ThorFire contacted me asking if I’d like to review a light. Play with something that glows? You betcha! Ok, first off I’ll say as a company they impress me. They seem to cater to the budget light market but don’t skimp on quality. That being said lets see what goodies come in the box.
As usual a no nonsense box containing the light, manual, and spare O rings. I respect this because personally I’d rather not pay extra for a flashy box I’ll just throw away. The box itself had adequate padding and the light came in a protective soft bag.
Pictures of the light.
Heavily textured orange peel reflector.
Good quality square cut threads with anodization at both ends and inside the tube.
Very nice and firm springs at the tail and head. Nice to have different battery options (low voltage protection as well).\
Battery indicator (green, orange, flashing red)
Comparing size to some other common lights. From left to right Convoy C8, Convoy S6, ThorFire TK15S, ThorFire TK18, and a protected 18650.
Here’s a picture of the manual stating the specs and runtimes. My personal runtimes will follow.
I set the light on turbo mode and recorded the following using a freshly charged Panasonic NCR18650B.
The light ran much longer than expected. Per ThorFires estimation the light stepped down at 3 minutes and ran for slightly over 5.5 hours, stepping down gently as it drained.
Next I set the light on its medium setting. ThorFire estimates the light to run for 10 hours in this mode.
It ran for nearly 21.5 hours with only a minor visual stepdown for the majority of the time! Whooo!
Normally when I do my waterproof testing on lights it’s in a murky Missouri lake. Well I ran into a bit of an issue this time.
–6 degree Fahrenheit weather doesn’t like to cooperate with anything. So I just decided to throw the light in freezing water for a couple hours outside. Prior to this test I added a bit more lube to the already pre-lubed threads just as an added precaution. I wasn’t quite sure if the cold would shrink the O rings enough to allow water in and ruin my day.
Surprisingly the water didn’t freeze all the way through although it was a chore getting the light out. I was happy to see the extremely cold body was completely dry on the inside.
Beam shots!
Low mode. Approximately 7 yards to the beginning of the dock walkway.
Medium mode. Approximately 25 yards to the end of the dock.
High mode.
Turbo mode.
The trees are about 50 yards away.
The light has a familiar on/off button on the rear and an easy-to-find mode switch on the head. The knurling on the body is very attractive and provides a decent grip. While the light will get fairly warm on turbo, the deep fins on the head do a great job at dissipating heat. My sample had perfect anodization in and out. Thank goodness the light also tail stands. Tint is a very nice neutral color with no noticeable green or yellow tint. If the light has PWM it must be really fast because I could not detect it on camera or in person. This is my ideal beam for an EDC light. Decent throw but plenty of spill. I could easily see everything within 100 yards and slightly further. Mode memory is included, and the light cycles from ascending to descending as in low, medium, high, turbo, high, medium, low. A nice feature is the bike blink mode for those of us who prefer to be noticed during the day on a busy street.
The ramping feature is interesting and can be disabled for those who do not prefer to use it. When the light is turned on hold down the mode button and the light will (over a period of approximately 7.5 seconds) ramp from the lowest setting to the highest. It is a very smooth ramp that blinks slightly indicating its reached its highest point. If you don’t like this ramping feature no problem. Just simply turn the light on and press the mode button quickly 4 times. Now your in a “standard” setting of low, medium, high, and turbo.
This light packs a lot of features into something that a few years ago would’ve cost easily twice the amount. As of right now Amazon has this light for less than $30. Anyone looking for a compact powerhouse for the pocket, car, house, or pack and is on a budget would have a hard time beating the value of this light. ThorFire gave me a 20% off coupon code for Amazon.com to offer to anyone who is interested in this light. The code is 3VSIRROL.