why am i starting to like DIRT cheap lights more?

Off-topic Chatter
1

I have my share of expensive lights… deftx… tn31vn, tm11vn so on and so forth

why am i still attracted to the cheapest of the cheap lights? i dont know.

i have a 1.99 aa light from wall buys with an xpe (zoomie) that i use daily
i also have an old emitter (c4?) from tom top thats an aaa single mode i keep knocking around my bag.

got a few sk68 clones rolling around too

i guess i like them because i can throw a battery in, fire it up and light comes out the end… tint? who cares… max amps? who cares…?

can you see in the dark? YES! I CAN!

didnt old lumens have a rant like this once?

maybe i am getting old/wise?

kreisler feel free to troll me :slight_smile:

2

I feel similar. I leave the ZL in the drawer most often when tooling around the house in the dark. I believe that I am afraid to use some of the more expensive lights everyday for some reason. My favorite light is a C12 I purchased here used and put new O rings, a nice lanyard and a OP reflector in. Who knows.

3

I think price can directly affect your enjoyment of a light. My J18 is my favorite light right now compared to even my S1, 6330, K40vn and NiWalker’s. I know a lot of that is because I only paid $50 bucks for it.

4

Good thing you didn't get one for $19 @ Wallbuys' VIPKILLSECthingy, you'd be catatonic.

5

Anybody can get a nice light if they spend the money, but to get a nice one cheap, well that’s something to be proud of!

6

perhaps you fear damaging an expensive light and a cheap one can be abused and is easy to justify

7

Maybe it’s because cheapo lights can make you appreciate the quality of your expensive lights more J)
Y’know, justify having spent all those big bucks ( how’s that for reverse/perverse psychology)??
:slight_smile: :slight_smile:

8

DING DING DING! Winner. That’s signature worthy. Very fitting for BLF :slight_smile:

9

Once in a while, you hit the jackpot. Most cheapo lights aren’t too impressive, but once in a while, kind of like the DST, you find a winner that shocks you. Example, is the Lightmalls C8, XM-L2, the Ali C8 L2 U3, the DST. I have a couple of Ebay lights, that pull 3 to 4+ amps OEM. I have a M10 clone, SS Reflector Ring, Champagne Ano, 4.4 amp, less than 15 bucks that I just love. Remember, inside we are all little kids at Christmas, when we find a light we like … :bigsmile: :wink: J) :santa: :crown:

10

bought my first two torches recently,
solarforce L2P / drop-in / charger / 2x18650 / ar glass approx £55
sk68 clone less than £5
One I expected to be good, the other impressed £/performance.
it has faults but for the money; ease of use; availability of batteries etc WOW, it punches above its weight

11

I think this is one of my favorite things about super budget lights. I even loaned my SK68 clone to someone the other day, something I would NEVER do with a really nice flashlight, or any other item I care about for that matter.

12

same here, i would get a super budget light for just this purpose

13

The beauty of having lots and lots of lights is you have plentyof them that you don't care much about.

I have lots of loaners

My nephew said he killed a wasp using my #1 favorite light .

I was very impressed since I am very fond of blinding bugs with massive lumens before smaking them with a newspaper .

Later it dawned on me he'd used the light to club it to death.

14

I have a few "expensive" lights (nothing over 100 dollars though), as well as a truck load of cheap ones. In my experience the expensive lights fail as often as the cheapo's (I must say I inspect every cheap flashlight that comes in and fix/tighten everything first). And in the cheap lights I can repair everything, compared to lots of glue and other difficulties in the expensive ones. (the latest expensive fail: I dropped my Eagletac D25C clicky 2013 Ti from 1.5 meters on the wooden floor -should be no problem you'd say- and now it only lights up if I give it a wack after switch on. I am going to replace the driver with a qlite, and I'm pretty sure after that it will be resistant to any drop it will ever get)

The most reliable lights I have seem to be the ones I have modded. And they are the best performing as well :-)

15

Funny, I’m going more the other way. I have heaps of cheaps and over 1 in every 2 has a quirky fault of some sort- still works but you can be sure there is a little niggle of some sort. Pretty much every expensive light I have has not failed me, delivers as promised etc….

Plus I’m finding new offerings of cheap lights, especially when fashioned on an expensive light don’t deliver near the performance of the good light. May as well sink hard earned on the real thing?………

16

I must admid that I have bought many cheap flashlights that had stupid design flaws that could not be fixed, they are in a drawer for spare parts and never made it to actual use and abuse. But the ones that made it to the 'in use' status and were inspected/fixed where necessary, usually work well and are reliable.

17

Not uncommon, Porsche in the garage, beater driven to the store.

My EDC goes in my pocket with loose change, a small multitool, and sometimes other metal junk. Not something I would like to do with a “nice” light. SK68 $5 light with a 14500 seems made for me.

18

nephew, dead bug, flashlight, i instantly deduced he used the light as the instrument of squashing

thats how kids think and it seems most people never quite grow up

19

I guess after paying $500 for a Deft X and not really ever being in a situation to use it, any torch would seem cheap and useful :stuck_out_tongue:

20

i think you guys nailed it on the head… some lights are for leaving on the shelf and just showing off every now and then… some are for actual edc and some are for use abuse