@monkeyman0510
At this price, given that it’s able to operate on 3 AAA cells, it’s probably no more than 80-100 with those, and probably in the area of 150-200 if it’s equipped with an 18650. The T6 maxes out at 280 according to CREE, but people routinely overdrive them, claiming as much as 1000. At this price point, these are not the ones from the max-score bin, and AAA batteries are not going to deliver the current for the full 2W output in any event.
For comparison, a similar unit with six unprotected but semi-decent 18650 cells can be had for $17 on Amazon. But I don’t recommend it. Unprotected 18650s are easy to destroy by accident.
@monkeyman0510@werehatrack I’ve got many of these type of cheaper lights over the years. All are generally better than the older style non-LED lights, such as those from Eveready or even Maglites (unless you want one to hit someone over the head with). I’ve got a few of these in my vehicles, for emergency use.
But I’ve quit using them regularly, since I found the one that is now my every-day-carry. If you want a little bit more expensive one: https://www.amazon.com/WUBEN-Flashlight-Rechargeable-Waterproof-Flashlights/dp/B08535JCMQ/
It’s about $30, comes with a good-quality rechargeable 18650 battery, is water-proof, has a built-in USB-C port for recharging (you don’t even have to remove the battery to recharge!), includes the charging cable, and is every bit as bright as they say (1200 lumens). It is constructed to last. On high beam, it heats up enough to burn you if you have lens to skin. (It makes a great hand warmer!) I did have to buy another one, because I lost the one I had. In fact, I bought two, because I severely missed the use of the one I lost, while I was waiting for the replacement to come. They also offer a slightly smaller one for a few dollars more, but I find this one is easy enough to carry in my pants pocket. It’s great to always have a light handy; but sometimes I have to double-check it is actually in my pocket, it is so compact. (I think I lost the other one from a shirt pocket while walking my dog.) Several friends admired mine enough to ask about it, then bought their own. Check out the reviews.
@phendrick I have a couple of those 2AA incandescent Maglites from waaayyyy back in the day that I upgraded with LED kits once LED flashlights started becoming popular.
@melbell I wouldn’t mind that!
Let me and others here know what you think about it when you get it. If it’s not all that I say, then you got a dud and should contact them or Amazon for a replacement. The few complaints in the ratings were either about bad switches or not being able to get it to work to start with.
On the latter issue, many people don’t read the instructions and/or just fail to notice the plastic insulator between the battery and the end cap when the light arrives. Unscrew the end and remove the plastic and reassembled your light should work. For many people, that will be the only time they will need to open the light, since it can be recharged without opening.
As to the switch, that seems to be the Achilles heel on many of these lights. I have had no switch trouble on my Wubens, over about five or six flashlight-years with them. On the (much) more expensive O-lights I’ve had, three of the four developed switch issues within the warranty period.
And, I’ll reiterate my warning about the light heating up when at full power. Be careful if you carry it in your pocket. It comes back on wherever you left it, as to the power mode. Mostly I don’t use the full setting. At lower settings, it is much safer, but I have had people ask me why my pocket is lit up! (I’m pretty active and tend to carry a bunch of junk in my pants pockets, so occasionally the switch does get pushed in.)
I cannot say enough how much I like this light. I feel like a naked, unprepared boy scout if I go anywhere without it. And it’s always fun to surprise people when I pull out of my pocket the brightest flashlight they have ever seen to help them look for something they have dropped under the table.
@melbell@phendrick
I carry one of the smaller, cheaper, less powerful (but still incredibly useful) 14500-powered lights in my pocket, and I find myself using it many times per day. These also get pretty hot if left on, and they don’t have the runtime of one that uses the 18650, but I have seldom run one flat in a single day - and I routinely swap out to a freshly-charged cell in the morning. I’ve been carrying them for years, and I’ve had a couple of switch failures, but at $3 (max) for the light itself, I refuse to complain! (And these use three-mode switches rather than five.)
These go under about fifty different brands, and they’re all amazingly bright. B/c they’re the same light.
Eats batteries, but, again, bright enough to kill vampires. Seriously. For anyone over 30, you know what I’m talking about. These are 21st century flashlights, not that non-LED crap we schlepped in the 20th. Eye-openingly amazing.
That said, I hate the “modes”. On and off, please. I have to turn on four times (?) to get full, non-blink “on”. It stinks. I’m sure if I pressed the button half-way while jumping on one foot I could avoid it. I haven’t.
I really like the brightness of these lights, but having to cycle through all the different beams to get to the one I want is kind of a PITA. The zoom feature is nice though.
@heartny So, you want these Siri- or Alexa-enabled, so you can just tell it which mode you want? I’m sure some manufacturer is working on that, to differentiate their product.
Good lights stay put on the mode when turned back on. Don’t know that these do that.
@heartny@phendrick The situations in which I’m likely in need of a seizure inducing strobe light pretty much round to zero.
Give me that “Caution: Don’t look at it with your remaining good eye!” full-on bright mode, or a half brightness mode for when I might need a light source for longer than 5-10 minutes. That’s it.
@heartny@phendrick, some people are so spoiled these days,…Jeees!! They likely want a self loading firearm as they struggle to stick a round in a clip, or a chamber, while kicked back in their Lazy Boy!
@ciabelle@heartny I have been happy to have my light with strobe with me several times while walking my dogs at night, and gotten the interest of a loose dog. Once there were two dogs (feeling like a hunting pack, I guess) that eyed us very aggressively and starting approaching, from slightly different directions. I had a stick-like metal rod with me as a last defense (but really didn’t want to use it on any animal) but the “seizure inducing strobe light” did the trick and they left. I had the leash with my dog jerking me hard, the rod, and the flashlight in my two waving hands (needed a third), and the bright strobe light attracted the attention of a police car passing through an intersection a block away, and he turned and stopped to see if everything was OK.
Funny, though, cats are weird. Many don’t seem to mind the strobe. (I’ve used it on them mainly trying to get them to run away, so my dog won’t be trying to drag me after them when she spots one while we’re walking.)
@ciabelle@heartny One more thing on these. Several people here have decried as annoying the need to push through the cycle to get your intended mode, including through the strobe and the SOS. On these Wuben’s, the same switch is used, but it takes one or two quick double-pushes to get to the strobe or SOS. So they are not part of the normal cycle of four intensities. And again, it comes back on on whichever of the four you left it. (Much less annoying than most of these type of flashlights. Did I say how much I like these?)
But the Meh ones would still be useful in your vehicle or toolbox.
My experience has been that those were generally production seconds deemed chabuduo, but often actually “not close enough”. Now, they are still dirt cheap, but they tend to have inflated shipping costs.
Days of great Meh prices are gone. Can get these cheaper elsewhere. They are quite bright but employ cheap globe lens optics. This gives sub optimal beam patterns.
These are pretty good cheap lights, if you’ve never used a modern flashlight before you’ll be impressed how bright they are. Avoid using AAAs if you can, an 18650 is what these were really meant to run on, it’ll be way brighter and have much more battery life.
@CompactDisco AND, you didn’t mention, the 18650’s are rechargeable MANY times, and are quite available on Amazon at decent prices. (Don’t be too awed by the claims for mAh there; most are suspect.) Mostly the rechargeable 18650’s are cheaper than 3 rechargeable AAA’s. I second the recommendation for those.
@CompactDisco@phendrick
But beware of the flat-top unprotected 18650 batteries; if you run them to a full discharge, they are permanently dead. You want the protected 18650. And if they claim more than 2600mAh, they’re lying. Some advertise 9900 mAh, which is way past impossible and well into company benefits plan territory.
This is a reasonably good deal, but shop hard for the protected 18650s to get the best results from it, and don’t believe anyone who claims to be shipping an 18650 with a capacity over 2600mAh.
@werehatrack they would have to include the AAA holder, useless otherwise. I ordered some several months ago, they were advertised as AAA only, no sleeve included. I still use 18650s in them just fine. As someone else said, use a rubber band as a spacer if you don’t like the side to side rattle.
@werehatrack Mine just arrived with a clear plastic insert that I didn’t know the use of. I came to this discussion and when I saw the stuff about possibly using a rechargeable I figured that is what this cylinder is for.
@st_ellis
Unfortunately, yes, that is exactly what it does. And unless it has the long-press reset feature in the switch, you have to cycle past that damn SOS every freaking time. I really hate that.
If these DIDN’T have that *&^%@#$ five-effing-mode annoying-ass switch, I would order some of them even though I have more than a few T6 18650-powered units already. I HATE THOSE SWITCHES. Just give me a simple on/off NON-ELECTRONIC dumb switch that doesn’t autodrain the battery when it’s off, and I’m a happy camper.
@werehatrack Wish there were a way to bypass their programming to just use one or two brightness levels, and call it a day. The switches and modes are stupid, and mostly useless.
Similarly, the world of 18650 cells is fraught with danger for most consumers, so while they are superior to the alkaline options for power output, I don’t want to search for more legitimate cells and pay what those cost again.
If the lights are the same as the ones Meh sold a few years ago (but in a case with battery and charger), one nice feature is they had a pretty good “flood” setting; instead of a hot spot the ones I had created a fairly large circle of fairly uniform light. Nowhere near the throw distance but very useful for general outdoor use.
This is a ripoff. Not only are there no batteries but no directions as to what batteries to use or how the flash light functions. A real waste . Really disappointed in Meh. Definitely less than MEH!!!
These come with a plastic cylindrical battery sleeve that I simply cannot get to fit over the battery holder no matter how I align anything. Has anyone gotten it to fit???
Specs
Product: 2-Pack: Super Bright Zoomable Cree LED Tactical Flashlights
Model: XML-T6
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$14-$22 for similar on Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Dec 15
You light up my life.
You give me hope to carry on
What are the lumens tho?
@monkeyman0510 Claimed lumens is 1100.
@monkeyman0510
At this price, given that it’s able to operate on 3 AAA cells, it’s probably no more than 80-100 with those, and probably in the area of 150-200 if it’s equipped with an 18650. The T6 maxes out at 280 according to CREE, but people routinely overdrive them, claiming as much as 1000. At this price point, these are not the ones from the max-score bin, and AAA batteries are not going to deliver the current for the full 2W output in any event.
For comparison, a similar unit with six unprotected but semi-decent 18650 cells can be had for $17 on Amazon. But I don’t recommend it. Unprotected 18650s are easy to destroy by accident.
@monkeyman0510 @werehatrack I’ve got many of these type of cheaper lights over the years. All are generally better than the older style non-LED lights, such as those from Eveready or even Maglites (unless you want one to hit someone over the head with). I’ve got a few of these in my vehicles, for emergency use.
But I’ve quit using them regularly, since I found the one that is now my every-day-carry. If you want a little bit more expensive one:
https://www.amazon.com/WUBEN-Flashlight-Rechargeable-Waterproof-Flashlights/dp/B08535JCMQ/
It’s about $30, comes with a good-quality rechargeable 18650 battery, is water-proof, has a built-in USB-C port for recharging (you don’t even have to remove the battery to recharge!), includes the charging cable, and is every bit as bright as they say (1200 lumens). It is constructed to last. On high beam, it heats up enough to burn you if you have lens to skin. (It makes a great hand warmer!) I did have to buy another one, because I lost the one I had. In fact, I bought two, because I severely missed the use of the one I lost, while I was waiting for the replacement to come. They also offer a slightly smaller one for a few dollars more, but I find this one is easy enough to carry in my pants pocket. It’s great to always have a light handy; but sometimes I have to double-check it is actually in my pocket, it is so compact. (I think I lost the other one from a shirt pocket while walking my dog.) Several friends admired mine enough to ask about it, then bought their own. Check out the reviews.
@phendrick I have a couple of those 2AA incandescent Maglites from waaayyyy back in the day that I upgraded with LED kits once LED flashlights started becoming popular.
@phendrick I didn’t even need a flashlight until I read this, now I need the one you linked. They should put you on the payroll.
@melbell I wouldn’t mind that!
Let me and others here know what you think about it when you get it. If it’s not all that I say, then you got a dud and should contact them or Amazon for a replacement. The few complaints in the ratings were either about bad switches or not being able to get it to work to start with.
On the latter issue, many people don’t read the instructions and/or just fail to notice the plastic insulator between the battery and the end cap when the light arrives. Unscrew the end and remove the plastic and reassembled your light should work. For many people, that will be the only time they will need to open the light, since it can be recharged without opening.
As to the switch, that seems to be the Achilles heel on many of these lights. I have had no switch trouble on my Wubens, over about five or six flashlight-years with them. On the (much) more expensive O-lights I’ve had, three of the four developed switch issues within the warranty period.
And, I’ll reiterate my warning about the light heating up when at full power. Be careful if you carry it in your pocket. It comes back on wherever you left it, as to the power mode. Mostly I don’t use the full setting. At lower settings, it is much safer, but I have had people ask me why my pocket is lit up! (I’m pretty active and tend to carry a bunch of junk in my pants pockets, so occasionally the switch does get pushed in.)
I cannot say enough how much I like this light. I feel like a naked, unprepared boy scout if I go anywhere without it. And it’s always fun to surprise people when I pull out of my pocket the brightest flashlight they have ever seen to help them look for something they have dropped under the table.
@melbell @phendrick
I carry one of the smaller, cheaper, less powerful (but still incredibly useful) 14500-powered lights in my pocket, and I find myself using it many times per day. These also get pretty hot if left on, and they don’t have the runtime of one that uses the 18650, but I have seldom run one flat in a single day - and I routinely swap out to a freshly-charged cell in the morning. I’ve been carrying them for years, and I’ve had a couple of switch failures, but at $3 (max) for the light itself, I refuse to complain! (And these use three-mode switches rather than five.)
These go under about fifty different brands, and they’re all amazingly bright. B/c they’re the same light.
Eats batteries, but, again, bright enough to kill vampires. Seriously. For anyone over 30, you know what I’m talking about. These are 21st century flashlights, not that non-LED crap we schlepped in the 20th. Eye-openingly amazing.
That said, I hate the “modes”. On and off, please. I have to turn on four times (?) to get full, non-blink “on”. It stinks. I’m sure if I pressed the button half-way while jumping on one foot I could avoid it. I haven’t.
/giphy batsignal
@stinks If this is like the one I have, if you give the button a full press it will turn on/off, but a light tap will cycle between the modes.
@stinks, did you leave out the word ‘century’ in your brief & short comment?
@stinks I have 4 of them and they are REALLY bright. When focused, we can light up the water tower 1/4 mile away.
@stinks I can count on zero hands the number of times I’ve wanted my flashlight to blink.
@plymouthdave 100% this
/giphy this
@1DisabledWarVet
I don’t think so, no. Used it the first time. Elegant elison the second.
@stinks ITYM “elision”; and yes, elegant.
@werehatrack The “i” was elided.
I really like the brightness of these lights, but having to cycle through all the different beams to get to the one I want is kind of a PITA. The zoom feature is nice though.
@heartny So, you want these Siri- or Alexa-enabled, so you can just tell it which mode you want? I’m sure some manufacturer is working on that, to differentiate their product.
Good lights stay put on the mode when turned back on. Don’t know that these do that.
@heartny @phendrick The situations in which I’m likely in need of a seizure inducing strobe light pretty much round to zero.
Give me that “Caution: Don’t look at it with your remaining good eye!” full-on bright mode, or a half brightness mode for when I might need a light source for longer than 5-10 minutes. That’s it.
@heartny @phendrick, some people are so spoiled these days,…Jeees!! They likely want a self loading firearm as they struggle to stick a round in a clip, or a chamber, while kicked back in their Lazy Boy!
@ciabelle @heartny I have been happy to have my light with strobe with me several times while walking my dogs at night, and gotten the interest of a loose dog. Once there were two dogs (feeling like a hunting pack, I guess) that eyed us very aggressively and starting approaching, from slightly different directions. I had a stick-like metal rod with me as a last defense (but really didn’t want to use it on any animal) but the “seizure inducing strobe light” did the trick and they left. I had the leash with my dog jerking me hard, the rod, and the flashlight in my two waving hands (needed a third), and the bright strobe light attracted the attention of a police car passing through an intersection a block away, and he turned and stopped to see if everything was OK.
Funny, though, cats are weird. Many don’t seem to mind the strobe. (I’ve used it on them mainly trying to get them to run away, so my dog won’t be trying to drag me after them when she spots one while we’re walking.)
@ciabelle @heartny One more thing on these. Several people here have decried as annoying the need to push through the cycle to get your intended mode, including through the strobe and the SOS. On these Wuben’s, the same switch is used, but it takes one or two quick double-pushes to get to the strobe or SOS. So they are not part of the normal cycle of four intensities. And again, it comes back on on whichever of the four you left it. (Much less annoying than most of these type of flashlights. Did I say how much I like these?)
But the Meh ones would still be useful in your vehicle or toolbox.
I’ve seen this (well, this design) for less than $1 on Aliexpress… they are like the standard issue Chinese tactical flashlight.
@awk
My experience has been that those were generally production seconds deemed chabuduo, but often actually “not close enough”. Now, they are still dirt cheap, but they tend to have inflated shipping costs.
Lol nice try meh, you almost got $10 from me.
smirks as he gets debited $5 a month for not buying anything for the past 3 months
https://www.amazon.com/Vont-Flashlight-Flashlights-Water-Resistant-Accessories/dp/B089T8HDBV/ref=sr_1_4_sspa?keywords=xml-t6+tactical+flashlight&qid=1646715880&sr=8-4-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFTSTM4NzVaRlFNRUMmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAyNTYyNDZMREdDMk8zTDhXS1gmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDU5NTkyMTNOWlJaMktRU0xFWDYmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl
If you have Prime and use the 30% off coupon this 2pk that is water resistant comes to $10.50.
@growyoungagain woah mic drop
Wonder how many they’ll sell
Days of great Meh prices are gone. Can get these cheaper elsewhere. They are quite bright but employ cheap globe lens optics. This gives sub optimal beam patterns.
These are pretty good cheap lights, if you’ve never used a modern flashlight before you’ll be impressed how bright they are. Avoid using AAAs if you can, an 18650 is what these were really meant to run on, it’ll be way brighter and have much more battery life.
@CompactDisco AND, you didn’t mention, the 18650’s are rechargeable MANY times, and are quite available on Amazon at decent prices. (Don’t be too awed by the claims for mAh there; most are suspect.) Mostly the rechargeable 18650’s are cheaper than 3 rechargeable AAA’s. I second the recommendation for those.
@CompactDisco @phendrick
But beware of the flat-top unprotected 18650 batteries; if you run them to a full discharge, they are permanently dead. You want the protected 18650. And if they claim more than 2600mAh, they’re lying. Some advertise 9900 mAh, which is way past impossible and well into company benefits plan territory.
This is a reasonably good deal, but shop hard for the protected 18650s to get the best results from it, and don’t believe anyone who claims to be shipping an 18650 with a capacity over 2600mAh.
@werehatrack Yes, the protected 18650’s.
@werehatrack don’t get swindled into unprotected 18650’s, got it
@mexicantacos @werehatrack Always use protection.
@werehatrack got a recommendation link?
@werehatrack cells can get as high as 3500mah nowadays, but yeah, fake capacities are rampant.
Do they include both the holder for AAA cells and the centering sleeve for an 18650?
@werehatrack they would have to include the AAA holder, useless otherwise. I ordered some several months ago, they were advertised as AAA only, no sleeve included. I still use 18650s in them just fine. As someone else said, use a rubber band as a spacer if you don’t like the side to side rattle.
@werehatrack Mine just arrived with a clear plastic insert that I didn’t know the use of. I came to this discussion and when I saw the stuff about possibly using a rechargeable I figured that is what this cylinder is for.
I’ve never paid attention to the SOS feature before. Does it actually flash short,short,short,long,long,long,short,short,short, ad Infinitum?
@st_ellis
Unfortunately, yes, that is exactly what it does. And unless it has the long-press reset feature in the switch, you have to cycle past that damn SOS every freaking time. I really hate that.
If these DIDN’T have that *&^%@#$ five-effing-mode annoying-ass switch, I would order some of them even though I have more than a few T6 18650-powered units already. I HATE THOSE SWITCHES. Just give me a simple on/off NON-ELECTRONIC dumb switch that doesn’t autodrain the battery when it’s off, and I’m a happy camper.
@werehatrack Wish there were a way to bypass their programming to just use one or two brightness levels, and call it a day. The switches and modes are stupid, and mostly useless.
Similarly, the world of 18650 cells is fraught with danger for most consumers, so while they are superior to the alkaline options for power output, I don’t want to search for more legitimate cells and pay what those cost again.
Key thing I’ve learned after reading this forum is to always carry a rubber for your 18650
@zxinfinity This Tuesday is off to a weird start, but I won’t say it’s bad information.
So it will display the bat signal, but not the Glen signal? How meh-ly unMeh. Or vice versa.
Nah. If each came with a lithium ion battery I’d grab one. The ‘similar’ Amazon ones are cree and come with batteries and a charger.
dealnews has a free shipping code (DEALNEWSFS) so there’s that
Oh how I miss those halcyon days when we just talked about edge retention, heft, and locking mechanisms
@lehigh
And that was just about the candy corn!
I was excited when I saw these because they’re worth the price just for 3.7v battery…
…that they don’t include…
Yeah, that’s how I check my oil: one-handed!
If the lights are the same as the ones Meh sold a few years ago (but in a case with battery and charger), one nice feature is they had a pretty good “flood” setting; instead of a hot spot the ones I had created a fairly large circle of fairly uniform light. Nowhere near the throw distance but very useful for general outdoor use.
Come on, Baby, Light my Fire!
/giphy gaudy-mild-box
None were reserved for VMP?
@rtjhnstn I just came here to question that. I guess someone decided to get rid of another vmp benefit. Our $5/month just isn’t good enough for them.
strobe mode = hard pass
wait… where’s the VMP switch?
@sohmageek All good now! Have at it!
It’s almost 4pm Eastern, I guess VMP’s are out of luck today? Is this a new development?
@mehmoth Slight inventory mixup but we’ve still got a few. Have at it!
I have a super floofy dog I have to walk after dark once it get’s hot, so I guess I’m a tactical grandma?
/giphy didactic-disgusting-sandman
Can I stick this in my…
@SEGAStaRBiTS64 @GrandmaLyn
Colin, above, looks like he’s reacting to your comment.
@GrandmaLyn @Kyeh Good.
I like traumatizing people
Not sure about this deal… batteries included on amazon… https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07L9MP4SY/ref=sspa_mw_detail_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWwp13NParams
This is a ripoff. Not only are there no batteries but no directions as to what batteries to use or how the flash light functions. A real waste . Really disappointed in Meh. Definitely less than MEH!!!
@michaelreich
Good thing Meh lists the battery details in the specs on this forum thread:
These come with a plastic cylindrical battery sleeve that I simply cannot get to fit over the battery holder no matter how I align anything. Has anyone gotten it to fit???
@srbuwsnyc It’s a battery sleeve holder for a size 18650 battery in case you want to use one of those instead of three AAA’s.
@Barney THANK YOU so much. I was going crazy.