Posted: 2/19/2009 10:54:51 AM EDT
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So I was at Lowe's looking at surefire lights and I noticed a kobalt LED that was on sale for 39.99
I bought it. I have it at home now and it is nice and bright. It has a claimed output of 90 luminens, but I think that is conservative. It is as bright or brighter than my Insight M6X 's which claim 120 luminens. It also has a lifetime "No Hassle" warranty from Lowe's. The surefire only has a 10 year warranty and is only rated at 80 luminens. What do you guys think? Worth it? Or should I have ponied up the extra money and bought the surefire? The surefire was twice as much, BTW. |
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Quoted:
So I was at Lowe's looking at surefire lights and I noticed a kobalt LED that was on sale for 39.99 I bought it. I have it at home now and it is nice and bright. It has a claimed output of 90 luminens, but I think that is conservative. It is as bright or brighter than my Insight M6X 's which claim 120 luminens. It also has a lifetime "No Hassle" warranty from Lowe's. The surefire only has a 10 year warranty and is only rated at 80 luminens. What do you guys think? Worth it? Or should I have ponied up the extra money and bought the surefire? The surefire was twice as much, BTW. There are several reviews on candlepowerforums.com about this particular light. Mostly negative. Mostly about the overrated output. It's rated at 90 lumens, but when tested it was only putting 60 lumens out the front. As far as I understand it's a knock off of the E2D LED by Surefire. However, the quality is supposedly lacking when compared to the Surefire. Surefire rates their flashlights based on torch lumens... actual lumens out the front. Thus the reason most say Surefire is conservative with their output ratings. I don't know about paying twice the money for a Surefire, but I would have spent just a little more and got a high quality Fenix. The TK 11 R2 is always a good choice. |
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yes, that is the correct link and the picture. Sorry about that, I meant to add the link in the OP.
Well, crap. If it is overrated at 90 and the surefire is underrated at 80, maybe I should have gone with the surefire. I will look into fenix as well. I will let everyone know how it looks at night as far as throw and hotspot, etc. |
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Quoted:
yes, that is the correct link and the picture. Sorry about that, I meant to add the link in the OP. Well, crap. If it is overrated at 90 and the surefire is underrated at 80, maybe I should have gone with the surefire. I will look into fenix as well. I will let everyone know how it looks at night as far as throw and hotspot, etc. Personally I don't consider the Surefire to be "underrated." It's just a company that is honest about their product's performance. The other guys don't use the same rating system which makes their product seem a little better. Not always the case. |
| My personal feeling on a subject like this is you get what you pay for, I have no qualms about getting the most bang for the buck , but i always chuckle when another company duplicates a proven performer like Surefire (and yes I own 6) and then claims it to be the equal of the original, if it's a quality product able to stand on its own merit then why try to make comparisons the original?, make your own claims and move on.....good gear costs real money, thats just the way it is, maybe I am crazy to pay that much for flashlights but I just got 3 G2 LED versions at Lowes that were on close out for some reason,new in the package for 42.00 each, i saw them...found a manager and said I will take all 3 if you will give them to me for that price they were marked down originally to 54.00 which was a good deal by itself, but I also realized a manager had the power to make it even better so I asked and got my price, so in that instance i feel I got a superior product for a great deal....just my .02..... |
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I know this is an older thread.. but I was looking for something else and found this one..
FYI... I too bought these lights.. and I thought they were great.. output was fantastic.... good size... however ... after dropping one from about 3 feet up... I have yesterday... I have now changed my mind. A piece that connects the battery connector to the plastic housing that the batteries sit in.. broke from the impact... May be able to JB Weld it... and fix it... but alas.. you get what you pay for... Always good to have JB Weld in the tool kit 
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Two of the employees that I supervise bought me this Kobalt light for Christmas. I tried it out for a week and then returned it to Lowes and used the credit towards the purchase of a Surfire 6PLED. I liked the dual output of the Kobalt and the dual position clip, but the light itself was just too slippery. It didn't feel right when I was holding it and I always had the feeling I was going to drop it. All three of my Surfires (6P, G2, and E2D) all grip well in my hand.
I have my gripes about the Surefires, mostly that the 6P and G2 come with only a momentary on switch and they want $42 for the click-on version, but I would still prefer a basic G2LED over the Kobalt. |
| I have a similar LED Light that I bought at Home Depot for about the same price. I use it as a backup to my Surefire G2LED. It's similar in brightness but it has a huge donut hole in the middle of the beam and it does not feel as durable as the Surefire. It also weighs about twice as much as the Surefire. Not that it's heavy by any means but every ounce counts when you're packing it into a BOB / GHB. |