:
1. From ON or OFF, press tail switch twice to access to STROBE

2. When in STROBE mode, press tail switch twice to cycle STROBE ? SOS ? BEACON ? STROBE.

3. Press tail switch once to get back to the memorized illumination mode.

NOTES:
*Normal modes and tactical modes can be changed by quickly pressing the tail switch for 7 times to revise the modes. LED will flash for 6 times to indicate the mode has be revised.
*It does 2-3 mins on turbo before it steps down to 600 lumens depending on ambient temperature.

Lock, countdown timer and memory function:

1.Lockout function: Activate by turning the tail switch 1/4th counter clockwise to avoid accidental activation. When the light is OFF, quickly press the tail switch 3 times to access to electronic lockout mode,led will flash 3 times. When the tail switch is locked, press it 3 times unlock it, the LED will flash once to signal it unlocked.

2.Countdown timer function(Unavailable in tactical mode). When the light is ON, access to timer mode by quickly pressing the tail switch 3 times to start 3 mins countdown with led flashing once. Then if you press the tail switch again for 3 times, LED will flash twice (and so on). Countdown will increase to 6 mins. It can be 3-6-9-27-30 mins.

3.Memory function(Unavailable in tactical mode).

Form Factor:
This light is fits well in hand and has an ergonomic design for a tactical tail clicky light.

Head/Barrel:
The head is not removable and thus part of the barrel.

Beneath it is a gold plated contact for a button top cell, a flat top cell just won't make contact.

It has a deep smooth reflector with the emitter centered.

It has ample ribbed cooling fins on the head part and diamond knurling on the barrel which also is where the clip is.

On one side you can clearly read the brand, and on the opposite side is the model.

Tail:
The tail has the same knurling pattern as the barrel, it has a sturdy gold plated spring inside.

It houses the rubber boot with dotted pattern for grip, I must add that it has a nice crisp click to it with and audible sound to it.

It can tail stand pretty well and has two small holes for lanyard placement.

Beam shots:
LOWEST 10 Lumens

LOW 50 Lumens - tree at 150 feet away

MED 150 Lumens - tree at 150 feet away

HIGH 300 Lumens - tree at 150 feet away

TURBO 900 Lumens - tree at 150 feet away

Conclusion:
To sum up, I believe that the most important part of any review is if given the chance to purchase the same light for my own EDC, would I still purchase it?
For this light, it is a YES. Specially if you are looking for a budget friendly complete tactical light with complete functions.
Scrutinizing the light over throughout the review, I am hard pressed to find any flaws at this price point. If I were to nit-pick, it would be that it turns really hot on TURBO after the 2 minute mark that you can barely hold it, perhaps because I am located in a tropical country though.
Folomov continous to make interesting lights thus far, and I surely hope that they improve more on their lights for future releases, more powerful, more brighter and less hotter.

As with all gears, two is one and one is none.

Light on brothers!

Upon writing this review, Folomov is having a promo code on this light on Amazon at 30% off! here is the link -- https://www.amazon.com/promocode/AAFR5QN2PP86A

Video review (watch in HD, please hit the thumbs up and subscribe button ;) )
www.youtube.com/embed/DjGd_lSBh_k

Folomov website: https://www.folomov.com
Folomov FB page: https://www.facebook.com/folomovbrand/

Check out my Facebook page for coupons, discounts, reviews and upcoming lights! https://www.facebook.com/torchesinternationale,

my blog for more written reviews at https://sacrileizei.wordpress.com

subscribe to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/torchesinternationale

and Instagram @torchesinternationale

Tom_E · 2018-11-17T16:39:49.000Z

Did you actually measure 900 lumens on turbo? For me at 30 seconds, the output drops down below 500 lumens, maybe 600 at best at turn on. When I fully charge the stock cell, keeping it on turbo for a few seconds, the beam tint starts turning blue. This happened on 2 of these lights bought from different sources - Amazon and Banggood. Others are reporting the same problem.

In a review, when you say "TURBO 900 lumens", I expect that's what you measured. If you didn't, you should just say "TURBO mode". I like the light, overall quality, UI features, though the up->down, down-> up sequence of modes is annoying.

The head is removable from the battery tube, as well as the bezel being removable, but some units appear to be very tight or possible glued.

To me, this light is greatly over spec'd for turbo output and has a design flaw in having way too high amps for the LED they chose to use. If the beam tint turns blue, the LED is being very stressed, could suffer permanent damage, or greatly reduce it's lifetime.

sacrileizei · 2018-11-24T02:50:29.000Z

Tom E:

Did you actually measure 900 lumens on turbo? For me at 30 seconds, the output drops down below 500 lumens, maybe 600 at best at turn on. When I fully charge the stock cell, keeping it on turbo for a few seconds, the beam tint starts turning blue. This happened on 2 of these lights bought from different sources - Amazon and Banggood. Others are reporting the same problem.

In a review, when you say “TURBO 900 lumens”, I expect that’s what you measured. If you didn’t, you should just say “TURBO mode”. I like the light, overall quality, UI features, though the up~~>down, down~~> up sequence of modes is annoying.

The head is removable from the battery tube, as well as the bezel being removable, but some units appear to be very tight or possible glued.

To me, this light is greatly over spec’d for turbo output and has a design flaw in having way too high amps for the LED they chose to use. If the beam tint turns blue, the LED is being very stressed, could suffer permanent damage, or greatly reduce it’s lifetime.

I have heard this very same problem with a friend of mine in another group on FB, he said he heard something break and then the light tint turned blue after a few minutes on TURBO. And no, I haven’t measured as I don’t have a lux meter yet. I just put it as the advertised lumen count. Thank you for your input, will do that next time

Firelight2 · 2018-11-24T03:46:46.000Z

On my 18650s, on turbo on a fully-charged cell (even the cell that came with the light), the output would turn blue and dim down to maybe 100 lumens in less than 5 seconds. After further testing I determined that this only happened with some cells. Some older higher resistance ICR cells did not have this problem. I emitter swapped mine to XPL HI and the problem went away. Now it works on any cell with zero tint shift.

Bottom line: yes, the emitter they chose just doesn’t tolerate the current. They should have used a different emitter.

That said, apart from this easily fixed LED issue, I quite like the light. It’s extremely short for a light with a tailcap button and has an unusual tail-cap mounted driver. The UI is ok, but could be better. I don’t like the long-press for off in illumination mode.

This light would be a “must buy” winner if Folomov made a couple simple changes:

change the emitter to something that can take the current. XPL or XPL HI work fine.
change the UI in non-tactical mode to something like Olight with single-click on-off and shortcuts to moon and max.

Overall I’m impressed with Folomov’s efforts. They’re a relatively new manufacturer, but they’ve come out with a number of innovative original designs recently. The 18650s is an excellent improvement over some of their prior lights, but isn’t quite where it needs to be yet.

HONDARIDER · 2018-11-25T21:02:21.000Z

I have to say the tint colors are all over the place. As others have said, turbo turns a whitish blue. Every tint below turbo seems ok. Also this thing gets hot fast. I do like the light. I will like it better with an xpl of some sort, just have not decided which emmiter to use yet. May even try an SST-40, once I figure out how to change the LED on this mcpcb.

Firelight2 · 2018-11-25T21:15:10.000Z

HONDARIDER:

I have to say the tint colors are all over the place. As others have said, turbo turns a whitish blue. Every tint below turbo seems ok. Also this thing gets hot fast. I do like the light. I will like it better with an xpl of some sort, just have not decided which emmiter to use yet. May even try an SST-40, once I figure out how to change the LED on this mcpcb.

Changing the emitter isn’t too hard, but is a bit tougher than a standard star.

The bezel is unglued and the star is screwed on. There is just one leadwire to desolder when removing the star.

The star itself contains:

The emitter (XP footprint)
Two resistors
A post on the back of the star that serves as positive contact to the battery.

You can’t just put the star on a hotplate and heat it up. Doing so would cause the post on the back to fall off.

I used a small table vise rotated so the jaws were parallel to the table. I used the vice to grip the post, not the star. The star itself sat on the upper edges of the vise’s jaws.
I heated up the LED with a hot air reflow station. A soldering iron touched to the edge of the copper star would also work, but would be more difficult as the star would be more likely to move around when the solder melts.
Once the solder melted, I used tweezers to remove the old LED and insert a new one.
The entire star was loose at this point since the solder holding the post to the LED had also melted. I gently pushed the star back into the correct position using toothpicks and tweezers.
Let it cool enough for the solder to solidify and you’re done.
SST-40 uses an XML footprint I think. As such, it wouldn’t fit on the stock star. Since the star has resistors on it, modifying an XML star to work in this light would be quite difficult and probably not worth the effort.

Cereal_killer · 2018-11-25T21:35:13.000Z

If you wanna use a luminus led it’ll have to be an SST-20 (nothing wrong with that choice at all though) as it’s their only XP footprint led.

Personally, unless you need that bit extra throw I like the LH351D > SST-20 but I think most people who have used both would say the opposite (I mentioned it cause it’s another XP footprint option what would fit on the stock mcpcb)

HONDARIDER · 2018-11-25T22:03:16.000Z

Where can I get a heated air flow station for a reasonable price and do you direct the heat on the top of the LED?

Firelight2 · 2018-11-26T03:17:54.000Z

HONDARIDER:

Where can I get a heated air flow station for a reasonable price and do you direct the heat on the top of the LED?

I use this one . I purchased from Amazon.

For the reflow I use the smallest hot air nozzle that came with the unit and have it blowing directly at the LED from close range. Works great.

Agro · 2018-11-26T07:36:01.000Z

Firelight2:

HONDARIDER:

I have to say the tint colors are all over the place. As others have said, turbo turns a whitish blue. Every tint below turbo seems ok. Also this thing gets hot fast. I do like the light. I will like it better with an xpl of some sort, just have not decided which emmiter to use yet. May even try an SST-40, once I figure out how to change the LED on this mcpcb.

Changing the emitter isn’t too hard, but is a bit tougher than a standard star.

The bezel is unglued and the star is screwed on. There is just one leadwire to desolder when removing the star.

The star itself contains:

The emitter (XP footprint)

Two resistors

A post on the back of the star that serves as positive contact to the battery.

You can’t just put the star on a hotplate and heat it up. Doing so would cause the post on the back to fall off.

I used a small table vise rotated so the jaws were parallel to the table. I used the vice to grip the post, not the star. The star itself sat on the upper edges of the vise’s jaws.

I heated up the LED with a hot air reflow station. A soldering iron touched to the edge of the copper star would also work, but would be more difficult as the star would be more likely to move around when the solder melts.

Once the solder melted, I used tweezers to remove the old LED and insert a new one.

The entire star was loose at this point since the solder holding the post to the LED had also melted. I gently pushed the star back into the correct position using toothpicks and tweezers.

Let it cool enough for the solder to solidify and you’re done.

SST-40 uses an XML footprint I think. As such, it wouldn’t fit on the stock star. Since the star has resistors on it, modifying an XML star to work in this light would be quite difficult and probably not worth the effort.

Would glueing the post in place for the time of soldering make it easier?

HONDARIDER · 2019-04-09T13:34:12.000Z

Mine failed after 5 months. Contacted Folmov and they are unable to help with replacement parts. Even attempting to send it in for warranty which they did not offer would cost too much. I really like this light for EDC but it will not be replaced because of the unique assembly of this light. In other words if the driver fails like mine did it is not replaceable because it is a part of the tail switch. Guess I can put a regular tail switch in it and just run it at 100% with just an off and on. Something to think about when purchasing this light. Purchase date was 11-27-2018.

amaretto · 2019-04-17T08:30:16.000Z

There is a group buy in TLF for the Folomov 18650S in a special version:

- military grey body

- Nichia 219D with 5000K

- slightly higher output

- battery with higher capacity (3400mAh) and powerbank-function

price: 22,90 including shipping

https://www.taschenlampen-forum.de/threads/groupbuy-folomov-18650s-mit-5000k-nichia-military-grey-3400-akku-powerbank.69699/#post-986309

Agro · 2019-04-17T08:23:30.000Z

How did they increase output?

djozz · 2019-04-17T08:26:24.000Z

they used a cooler led?

amaretto · 2019-04-17T08:29:13.000Z

Yes, 5000K instead of 3000K.
Perhaps some more lumens because of cw.

djozz · 2019-04-17T08:30:43.000Z

My unit luckily still works, I use it as my bike light (with LH351D 4000K 90CRI) and I really like it like that. So I hope that my driver keeps working

oweban · 2019-04-17T08:37:27.000Z

I love the sound and look of this light, but just not the UI damn.

(Still looking for ideas for sw45k…)

toddcshoe · 2019-04-17T08:47:34.000Z

That’s a bummer. I signed up on their site but, it says I don’t have permission to view that thread. Oh well. I’ll try again tomorrow.

amaretto · 2019-04-17T08:56:43.000Z

toddcshoe:

…it says I don’t have permission to view that thread.

Ah o.k.
Explanation: new members with less than 50 postings don’t have permission for the underforum market place.

toddcshoe · 2019-04-17T09:00:28.000Z

amaretto:

toddcshoe:

…it says I don’t have permission to view that thread.

Ah o.k.
Explanation: new members with less than 50 postings don’t have permission for the underforum market place.

I see. Well I will see if I can find one someplace else. I have a few of the original ones. One has a LH351D in it and the other has a SST-20 in it. Mine have been rock solid so far. Would love to have one of the 219D 5000K versions.