Marine Handheld Spotlights

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by ggray

I take great pleasure in finding non-marine sustitutions where they work as well or better, but my WalMart spotlight was a waste of money. The glare is horrible.
I plan on the Optronics Blue Eye that Bill mentioned as I read it was highly rated. Glad Bill confirms.
Rechargeable would seem better, until it needs a charge right when you are looking for a marker. And to get a reasonable battery life, they can get awful heavy.

The Halogen spot lights with lead acid batteries are heavy and can have a very short battery life, but the LED torches fix all these problems. They have a very long battery life and will accept rechargeable batteries as well as primary cells.
Lithium rechargeable batteries or the Eneloop batteries are ideal they have long shelf life so a torch that has been unused for 6 months is still ready to go.

[Coolruns]

What is the battery life like on the Lenser X21?

[Free Agent]

Like with most my flashlights, cheap-o WalMart for the spots unless COSTCO has a deal going.

If possible, on all my lights I spray the connections and switches with WD 40,, seems to help in the salt air.

Cheap-o is the way to roll.
I've owned lots of spotlights, and no particular brand is better than any other regardless of the cost IMHO.

The candlepower is way, way over-exaggerated in most cases too.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Coolruns

What is the battery life like on the Lenser X21?

I am not a big fan of Ledlenser.
There are a lot of options depending on your preferred battery choice.
Something like the Fenix TK35 is a good option. It has various brightness levels.
· 820 lumens - 1 hour 33 minute runtime
· 346 lumens - 5 hour runtime
· 109 lumens - 16 hour runtime
· 12 lumens - 170 hour runtime

These are regulated meaning the brightness will remain constant even when the battery runs down.

If you have never seen a modern flashlight like this you will be amazed at the brightness. The low setting with a 16Hour battery life will still be brighter than a 4D Maglight.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Free Agent

Like with most my flashlights, cheap-o WalMart for the spots unless COSTCO has a deal going.

.

With respect, I suspect you have not seen on of the modern good quality LED flashlights.

[michaelmrc]

i got the brickman led spotlight for christmas this year its fantastic so bright adjustable power settings and even a red light. its all led very power efficient

Q Beam Led Rechargeable Spotlight

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by michaelmrc

i got the brickman led spotlight for christmas this year its fantastic so bright adjustable power settings and even a red light. its all led very power efficient

Q Beam Led Rechargeable Spotlight

Hmmm...

Looked pretty good in the shiny ad, but then I read the 6 customer reviews that WM posted. 5 out of the six said it was junk, several different failure modes, and one noted that the instructions said for "use in dry places only".

This has quelled any mad impulse buying on my part.

My years old cheapo (29 AUD from Whiworths) is still working ok. Had to replace the battery after it was about 5 years old, but it was only about 19 bucks at Battery World.

Can't see the need for a big bucks light, but do agree that a GOOD led unit would mean less battery mass and/or longer use cycle.

Cheers,

Jim

[mrm]

We use A6 Polestar by iTP Light on our boat. Proved very useful when entering marina at night during shore power blackout.

[michaelmrc]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Hmmm...

Looked pretty good in the shiny ad, but then I read the 6 customer reviews that WM posted. 5 out of the six said it was junk, several different failure modes, and one noted that the instructions said for "use in dry places only".

This has quelled any mad impulse buying on my part.

My years old cheapo (29 AUD from Whiworths) is still working ok. Had to replace the battery after it was about 5 years old, but it was only about 19 bucks at Battery World.

Can't see the need for a big bucks light, but do agree that a GOOD led unit would mean less battery mass and/or longer use cycle.

Cheers,

Jim

i read some of these reviews myself after getting this unit but after talking to the owner of our west marine who uses one himself he informed me that the first generation of these lights had some issues but the new ones have proven to be much better. i have had no complaints with mine. i used it coming over the strait from vancouver to silva bay coming into silva bay at night with all those boats in there no anchor lights this light proved invaluable. very powerful and no glare.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Hmmm...

Looked pretty good in the shiny ad, but then I read the 6 customer reviews that WM posted. 5 out of the six said it was junk, several different failure modes, and one noted that the instructions said for "use in dry places only".

The unit has 3 Cree XR-E emitters running at 200 lumens each. To run these LEDs at that brightness you need a lot of heatsinking. Its looks like the unit is all plastic. Unless it has a very large aluminum heatsink behind the reflector the LEDs are going to have a very short life, or they are being driven at a much lower brightness than the 600 lumens claimed.