Uf-v3, promised a lot, delivered a lot, considering, needed some attention on the table. Now its how it should be - xp-g2 at about 2a, much more impressive. 8)
+1
Yea, not sure why u bought the blueline they are inferior to the redline series. 220 vs. 130 lumens. My most disappoint light would be:
1) UltraOk 4xAAA flashlight. Rings galore & weak springs. Best feature was the 4XAAA holder I could put in my HD-2010 or any 26650 host.
2) Trustfire 3T6 well just bought it with my J12 so it didn’t give me that WOW effect. I might have gotten a clone/counterfeit one too so I felt scammed.
3) Maglites… just feel like they are dinosaurs.
My biggest disappointment is this guy, supposed to be a 26650 light that can charge your phone with, but the boards are fastened to the battery so you can’t swap batteries. Not what I was hoping for
The most horrible track record has still the Ultrafire C3 on 4+ samples from different vendors, the base design is prone to go wrong.
Coast G20 (Coast G20 for $3 at Home Depot). I paid three bucks a pop and all I got was a royal screwing…
Nlight ST50; Ironically one of my worst and most expensive purchases. Poorly assembled with flaws, malfunctioning driver with a damaged switch.
Still had to pay about $35 for it all said and done I’m just going to clean up the threads and replace the driver eventually since it’s no brighter than my aa lights for now (.8a at the most on the draw, should be doing 2a).
Sipik SK58…bought two, both dogs. There was a little talk here about them around two years ago so I ordered…fortunately they weren’t expensive. I have a handful of SK68’s and love them.
Definitely. My father showed me his $35 Nebo Redline, and it was kind of pathetic next to a $6 Sipik SK-68. And when I looked at reviews online, it sounds like the Redlines tend to “redline” the LED to the point that the emitter goes permanently dim in just a few months.
The worst torch I ever bought was an original CMG Infinity. It was a very early 1xAA LED torch which put out maybe 2 lumens (at most) in a wide ~120 degree cone. It worked for one evening, started flickering, then never worked again no matter what I did to it.
After that the worst light I’ve received is a 1xAA Dongrui DR-114 . It’s very poorly made, dim, has a ridiculously narrow “flood” mode, rattles, has unevenly-machined parts and scratches and sharp edges, feels flimsy, and is overall just sad. I’m hoping I can give it to someone’s young child who might get more enjoyment out of it.
Another bad item was a generic 3xAAA X2000 , claiming to be 240 lumens (and 800m throw, heh) with a “Q5” LED, but as far as I can tell the LED inside isn’t even a Cree model. It puts out maybe 60 lumens at most. The build quality is decent, but its output is just pathetic. It went directly into my bag of retired lights.
The SK-98 I bought was pretty disappointing. I was hoping to upgrade my SK-68 (which I EDC’d for a long time) with a brighter, better model… but it was poorly assembled, didn’t zoom as well (big hotspot on zoom), an O-ring got sliced in half when I zoomed it (and then rubber had to be removed from behind the lens), it overheated far too easily, there was sticky glue on the lens, and none of my batteries actually fit such that I could screw the tailcap on more than halfway. It’s a shame, because I really wanted to like this light… but it went into my retired torch bag too. The Ultrafire 838 I got in the same order was much, much better.
An honorable mention is the original Forever Flashlight by Excalibur. It’s supposed to last forever, since it’s waterproof and doesn’t need batteries. Just shake it for a while and it’ll charge a capacitor. This light was rather large, dim, and ultimately not very useful because the huge magnet inside kept me from putting it anywhere near electronics. It also required rather a lot of vigorous shaking in order to put out a usable amount of light. Still a fun novelty, but after a few years I’ve noticed that the capacitor doesn’t seem to hold much of a charge any more. Forever, it’s not.
I hadn’t noticed before, but all my recent bad lights were zoomies. I wonder if that’s a coincidence.
SK98. Bright but non-existent heatsinking.
That might the one I had as well, I’m not 100% sure of the name. It was a see-through shake light that I got at Target on clearance. Useless piece of junk never produced enough light to be useful. Mildly amusing as an electronics demo for about 10 minutes. Terrible.
Someone mentioned the SK58, well, I really like mine. Go figure
This is a really interesting thread for me to read and thanks sent to the OP
Also, it would be great to have everyone list the prices paid so we could see the range of what’s considered “budget”
So far I’m only mildly disappointed in the one-mode SK68/$6.98 recently received from fasttech, as I thought it would be a lil’ brighter with one alkaline or eneloop (maybe my eyes are burnt from the other multi-hundred lumen ones with li-ions?)
@Toykeeper : “Bolding” the light name was a great idea! (makes reading the thread more efficient!)
Same for me.
There are a lot of different flavors of SK-68; some of them are junk. From what I’ve read, you can get anywhere from ~5 to ~200 lumens from a fresh AA battery in one, depending on the parts used. I got three different flavors in three different orders (via Amazon), and have heard of at least a couple dozen different variations (not counting different colors).
I may have been lucky, since all of mine seem to get ~160 to ~180 lumens at the wide setting and lux in the range of 10k to 15k candelas at the narrow setting… even on my 1-mode unit. I got a bunch to give as gifts, and everyone who received one has liked it quite a bit.
I no longer carry one on my purse though, ever since I got a clip for my “EDC 18650” (Convoy S3 w/ XM-L U2 @ 2.8A). Instead, I mostly use the SK-68 when I’m looking for stuff around the house. Its lens gives it a nice, even beam with no hotspot, which is great for up-close tasks.
Flickering, output or tint problems are normally not that of a big dissapointment in (cheap!) lights for me because often they can be fixed with a new driver, LED, etc and I like modding.
What really bugs me is when the host/body is crap, what happend in these two lights:
This V6-t60 was on sale for about 18 $ as I bought it, if I remember correctly.
The ring that holds the switch in the tailcap could not screw in deep enough what lead to the tailcap could not screw on completely and the rubber booth was not really secured and a bit loose.
Also the bezel-ring was tilted, not in line with the body when fully screwed on.
I had very high expectations in this Smiling Shark because it’s a small, cheap 18650 host with side switch what is really rare. I wanted to mod it with a xp-g2, maybe new reflector, new driver and screw on clip from intl-outdoor… BUT: the bodytube crushed (protected) batterys and even worse: it cut them open at the bottom and at the top due to a shrap edge inside of it. |( It damaged a trustfire 3000 for wich I have to get a new wrapper somewhen…
Ultrafire 501b. Threads on the bezel never fit. I could rotate them past their stop and it would just keep rotating. Then eventually the threads on the tailcap went.
That was the worst I’ve experienced.
most of the flood to throw light with hollow pill and small plastic lens… my leds need to be heatsinked!
Well, after saying that I would never buy another Thrunite product, I accidentally ordered a Saber. It arrived yesterday… dead as a doornail. HEY THRUNITE! YOU CAN GO CUT SOCKS IN HELL!!!
Mine was a sky ray 3x t6 didn't last too long,built like crap and is currently being used to prevent important documents from blowing off my desk.The other is the TN-31,total fiasco with CS filled with excuses and lies.Calvin from IS took care of me which was awesome,but the way Thrunite lied I agree with texaspyro,they can go cut socks.
