June Update: We'll be removing the ranking list with future episodes, these dont rank like power tools do and once you have these specs and info you can make your own decision! We'll also be recording lumen output over the duration test so you can see it charted how much output it loses over the battery life. Battery capacity will be based on cell rating not the USB charger due to the circuit losses, thanks for pointing this out! But we'll still use it to see how much current it accepts and charge time. Working on the next episode now! We realize videos like this will have far less uggas and duggas than our others, but we hope you’ll support our continued effort to do more and more mechanic’s type tools now and in the future with series like these, either way Friday’s on this channel will always have plenty of ugga duggas. That we promise. Also, if we make any missteps on this very technical topic, apologies as there's no electrical engineers here. We stuck a light meter to some foam guys! Recommend good or terrible rechargeable lights below!
Just make ugga dugga sounds with your mouth while running tests if the impact guys get butthurt lol. Also I've been pretty impressed with the quantum lights from harbor freight
I think the foam ball idea is ingenious! And your test results seem to be 100% in sync with the lab results. I would probably have settled on flat white paint for the inside and called it a day.
When recording a discharge test, I'd recommend locking your camera's exposure so as the light gets dimmer, the camera won't try to compensate. Like, lock it to normal overhead lights, turn on testing lights so they are overexposed, then as they die the light will get dimmer and dimmer.
I worked in a light output lab for years, many companys use raw lumins in marketing. This is a calculation from the led manufacturers based on input power and number of leds. I used a sphere everyday and it and not many people are using actual lumens
I have a couple Olights and streamlights. Some weapon mount, some handheld. Olight is brighter, but Streamlight lasts longer. Battery and overall life of the light.
Will do, and for the DeWalt, Ryobi, Milwaukee ect if they fit we can test em. We're limited to about 3.25" diameter on the round part and 10" in length on the stick light hole. Modifying the sphere might influence future results.
@@TorqueTestChannel www.harborfreight.com/ultra-compact-750-lumen-rechargeable-magnetic-floodlight-57187.html this Braun is very similar to the snap-on light you guys tested here, but advertises 750 lumen. Would love to see you guys test it since I just bought it a little while ago haha!
I am liking my 3rd Braun from HF. The first two were glitchy and malfunctioned in less than 6 months of very light use on vehicle interiors only. After replacing it twice my third one I have put through the ringer and is functioning well.
Honestly my favorite new RUclips channel! It's interesting to see how brands are fudging their number (or being truthful), and how they all compare with eachother. Excellent work! Also the subtle humor is great!
Magnets are important! How many here have forgotten their stick light was still stuck under the car they just test drove? :) My HF stick light went on a 4 mile test drive with me attached to the frame of my truck. I didn't remember until I went out to get mail later that night and there was light glowing from under the truck.
Would love to see some “head lights” tested. So much easier to use, as where you are looking is always illuminated. I have a couple of Milwaukee’s that do pretty well. Would like to see some other brands. Great vid! Thank!!!
I have a coast xph34r that I use everyday and it is 10x brighter than any other I've used. It's almost as bright as my streamlight 2020. Both claim 2,000 lumens. Would like to see both tested here
It's awesome that you guys are branching out to bring us the real numbers that tools perform at. I always did the brightness test on lights by shining them in my eyes. If I turned my head away n saw a big white spot after then I knew it was pretty bright lol
For magnet testing, have your scale set vertical, and tare out the scale with just the plate hanging. This eliminates downward pull of the plate (gravity) vs horizontal pull of the magnet by having the force going the same direction
Nice to see the 65SL performed well. I've been a big fan of Astro Tools, especially since following Eric @ SMA. I purchased the 65SL myself over a year ago, as well as several other tool offering from Astro, and I've been impressed with the quality for the price on pretty much everything.
I'm not really interested in torque power tools, although these light lumen tests are pretty fascinating. But honestly, regardless of my interest level in any particular video/topic you're covering, you guys deserve to be noticed and more popular than you are. In particular, you deserve to be applauded for your professionalism, the quality and thoroughness of your testing and work, and most importantly, your integrity and ethics -- if only there were more review channels out there like this one. I've watched a few videos, and been blown away by your videos. I only wish you guys tested a wider range of devices -- here's hoping you become successful enough to branch out, and I figured I'd try and do my part and help you guys out with the algorithm a bit. Best of luck.
Oh man, this series is exciting. I've been a huge flashlight geek for a long time, and I'm really looking forward to a competent reviewer taking a look at more work oriented lights. There are a lot of great flashlight reviewers out there (I particularly like ZeroAir and 1Lumen, and there's a lot of great information on r/flashlight) but they mostly focus on enthusiast lights, which I love, but I'm excited to see a different perspective. While I appreciate having more data available, I'm not sure how useful focusing on honesty is for the rankings. Every established flashlight brand I've seen uses the same FL1 testing standard for the claimed numbers, and straight up lying about the 30 second lumen level is rare in my experience (not counting sketchy no-name stuff on Amazon, obviously). The most misleading thing about specs is usually the output over a long period. Most brands will say something like "1000 lumens for 3 hours" or something, which in reality means 1000 lm for 10 minutes and then 300 lm for the remaining time. It might be too time consuming to be worth it, but if possible having a output graph for the whole runtime would be very useful.
I'd like to see my daily carry Olight M2R Pro Warrior. Been carrying it for almost a year and I live it and they advertise max 1800 and lowest advertised 1 single lumen
I'd really love to see you guys test olight lights. I just got one of their lights and it is amazing they advertise 2500 lumans from there headlight/flashlight and I believe it.
My favorite light is the nebo inspector RC. I got mine for 20 bucks and I carry it daily. After 3 years it has never let me down and it shines brighter and farther than any full size flashlight I have gotten my hands on. I would be ecstatic to see you run one through your test rig. Thanks for the awesome vids as always. Cheers.
This was the first video of yours that I watched and I gotta say the quality is top notch. You have a fun, intelligent, instructional execution with everything you do. And you answer the questions I thought only I had. I'm gonna go start from the beginning il catch up soon haha
You have to remember that there are always losses with charging. The extra mAh that are listed are most likely losses as heat. And it's way better to charge those small cells slow. Fast charging ALWAYS damages the cells it the long term (like 1-2 years)
Did you guys list out the info on the sources & specs for your parts ? (foam sphere- Diam?, Which brand Brilliant wh paint, the BaSo4 powder, and lastly the HD-450 meter ? ) Would love to see that info, as a hobby tester.
Flashlights are my thing. I cannot tell you how incredibly hyped I am for this. I WISH I still had my Pro Seeker 2 from o'light so I could send it in. My favorite flashlight I've ever bought.
I have the Seeker 2 Pro. Great light. Check out the ThruNite T2, it competes with the Seeker 2 Pro, cost much less, just as bright, wider flood, comes in natural and white light, has a 21700 battery, usb-c charging port built in to the light, and is more compact. It's an incredible light for the price. I really love my Seeker 2 Pro, but the ThruNite T2 is incredible, especially being that it cost almost half as much.
A very long time ago my father told me every light company has their own weird ass system for measuring light and because of that, any lumen or candela number was utter horse shit. Even with their own product line you cant trust numbers to be representative. This applies to light bulbs and flashlights.
Great channel, I just subscribed. As a mechanic, highly relevant info. About this video, if you buy a light that uses 18650 lithium cells, those batteries are readily and cheaply available, so the charge time is irrelevant, just swap batteries. Also true of any work light made to be compatible with the cordless tools you own, just swap battery packs.
You guys add smart enough to come up emergency a scale for most anytime. Twist values for srewdrivers, grip pressure for pliers etc. Imma keep watching, liking and commenting.
seems like every mechanic that has a "tool addiction" has a stack of flashlights so this series is going to be a big hit. You boys (and or girls who knows, you're a disembodied set of arms) are on the right track
CRI would be a good one to add to the tests. Even a subjective bad, OK or good. If you want to get fancy and actually measure it take a look at the Minolta CL-70F. Maybe do light weight divided by magnet pull for the magnet ranking. A heavier light needs a stronger magnet but shouldn't get a higher ranking because it has one.
Very well done. I’m not sure anyone else could get as scientific with their comparisons outside of a pro level lab environment. Great expansion lately into lights and air hammers.
I carried an S2R2 as well! I loved that light but sold it to a friend because he wouldn't stop bothering me about it... So now I'm carrying a Olight Warrior Mini 2 and I have to say I think I might like it a little better. There's pros and cons to each but I'm really enjoying this one as well.
I’ve been seeing a lot of controversy about torque wrench accuracy. Can you test cheap vs. expensive? Harbor Freight up to Snap-on or Mac, or Matco. I don’t trust any opinion except your channels. Your immutable honesty means a lot to many people.
My favorite shop light is the Bosch 12v FL12, not just for lumens but it just works, durable (drove over them on accident twice) replaceable lenses, and actually work well in the many difference positions.
I'm loving all this new testing! I'm really interested to see the cheap imitation lights against the big brands. Astro continues to perform very well, also!
Just a little note in regards to the tool used to measure the battery capacity. There is energy lost to heat when charging a battery, so the reason that the lights seemed to go over advertised capacity is likely do to parasitic loss.
Nice work guys! Setting up an awesome test rig (for a fraction of the cost) and sending out the lights for data to compare to your rig! Brilliant. I guess I finally need to subscribe.
Great channel. Always interesting and helpful content. Really like the way you have been expanding into new territory like the light tests and the air hammers. Keep up the good work.
I feel that the scoring and testing of products with replaceable standard batteries should be reconsidered. If you need a light for all day use and it has replaceable batteries like 18650 then you would get multiple batteries and switch out. While not free, they are not the same cost as a 5Ah tool battery.
I personally love my streamlight microstream. They make two kinds and I’ve had both (lost my first one). One has the high mode as default and the other has low as default. For me it’s a great EDC light because it’s tiny, but it packs a big punch. It’s slow to charge, and the battery doesn’t last super long on high mode, so I’d be interested to see y’all test it to see what the numbers are.
With the quality and effort that goes into these videos and clearly the growing resources at your disposal, I would actually love to see this kind of work continue to expand into other stuff like lighting, where most of the numbers we see are again pretty meaningless without TTC doing this testing for us, I think if you stick with just impacts, unfortunately for as follows it is, it has a limit to how many people will subscribe and keep watching, there is obviously a use for people that are looking to buy a tool and search and find the videos, but I personally would love to see the channel go down the path of proof testing other "bullsh*t" number claims to give us baselines and an idea of where things stand, this would really help you grow and get an expanded following from many people! I will support the channel regardless but just think of how big project farm has gotten from diversifying the testing
Thanks, this really helped me. I do think that when "sellers" label them they did pretty much what I did. Convert lux to lumen in an open and maybe dark area. This is clearly how they got the 100k numbers or what ever. Thanks again!
The Milwaukee M12 service light 2367 is the best light I have ever used for working on vehicles. Told my buddy about it and he went out and bought one and concluded the same thing immediately.
Great video To coat the sphere i would put a bit of paint in, close it and rotate it evenly using some kind of contraption with motors (a few rollers should do). Experiment with different beginning fill levels or overfill, rotate, remove excess and rotate again. When the paint is solid fill it 1/4 with fine sand and rotate again until smooth.
Nice Sphere! Love how you can test drop light styles like the Astro. Look forward to seeing more tests. Note: Any lights that have ANSI FL-1 ratings on them are going to be pretty close to advertised because they have been batch tested using said standard.
As a DIY mechanic, and a CNC machinist, I only buy Olights. And the most pocket friendly, none of those weapon lights. They all have magnetic tail caps. My daily carry is a 1200lm Baton 3, while at work I have a 2000lm Baton Pro. And yes, any of the notable Flashlight brands are honest. One time the light went out inside the a CNC machine I was setting up, so I just stuck my flashlight inside.
The Milwaukee 2113-21 flashlight! I use it everyday all day and just can't say enough good things about it. With the additional charger and battery I am never without it. Also, best of luck with the channels. Love what you are doing here. Keep it coming!
I'm in! I use the headlight from Costco (3 pack Coast brand - they now carry a Duracell-branded light). I love my Coasts. I also use a Caterpillar-branded flood light and a Duracell-branded hand light. Why were you worried about charge time? Plug your damn tools in when you go home and they're fully charged for the next day! Sheesh.
Test the nebo rebel headlamp. Best headlamp I’ve ever used and I own several headlamps well over $100. Including many olight, stream light, and others. I own two of them and I use them both eight hours each day and then recharge each one. been using them both for over two years. No issues whatsoever. On the lower setting it’s still got plenty of brightness for any task, and will last a full eight hours constantly on.
I always look for reviews on YT of items im about to purchase. I will definitely check this channel out before my next flashlight purchase. I've owned so many and have had many winners and losers. You will help me purchase only the best ones. Thanks.
Could you also show what accessories the lights come with. Some don’t come with charging bricks or cables. If you buy a light and it doesn’t come with a way to charge it that’s a negative for me.
There is a Coast 7HP light which I like using. They have a kit which comes with two rechargeable batteries, and a replacement battery pack which is not rechargeable but takes 4 standard AAA batteries. This is good because you get an AC charger in the kit as well as 2 rechargeable batteries and the backup AAA just in case. It would be nice to see you test it out. Thanks.
I find it interesting that the test jig is designed on trying to get a uniform-ish reflectivity of all the light produced, and that reflective light is what makes its way to the light meter. I'd assume reflectivity could vary with the spectrum of light produced. Is there a reason you didn't build a more linear test chamber painted on the inside with something like Musou Black? Then you could aim a flashlight directly at a light meter. It would be a different kind of measurement, but could give an interesting additional piece of information such as "in a perfectly dark infinite space with no reflective surfaces around, how well can you illuminate that raccoon in your garbage can at 12 ft away". Love the videos! Keep it up!
I have the dr. Prepare light you spoke of in the beginning. I’m a lightaholic and it is just as nice as the Astro one everyone knows about. The ONLY downside is the battery life isn’t long lasting. It needs recharged after about 4hrs on the highest mode. I own a Cornwell branded Astro btw
Torque Test Channel more like truth testing channel. Y'all awesome! The air hammer testing was eye open not this can be eye closing lol. I'm looking forward to what else y'all come up with.
Dude flashlights are very important to all of us for different reasons this will go over bigtime you watch !im new to your chan but i love the content im a mechanic and pro drag racer with a super comp dragster . keep up the good work your doing it will save us all money n time great stuff Dude !!!!!!
I use the Protac 2XL with the 18650 battery. For intermittent use throughout the day, it’s awesome. I just let it charge overnight in my work truck when it needs it. For a shop light, I use a Snap-On light that claims 1000 lumens. It’s pretty darn bright. It lasts a couple hours at 50%.
I bought a portable work light, based on the fact that it could take AA cells for emergency use, while charging the 18650 cells...works great, and you can use rechargeable AA cells, too, so you can swap out AAs, or even keep a couple of 18650s on hand...
One useful metric that's missing is the spectrum of light output. Often for inspection lights, a broad spectrum light can really make a difference, making it easier to distinguish colors or fine details (e.g. wire colors, wear patterns).
The benefit with the streamlights are swappable batteries tho. I have 3 strion variants with 5 strion batteries, as well as a stinger with 2 batteries, when one dies I just take the good one out of a piggyback charger and put the dead battery in the charger. The light is still usable while batteries charge, unlike my sl650 or my snap on work lights. That's why my streamlights are my go-to lights
First I like these light test. I would like to suggest you test corded drop lights. Searching RUclips and the web, this seems to be a neglected subject. Battery units are very useful, but the 120v mechanics light does not die in the middle of a long job. Like battery units do. Keep up the good work
I actually think that streamlight has the best advantage even with a slow charge time, because the battery is removable, you could - I'm sure - buy additional batteries and still use the tool while charging other batteries, where as the other lights are out of operation the whole time they're charging.
Love the video! Quick note though: The mAh capacity you are measuring from the USB meter is NOT going to accurately reflect the actual battery capacity internally. The number you read will always be larger, as most small Lithium charging circuits are based on Linear Constant-Current/Constant-Voltage regulators, which waste excess energy from the USB input as heat. In addition, the electrochemical process that happens internally to Lithium batteries means there will always be *some* energy loss when recharging a cell in addition to the charging circuit. While this testing methodology generally fine to compare one brand vs. the other, it will not necessarily tell you if the advertised battery capacity is what is truly is shipped out. To accurately measure battery capacity, you should measure the amount of energy you can take OUT of the cell. This can be easily done by something like a Li-500 battery charger/capacity checker. Take the 18650 out of the lights and place them into the charger and let it run a full cycle check. It will charge battery completely, then discharge the cell and measure capacity for you. for lights that use LiPo cells or non-cylindrical cells, you can use short alligator clips to connect it to the charger battery contacts. Regardless, love the testing you guys do! keep it up!
June Update: We'll be removing the ranking list with future episodes, these dont rank like power tools do and once you have these specs and info you can make your own decision! We'll also be recording lumen output over the duration test so you can see it charted how much output it loses over the battery life. Battery capacity will be based on cell rating not the USB charger due to the circuit losses, thanks for pointing this out! But we'll still use it to see how much current it accepts and charge time. Working on the next episode now!
We realize videos like this will have far less uggas and duggas than our others, but we hope you’ll support our continued effort to do more and more mechanic’s type tools now and in the future with series like these, either way Friday’s on this channel will always have plenty of ugga duggas. That we promise. Also, if we make any missteps on this very technical topic, apologies as there's no electrical engineers here. We stuck a light meter to some foam guys! Recommend good or terrible rechargeable lights below!
This channel keeps getting better and better keep up the great work Torque Test Channel
Just make ugga dugga sounds with your mouth while running tests if the impact guys get butthurt lol. Also I've been pretty impressed with the quantum lights from harbor freight
I think the foam ball idea is ingenious! And your test results seem to be 100% in sync with the lab results.
I would probably have settled on flat white paint for the inside and called it a day.
This was an excellent video. Brilliantly done.
Question Everything! And trust nothing!
When recording a discharge test, I'd recommend locking your camera's exposure so as the light gets dimmer, the camera won't try to compensate. Like, lock it to normal overhead lights, turn on testing lights so they are overexposed, then as they die the light will get dimmer and dimmer.
I worked in a light output lab for years, many companys use raw lumins in marketing. This is a calculation from the led manufacturers based on input power and number of leds. I used a sphere everyday and it and not many people are using actual lumens
this is becoming one of my most favorite channels on youtube, no nonsense, no bullshit ads, on point content!
This and projectfarm
@@teaganroehl and AvE
Headlights need this honesty testing done to them!
Like hooked up to a 12V car battery, no headlamp lens - just pure lumen output? We can take suggestions here.
@@TorqueTestChannel Yes, I think that would give the best results without having to test every model of vehicle lense!
@@TorqueTestChannel Be careful if you try that. You don't want to melt the foam testing dome!
Someone already has a channel specific to headlights
@@TorqueTestChannel regulate the voltage to either 12.8 or 13.4. Lo and high beam separately.
Olight vs streamlight. Flashlights, or weapon lights your choice. Ton of possibilities with that rig. Great job.
And for a weekend mechanic, the magnetic tail cap if amazing!
I have a couple Olights and streamlights. Some weapon mount, some handheld. Olight is brighter, but Streamlight lasts longer. Battery and overall life of the light.
Test the Braun from HF also like the lamps from ryobi and dewalt
Will do, and for the DeWalt, Ryobi, Milwaukee ect if they fit we can test em. We're limited to about 3.25" diameter on the round part and 10" in length on the stick light hole. Modifying the sphere might influence future results.
@@TorqueTestChannel www.harborfreight.com/ultra-compact-750-lumen-rechargeable-magnetic-floodlight-57187.html this Braun is very similar to the snap-on light you guys tested here, but advertises 750 lumen. Would love to see you guys test it since I just bought it a little while ago haha!
I am liking my 3rd Braun from HF. The first two were glitchy and malfunctioned in less than 6 months of very light use on vehicle interiors only. After replacing it twice my third one I have put through the ringer and is functioning well.
@@TorqueTestChannel it would be cool if in the future you built a bigger testing rig for work lights, especially the ones that accept tool batteries.
You need to use separate spheres, clearly the snap on loosened it up for the other lights
Nice how you're developing the channel. Humor really works. Nice work.
Wow! This is going to be AMAZING! I love flashlights 😊
Honestly my favorite new RUclips channel! It's interesting to see how brands are fudging their number (or being truthful), and how they all compare with eachother. Excellent work!
Also the subtle humor is great!
Why did I read that "420 bro" in a Matthew McConaughey voice? Lol
1:37 OKAY!
Alright Alright Alright
I don't know why but that little 420 bro made me laugh out loud for about 6 seconds
Magnets are important! How many here have forgotten their stick light was still stuck under the car they just test drove? :) My HF stick light went on a 4 mile test drive with me attached to the frame of my truck. I didn't remember until I went out to get mail later that night and there was light glowing from under the truck.
Left my $150 Snap On light stuck underneath a customer's car the other day. May still be there. I'll probably never know.
@srry next oil change guy will hit a jackpot. I recently inherited a 300ft lb Snapon Torque wrench. I wasn't gonna let the daughters get that.
I love the sense of humor 😂😂😂
Ran the astro 65sl for years, loved that light, until my apprentice ran it over. Still works though just a bit crocked 🤣
Would love to see some “head lights” tested. So much easier to use, as where you are looking is always illuminated. I have a couple of Milwaukee’s that do pretty well. Would like to see some other brands. Great vid! Thank!!!
Stream light is good but pricey
I have a coast xph34r that I use everyday and it is 10x brighter than any other I've used. It's almost as bright as my streamlight 2020. Both claim 2,000 lumens. Would like to see both tested here
It's awesome that you guys are branching out to bring us the real numbers that tools perform at. I always did the brightness test on lights by shining them in my eyes. If I turned my head away n saw a big white spot after then I knew it was pretty bright lol
Distance and exposure time and that becomes scientific
I use a olight flashlight in our shop. It's more bright than any other in the shop. You should try one of those lights.
For magnet testing, have your scale set vertical, and tare out the scale with just the plate hanging. This eliminates downward pull of the plate (gravity) vs horizontal pull of the magnet by having the force going the same direction
Holy... the ingenuity you guys have to come up with these test is amazing. No wonder your channel is blowing up
Nice to see the 65SL performed well. I've been a big fan of Astro Tools, especially since following Eric @ SMA. I purchased the 65SL myself over a year ago, as well as several other tool offering from Astro, and I've been impressed with the quality for the price on pretty much everything.
I'm not really interested in torque power tools, although these light lumen tests are pretty fascinating. But honestly, regardless of my interest level in any particular video/topic you're covering, you guys deserve to be noticed and more popular than you are. In particular, you deserve to be applauded for your professionalism, the quality and thoroughness of your testing and work, and most importantly, your integrity and ethics -- if only there were more review channels out there like this one. I've watched a few videos, and been blown away by your videos. I only wish you guys tested a wider range of devices -- here's hoping you become successful enough to branch out, and I figured I'd try and do my part and help you guys out with the algorithm a bit. Best of luck.
Hey really appreciate it! We're always working on new testing set-ups.
Oh man, this series is exciting. I've been a huge flashlight geek for a long time, and I'm really looking forward to a competent reviewer taking a look at more work oriented lights. There are a lot of great flashlight reviewers out there (I particularly like ZeroAir and 1Lumen, and there's a lot of great information on r/flashlight) but they mostly focus on enthusiast lights, which I love, but I'm excited to see a different perspective.
While I appreciate having more data available, I'm not sure how useful focusing on honesty is for the rankings. Every established flashlight brand I've seen uses the same FL1 testing standard for the claimed numbers, and straight up lying about the 30 second lumen level is rare in my experience (not counting sketchy no-name stuff on Amazon, obviously). The most misleading thing about specs is usually the output over a long period. Most brands will say something like "1000 lumens for 3 hours" or something, which in reality means 1000 lm for 10 minutes and then 300 lm for the remaining time. It might be too time consuming to be worth it, but if possible having a output graph for the whole runtime would be very useful.
How is this new channel one of the absolute best of its kind on RUclips? The guys who make these videos must be brilliant.
I'd like to see my daily carry Olight M2R Pro Warrior. Been carrying it for almost a year and I live it and they advertise max 1800 and lowest advertised 1 single lumen
What do you use it for? I bought a while ago and never used it.
@@noah2765 I daily carry it, I use it a lot at work. Walking my dog in my yard at night, etc
It has been tested by others at over 2000 at turn on or 1900 ANSI on turbo
I'd really love to see you guys test olight lights. I just got one of their lights and it is amazing they advertise 2500 lumans from there headlight/flashlight and I believe it.
Would love to see how some Olights compare. Been using their lights a lot and they seem really good. Plus a lot of them charge at 2.5A (supposedly).
My favorite light is the nebo inspector RC. I got mine for 20 bucks and I carry it daily. After 3 years it has never let me down and it shines brighter and farther than any full size flashlight I have gotten my hands on. I would be ecstatic to see you run one through your test rig. Thanks for the awesome vids as always. Cheers.
This was the first video of yours that I watched and I gotta say the quality is top notch. You have a fun, intelligent, instructional execution with everything you do. And you answer the questions I thought only I had. I'm gonna go start from the beginning il catch up soon haha
I'm kind of obsessed with lights but not enough to do this level of work, really awesome stuff.
You have to remember that there are always losses with charging.
The extra mAh that are listed are most likely losses as heat.
And it's way better to charge those small cells slow.
Fast charging ALWAYS damages the cells it the long term (like 1-2 years)
Did you guys list out the info on the sources & specs for your parts ?
(foam sphere- Diam?, Which brand Brilliant wh paint, the BaSo4 powder, and lastly the HD-450 meter ? )
Would love to see that info, as a hobby tester.
Please do some Fenix flashlight tests!
So glad to see this video! Perfect expansion of you subject matter and much needed. It is so hard to choose a flashlight online.
Flashlights are my thing. I cannot tell you how incredibly hyped I am for this.
I WISH I still had my Pro Seeker 2 from o'light so I could send it in. My favorite flashlight I've ever bought.
I have the Seeker 2 Pro. Great light. Check out the ThruNite T2, it competes with the Seeker 2 Pro, cost much less, just as bright, wider flood, comes in natural and white light, has a 21700 battery, usb-c charging port built in to the light, and is more compact. It's an incredible light for the price.
I really love my Seeker 2 Pro, but the ThruNite T2 is incredible, especially being that it cost almost half as much.
A very long time ago my father told me every light company has their own weird ass system for measuring light and because of that, any lumen or candela number was utter horse shit. Even with their own product line you cant trust numbers to be representative. This applies to light bulbs and flashlights.
Great channel, I just subscribed. As a mechanic, highly relevant info. About this video, if you buy a light that uses 18650 lithium cells, those batteries are readily and cheaply available, so the charge time is irrelevant, just swap batteries. Also true of any work light made to be compatible with the cordless tools you own, just swap battery packs.
Great idea. I waste so much money on crappy work lights. Looking forward to more.
You guys add smart enough to come up emergency a scale for most anytime. Twist values for srewdrivers, grip pressure for pliers etc. Imma keep watching, liking and commenting.
seems like every mechanic that has a "tool addiction" has a stack of flashlights so this series is going to be a big hit. You boys (and or girls who knows, you're a disembodied set of arms) are on the right track
CRI would be a good one to add to the tests. Even a subjective bad, OK or good. If you want to get fancy and actually measure it take a look at the Minolta CL-70F.
Maybe do light weight divided by magnet pull for the magnet ranking. A heavier light needs a stronger magnet but shouldn't get a higher ranking because it has one.
Fantastic addition to your testing. Much respect for your methodology.
I use that exact snapon light every single day, it's my favorite portable work light I've owned.
Very well done. I’m not sure anyone else could get as scientific with their comparisons outside of a pro level lab environment. Great expansion lately into lights and air hammers.
I'd love to see the OLight S2RBatonII tested. I daily carry it, I like it but am curious if the lumen claims are true.
Me too!! I hope the lumen claims are true, it’s such a bad ass little light.
I've been carrying OLights for years; currently have the Perun in my EDC. Such great lights...
in before the olight bashers show up.
Warrior Mini and M2R Pro would be awesome to see. Curious how many lumens they actually produce
I carried an S2R2 as well! I loved that light but sold it to a friend because he wouldn't stop bothering me about it... So now I'm carrying a Olight Warrior Mini 2 and I have to say I think I might like it a little better. There's pros and cons to each but I'm really enjoying this one as well.
I’ve been seeing a lot of controversy about torque wrench accuracy. Can you test cheap vs. expensive? Harbor Freight up to Snap-on or Mac, or Matco. I don’t trust any opinion except your channels. Your immutable honesty means a lot to many people.
I work as a weld inspector and my favorite light is a Wuben L-50 from Amazon. 1200 Lumen rechargeable 18650 battery. Good size and tail cap switch
My favorite shop light is the Bosch 12v FL12, not just for lumens but it just works, durable (drove over them on accident twice) replaceable lenses, and actually work well in the many difference positions.
I'm loving all this new testing! I'm really interested to see the cheap imitation lights against the big brands. Astro continues to perform very well, also!
Another upload from the most under rated tool channel on RUclips.
You guys are starting to step out, I like it. I think some transparency in comparison of all the different manufacturers/products is a great idea.
Awesome this will help me because I’m a mechanic that uses a bunch of lights daily
Just a little note in regards to the tool used to measure the battery capacity. There is energy lost to heat when charging a battery, so the reason that the lights seemed to go over advertised capacity is likely do to parasitic loss.
you got me on "420 bro" lol. Nice video, thank you!
Nice work guys! Setting up an awesome test rig (for a fraction of the cost) and sending out the lights for data to compare to your rig! Brilliant. I guess I finally need to subscribe.
Great channel. Always interesting and helpful content. Really like the way you have been expanding into new territory like the light tests and the air hammers. Keep up the good work.
I feel that the scoring and testing of products with replaceable standard batteries should be reconsidered. If you need a light for all day use and it has replaceable batteries like 18650 then you would get multiple batteries and switch out.
While not free, they are not the same cost as a 5Ah tool battery.
Esp if they are USB rechargeable Li-ON ones. Just too easy not to swap in a new battery and plug the dead one to a USB and let it charge.
I personally love my streamlight microstream. They make two kinds and I’ve had both (lost my first one). One has the high mode as default and the other has low as default. For me it’s a great EDC light because it’s tiny, but it packs a big punch. It’s slow to charge, and the battery doesn’t last super long on high mode, so I’d be interested to see y’all test it to see what the numbers are.
Agreed I've loved both of my Microstreams.
With the quality and effort that goes into these videos and clearly the growing resources at your disposal, I would actually love to see this kind of work continue to expand into other stuff like lighting, where most of the numbers we see are again pretty meaningless without TTC doing this testing for us, I think if you stick with just impacts, unfortunately for as follows it is, it has a limit to how many people will subscribe and keep watching, there is obviously a use for people that are looking to buy a tool and search and find the videos, but I personally would love to see the channel go down the path of proof testing other "bullsh*t" number claims to give us baselines and an idea of where things stand, this would really help you grow and get an expanded following from many people! I will support the channel regardless but just think of how big project farm has gotten from diversifying the testing
This was a very enlightening episode. You guy's are very bright.
Thanks, this really helped me.
I do think that when "sellers" label them they did pretty much what I did. Convert lux to lumen in an open and maybe dark area. This is clearly how they got the 100k numbers or what ever.
Thanks again!
The Snap On ECARD series of stick/ inspection lights. Preferably the ECARD062. I have 2 and love them
The Milwaukee M12 service light 2367 is the best light I have ever used for working on vehicles. Told my buddy about it and he went out and bought one and concluded the same thing immediately.
Great video
To coat the sphere i would put a bit of paint in, close it and rotate it evenly using some kind of contraption with motors (a few rollers should do). Experiment with different beginning fill levels or overfill, rotate, remove excess and rotate again.
When the paint is solid fill it 1/4 with fine sand and rotate again until smooth.
Hey i love your content, I am actually really glad you are branching out to doing other things. Keep up the good work!
you guys are just gonna crush the dreams of every piece of equipment in the shop aren't you
Had the astro 650 SL for like a month. Freaken loved it. Worked great until I crushed it with a liftgate.... definitely worth the money.
Nice Sphere! Love how you can test drop light styles like the Astro. Look forward to seeing more tests.
Note: Any lights that have ANSI FL-1 ratings on them are going to be pretty close to advertised because they have been batch tested using said standard.
This channel just keeps getting better. Love it guys.
As a DIY mechanic, and a CNC machinist, I only buy Olights. And the most pocket friendly, none of those weapon lights. They all have magnetic tail caps. My daily carry is a 1200lm Baton 3, while at work I have a 2000lm Baton Pro. And yes, any of the notable Flashlight brands are honest. One time the light went out inside the a CNC machine I was setting up, so I just stuck my flashlight inside.
This channel keeps getting better and better!
The Milwaukee 2113-21 flashlight! I use it everyday all day and just can't say enough good things about it. With the additional charger and battery I am never without it. Also, best of luck with the channels. Love what you are doing here. Keep it coming!
I'm in! I use the headlight from Costco (3 pack Coast brand - they now carry a Duracell-branded light). I love my Coasts. I also use a Caterpillar-branded flood light and a Duracell-branded hand light. Why were you worried about charge time? Plug your damn tools in when you go home and they're fully charged for the next day! Sheesh.
I love this content. It brings me joy to see products being tested. Your data point are useful.
Test the nebo rebel headlamp. Best headlamp I’ve ever used and I own several headlamps well over $100. Including many olight, stream light, and others. I own two of them and I use them both eight hours each day and then recharge each one.
been using them both for over two years. No issues whatsoever. On the lower setting it’s still got plenty of brightness for any task, and will last a full eight hours constantly on.
I always look for reviews on YT of items im about to purchase. I will definitely check this channel out before my next flashlight purchase. I've owned so many and have had many winners and losers. You will help me purchase only the best ones. Thanks.
Wow what a badass idea for a video series seriously lol that's awesome can't wait for more of these.
You absolutely killed it with this video!
Thank you I'm sure this will really informative as much time and effort as you put into everything
"The least exciting glory holes you'll ever come across..." 😂
Great idea!! Also nice to see that some brands are throwing out some real numbers, bet that changes quick lol
Could you also show what accessories the lights come with. Some don’t come with charging bricks or cables. If you buy a light and it doesn’t come with a way to charge it that’s a negative for me.
Agreed! We'll get more into it in future episodes
Most of em now are a basic usb cord like your phone or any other small device
Glad I came across your channel! I love impact wrenches and flashlights! Lucky me.
There is a Coast 7HP light which I like using. They have a kit which comes with two rechargeable batteries, and a replacement battery pack which is not rechargeable but takes 4 standard AAA batteries. This is good because you get an AC charger in the kit as well as 2 rechargeable batteries and the backup AAA just in case. It would be nice to see you test it out. Thanks.
I find it interesting that the test jig is designed on trying to get a uniform-ish reflectivity of all the light produced, and that reflective light is what makes its way to the light meter. I'd assume reflectivity could vary with the spectrum of light produced. Is there a reason you didn't build a more linear test chamber painted on the inside with something like Musou Black? Then you could aim a flashlight directly at a light meter. It would be a different kind of measurement, but could give an interesting additional piece of information such as "in a perfectly dark infinite space with no reflective surfaces around, how well can you illuminate that raccoon in your garbage can at 12 ft away".
Love the videos! Keep it up!
I’m a flash light fanatic! This will be great. Those snapon lights are great but don’t last long at all
I would highly recommend the Fenix HM61R. Fenix is a serious light brand and this headlamp is my favorite.
I have the dr. Prepare light you spoke of in the beginning. I’m a lightaholic and it is just as nice as the Astro one everyone knows about. The ONLY downside is the battery life isn’t long lasting. It needs recharged after about 4hrs on the highest mode. I own a Cornwell branded Astro btw
Torque Test Channel more like truth testing channel. Y'all awesome! The air hammer testing was eye open not this can be eye closing lol. I'm looking forward to what else y'all come up with.
Thank you 👍🔧 this is what I would like to see more of.
Dude flashlights are very important to all of us for different reasons this will go over bigtime you watch !im new to your chan but i love the content im a mechanic and pro drag racer with a super comp dragster . keep up the good work your doing it will save us all money n time great stuff Dude !!!!!!
I use the Protac 2XL with the 18650 battery. For intermittent use throughout the day, it’s awesome. I just let it charge overnight in my work truck when it needs it. For a shop light, I use a Snap-On light that claims 1000 lumens. It’s pretty darn bright. It lasts a couple hours at 50%.
Ohh very nice, you could even branch out and test weapon lights with a rig like that.
“Least exciting gloryholes” Lmfao
hahahahaha @6:30 'back to the least exciting glory holes you'll ever come across"
I bought a portable work light, based on the fact that it could take AA cells for emergency use, while charging the 18650 cells...works great, and you can use rechargeable AA cells, too, so you can swap out AAs, or even keep a couple of 18650s on hand...
One useful metric that's missing is the spectrum of light output. Often for inspection lights, a broad spectrum light can really make a difference, making it easier to distinguish colors or fine details (e.g. wire colors, wear patterns).
The benefit with the streamlights are swappable batteries tho. I have 3 strion variants with 5 strion batteries, as well as a stinger with 2 batteries, when one dies I just take the good one out of a piggyback charger and put the dead battery in the charger. The light is still usable while batteries charge, unlike my sl650 or my snap on work lights. That's why my streamlights are my go-to lights
First I like these light test. I would like to suggest you test corded drop lights. Searching RUclips and the web, this seems to be a neglected subject. Battery units are very useful, but the 120v mechanics light does not die in the middle of a long job. Like battery units do. Keep up the good work
I actually think that streamlight has the best advantage even with a slow charge time, because the battery is removable, you could - I'm sure - buy additional batteries and still use the tool while charging other batteries, where as the other lights are out of operation the whole time they're charging.
Love the video! Quick note though:
The mAh capacity you are measuring from the USB meter is NOT going to accurately reflect the actual battery capacity internally. The number you read will always be larger, as most small Lithium charging circuits are based on Linear Constant-Current/Constant-Voltage regulators, which waste excess energy from the USB input as heat.
In addition, the electrochemical process that happens internally to Lithium batteries means there will always be *some* energy loss when recharging a cell in addition to the charging circuit.
While this testing methodology generally fine to compare one brand vs. the other, it will not necessarily tell you if the advertised battery capacity is what is truly is shipped out. To accurately measure battery capacity, you should measure the amount of energy you can take OUT of the cell. This can be easily done by something like a Li-500 battery charger/capacity checker. Take the 18650 out of the lights and place them into the charger and let it run a full cycle check. It will charge battery completely, then discharge the cell and measure capacity for you. for lights that use LiPo cells or non-cylindrical cells, you can use short alligator clips to connect it to the charger battery contacts.
Regardless, love the testing you guys do! keep it up!