@melonscoop For sure that is the worst thing about these lights, because every few times you use it it’s just going to freak the fuck out in strobe mode, then you’ll have to turn it off and back on, then it’ll blink really slowly in SOS mode, then you’ll turn it off and back on for max brightness mode.
These flashlights are pretty okay, and likely to be loads better than that giant old maglight you have kicking around, IF:
You throw out the little 3xAAA battery holder that comes with it, buy some 18650 batteries and a charger, and use those instead.
That said, I have about a half dozen of these that I got for actually free with the purchase of 18650 batteries for my better flashlights, so…there’s that.
@Aspirant_Fool also if you know people that work in certain IT fields, lots of companies trash tons of old laptops and laptop batteries. Most of those battery packs contain still good 18650s. Just gotta take them apart and test them. Got a buddy that has dozens he got for free doing this.
@yakkoTDI You lose a small amount of capacity to the slightly reduced cell size that results from the larger electronics pack, but that setup has its own internal protection circuitry as part if the package. From a durability standpoint, having the overdischarge inhibitor is worth paying a bit extra. And having the integral charging port means one less device needs to be packed when traveling.
I don’t have any like that, but my partner does. They work, they’re reliable, and they’re simple to use.
likely to be loads better than that giant old maglight you have kicking around,
Ooooooh, yeah. I have one of those old three-D-cell Maglites, and with its original bulb, its output was an Amazing! Bright! ₃₅ lumens. With the NiteIze LED conversion that was available about 15 years back, it puts out about 100 lumens. My two-dollar EDC pocket light powered by a 14500 is about 200 lumens.
@werehatrack@yakkoTDI
Or I just found this deal on Amazon that looks pretty good especially since I have a $17 credit. I can always use the credit so I’ll figure it out today while prime days are still going on.
Super Bright 2000 Lumen 18650 Tactical Flashlight and 6PCS 3.7V High Capacity Rechargeable Battery+Batteries Charger,Zoomable, Water Resistant, 5 Modes Handheld Flashlight https://a.co/d/akTBAET
@werehatrack@yakkoTDI
Even better for $13 plus 10% off for a set of 2 flashlights and 6 rechargeable batteries.
2 Pack High Lumens LED Tactical Flashlights, PHIXTON Super Bright 3000 Lumen Handheld Tac Flash Lights, Powerful Tactical Linterna, Adjustable, Waterproof, for Survival Emergency Camping Accessories https://a.co/d/0iy0X33
@Lynnerizer That one is probably identical to the ones being sold here on meth, and they’ve only inflated the output of it by probably a factor of 10. There’s no way it’s 3000 lumens. And the 18650s that are thrown in at that price are generally going to have a capacity of somewhere between 800 and 1,200 milliamp hours, if you’re lucky. The best of the high output 18650 cells will deliver around $2,600 milliamp hours, and there are a few that have a lower discharge rate that can go a little higher on the total amount of power delivered. Any 18650 sale that claims more than 3,000 milliamp hours is flat lying.
@jayman007@Lynnerizer@yakkoTDI Yes, the Phixton kit does in fact include six AAA batteries of the “we can get these really cheap” variety. They’re probably perfectly adequate to power the unit for a useful (if not overly lengthy) period. And that’s because of the fact that as with all the other units under discussion here, BLATANT lying about the light output of the flashlight is painfully obvious. Three really good AAA cells cannot even hope to supply the level of current required to drive an emitter to produce the Meh units’ 1200 lumens, and 3000 would require two and a half times as much. But since those (unquestionably counterfeit) “XML L2” emitters in the Phixtons are most likely pumping out no more than 300 lumens (just like the fake XML T6 emitters of the Meh flashlights), and possibly less, that’s really not much of a downcheck.
For a cruise through Ultimate Flashlight, Laser Pointer and Battery Fantasyland, check out the degree of hyperinflation of claimed outputs and capacities over on eBay, or on Wish dot com. They don’t stop at a factor of ten, oh no.
@cinoclav
No, you aren’t missing anything, I’m just losing it! It’s been a long 2 days of obsessing over what to buy to save money for prime days. I threw the towel in on the flashlights though, my guy will just have to find the ones he’s misplaced. Who’s saving money now?!
@Lynnerizer I hope you found some good Prime deals anyway! I grabbed a few things but I never seem to find deals on the stuff I’ve had my eye on prior to Prime Days.
@cinoclav
I ended up spending my $17 credit on flea treatment for Tuc, my inside Himalayan who sneaks out every now and then. Ugh! I shouldn’t be so annoyed, he’s already 3 years old and this is only the 2nd time he’s had a few fleas. I learned though, they’re not going to just go away on their own and I can’t ignore them! Lol
The only other thing I bought was a echo dot with a smart outlet bundle. All 3 items were a super good deal so I’m pleased.
The one thing I was planning to get wasn’t available when I went to check out BUT I did find it on another site for the same price. I was going to get a new 7" fire kindle. I’m still deciding if I’m going to follow through, I believe my guy accidentally threw out my old one, we’re still looking for it.
I have a friend that would take apart old laptop batteries from the trash from his IT job. Test and save the still good 18650 batteries that fits these types of flashlights. Gave me a box of about 2 dozen once. I can power flashlights like these for days.
@Coldwyn Just make sure that you toss the unprotected cells back on the charger before they drop too low; let one fully discharge to flat, and it’s likely done for.
Now, on Amazon, you can find this 400-pack of tea light candles for $32.97. AKA, a bit over 8 cents per candle, or 32 times the per candle brightness you’re paying for here.
I have these all over the house, and use one of them every night to take the dogs out. They’re pretty ok, bright enough.
Get the 18650. They go through AAA’s like crazy.
@Tadlem43 And there is absolutely no way in hell that 3 AAA batteries will power an emitter that’s actually pumping out 1200 lumens. They just do not have the current capability to do it. But the emitters probably don’t either; 1200 is the maximum that a perfect XML-T6 can pump out with the best driver electronics. These are going to have been lower-output chips to start with, probably counterfeit and not actual CREE.
@radi0j0hn Why? That’s about the easiest to find battery most lights this size use. I don’t want to have to rummage around for C-cells or worse yet, button cells…
While I have a bunch of AAA NiMHs, I’m getting these because they can use some of the many decent 18650s I’ve harvested out of battery packs that have leaked some or all of their smoke.
I have to wonder how many people have actually had occasion to use the DNA harvesters on the ends of these kind of flashlights. That’s gotta be more for the look now than anything else.
18650 Lithium is the way to go. Super bright, but they even warm the flashlight at that power level. Have a bunch salvaged from outdated modem batteries. Just need a little plastic tube to shim over battery–I hope that is included.
@natureprint It’s almost always included with these lights, but even if it’s not, the tension provided by the spring on the rear cap is sufficient to prevent your battery from moving around.
@aarond12@natureprint Fair enough! I’ve got at least six of these and I’ve never had that happen by accident. I just grabbed the one on my desk and the one in my desk drawer, and I can’t make it happen on purpose by shaking the crap out of them.
Anecdotes aren’t evidence, and I believe you if you say you’ve experienced this, but I’m confident you had a defective spring. The little buffer tubes sort of fill part of the void between the sides of the battery and the inner walls of the flashlight cylinder, they wouldn’t do anything to keep the weight of the battery off the spring when the light is oriented button down/emitter up.
@aarond12@Aspirant_Fool@natureprint
I ran into a flashlight that could use either an 18650 or the three AAA pack which had an odd spring design. Instead of just a tapered coil sticking up from the cap, it had a spring-loaded brass cap to make contact with the tail of the battery. That one would go intermittent at times, and I finally figured out that what was going on was that the brass cap would bind and become unreliable in providing tension against the battery at times. With the centering sleeve, it didn’t do that. But with just the 18650 alone, it could. The unit had not come with a centering sleeve, but I was able to pick some up and solve the problem.
@aarond12@Aspirant_Fool@natureprint So yes, I would have to say that that counts as a defective spring. Or at least a crummy design. And some of these definitely suffer from crummy design.
@aarond12@natureprint@werehatrack Yeah, if the pin in your torch has a tendency to bind, I can see how the tube-free battery potentially presenting a surface that’s not perpendicular to the spring force would be likely to exacerbate that.
Bought these in 2019 when Meh sold them in 2-pack with the 18650 li-ion battery.
Both still going strong. Never tried them with the AAA adapter (it was included). I bring one of these hiking, camping, and use it around the apartment.
Great little flashlights. Bright and reliable.
And when you turn them on, they’re just “on”. No strobe. You have to select other modes.
@vaticdart I have discovered that the reliability of this assumption is not very good. Units sourced from the same brand a few months apart may have been built in an entirely different plant with different components that look identical. There’s an older design of non-zoomable 18650-powered light for which a single-mode tail cap switch is available, and those are my favorite. Some of the five mode lights provide a bypass capability that allows you to skip the stupid, dim and dumb modes by doing a long press of the power button, but once again, assume nothing unless it’s in the docs…
@medz Zoomable, yes. I have many such. When the unit is bright enough, it can be used as an impromptu follow spot for stage lighting, and the fact that the narrowing of the beam concentrates rather than crops the output is the demonstration that it’s a true zoom.
Now, 1200 lumens from an XML-T6? It it was binned as a max-output chip at the time of manufacture, and you were driving it with the electronics to closely monitor the board temp and keep the voltage and pulse rate optimized, maybe you could get the full 1200. At this price, and particularly given that they are almost certainly Chinese-made with counterfeit emitters, the real output is probably going to be closer to 300, maybe 500 tops. That’s still useful and a bargain, but it’s not an incredible freaking steal. If they had simple on/off switches and not that maddening 5-mode nonsense, they’d actually be worth more.
@medz@werehatrack Wow. That’s a lot of technical sounding stuff you said there. But you completely discounted the importance of the flux capacitor that was fabricated with an alloy of unobtainium and vibranium.
@Trinityscrew
The first rule of Vibranium Club is that outside of Vibranium Club, Vibranium does not exist. Unobtanium never existed. If it did, you could get some. And that’s why it’s called unobtanium.
When it comes to the “tactical” claim, that’s just as much BS as the 1200 lumen output. A real tactical flashlight has a button on the side near the head of the light, which can be turned on momentarily by a half-depress. These have a click-switch on the tailcap (wrong location), no “momentary” capability (unless these are really unusual, which is as likely as an ice storm in Dallas tomorrow), and the anti-tactical multi-mode bullshit that reduces the output below max.
@1DisabledWarVet I think the OP was discovering the economics of buying 18650 batteries in the post-nobody-cares-if-you-mail-lithium-cells world. They also hadn’t figured out that you only need one of the 18650s. If these things took three 18650s, the cost of the rechargeable batteries (for any decent type) would greatly exceed the price of the light. As it is, good luck finding decent 18650s for under three bucks a copy.
@olsmeister@werehatrack The actual switch that’s a SWITCH, with an “OFF” meaning no electrical connection.
Some are worse than others, but any “smart” switch sucks, i.e. it “sucks” at least a little bit of power from any installed batteries. even if stored “for emergency use” in a car, basement, etc. There were some nightmarishly-bad ones sold a few years ago, including by Costco, which many people suffered through. If the point was to consume batteries and turn them into e-waste so you had to buy more disposable batteries, then, yes, I guess it was a success.
@olsmeister@pmarin I have a set of those Costco former-horrors. I replaced the switches in them with units scavenged from the freebie LED flashlights that harbor freight used to give away. They fit perfectly. And the batteries stopped going dead. And they don’t have four infuriating stops along the way to the off position that leads to the one true “on”.
Just for grins & giggles while it’s TFH outside to get anything productive done, I pulled four of the SkyWolfEye 18650 batteries from my stash and loaded them into the tester. These were all charged to 4.2V back in early March, about 4 months ago, and have been sitting in an air-conditioned room since. When loaded into the tester, they displayed voltages of 3.89, 3.96, 4.10 and 4.12V. Really good 18650 cells will discharge when unused at a slightly lower rate than that, so these are neither excellent nor crap, and overall are also not terribly consistent, which is a frequent issue with the lithium cells made in China. The tester directly measures how much power they deliver at a 500mA discharge rate ending at the tester’s default “fully discharged” point, and it will fully discharge, fully recharge, and then test the capacity of the cells. This will take several hours.
Second test run in progress, at 700 milliamps, and they are getting hot. This bespeaks a greater amount of internal resistance than I would like. I suspect that the milliamp hour capacity will not be much different on the second run.
And at the 700mA discharge rate, one of the SkyWolfEye cells overheated badly enough that the tester aborted the run with less than 650mAh delivered. Another cell overheated and aborted at 918mAh. Since 700mA is significantly below the current level needed to drive a 1000 lumen emitter at full output, it’s pretty obvious that the people selling this kit knew their flashlight was well short of their claimed spec, and did not care that the batteries couldn’t deliver the power it would have required. This is not unusual for low-cost allegedly-high-output LED flashlights.
If you ordered these, check them all carefully. One of mine has a defective battery holder, missing the springs to keep AAAs in place. I’ve written to Meh for help.
@candelabra My most recent buy of 18650 cells was on AliExpress, for some protected “Panasonic” (looked genuine, tests out close enough to spec, might actually be the real thing) units that cost more per battery than these flashlights. The Nitecore chargers are really good, regardless of the batteries you’re using.
I was planning to buy these, but since the smart team at meh won’t let me post a comment, I’ll just pass!! It’s called, ‘You Scratch My Back & I’ll Scratch Yours’!! Not this one a-holes, I mean the ones I Want To Post!!
@kwaffens If you want a B&M source, try vape stores. Online, it takes some hard digging to find a decent combination of price and quality. What you are looking for is a seller that represents the battery as having 2200 to 2600 milliamp hours of capacity, and states that it is a protected battery. Unprotected cells will die permanently if over discharged. Anyone claiming more than 2,600 milliamp hours is lying. (Yes, technically, there are some which go a little above that, but they are expensive as heck, and you aren’t going to find anybody online actually selling them. The limited amount of them that gets made goes directly into device manufacturer supply chains.)
My kingdom! My kingdom for a plain damn flashlight without five goddam modes!
@melonscoop For sure that is the worst thing about these lights, because every few times you use it it’s just going to freak the fuck out in strobe mode, then you’ll have to turn it off and back on, then it’ll blink really slowly in SOS mode, then you’ll turn it off and back on for max brightness mode.
@melonscoop TESTIFY, BROTHER! TESTIFY!
@melonscoop I never, ever want SOS mode, or seizure induction mode. I despise them as much as autoplay videos and spammers.
@melonscoop How about $20?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VNCWZBF/ref=emc_b_5_t
I’m sure there are others. I kind of like the Hi-Lo versions but the strobe…noooOOoooo
From the specs above: “Requires 3 AAA batteries or 1 rechargeable 3.7V lithium-ion battery (Batteries not included) per flashlight”.
Is it too hard to specify that the 3.7V lithium-ion battery is commonly known as an 18650 battery??
These flashlights are pretty okay, and likely to be loads better than that giant old maglight you have kicking around, IF:
You throw out the little 3xAAA battery holder that comes with it, buy some 18650 batteries and a charger, and use those instead.
That said, I have about a half dozen of these that I got for actually free with the purchase of 18650 batteries for my better flashlights, so…there’s that.
@Aspirant_Fool also if you know people that work in certain IT fields, lots of companies trash tons of old laptops and laptop batteries. Most of those battery packs contain still good 18650s. Just gotta take them apart and test them. Got a buddy that has dozens he got for free doing this.
@Aspirant_Fool I splurged and went with the battery that has the charger built in.
https://www.nitecorestore.com/Nitecore-NL1826R-18650-Battery-p/bat-nite-18650-nl1826r.htm
@yakkoTDI You lose a small amount of capacity to the slightly reduced cell size that results from the larger electronics pack, but that setup has its own internal protection circuitry as part if the package. From a durability standpoint, having the overdischarge inhibitor is worth paying a bit extra. And having the integral charging port means one less device needs to be packed when traveling.
I don’t have any like that, but my partner does. They work, they’re reliable, and they’re simple to use.
@Aspirant_Fool
Ooooooh, yeah. I have one of those old three-D-cell Maglites, and with its original bulb, its output was an Amazing! Bright! ₃₅ lumens. With the NiteIze LED conversion that was available about 15 years back, it puts out about 100 lumens. My two-dollar EDC pocket light powered by a 14500 is about 200 lumens.
@werehatrack @yakkoTDI
It’s only $11.95 plus it’s 15% off on your first purchase. Seems like a good deal to me, thanks for the link!
@werehatrack @yakkoTDI
Or I just found this deal on Amazon that looks pretty good especially since I have a $17 credit. I can always use the credit so I’ll figure it out today while prime days are still going on.
Super Bright 2000 Lumen 18650 Tactical Flashlight and 6PCS 3.7V High Capacity Rechargeable Battery+Batteries Charger,Zoomable, Water Resistant, 5 Modes Handheld Flashlight https://a.co/d/akTBAET
@werehatrack @yakkoTDI
Even better for $13 plus 10% off for a set of 2 flashlights and 6 rechargeable batteries.
2 Pack High Lumens LED Tactical Flashlights, PHIXTON Super Bright 3000 Lumen Handheld Tac Flash Lights, Powerful Tactical Linterna, Adjustable, Waterproof, for Survival Emergency Camping Accessories https://a.co/d/0iy0X33
@Lynnerizer That one is probably identical to the ones being sold here on meth, and they’ve only inflated the output of it by probably a factor of 10. There’s no way it’s 3000 lumens. And the 18650s that are thrown in at that price are generally going to have a capacity of somewhere between 800 and 1,200 milliamp hours, if you’re lucky. The best of the high output 18650 cells will deliver around $2,600 milliamp hours, and there are a few that have a lower discharge rate that can go a little higher on the total amount of power delivered. Any 18650 sale that claims more than 3,000 milliamp hours is flat lying.
@Lynnerizer Am I missing something? That second link you posted doesn’t have rechargeable batteries. It just comes with 6 AAA’s.
@cinoclav It’s no loss if it doesn’t have them, I didn’t actually look that close. When they claim that many lumens, you know they’re lying up front.
@Aspirant_Fool I just harvested 20 good 18650s from a rechargeable pack. I’m in!
/giphy tender-special-talk
@Lynnerizer @werehatrack @yakkoTDI the batteries that are included are 6x AAA
@jayman007 @Lynnerizer @yakkoTDI Yes, the Phixton kit does in fact include six AAA batteries of the “we can get these really cheap” variety. They’re probably perfectly adequate to power the unit for a useful (if not overly lengthy) period. And that’s because of the fact that as with all the other units under discussion here, BLATANT lying about the light output of the flashlight is painfully obvious. Three really good AAA cells cannot even hope to supply the level of current required to drive an emitter to produce the Meh units’ 1200 lumens, and 3000 would require two and a half times as much. But since those (unquestionably counterfeit) “XML L2” emitters in the Phixtons are most likely pumping out no more than 300 lumens (just like the fake XML T6 emitters of the Meh flashlights), and possibly less, that’s really not much of a downcheck.
For a cruise through Ultimate Flashlight, Laser Pointer and Battery Fantasyland, check out the degree of hyperinflation of claimed outputs and capacities over on eBay, or on Wish dot com. They don’t stop at a factor of ten, oh no.
@cinoclav
It’s been a long 2 days of obsessing over what to buy to save money for prime days. I threw the towel in on the flashlights though, my guy will just have to find the ones he’s misplaced. 
Who’s saving money now?! 
No, you aren’t missing anything, I’m just losing it!
@Lynnerizer I hope you found some good Prime deals anyway! I grabbed a few things but I never seem to find deals on the stuff I’ve had my eye on prior to Prime Days.
@cinoclav
I shouldn’t be so annoyed, he’s already 3 years old and this is only the 2nd time he’s had a few fleas. I learned though, they’re not going to just go away on their own and I can’t ignore them! Lol 
I ended up spending my $17 credit on flea treatment for Tuc, my inside Himalayan who sneaks out every now and then. Ugh!
The only other thing I bought was a echo dot with a smart outlet bundle. All 3 items were a super good deal so I’m pleased.
The one thing I was planning to get wasn’t available when I went to check out BUT I did find it on another site for the same price. I was going to get a new 7" fire kindle. I’m still deciding if I’m going to follow through, I believe my guy accidentally threw out my old one, we’re still looking for it.
I have a friend that would take apart old laptop batteries from the trash from his IT job. Test and save the still good 18650 batteries that fits these types of flashlights. Gave me a box of about 2 dozen once. I can power flashlights like these for days.
@Coldwyn Just make sure that you toss the unprotected cells back on the charger before they drop too low; let one fully discharge to flat, and it’s likely done for.
/giphy take my money
I have these all over the house, and use one of them every night to take the dogs out. They’re pretty ok, bright enough.
Get the 18650. They go through AAA’s like crazy.
@Tadlem43 And there is absolutely no way in hell that 3 AAA batteries will power an emitter that’s actually pumping out 1200 lumens. They just do not have the current capability to do it. But the emitters probably don’t either; 1200 is the maximum that a perfect XML-T6 can pump out with the best driver electronics. These are going to have been lower-output chips to start with, probably counterfeit and not actual CREE.
Use 3 AAA cells? No thanks.
@radi0j0hn Why not? I have a small collection of AAA-size rechargeable NiMH cells for items like this
@radi0j0hn Or you can use one 18650 cell.
@radi0j0hn “…uses 3 AAA cells OR 1 rechargeable 3.7V lithium-ion battery”
Many of us have an abundance of those batteries around. This looks like a fine use for a $5 IRK discount code.
@radi0j0hn Why? That’s about the easiest to find battery most lights this size use. I don’t want to have to rummage around for C-cells or worse yet, button cells…
While I have a bunch of AAA NiMHs, I’m getting these because they can use some of the many decent 18650s I’ve harvested out of battery packs that have leaked some or all of their smoke.
@radi0j0hn FYI- you should not use NiMH in a sealed chamber- most of these flashlights-, the batteries can outgas hydrogen if the cells go uneven.
In an unsealed situation that’s fine, it’s just some lost battery capacity, but if it’s sealed, boom potential.
That and charge separately. If one reverses polarity, it is Bad.
@EvilSmoo Better yet, just use a protected 18650 and be done with it.
BNI is a key point here. Thankfully i have 18650s.
I have to wonder how many people have actually had occasion to use the DNA harvesters on the ends of these kind of flashlights. That’s gotta be more for the look now than anything else.
@PooltoyWolf
I had to look that up - I never knew that’s what those serrations were supposed to be for! You’ve enlightened me - heheh.
@Kyeh @PooltoyWolf Also called crenellations, useful for crenellating someone’s skull.
@blaineg @PooltoyWolf
Oh, yes - better word, thank you.
@blaineg @Kyeh That specific word I’m used to using for the top bits on castles.
@PooltoyWolf Yes, but the tops of castles are harder to smash into somebody’s face. But the similarity of structure drives the usage.
@werehatrack Tell that to The Hulk!
@Kyeh @PooltoyWolf Yep, but it’s been stolen by taticool flashlight makers.
@blaineg @PooltoyWolf It sounds more like the shape of these than “serrations,” the word I used.
18650 Lithium is the way to go. Super bright, but they even warm the flashlight at that power level. Have a bunch salvaged from outdated modem batteries. Just need a little plastic tube to shim over battery–I hope that is included.
@natureprint It is.
@natureprint It’s almost always included with these lights, but even if it’s not, the tension provided by the spring on the rear cap is sufficient to prevent your battery from moving around.
@Aspirant_Fool @natureprint Except when the spring isn’t strong enough. Then, when you tilt the flashlight up, the light turns off.
@aarond12 @natureprint Fair enough! I’ve got at least six of these and I’ve never had that happen by accident. I just grabbed the one on my desk and the one in my desk drawer, and I can’t make it happen on purpose by shaking the crap out of them.
Anecdotes aren’t evidence, and I believe you if you say you’ve experienced this, but I’m confident you had a defective spring. The little buffer tubes sort of fill part of the void between the sides of the battery and the inner walls of the flashlight cylinder, they wouldn’t do anything to keep the weight of the battery off the spring when the light is oriented button down/emitter up.
@aarond12 @Aspirant_Fool @natureprint
I ran into a flashlight that could use either an 18650 or the three AAA pack which had an odd spring design. Instead of just a tapered coil sticking up from the cap, it had a spring-loaded brass cap to make contact with the tail of the battery. That one would go intermittent at times, and I finally figured out that what was going on was that the brass cap would bind and become unreliable in providing tension against the battery at times. With the centering sleeve, it didn’t do that. But with just the 18650 alone, it could. The unit had not come with a centering sleeve, but I was able to pick some up and solve the problem.
@aarond12 @Aspirant_Fool @natureprint So yes, I would have to say that that counts as a defective spring. Or at least a crummy design. And some of these definitely suffer from crummy design.
@aarond12 @natureprint @werehatrack Yeah, if the pin in your torch has a tendency to bind, I can see how the tube-free battery potentially presenting a surface that’s not perpendicular to the spring force would be likely to exacerbate that.
Bought these in 2019 when Meh sold them in 2-pack with the 18650 li-ion battery.
Both still going strong. Never tried them with the AAA adapter (it was included). I bring one of these hiking, camping, and use it around the apartment.
Great little flashlights. Bright and reliable.
And when you turn them on, they’re just “on”. No strobe. You have to select other modes.
@vaticdart I have discovered that the reliability of this assumption is not very good. Units sourced from the same brand a few months apart may have been built in an entirely different plant with different components that look identical. There’s an older design of non-zoomable 18650-powered light for which a single-mode tail cap switch is available, and those are my favorite. Some of the five mode lights provide a bypass capability that allows you to skip the stupid, dim and dumb modes by doing a long press of the power button, but once again, assume nothing unless it’s in the docs…
All grousing aside, these are way more worth the price than the SecureBright lanterns were, in my opinion.
Focusable, maybe. Zoomable though?
/giphy scoff
@medz Zoomable, yes. I have many such. When the unit is bright enough, it can be used as an impromptu follow spot for stage lighting, and the fact that the narrowing of the beam concentrates rather than crops the output is the demonstration that it’s a true zoom.
Now, 1200 lumens from an XML-T6? It it was binned as a max-output chip at the time of manufacture, and you were driving it with the electronics to closely monitor the board temp and keep the voltage and pulse rate optimized, maybe you could get the full 1200. At this price, and particularly given that they are almost certainly Chinese-made with counterfeit emitters, the real output is probably going to be closer to 300, maybe 500 tops. That’s still useful and a bargain, but it’s not an incredible freaking steal. If they had simple on/off switches and not that maddening 5-mode nonsense, they’d actually be worth more.
@medz @werehatrack Wow. That’s a lot of technical sounding stuff you said there. But you completely discounted the importance of the flux capacitor that was fabricated with an alloy of unobtainium and vibranium.
@Trinityscrew
The first rule of Vibranium Club is that outside of Vibranium Club, Vibranium does not exist. Unobtanium never existed. If it did, you could get some. And that’s why it’s called unobtanium.
@Trinityscrew @werehatrack, whatabout, does they got any fn unheardofium, or wtfium in’em¿?
@medz @Trinityscrew @werehatrack You left out Naquadah and Naquadria. Not mention Dilithium and Dysonium.
@werehatrack narrowing and concentrating ain’t zooming
/giphy gtfooh
@medz This isn’t photography, it’s lighting.
@werehatrack
Exactly!
@medz “Zoom range”. It’s how much you can change the angle of the beam, and that’s what you do when you zoom the heads of these flashlights.
You light up my life…
@ciabelle only if I bring the batteries.
@ciabelle @hchavers
Ahem. Get a room, you two.
@ciabelle @hchavers @werehatrack
@ciabelle @hchavers, these are Flashlites, not Vibraters, JSYK!
bought a bunch of these or something similar a while back. not sure where they all went, so f-it, in for some more
crass-moping-verse
When it comes to the “tactical” claim, that’s just as much BS as the 1200 lumen output. A real tactical flashlight has a button on the side near the head of the light, which can be turned on momentarily by a half-depress. These have a click-switch on the tailcap (wrong location), no “momentary” capability (unless these are really unusual, which is as likely as an ice storm in Dallas tomorrow), and the anti-tactical multi-mode bullshit that reduces the output below max.
@werehatrack Oh… PLEEEEASE let there be an ice storm in Dallas tomorrow!!! PLEEASE!!!
@Tadlem43 @werehatrack
No way this is actually 1200 lumens, but good little flashlight nonetheless!
I have 2 of these flashlights, bought as Xmas gifts for my kids, they work great, definitely recommend ordering if you use flashlights often.
CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
@yakkoTDI CounteRfEEEEEEEEit. Rely on it. A real CREE XML-T6 bin-one emitter would cost more than these flashlights.
@yakkoTDI
Ok, Kreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
@blaineg @yakkoTDI
/giphy quick-fluttering-hamburger
@baqui63 I am oddly simultaneously disturbed by and drawn to this dancing hamburger image.
I love letting my little light shine.
@hchavers
Me too!
So, do I just need 1 ea 18650, or 3 of 'em for each “torch”? If it’s 3, that’s sorta pricey power for a $4 flashlight!
@texquill One 18650 per flashlight, for these units.
@texquill One 18650 = 3xAAAs
@CBL_WV @texquill
One 18650 > 3xAAA in terms of capacity
@texquill, $12÷4=$3 each, or did I miss something¿
Of course, I don’t pay shipping fees & My tax is only 84¢, or 21¢ per flashlite!!
@1DisabledWarVet I think the OP was discovering the economics of buying 18650 batteries in the post-nobody-cares-if-you-mail-lithium-cells world. They also hadn’t figured out that you only need one of the 18650s. If these things took three 18650s, the cost of the rechargeable batteries (for any decent type) would greatly exceed the price of the light. As it is, good luck finding decent 18650s for under three bucks a copy.
5 Modes? No thank you.
@olsmeister Exactly. I don’t need to have “On, half-on, kinda-on, annoying-flashing-mode, and pointless-flashing-mode”. Just Fecking On Or Off.
@olsmeister @werehatrack The actual switch that’s a SWITCH, with an “OFF” meaning no electrical connection.
Some are worse than others, but any “smart” switch sucks, i.e. it “sucks” at least a little bit of power from any installed batteries. even if stored “for emergency use” in a car, basement, etc. There were some nightmarishly-bad ones sold a few years ago, including by Costco, which many people suffered through. If the point was to consume batteries and turn them into e-waste so you had to buy more disposable batteries, then, yes, I guess it was a success.
@olsmeister @pmarin I have a set of those Costco former-horrors. I replaced the switches in them with units scavenged from the freebie LED flashlights that harbor freight used to give away. They fit perfectly. And the batteries stopped going dead. And they don’t have four infuriating stops along the way to the off position that leads to the one true “on”.
For reference, here’s a small gallery of obviously fraudulent A**zon 18650 battery listings…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6GG9BX6/ claims 9900 mAh. Right. And I’m next in line for the throne of Wales.
https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Flashlight-9800mAh-Water-Resistant-Zoomable/ includes six “9800mAh” batteries. Given that like the first one, this would require a greater quantity of materials present inside the battery’s can than could possibly be crammed in, the problem is obvious.
https://www.amazon.com/Brightest-Rechargeable-Flashlight-Waterproof-Accessories/ hides its claim of 5000 mAh down in the tiny print of the item advertising well down the page, but it’s there, and it’s impossible, and I have no qualms about saying that it’s bogus.
There are many, many more.
OBTW, the presence of the “button top” is no longer an assurance of protection circuitry; the “SkyWolfEye” cells included with this light are just one example, and I’ve got a set: https://www.amazon.com/Tokeyla-Flashlight-Rechargeable-Waterproof-Emergency/
@werehatrack FWIW that “throne of Wales” job seems like it might be more trouble than it’s worth.
Just for grins & giggles while it’s TFH outside to get anything productive done, I pulled four of the SkyWolfEye 18650 batteries from my stash and loaded them into the tester. These were all charged to 4.2V back in early March, about 4 months ago, and have been sitting in an air-conditioned room since. When loaded into the tester, they displayed voltages of 3.89, 3.96, 4.10 and 4.12V. Really good 18650 cells will discharge when unused at a slightly lower rate than that, so these are neither excellent nor crap, and overall are also not terribly consistent, which is a frequent issue with the lithium cells made in China. The tester directly measures how much power they deliver at a 500mA discharge rate ending at the tester’s default “fully discharged” point, and it will fully discharge, fully recharge, and then test the capacity of the cells. This will take several hours.
1241 to 1516 mAh on the first test.
Second test run in progress, at 700 milliamps, and they are getting hot. This bespeaks a greater amount of internal resistance than I would like. I suspect that the milliamp hour capacity will not be much different on the second run.
And at the 700mA discharge rate, one of the SkyWolfEye cells overheated badly enough that the tester aborted the run with less than 650mAh delivered. Another cell overheated and aborted at 918mAh. Since 700mA is significantly below the current level needed to drive a 1000 lumen emitter at full output, it’s pretty obvious that the people selling this kit knew their flashlight was well short of their claimed spec, and did not care that the batteries couldn’t deliver the power it would have required. This is not unusual for low-cost allegedly-high-output LED flashlights.
If you ordered these, check them all carefully. One of mine has a defective battery holder, missing the springs to keep AAAs in place. I’ve written to Meh for help.
Specs
Product: 4-Pack: Super Bright Zoomable Cree LED Tactical Flashlights
Model: XML-T6
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$20-$68 (for 4 similar) on Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Standard: Monday, Aug 8 - Thursday, Aug 11.
Enhanced: Friday, Aug 5 - Monday, Aug 8.
Where do you guys get 18650 batteries and chargers? in for 2 sets!
/giphy kinetic-unnerving-knowledge
@candelabra The battery and charger I use.
https://www.nitecorestore.com/Nitecore-NL1826R-18650-Battery-p/bat-nite-18650-nl1826r.htm
@candelabra My most recent buy of 18650 cells was on AliExpress, for some protected “Panasonic” (looked genuine, tests out close enough to spec, might actually be the real thing) units that cost more per battery than these flashlights. The Nitecore chargers are really good, regardless of the batteries you’re using.
@candelabra Thanks much guys, I’m on it, much appreciated!!
I was planning to buy these, but since the smart team at meh won’t let me post a comment, I’ll just pass!! It’s called, ‘You Scratch My Back & I’ll Scratch Yours’!! Not this one a-holes, I mean the ones I Want To Post!!
What is the plastic tube for?
@cadams4904 I think it’s for a single rechargeable battery, vs individual AAAs.
@cadams4904 @srbuwsnyc Correct. It is used with an 18650 lithium.
Any recommendations of where to buy some ok 18650s?
@kwaffens If you want a B&M source, try vape stores. Online, it takes some hard digging to find a decent combination of price and quality. What you are looking for is a seller that represents the battery as having 2200 to 2600 milliamp hours of capacity, and states that it is a protected battery. Unprotected cells will die permanently if over discharged. Anyone claiming more than 2,600 milliamp hours is lying. (Yes, technically, there are some which go a little above that, but they are expensive as heck, and you aren’t going to find anybody online actually selling them. The limited amount of them that gets made goes directly into device manufacturer supply chains.)