I’ve purchased at least 6 spotlights over the past few years trying to find one that is decent. In the end they either just stop working or only hold about a 15 minute charge. My recent purchase was an Atena 2.5 M Candlepower Spotlight which turned out to be worse than most with less than 10 minutes of light time, nothing worse than losing your battery at the far end of a crawlspace.
I’m looking for suggestions on a good spotlight that is durable, has a longer battery life and is rechargeable. The ultrastingers flashlights are nice but just not bright enough for a dark attic or crawl.
They are both very bright and last the entire inspection.
I’m about get this one: http://shop.omglumens.com/DEFT-edc-LR-9395LR.htm
it’s smaller and very powerful and will last the entire inspection
Have bought my self a number of small LED flashlights (CREE brand) over the past 4-5 months. They are the way to go. No more carrying bulky 1,000,000 candlepower lights to roofs to check flue liners! More than enough light to view to bottom of a tall chimney.
I have 5 watt ($19.99) and 8 watt ($23.99) quite small units as the most powerful. They easily slip into jacket or pants pockets. Both come with 1 li-ion battery and charger. Plus I have a few other lower wattage LED units.
I love technology. Started out inspecting using Maglite 3 D cell “policeman’s club” lights.
A bit further- I use the LED headlamps quite a bit even outside of crawlspaces; own 7-8 of those as I get them for $2 each and they’re almost disposables.
The trick to using ultrastingers is owning four of them and replacing the batteries when performance drops. The bulbs have to be replaced sometimes before they burn out to maintain brightness. When I first started, I lugged around those 1-2 mil candlepower cookers.
That was one I was seriously considering until I saw the weight of it. If my recollection is right it was 1.5 kg with the battery pack. That’d get heavy after an hour.
On the bright side (no pun intended) you could slug the raccoons jumping at you in te attic :mrgreen:
It’s all about hobbies. I started out with cheap flashlights that had to be replaced too often. I didn’t care for having to change my number one tool because it broke when I dropped it or because it wasn’t powerful.
It took me 6 months of research to find the one I wanted and found out this micro-world of flashlight geeks and got hooked. Now, anytime a friend of mine comes out with his new lights, more powerful, smaller, lasting longer on 1 charge, I get it. You could call it a collection that I work with.
I understand Will. If my business were a hobby I’d be driving a new Ford F-150 crew cab with splashy paint and graphics in the side and I would probably not mind paying 300 bucks for a flashlight. I’d love to have a new truck to yank the boat around with. Then again…the boat isn’t a part of the business. It’s easy to rationalize expenditures on hobbies.
On the other hand, since I run my business like a business, there is no possible way that I can justify to the CFO (me) spending that kind of dough on a fancy flashlight.
Your mileage may vary.
BTW. The flashlight that I bought 3 years ago for $50 is still doing a great job.
As you said, your mileage may vary. I would much rather buy me a new flash light, expense it and not have to give that money to the IRS.
This is pretty interesting as many inspectors will get latest phone when the one they have works just fine, or computer, no wait tablet is the big deal right now, when their laptop was working just fine. Are they running there business as a hobby? Perhaps or maybe they just want something new. Some tools I agree will make the inspection a little faster, but not everything will.
Do I run my business as a hobby? Nope. But do I want new things every now and then, stuff I use for business yes. One of my hobbies is flashlights and I get to mix it with job. So, why not?
To each his own and that’s fine with me
The batteries are different. Either 18650 or CR123. They are a little bigger and require a different charger.
I almost got the TK30, but I wanted more lumens with a longer run time. Fenix makes great lights.
I would much rather buy me a new flash light, expense it and not have to give that money to the IRS.