Building the ACTUAL brightest flashlight in the world: th-cam.com/video/42d10bhs304/w-d-xo.html *Sequels* More expensive name brand lights: th-cam.com/video/fPYw28fQ-cY/w-d-xo.html Truck Horns: th-cam.com/video/zAe9qvC49qY/w-d-xo.html LASERS: th-cam.com/video/ZH3yMeA7HxQ/w-d-xo.html Our recommended and vetted products storefront: www.amazon.com/shop/torquetestchannel Now, if you REALLY need 100k lumens: amzn.to/3P2Ew1X I have a sick fascination with these types of lights that adds a novelty factor I doubt many of the people purchasing are going after, but nevertheless, fun to test! What types of products would you like to see tested next? Torque, who started this channel, is working for Astro Tools (who also make lights, but not flashlights currently) in product development. Always consider multiple sources when looking at a tool! It's just a smart practice.
I routinely left proper, factual reviews of items purchased from Amazon. I received notice from them that my account was being banned from leaving reviews due to "Questionable review practices". I guess being truthful and honest is "Questionable" in this day and age. Now I cannot review anything I purchase. No way to challenge it or fight it. Billionaires needn't worry about the individual customer's opinions.
I had a similar experience though Amazon did not threaten to remove my account. I simply left a review for a book on black history rotten by a woke 'celebrity' pointing out that many of so call facts were simply false and there simply to promote a certain agenda . All the reviews for this rot were 4 and 5 star reviews. Don't use Amazon as any kind of guide to the real world. That objectivity vanished years ago.
@LabRat Knatz Honestly they're not even the most economical in every case these days. Shockingly, Walmart has been beating them at pricing in several categories for quite some time now. Walmart isn't exactly a "good" company obviously, but at the very least they don't stoop this low -every- day.
I've had a few reviews removed because I mentioned the specific seller, on their product page after I was a verified purchaser. And it was because I questioned their description of the items. In general I wasn't even dissatisfied because I knew what I was actually buying, but they don't like it if you say anything about anything other than solely the product itself. I guess I should just start giving one star to everything which doesn't live up to the claims of specific sellers and just say "It's wank"
To put these claims in some sort of perspective, there's lighthouses with lights in the 40k lumen range. Which makes the idea of a 100k handheld flashlight even more insane.
FWIW 100k handheld flashlights absolutely exist, as the video notes the pictures are usually staged using an Imalent flashlight. The MS18 is genuinely rated for 100klm, it's like having a small sun in your pocket (well your bag or case really, unless you have gigantic pockets). It also costs $700, weighs 2kg, has two internal fans, and will set dry stuff on fire at short range.
Lighthouses typically also use a type of lens that can magnify the brightness and focus A Fresnel lens creates this bright beam of light using glass prisms set in metal frame. These prisms change the direction that light is traveling in so all the light exits the lens in same direction. The prisms do this by refracting (or bending) light and reflecting it as well.
It just physically impossible a 100k lm flashlight with the highest theoretical lumen efficency of about 300lm/w would consume 330w. This means for 6 hour run time it would need about 2kwh of battery capacity, which ways at least 6kg! Also such a flashlight produces about 150w of heat. So it needs active cooling or a massive heatsink. Furthermore the highest single chip led is rated at about 20k and costs more than one of these lamps. Also most cheap 18650 lithium cells have a maximum power output of about 20-30w, which means the maximum you will get is about 3-4k lm from a single battery.
I bought a flashlight on Amazon before (looked very similar to the ones that are all over the start of the video) and IMMEDIATLY was contacted by the sellers who offered me giftcards AND a refund for leaving a good review. Now the item itself was fine (no way of testing if it was as bright as claimed mind you) and I mentioned that in the review. I also mentioned how they attempted to bribe me (and no doubt many others) and provided proof. Amazon refused to make the review public. As far as I am concerned, they are complicit.
@@KyleSmith-hq9qr Through the email associated with my account via Amazons support (which should be if you have issues with the producy). Every single one of these companies is using machine translated text in my experience.
I've had the same experience with a fitness watch I bought. It was also an OK product for the cheap price, but there were a few issues I mentioned in my 3-star review. I got contacted by the manufacturer offering me a free newer version of the watch, in exchange for upping my review rating to 5-stars.
@@ingulari3977 Well they can make you banned for leaving a false review and then changing it. That would be the fastest and safest way for them. And you, of course, would have no way of defending yourself
I was scared when you pulled out the Anker, because I've never caught them being dishonest, personally. Nice to see they stand up to more empirical testing, too.
I LOVE that flashlight! I use it every single day at work for almost 5 years now and the beast is still going solid. I work at night mostly, in the dark and all over the world pre-flighting my planes. It is super bright, can easily reach the top of the tails to see, USB rechargeable, and I love that the beam can be focused tight or broadened out wide. I bought two spares just in case they stop making them or I lose it. Better than all the $100 + stream lights or surefires
I've owned two of the smaller version of the Anker. Both had the same minor issue with their on/off buttons, but dropped one of them from 4 feet high and it would constantly cut out as if something was knocked loose. I was genuinely surprised to see this Anker perform well on the drop test.
Amazon used to have a procedure for reporting counterfeit products or products that are illegal or otherwise need to not be on Amazon. They've removed those. You can't even report errors in the product description anymore.
I attempted to report fraudulent products once. My comments were removed and calls to Amazon went nowhere but "try again" upon which my comments were once again removed. Amazon doesn't care about consumers' rights or quality. They just want your money no matter how they do it.
Yep, I bought a product similar to many others on Amazon, had 1 review. It was crap and I left a crap review. A week later the product was flooded with 170 positive reviews - that related to completely different products! I tried to find a way to report it to Amazon and realized Amazon affirmatively made it impossible to do so.
I interviewed for a warehouse position with a vacuum company. The interviewer tried to talk me into a sales position so I called him on their B.S. like the 2.5 horsepower 110v claims they make. He got real mad.
Here we got 230 V with breakers on usually 16A and still if you turn on a 3kW motor it might fire out the breaker cuz the starting current can be way higher then what its rated ... but yeah they rly claim some bs... edit for typo
I think it's a bit worse than you've said. In my experience Amazon may reject reviews which call out brands for false advertising. So they aren't just allowing these deceptive practices, they are actively protecting them.
Scammers are taking over the internet and getting away with it. Facebook, Amazon, Ebay, Wish, Scam Ads, Fake Companies, Impersonating US Government officials and services, etc...
I wanted to buy a new flashlight on amazon but remembered seeing this video a few months back! I came back to see your results to help me choose the best option. Thank you so much for doing this! You just saved me from getting scammed!!
Just remember when looking at these; LEDs produce ~100 lumens per watt. A light claiming 90,000 lumens would take in the neighborhood of 900 watts to run. (We'll ignore the power it would take to run the cooling for such a beast for this example) Powering that 900 watt light for 20 hours would take ~18,000 watt hours of energy. An average 18650 NMC cell contains ~10 watt hours of energy. Put another way, the battery to run this light at that output would weigh around 90 kilos given 200wh/Kg for current battery tech.
Yes..! Even the best LED 'chips' are maybe 150 lumens per watt...and at least 10% of that is heat... so really...just 1000 lumens is going to be 7 watts...3.7 volt battery...2 amps...for what...an hour or maybe 2...? All white LED's need around 3.2 volts minimum to operate at full brightness...
@@InConsulting Allow me to amend my previous statement. Put another way, the battery to run this light for 20 hours at 90,000 lumens would weigh around 90 kilos given 200wh/Kg for current battery tech. There, fixed it.
@@dougankrum3328 100% efficient light is 683 lm/W, so at best you will get 25% efficiency at 170 lm/w LED. That doesn't account for lower efficiency at higher temperatures, power supply losses. So you will need to count that 75-85% of power going from battery gets directly converted to heat!
I am in my 7th decade on this planet and have never thought I needed to watch a flashlight review. However, it was both entertainng and informative - thanks for letting us know, as I have to admit I have absolutely NO idea how bright a Lumen is, let alone 100,000!
nutty squirrel: I thought I remembered lumen estimates on modern light bulb boxes, so did a quick search. Charts I found seemed to consistently show that for incandescent bulbs, a 100W bulb gives 1600 lumens of light. So obviously, for any normal usage, anything over 10K, much less 100K seems ridiculous. 100K sounds about right for one of those big bright searchlights (maybe roughly a meter in diameter).
Flashlight technology peaked with the Maglite until LEDs. Now it’s rapidly changing just like the rest modern technology. A good quality flashlight today is going to cost you $80 and up. But LEDs last up to 100,000 hours so you’re going to lose it before it dies on you.
I need flashlights for work. I've bought so many flashlights on Amazon that are just cheap junk. They stop working consistently the first time you drop one. They just aren't designed for the wear and tear of an actual job. I don't need super bright, just super reliable that doesn't drain batteries too fast.
If you really really need insanely high light output, look into dive lights. My primary light for cave diving has a top output of 8600 lumen for about 5 hours. I've used it on a dive of a bit over 4 hours on max output. Admittedly, they cost about $1600, and are powered by a battery pack the size of a small fire extinguishers. But any cave diver will agree you can never have too much light.
These Lumen values remind me of those glass screen protectors on AliExpress. First there were simple flat glass protectors. With more and more phones with a curved glass edge, the protectors had to adapt. If you had a phone with a curved edge, you could soon buy "3D" protectors which covered - as expected - the curved edge as well. So far so good. It did not take long until "4D" protectors were advertised. Sometimes they had some kind of extra protection like covers for the camera lenses. A little later, "7D" ,"8D" and "9D" protectors were sold. Right now you can buy everything from "12D" to "50000D" protectors. The numbers have completely lost any touch to reality. It's completely insane. But it seems to work, so the inflation continues.
These Chinese companies add tactical to everything too. They dont understand what it means. Like in your example do they know that the d stands for dimension. I doubt it.
@@KGisthename I was wondering the same. Either they simply don't know or care and do what everyone else does or they know that it doesn't make any sense and expect the consumer to not know/care. Maybe it's a mixture of both. Sometimes it is quite hard to suppress our monkey brain going "ugh, big number better".
This seems like a perfect class action lawsuit for a lawyer to take up... A few expensive and visible lawsuits should put pressure on Amazon to listen to consumer feedback and be more aware of false claims. 🤷🏼♂️
Amazon really needs to get their fraudulent listings under control. I am pretty good at spotting products that don't look legitimate, have misleading specs, or have unusually glowing reviews, but this kind of thing doesn't happen this often with other big box stores.
@@adamjhuber maybe to prevent a false advertising class action lawsuit if they are shown to be in on the deception? Could also have the FTC fine them 10% of their quarterly profits until they fix it.
Amazon has managed to inhabit this weird grey area between a retailer and a marketplace site. They fulfil orders, they "comingle" inventory and yet they still insist that they are not the seller.
@@fvckyoutubescensorshipandt2718 no lawsuit against Amazon, as they are just the "website"... they don't sell you the counterfeit goods. If you try to sue them, they will just say the seller violated their TOS and have been dropped.
@@adamjhuber Less people will buy from them if they become increasingly dissatisfied with the products they are receiving. There are certain things I will buy from a physical store like Home Depot because it is sometimes hard to verify the authenticity of them on sites like ebay and Amazon.
Once Amazon partnered with all of the Chinese companies (you'll notice name brands stopped being the first results to come up in a search for most products, sometimes even when you search for a specific brand even) they started allowing fake reviews, fake descriptions, using reviews for different products entirely, etc. They know full well what they are doing.
Yeah, I hate when I search for a specific thing on Amazon everything else but that said thing I'm actually looking for pops up. Even unrelated items pop up. I stick to eBay and other online market places for that reason. And if it does pop up, it's way over priced and I can still find it cheaper elsewhere.
Yeah, same here in Germany, Amazon is getting just like AliExpress, wish or Temu. Some of these Flashlights are sold here under different names, but still the same crap.
Battery banks, flashlights, audio amplifiers, digital projectors...so many electronics out there have completely fabricated specs now. It's difficult to sort out what's a properly good deal or not. Thank you for this video!
I have a battery bank that's was clammed 20k mAh on the packaging. but its like half that and it even says the actual on the bottom but its still decent because I paid like $15 for it
@@ianwiese1 Yeah...sometimes you can still get a good deal on falsified specs but it's hard to sort out the reality. I bought an amplifier for my truck based on a test done by Williston Audio Labs. The amp claimed to be 4000 watts but in his testing, it put out about 1000, 1100 watts RMS...which for $65 was pretty amazing! If all these resellers listed the actual specs for these devices, a lot of them are *still* good deals but the whole thing has gotten so out of hand, they all feel they have to post BS in order to sell stuff.
With how many great products they make, Anker is a really good reference for what products should cost for their claimed specs. If it's not in the ballpark of something from Anker or another name brand, you can be assured it's absolute crap.
China has ZERO ethics and the only place crap is made that lie about their specs is China. Can you imagine U.K, French, Australian, German, American made products ect ever claiming false specs?? Our western countries would be all over that if any manufacturer tried lying. China don’t give a crap about anything but money power and using its citizens as pawns
Amazon is turning into a real cesspool. I only buy brand names from them at this point and more and more often, on brand name items, I can get a better deal elsewhere. I think their strategy has been to establish a good reputation initially over the last few years and then, once they have your trust, rip you off blind.
Problem is most are made in China and although they do make good flashlights and some even list the legit lumen output I don't think China has the same regulations we do here in US!!
Big Clive tore apart a similar pistol style light which appeared to be a reused mold for those ancient and huge 6V batteries as it had the molded in space for it. But instead it had a single tiny little 18650 or similar lithium cell inside and a whole bunch of empty space.
I have one like that in the old carrying handle style. It was empty except for the single 18650, but it wasn't hard to modify to add a few more...and there was a ton of room to spare.
That's not all bad. I had one of those 6V incan style and put my own 3W Cree LED and heatsink in, though the focal pattern was very broad . Extra space, if it's the usual charging circuit for the 18650, you can just add a couple more cells in parallel to the existing one to triple the runtime, but of course, also triple the recharge time. Point being, if it uses only an 18650 to keep the selling price low and you don't mind a light that is bulkier than it needed to be, it's nice to have the option to upgrade the runtime so much, at a later date. Plus the empty space, if properly sealed, allows them to float.
I have the same one that was SLA and halogen. Put a xmlt6 module in it and a 3 mode flood cob in the side. Used a 3 parallel 18650 holder to be able to use 1-3 cells. Decent light now
@@stinkycheese804 There are definitely advantages. One thing to consider is the shipping overhead of unnecessary size - more packaging, more vehicles/transport containers, more emissions.
I've known flashlight manufacturers were lying about their lumens (I grew up setting up and running lighting at music events with my dad so i knew what 1k lumens FELT like) I had no idea it was this bad!! Thanks for shining a light on this!!!
I have a few coworkers on the night shift that bought these amazon flashlights. We tested a giant "100,000" lumen light against my regular streamlight HL-3, rated at a conservative 1,100 lumens. They were similar, with the streamlight being the definite winner of brightness and range. Of course, $110 for the streamlight is a tough sell. Well, after the first drop, the amazon flashlight is dead. 3 years and 12-24 drops later, the streamlight is still alive and lives in the office as a backup light for anyone that forgets theirs at home. Personally, I'd rather buy once and cry once than worry about a piece of gear failing if you look at it the wrong way.
When I shop on Amazon, if the name of the seller seems weird/nonsensical/"Engrish" I skip it. Broken English in the item description is also a surefire no-buy. 90% of Amazon at this point is Chinese scam garbage and Amazon wants it that way.
I mostly shop for "industrial" grade stuff. Tools that semi pros/craftsment would use. It usually has a longer life span(which saves costs, since you dont have to rebuy) and is easier/even possible to repair. But i get it, some people need alot of cheap stuff RIGHT NOW and cant plan for long term use/repair/durability/quality.
Yeah Amazon is going downhill on that respect. However I still primarily buy from them when it comes to name brand items and things where I already know what I'm getting into.
Amazon was always a source for cheaply made Chinese stuff, but at least the stuff they sold back then worked and quality was moderately passable. The stuff they're peddling now is outright deceptive or doesn't work at all. They're basically Wish and Banggood with faster shipping.
The consumer suffers when Amazon allows companies to sell these types of products. I purchased a pair of led headlights but didn't get around to installing them. The govt found he product to be unsafe due to the brightness and forced a recall. The company was forced to replace the product with halogen headlights. I was well outside of the return policy and didn't want to jump through hoops to apply for a replacement. Amazon is about profits or absolutely everything else.
Collectively, we can SOLVE this problem. A successful strategy for dealing with scammers such as discussed here is to buy their products (with a credit card) and insist on a refund, using a chargeback if necessary. I've done this enough on fleabay that the products I focused on are no longer available on ebay - from any seller, any brand. See my toplevel post for details?
If you think about it, these are absolutely great flashlights for the price. The nitecore MT1A, for example, is non rechargeable, costs more than 40 dollars, nd only does 180 lumens, MAX, for 1.5 hours!
For a camping trip, a friend of mine bought one of these advertised at 20,000 lumens and wouldn't shut up about how we wasted our money. I have a Nightcore P20iX and my wife has their E4K. Both of ours are rated around 4400 lumens. I told him to turn his on and cover it with his hand. Then I had him do it with ours. His was no problem, but the light from those Nightcore lights will burn you in like 3 or 4 seconds. And of course when it got dark, ours absolutely destroyed his on illumination. Amazon should do something about that.
I have had some good lights from nite core my current one is fennix lr35r 10000 lumen turbo. It's fairly expensive but I highly recommend it. I caught a mouse pad on fire eith it once, putting it down with the light on
Be happy that he didn't start long talk that "your light is bad because it take most of its power to heat not light!"... Some people actually do that...
I`ve been a flashlight junkie for 40 years or so, and have owned many different models. About 15 years ago, I stumbled across one that really impressed me. It`s the Sky Ray King, pretty much a budget clone of the well-regarded Nite Core Tiny Monster. Aluminum casing contains 3 Cree LEDs, and is powered by FOUR (!) 18650s, rated @ 3.7 volts each. It`s about the same size as a 12-ounce soda can. I live in a rural area, on a 2 acre property where it`s DARK at night. This light will illuminate about a half-acre with ease, out-performing my BMW`s Bi-Xenon headlights. It will reach my neighbor`s garage around 300 yards away with a respectable amount of light. I consider this thing a major bargain for it`s $50 price tag.
We live in an age where literally almost everything is a lie or has some association with being significantly dishonest. Politicians, your grocery store, ...it doesn't matter. I recently "upgraded" my internet plan to 300mbps... It never gets over 93mbps on any speed test. Thank you for this. New subscriber.
5g service in Europe is much different from what cell providers provide in the US. I have ATT and never have 5g speeds despite being within the data allowance. In Europe you notice how fast it is and stays that fast until your data allowance is reached
Its been interesting to see Amazon allow the same thing that was the downfall of Ebay. Reviews are more often than not fake and there is so much false advertizing when it comes to certain products. I've never been a big gotta get the name brand type but the commonality of these practices have sort of forced me to become more inclined to buy name brand.
A bunch of items I bought on Amazon they sent me stuff in the mail for gift-card vouchers for a 5 star review 🤦🏻♂️. Lots of inflated reviews on amazon.
@@mikemondano3624 Ebay is "fine" but it's another wish, aliexpress, or what have you. Not knocking them, but it's nothing like it was 20 years ago. People who call it dead (myself included) miss the time it was a fairly genuine "global car boot sale".
Awesome testing and results speak for themselves. I'm afraid Amazon is full of fake. The earbuds are a classic example. Lots have fake reviews bumping up the score. And by fake, I mean the reviews are for a completely different product. We need more people and testers like you. Subscribed.
I was actually surprised with the 25$ in ear monitors I bought a few weeks ago off there. It said they were balanced armature dynamic hybrids and that's what actually showed up. I didn't think u could get a balanced armature in ear that cheap they sound decent too.
It's not helped by the fact that a lot of actual high quality audio equipment is made by similar sounding Chinese companies, which makes it *near impossible* to browse, because telling the difference is... difficult, to say the least. You have to know what you are looking for before you even search, and then you probably have to go to the second page to actually find it.
Thank you! I've had so many questions in my search for a good flashlight, that I have often just given up because it is too confusing to untangle the information given and know which brands might be truthful about their quality and usability. This was helpful.
For the spotlight, the lenses are very practical. Yellow helps you see through bad weather conditions, red does not impede night vision as much and blue helps make blood more visible and helps stay on a blood trail
If you think about it, these are absolutely great flashlights for the price. The nitecore MT1A, for example, is non rechargeable, costs more than 40 dollars, nd only does 180 lumens, MAX, for 1.5 hours!
There was a time where I would see something at a store and immediately think to myself "Ill get it on amazon later" because they had successfully built my confidence. Now, after seeing AWS become a source of income for people buying lower in store and selling on amazon, amazons shady policies, sellers offering obviously fake versions of products and other problems I have started only going there when I've exhausted local options. I think that shift will slowly happen and Amazon will go the way of eBay, still used but not the go to giant it once was/is.
"Amazon will go the way of eBay" Good insight. I remember when eBay was mostly vintage/collectible/antique stuff. Now Etsy dominates that niche, but I see mass produced Chinese junk creeping in there, too. Worse, it goes the other way, too. Chinese companies are stealing pictures from Etsy, and selling knockoffs. Now it's hard to tell if an Etsy shop is selling Chinese junk, or if the Etsy shop is the original source that the Chinese are imitating.
I agree with you except for one thing- I don't think we'll be able to return to any old ways of shopping, not for much longer. They're going to merge both online and in store, as they are already constantly rolling out minute changes and introducing new ways of shopping. And that applies to vastly different types of shops so I do believe it's not just a passing phase, but rather a sweeping change that we can't really stop and reverse. The tech giants have invested so much, much more than the average person seems to be aware of, into changing our lives and how we do almost anything that involves commerce- without our input on the matter of course- and I don't see them giving up on this merging of everything (transhumanism etc.) It's hard to really gauge whether it will bring more transparency for the consumer or if it will easily get corrupted and be as misleading and manipulative as our online shopping today is. Seeing as they're evil from their roots, I'm pretty pessimistic about it all. 🤓
thats not what AWS is btw. Amazon Web Services is their cloud platform. They host websites, rent servers, sell cloud storage etc. Its for developers not for selling things on Amazon
The one good thing about amazon is the efficiency and reliability of their deliveries (at least in my area) the sub par products and customer service is out of hand though. I'm sick to death of amazon not holding sellers accountable and if there's ever an issue it's always "we are just the marketplace" like it absolves them of any responsibility to take any actions.
Super useful video. I was actually only looking at bicycle lights a few days ago and started bookmarking some with claims of "10,000" or even "50,000" lumens because they sounded great. Well, I hope you know you just saved me some money because now I know better. Appreciate you making this test and video!
I purchased a lot of bicycle lights over the years, but nothing much in 10 years or so, thus this is a bit dated. There was a light sold by Planet Bike which sold for about $27, and compared to crap at Walmart, they were very good, and for great reviews. But I got intrigued about mega-lumen lights and bought some. No, the power was no way what they were rated...but they're blinding! My son and I used to do a bike trail ride in late afternoon and in fall, we'd catch ourself in the dark. For kicks, I outfit our bikes like a rally car - 4 of the big ones on each. And the first time we used them, I'd wager we were throwing more light than my HID on my car, and we aimed 2 low, 2 horizontal, and it was like daytime. So just give products a shot, and if you like them, great. Pay no mind to the numbers.
The best spotlight/floodlight I purchased was the Makita DML812. A modest 1250 lumens when both spot and flood are on, but it lit three adjacent rooms during a power outage when aimed at the ceiling. More impressive is its candle power. It can illuminate over a distance of 700 yards!
I've got a 2400 lumen bicycle light from Lezyne and we also used it on full beam to light up most of the downstairs when our power went out over the summer.
Yeah we will see about that.. just about all review channels start out with honest unbiased reviews until they get more and more subscribers and the sponsor checks get larger and larger..
I don't know about you but shit man for $10,000 sponsor I would say anything is awesome money talks. I will be very surprised at this channel stays honest once they hit 250,000 subscribers
@@cody5495 We get around 2-5 sponsorship offers a day now. Some from brands you often see us test here. Everything from free products, 15% sales commissions with links, to $2000-2500/video integration opportunities where you plug a VPN or mobile game for 30-60 seconds within the 1st 2 minutes and have to leave a pinned comment link. If we had planned to do anything of these we'd be taking that free money by now. This channel doesn't and will continue to not accept any of these offers.
@@cody5495 You may be surprised to learn that some people actually have integrity. Obviously by your comments you don't as you even say yourself that you can be purchased.
I've owned the anker light for about a year now and have been quite happy with it. Not a fan of how the diff light modes are selected, but everything has been as advertised in my experience
I did not realize Anker made flashlights. I am well pleased with the quality of their probatory banks. They are proof, that an indigenous Chinese firm can produce quality products and the marketing is forthcoming. However, because they are a Chinese company, a significant portion of profits goes to the CCP unlike say Samsung, which makes much of its products in China, is a Korean company and the majority of its profits do not go to the government.
I bought an Anker LC130 (the next higher model) almost seven years ago and, while the tail switch interface is a bit clunky, it still works great. On high, the light output is more than I need, so I use either medium or low, it’s got a built-in charger that you just plug into mini USB, and it’s been dropped onto a stone floor a couple of times with no dents or malfunctions. And FWIW, they’re still less than $60 on Amazon (I paid less than $50 on sale in 2016). While it isn’t a light that I could impress my friends with on various forums or Reddit, it does exactly what I want and is very reliable.
I'm so glad there are good channels like this and project farm out there to really show and test products. I always felt like there is a real information market for things like the old Consumer Reports.
Great job! I always wondered if those flashlights on Amazon were even half as bright as they claimed. Less than 2%! I sure hope Amazon sort this out because it’s really not fair to the legitimate sellers. Thanks for the terrific video.
Great video. I used to sell headlamps at the place I worked at and it was always interesting. Consumers really really like seeing numbers on a product as it's something quantifiable. However it usually starts to create confusion the moment you try and elaborate on why things are this or that number. Explaining down fill power number on jackets was the most common, but I can't blame people for not knowing what they don't know and thinking that the bigger the number is the warmer a jacket. Brands definitely take advantage of consumer ignorance.
I always found that funny. Like I've seen youtubers shilling 850 down power jackets with barely any down in them and pretending they're warmer than a higher quality 650 or synthetic down jacket with way more filling.
Thank you for this valuable information. As other commenters note, Amazon is now complicit in this. I have worked for a large retailer and Sales leadership must drive numbers higher, so once integrity is abandoned, they will do anything to hold or grow, heedless of false advertising.
I will say I bought one of those flashlights that claimed it was “90,000 lumens” since it was just like $15 I got it and I have to say it was unbelievably bright. It was all of 1,500-3,000 or more lumens and you could zoom it in and out. When zoomed in the beam could easily travel a quarter mile and if you zoomed it out you could light up an entire yard for 20-30 yards easily. It was Garberiel brand and was made in China. OH AND the Alphia flashlight was literally the same exact flashlight. I knew the whole 90k lumens was nonsense but after looking at video reviews I felt that $15 was worth it.
I bought a random unbranded bicycle light for around the same price. It was advertised as 3000LM and I feel like it's probably not too far off that brightness. I've taken it off its handlebar strap and mostly use it as a flashlight these days. I use it to illuminate a local forest trail when I walk along it at night and it does a good job. The small size of it means it easily fits in my pocket too.
I agree. I have two of the Rechoo S2000 flashlights and while it might not produce 2000 lumens, they are extremely bright, have yet to require a new set of batteries, and are a good size to carry with me or keep in the vehicle. It's a great light for the price.
If you want good stuff, whether flashlights or cars, don't buy Chinese junk. They are a heartless nearly inhuman people who don't care who gets hurt, physically or financially.
My guess is that they took the candela ratings from higher end single emitter throwers, called them lumens (because that is a unit people have heard of), and then attached that to their knockoff lights. It is normal for a quality thrower to have 80k to 120k candela but these lights are usually in the 1500 to 2k peak lumen range.
You're giving Chinese junk too much credit. They just throw them together in a sweat shop, put them on Amazon, and just slap ridiculous claims on them so they'll sell. I can assure you, no testing or quality control is done on these.
@@markus9415 1 candela is approximately 12.5 focused lumens measured as a single-point source. A candela is the amount of light emitted by a spermatocele candle of a certain size [made from the nasty stuff in the melon of a sperm whale] at a specific distance. The more focused a beam is, the greater the candela without changing the instantaneous luminous flux. In general, they try and use the terms interchangeably and fabricate numbers to sell product, plain and simple, because realistically it's like trying to use horsepower to describe gearing ratios. They're interconnected, but they're definitely completely different terms.
@@kdawson020279 Both you guys are wrong: My grandpa explained to me that one candela is exactly equal to one unit of candy. And whose power is sufficient to brighten the face of one kid - possibly two, if split equally.
I knew it had to be the case of conflating terms--I just didn't have the industry knowledge to know what it was. Thanks, and I'm 1,000% sure you're right.
A few years ago I was incredibly frustrated by phone charge times and blamed the chargers, when it was the USB cables. I've done best with Anker, even though the best are expensive now that they've established a trusted name. Their multi port chargers are fantastic..but over time, ports die. Luckily I usually don't need six ports. Cheap cables were awful, so I went to Anker almost exclusively. Even then, they do not endure bending around. Even the expensive cables deteriorate with seemingly light use given time.
Anker is a cheap chinese brand like the other stuff, they just don't over-advertise the stuff and results in O.K. for cheap deals, which keeps people coming back since they don't feel scammed.
I got the Anker power core 3 Elite portable battery hub/charger. It definitely wayyyy out performed any other portable battery hub I’ve ever had. But I also paid over 100 bucks for it if I remember right. I got it like almost 2 years ago and it still holds a charge and can charge my MacBook and phones extremely fast. Also the power it claims (for example I think it claims it can charge an iPhone 12 4 times, or a MacBook Pro 1.5 times on a single charge), it actually out performed its claims. That’s the stuff I appreciate, I paid a lot of money, but in the end I don’t feel ripped off. I feel like hey, this thing actually fucking does what it says it’s gonna do and more. Idk it’s sad that in these days, that is something unexpected and rare to come across hahah. Fucking Japs man
Great vid. I'm retired Sheriff Deputy and still have my now 40 year old Stream light flashlights. Replaced battery and a build once but both still strong and insanely bright after a life of combatting the elements up north and to many fights to count. Built from aircraft aluminum and designed to Never Fail. Let's see some Stream lights in the mix
I bought a Bolder by Anker at 900 lumens and I'm extremely happy with it overall. Especially for the cost. Dropped it a couple of times while out walking the dog in the Winter and its proved durable. Certainly bright enough to show all of the bugs scurrying around on the ground. Overall not quite as good as a US made Maglite, but much cheaper.
I've had two of the smaller version of the Anker. The buttons on both had an issue where they wouldn't turn the light off unless it was on the middle light intensity mode. No big deal though, the lights worked. However, after dropping one of them for the first time it constantly cut out as if something was knocked loose. So I was genuinely surprised seeing the Anker do well on the drop test here.
Well, technically, you could have had that P70.2 for the same price and it would have been brighter and lasted longer. So... I get that they lied about the potential, but... so what?
Honesty is the most important for long-term success, you hit the nail on the head. Thank you for this clear, practical summary of what consumers can actually expect from these products.
It's impossible to build a joyful society on lies. China is full of deception, and from what i've seen and been told, a horrible place to live. But their deception is being exported to the US, so its only a matter of time before nothing can be trusted.
I would have enjoyed seeing a legit superlight make an appearance in your testing. Perhaps something like the Imalent MS18 which is rated for 100,000 lumens and has a built in cooling fan to keep it from catching on fire. I own one of their older versions that they say is rated for 32,000 lumens and it will cause paper to smolder and eventually ignite.
I second this. Nearly all of those images mentioned that these scammers use on their products are actual images from the MS18. I wager that device actually comes close to the advertised output.
Someone built an actual 70,000 lumen flashlight. It used several extra-large DeWalt tool batteries for power (not just two little 18650s), and had a WATER cooling loop, with fans and radiators, to keep it cool. Even with those massive DeWalt batteries, it only had about 10 minutes of life. But that matters little - at 70000 lumens, you could only run it for 30 seconds or so before it incinerated itself.
Thank you for taking the time to make this video, produce/post it. I have "buyer-fatigue" from shopping for things like this and the claims are truly getting out of hand. Great Video. Thumbs up!
I built my own growlight using cobs. Actual total power consumption was 360W and around 40K lumen if I remember correctly. 5 cobs in total. There's just no way of pushing that kind of power out of a single chip. So that showed me that every Chinese light is to no one's surprise, inflating their specs on paper.
Definitely had my suspicions, as a mechanic for over 50 years and therefore necessitating use of, these flashlights have evolved over time from the incandescent bulbs like 1866's, to the "kripton", "Xenon", etc, or drop lights with incandescent bulbs AC or DC and fluorescent. Eventually evolving into the LED torches of today. My biggest disappointment was the German designed Heider made in Turkey for which I shelled out $200 for the large fixed focal length and the small handy zoomable one I could hold in my mouth while using two hands to dismantle a part. They both died within 2 years except for the stubby mountable flood light for head harness or bicycle, although the rechargeable sealed battery pack died after a year and a half, but found an alternative rechargeable battery pack with compatible quick disconnects. Then I got sucked into the large 3&1/2" lense light that came with a sticker designating, I assume model number 3DT6, which advertised falsely numerous LED's, but only came with one.and the battery pack, whatever it is is sealed in the handle, so this is definitely a throw away unit. Got a couple from my Brother a small Tasco zoomable unit I like for around the house and a Guidesman zoomable utilizing 6 AA's advertised at I think if I can remember like 20K lumens still functioning at a year old through a few AA's. I do have a Dewalt portable with multiple positioning head on the 20V battery pack system of multiple sizes. Handy for under a vehicle and self standing while pointing in excess of 90º multi locking positions and equipped with a stainless hoop to hang it from. Of course I still have the handy three D cell Mag light, be it comparatively dim. In any event, let there be light !
I dont know what you classify as "off brand" but Anker almost certainly should not be in that category. They are a massive company with an almost $30B market cap.
I bought the Alfia 160.2 flashlight about 8 months ago for $30 and I gotta say its my go to flashlight now. For a knock off brand I didnt expect to like it so much. Only downside to it is it will get hot if left on its highest setting for a while, but for most uses the high setting is too bright and I find myself using it on low usually. When I had a power outage that lasted an entire day, I kept it turned on low and it still did a good job lighting up my living room for the maybe 6 or so hours I used it for. Love video's like this that help me find products I end up using a lot.
@@BobMonkeypimp I have never had a problem with Anker products (Yo Anker, don't make me regret saying this! Keep making great products and I'll keep buying them)
What a great video! I really appreciate that you took the time to do all that testing and share it. Kind of shocking to see how deceptive sellers can be, but not really surprising at all. We need more videos like this and more people like you willing to take the time to educate people. I think that videos like this can help illuminate the problem (See what I did there?) because the more of us that know that we should buy quality brands like Anker might mean that the garbage products won’t be purchased as much, and maybe they’ll just go away. I have a charger from Anker so as soon as I saw that brand in your video I knew that was going to be a quality flashlight. 😁
This video was really informative! It's very hard to buy any type of light on Amazon because you never know what you're getting. This video definitely helped me to understand the good and bad about these lights. You should do a similar video but with all name brand legitimate lights.
@@ColdWarVet607 you mean in a store where you get other shady flashlights, overpriced and often with a merchant that will tell you lies, so you buy the most expensive stuff? sadly, the only way is to teach yourself to figure out what you need, what is a fraud and what is simply overpriced.
I got a nextool *2400lm" hand torch from Massdrop years ago, and I like it so much that when it got stolen I bought another one, it could be had for as low as 40 bucks, comes with a 26650 cell, and I'm pretty sure it's luminosity rating is up there because it's actually brighter than the LED high beams on my semi truck. It's like having a spotlight in my hand I love this thing.
Whatever you do, don't mention the fake ratings in posts on Amazon, it was either a post about flashlights or batteries, that got my account perma-banned from posting on Amazon. It's not always wack a mole either, I've notified Amazon of impossible battery ratings and they did not pull the product listing.
I reviewed many products and I had one four star review disappear because of calling out a false title. It was a good product, but not the top of the line one listed for sale.
@@marthamryglod291 ONE disappeared? They perma-banned me and deleted years of positive, detailed, helpful reviews, and no it didn't look like I was a bot or shill for the seller, was far too informative and detailed about weighing the product through actual use, was just legit customer reviews. What I think was they were too lazy to read through them all and thought, if I made one post they didn't like, they just just nuke them all from orbit, just in case once upon a time ago I made a different post they didn't like but couldn't find.
I have 2 of the Anker Bolders, they are great, I bought one several years ago, and when i needed a second one, i went right back for t he same. They have help up great. Light output is more than enough for any practical use. Batteries are swappable for long days of work. Anker is my first stop for such items now as they are for chargers and cables
I'm a flashlight freak since I do a lot of night time lightpainting photography and urban exploring. I've tried dozens and dozens of various flashlights over the years - and for reliability still go back to my 4D maglite everytime. Durable, long-lasting, focused beam...and makes a great club when encountering hostile crackheads in an abandoned building. You left out crackhead defense in your testing, lol.
I inherited my mom's minivan and it has a 4D Maglite tucked in the door. Best flashlight for road side repairs and personal safety. I never go anywhere without it.
@@mysticmeadow9116 Dude, sell the maglite and buy 2 more minivans, lol. Kiddin'...I owned one years back and actually miss it...great for budget camping.
I carry this same Anker flashlight in my purse at all times. While I prefer headlamps for most things this is a nearly perfect handheld light. It's small enough to fit in my bag and hand comfortably while still being bright enough that I've used it standing on it's base to light up rooms in my house during a power outage. I also love that the charging port is so well protected.
I ran into a similar problem with power banks, that they were advertising much higher milliamp-hours than they were capable of - 50% higher in one case. I contacted the support to see about getting an exchange, and the tech flat out told me, "yours is working fine, that's actually all it's capable of, the advertised rating is just so we can compete evenly with companies who are lying about their performance." He seemed to be oblivious to the fact that he worked for one of those companies lying about their performance, perpetuating the problem.
Can everyone please read about 'Tragedy of the commons', please? The problem isn't any individual company's behaviour, since 'being the good guy' just makes you the sucker who loses out and that doesn't solve it. The problem requires enforced rules and intelligent oversight. Which unfettered capitalism is never going to provide...
@@IMelkor42 Sorry, but you never "lose out" being the "good guy". Money is far less valuable than integrity. "What doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" The "sucker" is the one who chases money.
@@NorthernKitty I agree in principle. But if you maintain your integrity, and then go bankrupt because you couldn't compete against the unscrupulous actors. Then the end result is the same, a marketplace full of unscrupulous actors...
@@IMelkor42 Then so be it. You can only control what YOU do, not what others do. I have been bankrupt and it was still the better option than participating in corruption and profiting from it. The ends never justify the means.
@@NorthernKitty Still have to disagree, I'm afraid. That's the point of rules, and the enforcement thereof. Control for the benefit of the collective good. The way I see it, there are three possible responses to the 'Tragedy of the commons' scenario: 1. The pessimist/cynic. Says that there's no point in trying to prevent the dishonesty and corruption. Everyone does it, the aim of the game is to be the person willing to be the least scrupulous - everyone else are potential suckers to fall for your scams (the 'Trumpian' philosophy, if you will). 2. The pragmatist/realist. Acknowledges that a perfectly fair playing field can't be achieved, but is nonetheless worthwhile to aim for. Justice in this world is won through effort at diligence, working against those willing to deceive and defraud. The underpinning philosophy of modern liberal society, a nation of laws and regulations. 3 The naive. Believes that so long as they remain 'pure' in their own actions and principles, then this virtue will spread to others out of admiration or some form of osmosis.
Finally!! I've been trying to wade through joke Amazon reviews for a couple years. This is the best testing channel I've found yet, and not just for flashlights. Nice Job!!
I used to run a cheapo Amazon "2,500" lumen light on my rifle, and when I finally upgraded to a real deal 1,000 lumen flashlight I was amazed. Lit up my entire room like I had my lamp on instead of lighting up like 1/3 of my room like the previous light. Not very scientific, but it was a very obvious difference.
If you see this I’d be surprised but I have ran the sofirn q8 plus for about 2 years and it’s been a amazing light it does have a software system so if you do buy it to test out it In advanced mode but I’d love to see another light test love your videos and appreciate the no bs stance that you stick by
For what it's worth to anyone reading, most of those images on Amazon advertising the lights are actually images of the Imalent MS18 flashlight. That's the only light I'm aware of that's currently on the market and anywhere near 100k lumens. All that said, for
There's actually a new flashlight from Acebeam, the X75 which has 80K lumens. It's most likely as much as the MS18. When the MS18 was tested it measured a bit under 100K lumens.
Considering what kind of LED flashlights you can get now for $20 compared to a incandescent flashlight your dad probably paid the same price for and that only has about 3 lumens. Ill take the chinesiom LED one. Although I do wish everything would stop coming from China
Great test! Man, there should be some way to pressure amazon and those manufacturers to give ACCURATE ratings for their products! I love flashlights and its so freakin frustrating when you get it and it isnt what they said on the packaging or in the ads! Thank you for this review. I think you did an awesome job.
He took 16 minutes (more likely a couple of days) to review 6 flashlights. That means he would only need another 5 years to review the other 1 million possible scams. And in that time how many new copy and paste listings do you think would go up. Amazon is an open marketplace. Be a diligent shopper, not a lazy complainer.
This video is extremely valuable and informative in seeing how these advertised products mislead compared to the more reputable products. Thank you for making this video, I found it really insightful and helpful in my purchasing descisions.
I bought a flashlight from Amazon, touted as 10,000 lumens. I don't know if it's actually 10,000 lumens, but it is extremely bright. The spotlight function on it illuminates things about 300 meters away. It was only $30, so I'm happy with it.
Thanks for this video. It has be abundantly obvious that most LED light sold on Amazon or elsewhere have ridiculous claims. It is very nice to see there is a brand that does not play those stupid games though, and thanks for pointing that out. Another product cluttered with bogus claims are the batteries themselves. It is all too easy to find impossible claims for 18650 batteries, and name brands are very important for weeding out the really bad ones. Some of the 18650 batteries are absolutely pathetic.
I've always bought flashlights on Amazon strictly by emitter (real #cree) and battery rating. STILL most crapped out because they can't actually stand use (all worked out of the box, then 2 to 6 months in, fell apart literally or figuratively, Stumbled (ouch) on your channel randomly, instant subscribe! Thanks for the feature work.
More proof why I've ALWAYS said Amazon needs to go down! Me and 4 co-workers bought the same 32gb micro SD card years ago for a good price. It was a reputable name brand. We got the cards and NONE of us could format them. They all said much lower capacity than 32gb in disk formatting software. Heck! We couldn't even save anything on them. We all returned. When I looked closer, there were TONS of people who bought name brand flash drives and SD cards, etc, from Amazon who had similar complaints. They bought from different sources on Amazon. It appeared that Amazon didn't even try to take any corrective steps to protect buyers. I wrote them and told them that they are totally complicit in the scams that take place on their platform. NO REPLY! They just keep collecting money and get richer and richer. I've been shopping on cheap Chinese sites for over 20 years. I totally accept all/any risks for things I buy off those sites. I was stunned to see the same things being sold on Amazon eventually, but much higher prices. I'm pretty sure there's no safety checks being done on any of these things I buy from the Chinese sites. I would think though that buyers expect that since Amazon is such a big company, that anything they buy via Amazon would have undergone strict safety testing. Not so much!
I've had the same experience with flash drives from Amazon. The cheap junk from Chinese sites has morphed into more expensive junk on Amazon. So much for trusting the reputation of a big-name company.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of Etsy sellers who resell crap bought in cases from alibaba and they might “customize” one thing or say they “hand made” it and charge ridiculous amounts for it. If they sell just one, they cover their whole case order. Always reverse image search!
Its telling the name of the brand isnt listed. Try buying from an actual name brand manufacturer like PNY or Scandisk. Look for manufacturers with tends of thousands of reviews. Try to be smarter when online buying.
Thank you so much for testing all those flashlights. It also reveals Amazon's dark side. I wish there are more honest product reviews like this in many area of consumer products.
Amazon is only concerned with profits not honesty. They ban on-site reviewers that do credible negative product reviews. Happened to me. Most of my negative reviews were on batteries and flashlights. I also had many neutral and positive reviews. When banned, they wouldn't say specifically why and gave an email address to contact to dispute the issue. After multiple attempts by me asking to work out whatever the issue was, Amazon never replied (at all). It was just smoke and mirrors to look like there was a process. Since then I've found that I can often do much better price-wise from other sellers like Walmart. I still do a little buying from Amazon but it's less than 10% of what it was and I'm saving money. So Amazon's shenanigans ended up saving me a substantial amount of money.
You do know that at 10% the price you are still giving them money and they still profit from you, for a product you already had and didnt need another? Just checking.
The same thing happened to me, posts about flashlights and batteries! EXCEPT there was no dispute possible. I also had lots of neutral and positive reviews, and they deleted those alike, several years worth, yet oddly did not delete many of the even older reviews. It started to get annoying that I was receiving emails fairly often, that people commented on my reviews (these were not negative reviews), yet I couldn't even reply back to them when they had questions or whatever.
Thanks for the video! I like this kind of work that shows the truth versus marketing fiction. I've ordered a few flashlights from Amazon, and I've generally been happy. For most of my purposes, a huge lumens output isn't all that important. I usually need something small to pick up when I need to do things around the house at night. I tend to choose headlamps because I like having my hands free. In a headlamp, huge lumens can be a disadvantage because the light occasionally hits something nearby and blinds me. I'm not familiar with Anker, but I would consider them for a flashlight that really needed to work in a tough situation. In the past, I've always been a fan of Princeton Tec. I don't know whether they still exist. When I wanted something that would be reliable, I bought one of their flashlights or headlamps.
The key thing that I've realized is the most useful is not only having a 500+ lumen high mode, but also a "moonlight" setting at 5 or less. When you're crawling out of a tent for a bathroom break in the middle of the night you don't need or want anywhere the amount of light that's appropriate for searching for a trail marker or spotting the shore from a boat. Brands that have been around for a while like Nitecore and Fenix get this, but a lot of the cheaper ones will give you something like 6 modes from 50 to 600, which is actually pretty useless. I've found one or two from cheap-ish Amazon brands that do this right, but for every one of them there's 50 more that are much more highly rated that don't.
Fascinating. I own the Anker Boulder (and also the Anker LC90 which apparently preceded it) and both are the best flashlights I have ever owned. I deliberately avoided the absurdly-high lumen lights that apparently come from Chinese sweatshops.
This sort of thing is what got me obsessed with batteries because I was testing obviously fake capacities advertised on amazon battery packs. This has been happening for at least a decade. :/
A lot of these lights seem like pretty good deals once you have someone like this to actually show you what they really do. It's too bad these companies can't just be honest.
I would be interested in seeing how Maglite's LED flashlights perform. Something big, medium, and small like the ML300LX (3X D), Mini Mag Pro (2x AA), and the Solitaire (1X AAA). They aren't big for lumens but are known for durability and put all the numbers right on the face of the package.
The MiniMag Pro was such a disappointment for me; fell about six feet and never recovered. Replaced, and the replacement simply stopped working one day.
I agree with Eulogy; had two of the mini ones at work, both were dead after a couple of months. And the lifetime warranty conveniently does not extend to the LED.
Maglite was big once - but only by lack of serious competition. The only one I still have is a desert tan MAG-TAC. . I now mostly use Nitecore, Thrunite, Olight, Astrolux. And BLF GT of course. 😁
I still have 3 mini mags from 20 or so years ago. Talk about durability they made it through my dumbass teenage years, falls, water, leaking batteries you name it. I just use the cheapy led lights most of the time nowadays cause they tend to grow legs and walk off.
I have had a 3 D cell Maglite with incandescent bulb for 30 years. I used it as a tucker to see from the cab if the pull trailer wheels were turning. I sometimes also used it to check tire pressure by whacking them. The flashlight had low expectations and it has met them for decades now.
I used to work security and was on some pretty dark sites. I finally decided to purchase a decent flashlight online and started with Amazon. I admit, not the best place to look, I had a budget and was not convinced with what I saw. After three days of online searching, I finally found a brand I had never heard of, but had really high ratings for their products. I searched their website and finally decided to purchase a small handheld light that advertised 3000 lumens, water resistant, shock and drop resistant, and had a rechargeable 5000mh 21700 battery for $80. Granted, I was skeptical of the purchase because I felt like I might have just bought into a scam. Two days later it arrived and I began looking it over and testing it. Let's just say that I nearly blinded myself because I was accidentally pressing down on the button. I immediately knew at that moment I had made an excellent purchase. The light is well worth the money spent. I highly recommended it to other security officers, friends, and family, and still do to this day. So if you want a great flashlight, I highly recommend getting the Fenix E35. You won't regret it.
Thank you so much for calling out amazons BS. I don’t have the resources as you do test every light. I appreciate you to the max for this video. Now I just have to like and subscribe to show appreciation.
One of my "favorite" things about amazon is just how specific "Amazon's Choice" can be. For example, that RECHOO LED flashlight is "Amazon's Choice" in "Handheld Flashlights by RECHOO". Suspiciously specific, that!
Always remember Amazon only wants your money, they do not care about you. I assume anything they recommend is what they got paid by the company to recommend. I try hard to avoid anything they recommend.
Amazon seeing this would change nothing. Big companies care ONLY about profit. Until they are forced to tell the truth by heavy fines or rebelling consumers, they will keep lying.
11:10 with that car LOL. Thanks for doing these tests, I've been looking at lights and it's clear that like every other product on Amazon the market is flooded with falsely advertised Made in China junk.
Amazon has become absolutely terrible for buying various stuff. Same produce, different name, different supplier, all crap, all chinese. Hell, we're arming the most evil racist turdbag nation with the power to kill what we believe in, freedom and fairness. I should really cancel my amazon.
@@migacz112 I'm at 18 Hanklights (Emisar and Noctigon) and counting. I think they are the absolute sweet spot for quality and price. Also, unlike most brands, Hank Wang, the owner, answers every email sent to him personally within a day. I don't know how he does it. A D4V2 with 4x 519A emitters is around $60 and it is beautiful (RGB aux leds) and tough.
You guys need to test some old school Q-beams. I remember having 1 million candlepower as a kid and lighting up the world! Maybe candlepower is better than lumen power?
That's back before lying to the moon was the norm. Pretty much every cheap product on Amazon sold in high quantities from random brands has fake stats. If it's a tool, the power is a lie. If it's a power inverter the output is a lie If it's a generator the max output is a lie If it's a radio or amplifier the power is a lie... And on and on. They just let these random import brands put whatever they want on the package. Which is why I largely avoid them unless I know what I'm looking for and just ignore their stats. Never had a q beam but I've heard positive things about them. Probably a long gone brand now?
lumen is the total light output while candela is the intensity. so a 1000 lumen flashlight with 80K CD would be a tight spot long range "spotting" flashlight while a 1000 lumen 15K CD would be a floodlight flashlight with wide spread and low range
Thank you for taking one for the team! And doing the work on testing these!👍😃 I was also wondering this for a while now, When I saw all the different light's on Amazon. With all the wild claims on brightness and distance range! I'm ready anointed that it is hard to see what the actual Watt is of the LEDs and the type they are using! And the mAh capacity of the battery! A lot of times they are not very transparent and clear in the product discription!
Last time I bought a flashlight was in the 90s. Recently, I got one of those cheap overly rated flashlights, and was blown away by how much better they were. And now I'm being told that these are considered junk. Now I am oddly excited to go flashlight shopping lol
It's not that they're junk. They exaggerate how bright they actually are. But they're still bright and much better/brighter than their 90s counterparts.
![ประสบการณ์ จ้าง Developer ที่ผมจะไม่มีวันลืม [ภาค2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pZbsSDRrmXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Building the ACTUAL brightest flashlight in the world: th-cam.com/video/42d10bhs304/w-d-xo.html
*Sequels* More expensive name brand lights: th-cam.com/video/fPYw28fQ-cY/w-d-xo.html Truck Horns: th-cam.com/video/zAe9qvC49qY/w-d-xo.html LASERS: th-cam.com/video/ZH3yMeA7HxQ/w-d-xo.html
Our recommended and vetted products storefront: www.amazon.com/shop/torquetestchannel Now, if you REALLY need 100k lumens: amzn.to/3P2Ew1X I have a sick fascination with these types of lights that adds a novelty factor I doubt many of the people purchasing are going after, but nevertheless, fun to test! What types of products would you like to see tested next?
Torque, who started this channel, is working for Astro Tools (who also make lights, but not flashlights currently) in product development. Always consider multiple sources when looking at a tool! It's just a smart practice.
you should test a emisar d18 flashlight at 14k lm, its like holding the power of the sun in your hands
Why would we support a platform (or you through thst platform) that allows for this type of bullshit parasitism?
Are you sure you are supposed to be using 1.5v batteries and not those 3.6v batteries?
AC AriCell SCL-06 3.6v size AA, ER14505.
@@benjaminjwilson6694 Packaging says standard AA alkaline batteries
How about led headlights, they seem to have as wide a range of output as the flashlights
I routinely left proper, factual reviews of items purchased from Amazon. I received notice from them that my account was being banned from leaving reviews due to "Questionable review practices". I guess being truthful and honest is "Questionable" in this day and age. Now I cannot review anything I purchase. No way to challenge it or fight it. Billionaires needn't worry about the individual customer's opinions.
I had a similar experience though Amazon did not threaten to remove my account. I simply left a review for a book on black history rotten by a woke 'celebrity' pointing out that many of so call facts were simply false and there simply to promote a certain agenda .
All the reviews for this rot were 4 and 5 star reviews.
Don't use Amazon as any kind of guide to the real world. That objectivity vanished years ago.
@LabRat Knatz Honestly they're not even the most economical in every case these days. Shockingly, Walmart has been beating them at pricing in several categories for quite some time now. Walmart isn't exactly a "good" company obviously, but at the very least they don't stoop this low -every- day.
Same thing happened to me. It was aggravating at first, but now I'm mostly over it.
Maybe people should class action them for false advertising? They can't call a court ruling "questionable."
I've had a few reviews removed because I mentioned the specific seller, on their product page after I was a verified purchaser. And it was because I questioned their description of the items. In general I wasn't even dissatisfied because I knew what I was actually buying, but they don't like it if you say anything about anything other than solely the product itself. I guess I should just start giving one star to everything which doesn't live up to the claims of specific sellers and just say "It's wank"
To put these claims in some sort of perspective, there's lighthouses with lights in the 40k lumen range. Which makes the idea of a 100k handheld flashlight even more insane.
FWIW 100k handheld flashlights absolutely exist, as the video notes the pictures are usually staged using an Imalent flashlight. The MS18 is genuinely rated for 100klm, it's like having a small sun in your pocket (well your bag or case really, unless you have gigantic pockets).
It also costs $700, weighs 2kg, has two internal fans, and will set dry stuff on fire at short range.
Lighthouses typically also use a type of lens that can magnify the brightness and focus
A Fresnel lens creates this bright beam of light using glass prisms set in metal frame. These prisms change the direction that light is traveling in so all the light exits the lens in same direction. The prisms do this by refracting (or bending) light and reflecting it as well.
It just physically impossible a 100k lm flashlight with the highest theoretical lumen efficency of about 300lm/w would consume 330w. This means for 6 hour run time it would need about 2kwh of battery capacity, which ways at least 6kg! Also such a flashlight produces about 150w of heat. So it needs active cooling or a massive heatsink.
Furthermore the highest single chip led is rated at about 20k and costs more than one of these lamps.
Also most cheap 18650 lithium cells have a maximum power output of about 20-30w, which means the maximum you will get is about 3-4k lm from a single battery.
Would have expected someone with your avatar to be more accepting of the explanation "It's magic: I don't have to explain shit"
@@TheBergersven I love people like you! I’m not a really a numbers guy and I really appreciate a true number’s person.
I bought a flashlight on Amazon before (looked very similar to the ones that are all over the start of the video) and IMMEDIATLY was contacted by the sellers who offered me giftcards AND a refund for leaving a good review. Now the item itself was fine (no way of testing if it was as bright as claimed mind you) and I mentioned that in the review. I also mentioned how they attempted to bribe me (and no doubt many others) and provided proof. Amazon refused to make the review public. As far as I am concerned, they are complicit.
@@KyleSmith-hq9qr Through the email associated with my account via Amazons support (which should be if you have issues with the producy). Every single one of these companies is using machine translated text in my experience.
I've had the same experience with a fitness watch I bought. It was also an OK product for the cheap price, but there were a few issues I mentioned in my 3-star review. I got contacted by the manufacturer offering me a free newer version of the watch, in exchange for upping my review rating to 5-stars.
@@ingulari3977 If they try, they're probably at a higher risk of exposing any other dodgy shit they do so
@@ingulari3977
Well they can make you banned for leaving a false review and then changing it.
That would be the fastest and safest way for them. And you, of course, would have no way of defending yourself
This happens all the time with Chinese sellers...they harass you to leave good reviews even when they sold you a piece of crap.
I was scared when you pulled out the Anker, because I've never caught them being dishonest, personally.
Nice to see they stand up to more empirical testing, too.
Yes anker really good products
Apart from their home security line.
I wouldn't call barely ten minutes on high all that impressive
I LOVE that flashlight! I use it every single day at work for almost 5 years now and the beast is still going solid. I work at night mostly, in the dark and all over the world pre-flighting my planes. It is super bright, can easily reach the top of the tails to see, USB rechargeable, and I love that the beam can be focused tight or broadened out wide. I bought two spares just in case they stop making them or I lose it. Better than all the $100 + stream lights or surefires
I've owned two of the smaller version of the Anker. Both had the same minor issue with their on/off buttons, but dropped one of them from 4 feet high and it would constantly cut out as if something was knocked loose. I was genuinely surprised to see this Anker perform well on the drop test.
Amazon used to have a procedure for reporting counterfeit products or products that are illegal or otherwise need to not be on Amazon. They've removed those. You can't even report errors in the product description anymore.
For Canadians, Once our customer protection steps in those listings disappear and amazon needs to pay heavy fines.
We'll send your inquiry to the marketing department.....an email I got after telling a seller about a listing error lol
They probably got tired of the scammers reporting everyone else.
I attempted to report fraudulent products once. My comments were removed and calls to Amazon went nowhere but "try again" upon which my comments were once again removed. Amazon doesn't care about consumers' rights or quality. They just want your money no matter how they do it.
Yep, I bought a product similar to many others on Amazon, had 1 review. It was crap and I left a crap review. A week later the product was flooded with 170 positive reviews - that related to completely different products! I tried to find a way to report it to Amazon and realized Amazon affirmatively made it impossible to do so.
This seems very similar to shop vacuum cleaners claiming HP ratings that would trip household circuit breakers if true.
You mean to tell me you're not getting 3,350 WATTS from your 120V outlet??? lol
I interviewed for a warehouse position with a vacuum company. The interviewer tried to talk me into a sales position so I called him on their B.S. like the 2.5 horsepower 110v claims they make. He got real mad.
Torque Test Channel Please do shop vacs suction, hp, and capacity?
Here we got 230 V with breakers on usually 16A and still if you turn on a 3kW motor it might fire out the breaker cuz the starting current can be way higher then what its rated
... but yeah they rly claim some bs...
edit for typo
Then advertise 300 air watts lol
I think it's a bit worse than you've said. In my experience Amazon may reject reviews which call out brands for false advertising. So they aren't just allowing these deceptive practices, they are actively protecting them.
Word.
Scammers are taking over the internet and getting away with it.
Facebook, Amazon, Ebay, Wish, Scam Ads, Fake Companies, Impersonating US Government officials and services, etc...
The truth is, the game was rigged from the start.
Sure. They make money by selling, not by not-selling... The customer? Fcuk him!
They don't even allow certain negative book reviews anymore
I wanted to buy a new flashlight on amazon but remembered seeing this video a few months back! I came back to see your results to help me choose the best option. Thank you so much for doing this! You just saved me from getting scammed!!
Just remember when looking at these; LEDs produce ~100 lumens per watt. A light claiming 90,000 lumens would take in the neighborhood of 900 watts to run. (We'll ignore the power it would take to run the cooling for such a beast for this example) Powering that 900 watt light for 20 hours would take ~18,000 watt hours of energy. An average 18650 NMC cell contains ~10 watt hours of energy. Put another way, the battery to run this light at that output would weigh around 90 kilos given 200wh/Kg for current battery tech.
Yes..! Even the best LED 'chips' are maybe 150 lumens per watt...and at least 10% of that is heat... so really...just 1000 lumens is going to be 7 watts...3.7 volt battery...2 amps...for what...an hour or maybe 2...?
All white LED's need around 3.2 volts minimum to operate at full brightness...
Imalent MS18 does 100k real lumens using 8x21700 batteries and 18 x xhp70.2 leds. It weighs 1900g, not 90000g.
@@InConsulting Allow me to amend my previous statement. Put another way, the battery to run this light for 20 hours at 90,000 lumens would weigh around 90 kilos given 200wh/Kg for current battery tech.
There, fixed it.
Maybe the same arc reactor iron man uses.
@@dougankrum3328 100% efficient light is 683 lm/W, so at best you will get 25% efficiency at 170 lm/w LED. That doesn't account for lower efficiency at higher temperatures, power supply losses. So you will need to count that 75-85% of power going from battery gets directly converted to heat!
I am in my 7th decade on this planet and have never thought I needed to watch a flashlight review. However, it was both entertainng and informative - thanks for letting us know, as I have to admit I have absolutely NO idea how bright a Lumen is, let alone 100,000!
one lumen is about equal to the light of one candle. 100000 lumens is about as bright as a lighthouse light.
nutty squirrel: I thought I remembered lumen estimates on modern light bulb boxes, so did a quick search. Charts I found seemed to consistently show that for incandescent bulbs, a 100W bulb gives 1600 lumens of light.
So obviously, for any normal usage, anything over 10K, much less 100K seems ridiculous. 100K sounds about right for one of those big bright searchlights (maybe roughly a meter in diameter).
Flashlight technology peaked with the Maglite until LEDs. Now it’s rapidly changing just like the rest modern technology.
A good quality flashlight today is going to cost you $80 and up. But LEDs last up to 100,000 hours so you’re going to lose it before it dies on you.
I'm with you.
I need flashlights for work. I've bought so many flashlights on Amazon that are just cheap junk. They stop working consistently the first time you drop one. They just aren't designed for the wear and tear of an actual job. I don't need super bright, just super reliable that doesn't drain batteries too fast.
If you really really need insanely high light output, look into dive lights. My primary light for cave diving has a top output of 8600 lumen for about 5 hours. I've used it on a dive of a bit over 4 hours on max output. Admittedly, they cost about $1600, and are powered by a battery pack the size of a small fire extinguishers. But any cave diver will agree you can never have too much light.
Great comment - it literally sheds some light on the whole matter.
@@AndyMangele no pun intended
@@slice6027 LOL - of course not! :)
Hows the cooling on those? Seeing as they are for diving, I'd assume they take that fact into account and require you to use them in water?
@@AndyMangele brilliant :|
These Lumen values remind me of those glass screen protectors on AliExpress. First there were simple flat glass protectors. With more and more phones with a curved glass edge, the protectors had to adapt. If you had a phone with a curved edge, you could soon buy "3D" protectors which covered - as expected - the curved edge as well. So far so good.
It did not take long until "4D" protectors were advertised. Sometimes they had some kind of extra protection like covers for the camera lenses. A little later, "7D" ,"8D" and "9D" protectors were sold. Right now you can buy everything from "12D" to "50000D" protectors. The numbers have completely lost any touch to reality. It's completely insane. But it seems to work, so the inflation continues.
These Chinese companies add tactical to everything too. They dont understand what it means. Like in your example do they know that the d stands for dimension. I doubt it.
@@KGisthename I was wondering the same. Either they simply don't know or care and do what everyone else does or they know that it doesn't make any sense and expect the consumer to not know/care.
Maybe it's a mixture of both. Sometimes it is quite hard to suppress our monkey brain going "ugh, big number better".
thats kinda funny
More numbers equal more better protection. It just make sense.
It kind of is a 4d protector when you think about it. It protects the phone through time as well as space.
This seems like a perfect class action lawsuit for a lawyer to take up... A few expensive and visible lawsuits should put pressure on Amazon to listen to consumer feedback and be more aware of false claims. 🤷🏼♂️
Or actually fucking check all of the products listed on there!
better call saul!!
I appreciate you shining a light on that. You're clearly very bright.
Class action: "I expected my flashlight to set itself on fire and severely injure me, but it didn't!"
so what would be the damages that you would be suing for? How were you damaged?
Amazon really needs to get their fraudulent listings under control. I am pretty good at spotting products that don't look legitimate, have misleading specs, or have unusually glowing reviews, but this kind of thing doesn't happen this often with other big box stores.
Why would Amazon crack down on this? Amazon makes money from these lies, so it’s all good to them. 👍🏻
@@adamjhuber maybe to prevent a false advertising class action lawsuit if they are shown to be in on the deception? Could also have the FTC fine them 10% of their quarterly profits until they fix it.
Amazon has managed to inhabit this weird grey area between a retailer and a marketplace site. They fulfil orders, they "comingle" inventory and yet they still insist that they are not the seller.
@@fvckyoutubescensorshipandt2718 no lawsuit against Amazon, as they are just the "website"... they don't sell you the counterfeit goods.
If you try to sue them, they will just say the seller violated their TOS and have been dropped.
@@adamjhuber Less people will buy from them if they become increasingly dissatisfied with the products they are receiving. There are certain things I will buy from a physical store like Home Depot because it is sometimes hard to verify the authenticity of them on sites like ebay and Amazon.
Once Amazon partnered with all of the Chinese companies (you'll notice name brands stopped being the first results to come up in a search for most products, sometimes even when you search for a specific brand even) they started allowing fake reviews, fake descriptions, using reviews for different products entirely, etc. They know full well what they are doing.
I've noticed that. its becoming really difficult to find a top quality version of whatever it is I'm shopping for.
Plus I hate that you can't comment on a review. I often have a question for the reviewer but they did away with that quite a while ago.
even name brands are made in China.. you get what you pay
What other choice do we have? Even Ebay won't accept a damn credit card. And PayPal is a rip off
Yeah, I hate when I search for a specific thing on Amazon everything else but that said thing I'm actually looking for pops up. Even unrelated items pop up. I stick to eBay and other online market places for that reason. And if it does pop up, it's way over priced and I can still find it cheaper elsewhere.
Lights aren't specifically a problem. Amazon is specifically the problem. What once was an amazing shopping network is now well, trash.
Yeah, same here in Germany, Amazon is getting just like AliExpress, wish or Temu. Some of these Flashlights are sold here under different names, but still the same crap.
Battery banks, flashlights, audio amplifiers, digital projectors...so many electronics out there have completely fabricated specs now. It's difficult to sort out what's a properly good deal or not. Thank you for this video!
The first 3 you mentioned I learned the hard way about actual performance vs claimed performance.
I have a battery bank that's was clammed 20k mAh on the packaging. but its like half that and it even says the actual on the bottom but its still decent because I paid like $15 for it
@@ianwiese1 Yeah...sometimes you can still get a good deal on falsified specs but it's hard to sort out the reality. I bought an amplifier for my truck based on a test done by Williston Audio Labs. The amp claimed to be 4000 watts but in his testing, it put out about 1000, 1100 watts RMS...which for $65 was pretty amazing!
If all these resellers listed the actual specs for these devices, a lot of them are *still* good deals but the whole thing has gotten so out of hand, they all feel they have to post BS in order to sell stuff.
With how many great products they make, Anker is a really good reference for what products should cost for their claimed specs. If it's not in the ballpark of something from Anker or another name brand, you can be assured it's absolute crap.
China has ZERO ethics and the only place crap is made that lie about their specs is China. Can you imagine U.K, French, Australian, German, American made products ect ever claiming false specs?? Our western countries would be all over that if any manufacturer tried lying. China don’t give a crap about anything but money power and using its citizens as pawns
Amazon is turning into a real cesspool. I only buy brand names from them at this point and more and more often, on brand name items, I can get a better deal elsewhere. I think their strategy has been to establish a good reputation initially over the last few years and then, once they have your trust, rip you off blind.
Amazon has gone to shit since Bezos left
Literally stop goin ghtere. Why are you aware of what's going on if it's a cesspool? Shouldn't you be blissfully unaware?
Many brand names on Amazon are counterfeit by the way. Example, Sonicare toothbrush heads in the list is endless.
Try finding a name brand webcam. They don't even come up in the searches anymore.
Cesspool is literally the word that came to mind for me too.
I love your videos calling out these BS flashlight manufacturers! Please keep shining a light (pun intended) on their blatant false advertising.
Problem is most are made in China and although they do make good flashlights and some even list the legit lumen output I don't think China has the same regulations we do here in US!!
@Avgrim77 Anker is literally a Chinese company. Still, they legit built their reputation.
I'm glad you're calling out the BS of this false advertising.
Amazon allows and promotes these items because they get a cut of all sales.
And if you dare mention paid reviews sti exist, kiss your comment and question ability away
@max marrero Do you subscribe to Consumer Reports?
@max marrero it would be a waste of time for them. Stick to well known brands. Everything else on the site is junk at a flea market.
@max marrero consumer reports sucks
Big Clive tore apart a similar pistol style light which appeared to be a reused mold for those ancient and huge 6V batteries as it had the molded in space for it. But instead it had a single tiny little 18650 or similar lithium cell inside and a whole bunch of empty space.
I know the one you're talking about. I have it. What a pos.
I have one like that in the old carrying handle style. It was empty except for the single 18650, but it wasn't hard to modify to add a few more...and there was a ton of room to spare.
That's not all bad. I had one of those 6V incan style and put my own 3W Cree LED and heatsink in, though the focal pattern was very broad . Extra space, if it's the usual charging circuit for the 18650, you can just add a couple more cells in parallel to the existing one to triple the runtime, but of course, also triple the recharge time.
Point being, if it uses only an 18650 to keep the selling price low and you don't mind a light that is bulkier than it needed to be, it's nice to have the option to upgrade the runtime so much, at a later date.
Plus the empty space, if properly sealed, allows them to float.
I have the same one that was SLA and halogen. Put a xmlt6 module in it and a 3 mode flood cob in the side. Used a 3 parallel 18650 holder to be able to use 1-3 cells. Decent light now
@@stinkycheese804 There are definitely advantages. One thing to consider is the shipping overhead of unnecessary size - more packaging, more vehicles/transport containers, more emissions.
I've known flashlight manufacturers were lying about their lumens (I grew up setting up and running lighting at music events with my dad so i knew what 1k lumens FELT like)
I had no idea it was this bad!!
Thanks for shining a light on this!!!
Shining a light, I see what you did there, hehe
IKR? Ordered a life size s$x doll from China. I was delivered a feminist real woman that doesn't shut up about her insecurities. Ugh, Amazon.
RIght, at 1k that shit will make you turn away immediately.
I have a few coworkers on the night shift that bought these amazon flashlights. We tested a giant "100,000" lumen light against my regular streamlight HL-3, rated at a conservative 1,100 lumens. They were similar, with the streamlight being the definite winner of brightness and range. Of course, $110 for the streamlight is a tough sell.
Well, after the first drop, the amazon flashlight is dead. 3 years and 12-24 drops later, the streamlight is still alive and lives in the office as a backup light for anyone that forgets theirs at home. Personally, I'd rather buy once and cry once than worry about a piece of gear failing if you look at it the wrong way.
The Anker seems to give value for money.
When I shop on Amazon, if the name of the seller seems weird/nonsensical/"Engrish" I skip it. Broken English in the item description is also a surefire no-buy.
90% of Amazon at this point is Chinese scam garbage and Amazon wants it that way.
I hadn't used Amazon in a few years and I was shocked at the degrading quality of the listings when making purchases again.
those stupid fking bracketted bullets are a dead giveaway.
I mostly shop for "industrial" grade stuff. Tools that semi pros/craftsment would use. It usually has a longer life span(which saves costs, since you dont have to rebuy) and is easier/even possible to repair.
But i get it, some people need alot of cheap stuff RIGHT NOW and cant plan for long term use/repair/durability/quality.
Yeah Amazon is going downhill on that respect. However I still primarily buy from them when it comes to name brand items and things where I already know what I'm getting into.
Amazon was always a source for cheaply made Chinese stuff, but at least the stuff they sold back then worked and quality was moderately passable. The stuff they're peddling now is outright deceptive or doesn't work at all. They're basically Wish and Banggood with faster shipping.
The consumer suffers when Amazon allows companies to sell these types of products.
I purchased a pair of led headlights but didn't get around to installing them. The govt found he product to be unsafe due to the brightness and forced a recall. The company was forced to replace the product with halogen headlights. I was well outside of the return policy and didn't want to jump through hoops to apply for a replacement.
Amazon is about profits or absolutely everything else.
Lmao you didn't suffer you're just lazy
thats what u get for support amazon. just go to home depot or some shit. brick and mortar gang
Collectively, we can SOLVE this problem. A successful strategy for dealing with scammers such as discussed here is to buy their products (with a credit card) and insist on a refund, using a chargeback if necessary. I've done this enough on fleabay that the products I focused on are no longer available on ebay - from any seller, any brand. See my toplevel post for details?
It's always hilarious to see licence plate LEDs shining brighter than the foglights
If you think about it, these are absolutely great flashlights for the price. The nitecore MT1A, for example, is non rechargeable, costs more than 40 dollars, nd only does 180 lumens, MAX, for 1.5 hours!
For a camping trip, a friend of mine bought one of these advertised at 20,000 lumens and wouldn't shut up about how we wasted our money. I have a Nightcore P20iX and my wife has their E4K. Both of ours are rated around 4400 lumens. I told him to turn his on and cover it with his hand. Then I had him do it with ours. His was no problem, but the light from those Nightcore lights will burn you in like 3 or 4 seconds. And of course when it got dark, ours absolutely destroyed his on illumination. Amazon should do something about that.
I have had some good lights from nite core my current one is fennix lr35r 10000 lumen turbo. It's fairly expensive but I highly recommend it. I caught a mouse pad on fire eith it once, putting it down with the light on
Why should they change? They successfully separated a fool from his money.
Be happy that he didn't start long talk that "your light is bad because it take most of its power to heat not light!"... Some people actually do that...
Cool story bro.
i have a gun light that I accidentally turned on as I closed my gun case. it almost caught the gun case on fire lol.
I`ve been a flashlight junkie for 40 years or so, and have owned many different models. About 15 years ago, I stumbled across one that really impressed me. It`s the Sky Ray King, pretty much a budget clone of the well-regarded Nite Core Tiny Monster. Aluminum casing contains 3 Cree LEDs, and is powered by FOUR (!) 18650s, rated @ 3.7 volts each. It`s about the same size as a 12-ounce soda can. I live in a rural area, on a 2 acre property where it`s DARK at night. This light will illuminate about a half-acre with ease, out-performing my BMW`s Bi-Xenon headlights. It will reach my neighbor`s garage around 300 yards away with a respectable amount of light. I consider this thing a major bargain for it`s $50 price tag.
We live in an age where literally almost everything is a lie or has some association with being significantly dishonest. Politicians, your grocery store, ...it doesn't matter. I recently "upgraded" my internet plan to 300mbps... It never gets over 93mbps on any speed test. Thank you for this. New subscriber.
can your modem or router handle those kind of speeds? that might be the problem
I upgraded to GoNet Speed fiber optic 1gb plan $60 I'm actually getting 1.2 gb at the modem
5g service in Europe is much different from what cell providers provide in the US. I have ATT and never have 5g speeds despite being within the data allowance. In Europe you notice how fast it is and stays that fast until your data allowance is reached
sounds like your equipment is maxing out. You need a wired connection and a gigabit ethernet port
This is the age we have been handed by previous generations: absolute capitulation to and rule by corporate interests.
Its been interesting to see Amazon allow the same thing that was the downfall of Ebay. Reviews are more often than not fake and there is so much false advertizing when it comes to certain products. I've never been a big gotta get the name brand type but the commonality of these practices have sort of forced me to become more inclined to buy name brand.
Ebay is still running just fine. No downfall.
@@mikemondano3624 nobody I know still uses it and I have trouble finding used stuff that isn't just a copy paste of the amazon listing
A bunch of items I bought on Amazon they sent me stuff in the mail for gift-card vouchers for a 5 star review 🤦🏻♂️. Lots of inflated reviews on amazon.
@@mikemondano3624 Ebay is "fine" but it's another wish, aliexpress, or what have you. Not knocking them, but it's nothing like it was 20 years ago. People who call it dead (myself included) miss the time it was a fairly genuine "global car boot sale".
Buy cheap, get cheap. Simple as that. And the refund policy is there. Just use it.
Awesome testing and results speak for themselves. I'm afraid Amazon is full of fake. The earbuds are a classic example. Lots have fake reviews bumping up the score. And by fake, I mean the reviews are for a completely different product.
We need more people and testers like you.
Subscribed.
I was actually surprised with the 25$ in ear monitors I bought a few weeks ago off there. It said they were balanced armature dynamic hybrids and that's what actually showed up. I didn't think u could get a balanced armature in ear that cheap they sound decent too.
@@dick8997 wanna check the EF levels around them aswell. Good luck with that braintumor wearing these modern inesr garbage thingies
It's not helped by the fact that a lot of actual high quality audio equipment is made by similar sounding Chinese companies, which makes it *near impossible* to browse, because telling the difference is... difficult, to say the least. You have to know what you are looking for before you even search, and then you probably have to go to the second page to actually find it.
uh yeah. it's all ali baba markups under different brands.
Thank you! I've had so many questions in my search for a good flashlight, that I have often just given up because it is too confusing to untangle the information given and know which brands might be truthful about their quality and usability. This was helpful.
For the spotlight, the lenses are very practical. Yellow helps you see through bad weather conditions, red does not impede night vision as much and blue helps make blood more visible and helps stay on a blood trail
If you think about it, these are absolutely great flashlights for the price. The nitecore MT1A, for example, is non rechargeable, costs more than 40 dollars, nd only does 180 lumens, MAX, for 1.5 hours!
No, i'm not paying 34$ for a flashflight that just so happens to come up with 3 different color lens 💀
"blue helps make blood more visible and helps stay on a blood trail" Um.... hello NSA I guess.
@@BenjaminGoose hunting is illegal now?
@@BenjaminGoose city slicker
There was a time where I would see something at a store and immediately think to myself "Ill get it on amazon later" because they had successfully built my confidence. Now, after seeing AWS become a source of income for people buying lower in store and selling on amazon, amazons shady policies, sellers offering obviously fake versions of products and other problems I have started only going there when I've exhausted local options. I think that shift will slowly happen and Amazon will go the way of eBay, still used but not the go to giant it once was/is.
"Amazon will go the way of eBay"
Good insight. I remember when eBay was mostly vintage/collectible/antique stuff. Now Etsy dominates that niche, but I see mass produced Chinese junk creeping in there, too.
Worse, it goes the other way, too. Chinese companies are stealing pictures from Etsy, and selling knockoffs. Now it's hard to tell if an Etsy shop is selling Chinese junk, or if the Etsy shop is the original source that the Chinese are imitating.
I agree with you except for one thing- I don't think we'll be able to return to any old ways of shopping, not for much longer. They're going to merge both online and in store, as they are already constantly rolling out minute changes and introducing new ways of shopping. And that applies to vastly different types of shops so I do believe it's not just a passing phase, but rather a sweeping change that we can't really stop and reverse.
The tech giants have invested so much, much more than the average person seems to be aware of, into changing our lives and how we do almost anything that involves commerce- without our input on the matter of course- and I don't see them giving up on this merging of everything (transhumanism etc.) It's hard to really gauge whether it will bring more transparency for the consumer or if it will easily get corrupted and be as misleading and manipulative as our online shopping today is. Seeing as they're evil from their roots, I'm pretty pessimistic about it all. 🤓
thats not what AWS is btw. Amazon Web Services is their cloud platform. They host websites, rent servers, sell cloud storage etc. Its for developers not for selling things on Amazon
The one good thing about amazon is the efficiency and reliability of their deliveries (at least in my area) the sub par products and customer service is out of hand though. I'm sick to death of amazon not holding sellers accountable and if there's ever an issue it's always "we are just the marketplace" like it absolves them of any responsibility to take any actions.
aws is different than amazon
Super useful video. I was actually only looking at bicycle lights a few days ago and started bookmarking some with claims of "10,000" or even "50,000" lumens because they sounded great. Well, I hope you know you just saved me some money because now I know better. Appreciate you making this test and video!
If you're gonna cheap out, at least get something you can modify easily, like batteries.
@@wasabij true, good point
I purchased a lot of bicycle lights over the years, but nothing much in 10 years or so, thus this is a bit dated. There was a light sold by Planet Bike which sold for about $27, and compared to crap at Walmart, they were very good, and for great reviews. But I got intrigued about mega-lumen lights and bought some. No, the power was no way what they were rated...but they're blinding! My son and I used to do a bike trail ride in late afternoon and in fall, we'd catch ourself in the dark. For kicks, I outfit our bikes like a rally car - 4 of the big ones on each. And the first time we used them, I'd wager we were throwing more light than my HID on my car, and we aimed 2 low, 2 horizontal, and it was like daytime.
So just give products a shot, and if you like them, great. Pay no mind to the numbers.
The best spotlight/floodlight I purchased was the Makita DML812. A modest 1250 lumens when both spot and flood are on, but it lit three adjacent rooms during a power outage when aimed at the ceiling. More impressive is its candle power. It can illuminate over a distance of 700 yards!
came t the comments looking for a specific recommendation like this, thanks!
I've got a 2400 lumen bicycle light from Lezyne and we also used it on full beam to light up most of the downstairs when our power went out over the summer.
Makita is a name brand, though. He's talking about non-name brands that pop up and vanish in as little as a week or two.
This is why I love this channel. Best honest reviews
Yeah we will see about that.. just about all review channels start out with honest unbiased reviews until they get more and more subscribers and the sponsor checks get larger and larger..
I don't know about you but shit man for $10,000 sponsor I would say anything is awesome money talks. I will be very surprised at this channel stays honest once they hit 250,000 subscribers
@@cody5495 so far so good and they are pretty high in the sub count now
@@cody5495 We get around 2-5 sponsorship offers a day now. Some from brands you often see us test here. Everything from free products, 15% sales commissions with links, to $2000-2500/video integration opportunities where you plug a VPN or mobile game for 30-60 seconds within the 1st 2 minutes and have to leave a pinned comment link. If we had planned to do anything of these we'd be taking that free money by now.
This channel doesn't and will continue to not accept any of these offers.
@@cody5495 You may be surprised to learn that some people actually have integrity. Obviously by your comments you don't as you even say yourself that you can be purchased.
I've owned the anker light for about a year now and have been quite happy with it. Not a fan of how the diff light modes are selected, but everything has been as advertised in my experience
I hate different light modes as wel. I just want on/off, not all this stupid strobing light effects.
I did not realize Anker made flashlights. I am well pleased with the quality of their probatory banks. They are proof, that an indigenous Chinese firm can produce quality products and the marketing is forthcoming.
However, because they are a Chinese company, a significant portion of profits goes to the CCP unlike say Samsung, which makes much of its products in China, is a Korean company and the majority of its profits do not go to the government.
@@VaporheadATC I would love a single on/off but with the ever increasing brightness at least a high/low mode is required. Ditch the flashing though
I guess ignorance is bliss huh
I bought an Anker LC130 (the next higher model) almost seven years ago and, while the tail switch interface is a bit clunky, it still works great. On high, the light output is more than I need, so I use either medium or low, it’s got a built-in charger that you just plug into mini USB, and it’s been dropped onto a stone floor a couple of times with no dents or malfunctions. And FWIW, they’re still less than $60 on Amazon (I paid less than $50 on sale in 2016). While it isn’t a light that I could impress my friends with on various forums or Reddit, it does exactly what I want and is very reliable.
I'm so glad there are good channels like this and project farm out there to really show and test products. I always felt like there is a real information market for things like the old Consumer Reports.
Great job! I always wondered if those flashlights on Amazon were even half as bright as they claimed. Less than 2%! I sure hope Amazon sort this out because it’s really not fair to the legitimate sellers. Thanks for the terrific video.
Great video. I used to sell headlamps at the place I worked at and it was always interesting. Consumers really really like seeing numbers on a product as it's something quantifiable. However it usually starts to create confusion the moment you try and elaborate on why things are this or that number. Explaining down fill power number on jackets was the most common, but I can't blame people for not knowing what they don't know and thinking that the bigger the number is the warmer a jacket. Brands definitely take advantage of consumer ignorance.
Of average consumer *stupidity*
I always found that funny. Like I've seen youtubers shilling 850 down power jackets with barely any down in them and pretending they're warmer than a higher quality 650 or synthetic down jacket with way more filling.
Thank you for this valuable information. As other commenters note, Amazon is now complicit in this. I have worked for a large retailer and Sales leadership must drive numbers higher, so once integrity is abandoned, they will do anything to hold or grow, heedless of false advertising.
My favorite is the long exposure photos making it look like it's the power of the sun in your hand. Thanks for your tests.
I will say I bought one of those flashlights that claimed it was “90,000 lumens” since it was just like $15 I got it and I have to say it was unbelievably bright. It was all of 1,500-3,000 or more lumens and you could zoom it in and out. When zoomed in the beam could easily travel a quarter mile and if you zoomed it out you could light up an entire yard for 20-30 yards easily. It was Garberiel brand and was made in China. OH AND the Alphia flashlight was literally the same exact flashlight. I knew the whole 90k lumens was nonsense but after looking at video reviews I felt that $15 was worth it.
I bought a random unbranded bicycle light for around the same price. It was advertised as 3000LM and I feel like it's probably not too far off that brightness. I've taken it off its handlebar strap and mostly use it as a flashlight these days. I use it to illuminate a local forest trail when I walk along it at night and it does a good job. The small size of it means it easily fits in my pocket too.
I agree. I have two of the Rechoo S2000 flashlights and while it might not produce 2000 lumens, they are extremely bright, have yet to require a new set of batteries, and are a good size to carry with me or keep in the vehicle. It's a great light for the price.
Do you remember how long the service life is? I'm searching for a long lasting flashlight that wont give out to easily
Love this type of content. Tired of the BS inflated numbers on any product. Thanks for testing these flashlights
If you want good stuff, whether flashlights or cars, don't buy Chinese junk. They are a heartless nearly inhuman people who don't care who gets hurt, physically or financially.
My guess is that they took the candela ratings from higher end single emitter throwers, called them lumens (because that is a unit people have heard of), and then attached that to their knockoff lights. It is normal for a quality thrower to have 80k to 120k candela but these lights are usually in the 1500 to 2k peak lumen range.
You're giving Chinese junk too much credit. They just throw them together in a sweat shop, put them on Amazon, and just slap ridiculous claims on them so they'll sell.
I can assure you, no testing or quality control is done on these.
1 candela is 1 lumen per steradian.
@@markus9415 1 candela is approximately 12.5 focused lumens measured as a single-point source. A candela is the amount of light emitted by a spermatocele candle of a certain size [made from the nasty stuff in the melon of a sperm whale] at a specific distance. The more focused a beam is, the greater the candela without changing the instantaneous luminous flux. In general, they try and use the terms interchangeably and fabricate numbers to sell product, plain and simple, because realistically it's like trying to use horsepower to describe gearing ratios. They're interconnected, but they're definitely completely different terms.
@@kdawson020279 Both you guys are wrong: My grandpa explained to me that one candela is exactly equal to one unit of candy. And whose power is sufficient to brighten the face of one kid - possibly two, if split equally.
I knew it had to be the case of conflating terms--I just didn't have the industry knowledge to know what it was. Thanks, and I'm 1,000% sure you're right.
A few years ago I was incredibly frustrated by phone charge times and blamed the chargers, when it was the USB cables. I've done best with Anker, even though the best are expensive now that they've established a trusted name.
Their multi port chargers are fantastic..but over time, ports die. Luckily I usually don't need six ports.
Cheap cables were awful, so I went to Anker almost exclusively. Even then, they do not endure bending around. Even the expensive cables deteriorate with seemingly light use given time.
Anker is a cheap chinese brand like the other stuff, they just don't over-advertise the stuff and results in O.K. for cheap deals, which keeps people coming back since they don't feel scammed.
I've had great luck with sabrent. I've been using a USB hub from them for over ten years, and a few USB 3 hubs for VR stuff. Very reliable.
I got the Anker power core 3 Elite portable battery hub/charger. It definitely wayyyy out performed any other portable battery hub I’ve ever had. But I also paid over 100 bucks for it if I remember right. I got it like almost 2 years ago and it still holds a charge and can charge my MacBook and phones extremely fast. Also the power it claims (for example I think it claims it can charge an iPhone 12 4 times, or a MacBook Pro 1.5 times on a single charge), it actually out performed its claims. That’s the stuff I appreciate, I paid a lot of money, but in the end I don’t feel ripped off. I feel like hey, this thing actually fucking does what it says it’s gonna do and more. Idk it’s sad that in these days, that is something unexpected and rare to come across hahah. Fucking Japs man
Great vid. I'm retired Sheriff Deputy and still have my now 40 year old Stream light flashlights. Replaced battery and a build once but both still strong and insanely bright after a life of combatting the elements up north and to many fights to count. Built from aircraft aluminum and designed to Never Fail. Let's see some Stream lights in the mix
I bought a Bolder by Anker at 900 lumens and I'm extremely happy with it overall. Especially for the cost. Dropped it a couple of times while out walking the dog in the Winter and its proved durable. Certainly bright enough to show all of the bugs scurrying around on the ground. Overall not quite as good as a US made Maglite, but much cheaper.
Anker is a trusted brand name.
Unfortunately Maglite is not what they used to be, at least as far as their LED lights go.
@@NathanShirley Yes my Maglite was from 30 years ago.
I've had two of the smaller version of the Anker. The buttons on both had an issue where they wouldn't turn the light off unless it was on the middle light intensity mode. No big deal though, the lights worked. However, after dropping one of them for the first time it constantly cut out as if something was knocked loose. So I was genuinely surprised seeing the Anker do well on the drop test here.
Well, technically, you could have had that P70.2 for the same price and it would have been brighter and lasted longer. So... I get that they lied about the potential, but... so what?
Honesty is the most important for long-term success, you hit the nail on the head. Thank you for this clear, practical summary of what consumers can actually expect from these products.
It's impossible to build a joyful society on lies. China is full of deception, and from what i've seen and been told, a horrible place to live. But their deception is being exported to the US, so its only a matter of time before nothing can be trusted.
I would have enjoyed seeing a legit superlight make an appearance in your testing. Perhaps something like the Imalent MS18 which is rated for 100,000 lumens and has a built in cooling fan to keep it from catching on fire. I own one of their older versions that they say is rated for 32,000 lumens and it will cause paper to smolder and eventually ignite.
I second this. Nearly all of those images mentioned that these scammers use on their products are actual images from the MS18. I wager that device actually comes close to the advertised output.
Same here.
Someone built an actual 70,000 lumen flashlight.
It used several extra-large DeWalt tool batteries for power (not just two little 18650s), and had a WATER cooling loop, with fans and radiators, to keep it cool.
Even with those massive DeWalt batteries, it only had about 10 minutes of life. But that matters little - at 70000 lumens, you could only run it for 30 seconds or so before it incinerated itself.
Yes you get what you pay for with flashlights. My Thrunite TN50 is awesome,almost 500 meter beam throw and Literally turns night into day.
someone, somday will accidentally contact life on another world using an MS18 aimed into the sky
Thank you for taking the time to make this video, produce/post it. I have "buyer-fatigue" from shopping for things like this and the claims are truly getting out of hand. Great Video. Thumbs up!
I built my own growlight using cobs. Actual total power consumption was 360W and around 40K lumen if I remember correctly. 5 cobs in total. There's just no way of pushing that kind of power out of a single chip. So that showed me that every Chinese light is to no one's surprise, inflating their specs on paper.
Definitely had my suspicions, as a mechanic for over 50 years and therefore necessitating use of, these flashlights have evolved over time from the incandescent bulbs like 1866's, to the "kripton", "Xenon", etc, or drop lights with incandescent bulbs AC or DC and fluorescent. Eventually evolving into the LED torches of today. My biggest disappointment was the German designed Heider made in Turkey for which I shelled out $200 for the large fixed focal length and the small handy zoomable one I could hold in my mouth while using two hands to dismantle a part. They both died within 2 years except for the stubby mountable flood light for head harness or bicycle, although the rechargeable sealed battery pack died after a year and a half, but found an alternative rechargeable battery pack with compatible quick disconnects. Then I got sucked into the large 3&1/2" lense light that came with a sticker designating, I assume model number 3DT6, which advertised falsely numerous LED's, but only came with one.and the battery pack, whatever it is is sealed in the handle, so this is definitely a throw away unit. Got a couple from my Brother a small Tasco zoomable unit I like for around the house and a Guidesman zoomable utilizing 6 AA's advertised at I think if I can remember like 20K lumens still functioning at a year old through a few AA's. I do have a Dewalt portable with multiple positioning head on the 20V battery pack system of multiple sizes. Handy for under a vehicle and self standing while pointing in excess of 90º multi locking positions and equipped with a stainless hoop to hang it from. Of course I still have the handy three D cell Mag light, be it comparatively dim. In any event, let there be light !
Always love Anker the only “off” brand electronic I trust.
Yah, had a few USB chargers & powerbanks from Anker. Still going strong.
I dont know what you classify as "off brand" but Anker almost certainly should not be in that category. They are a massive company with an almost $30B market cap.
@@joshdragonsfield3799 You know damn fine what people mean.
Anker isn't an "off brand" it's one of the more reliable and trusted companies.
@@xXHashassinXx You know damn fine what he means.
I bought the Alfia 160.2 flashlight about 8 months ago for $30 and I gotta say its my go to flashlight now. For a knock off brand I didnt expect to like it so much. Only downside to it is it will get hot if left on its highest setting for a while, but for most uses the high setting is too bright and I find myself using it on low usually. When I had a power outage that lasted an entire day, I kept it turned on low and it still did a good job lighting up my living room for the maybe 6 or so hours I used it for. Love video's like this that help me find products I end up using a lot.
Ever since I bought my first Anker product I have been impressed by their design. I even pay more for them because I know I'm getting a good product.
Good warranty too.
Despite their mildly amusing name, they usually make pretty good electronics.
@@BobMonkeypimp I have never had a problem with Anker products (Yo Anker, don't make me regret saying this! Keep making great products and I'll keep buying them)
What a great video! I really appreciate that you took the time to do all that testing and share it. Kind of shocking to see how deceptive sellers can be, but not really surprising at all. We need more videos like this and more people like you willing to take the time to educate people. I think that videos like this can help illuminate the problem (See what I did there?) because the more of us that know that we should buy quality brands like Anker might mean that the garbage products won’t be purchased as much, and maybe they’ll just go away. I have a charger from Anker so as soon as I saw that brand in your video I knew that was going to be a quality flashlight. 😁
This video was really informative! It's very hard to buy any type of light on Amazon because you never know what you're getting. This video definitely helped me to understand the good and bad about these lights. You should do a similar video but with all name brand legitimate lights.
This is our 9th lights episode!
"It's very hard to buy any type of light on Amazon because you never know what you're getting.", dont buy from amazon, do it the old fashioned way
@@ColdWarVet607 you mean in a store where you get other shady flashlights, overpriced and often with a merchant that will tell you lies, so you buy the most expensive stuff?
sadly, the only way is to teach yourself to figure out what you need, what is a fraud and what is simply overpriced.
I got a nextool *2400lm" hand torch from Massdrop years ago, and I like it so much that when it got stolen I bought another one, it could be had for as low as 40 bucks, comes with a 26650 cell, and I'm pretty sure it's luminosity rating is up there because it's actually brighter than the LED high beams on my semi truck. It's like having a spotlight in my hand I love this thing.
Whatever you do, don't mention the fake ratings in posts on Amazon, it was either a post about flashlights or batteries, that got my account perma-banned from posting on Amazon.
It's not always wack a mole either, I've notified Amazon of impossible battery ratings and they did not pull the product listing.
I reviewed many products and I had one four star review disappear because of calling out a false title. It was a good product, but not the top of the line one listed for sale.
@@marthamryglod291 ONE disappeared? They perma-banned me and deleted years of positive, detailed, helpful reviews, and no it didn't look like I was a bot or shill for the seller, was far too informative and detailed about weighing the product through actual use, was just legit customer reviews. What I think was they were too lazy to read through them all and thought, if I made one post they didn't like, they just just nuke them all from orbit, just in case once upon a time ago I made a different post they didn't like but couldn't find.
I have 2 of the Anker Bolders, they are great, I bought one several years ago, and when i needed a second one, i went right back for t he same. They have help up great. Light output is more than enough for any practical use. Batteries are swappable for long days of work. Anker is my first stop for such items now as they are for chargers and cables
I love Anker Bolders, I got like 5 of em around my house lol.
Aukey worth a punt too ;-)
I really like mine. It also illuminates a good sized area with bright light.
Wow. So much value in this video.
The bit at the end about amazon particularly interesting.
Thank you! I always knew they weren't accurate but as a layman, had no idea how to measure them. Very educational for me! Thanks again!
I'm a flashlight freak since I do a lot of night time lightpainting photography and urban exploring. I've tried dozens and dozens of various flashlights over the years - and for reliability still go back to my 4D maglite everytime. Durable, long-lasting, focused beam...and makes a great club when encountering hostile crackheads in an abandoned building. You left out crackhead defense in your testing, lol.
how many crackheads have you hit?
I inherited my mom's minivan and it has a 4D Maglite tucked in the door. Best flashlight for road side repairs and personal safety. I never go anywhere without it.
@@mysticmeadow9116 Dude, sell the maglite and buy 2 more minivans, lol. Kiddin'...I owned one years back and actually miss it...great for budget camping.
I carry this same Anker flashlight in my purse at all times. While I prefer headlamps for most things this is a nearly perfect handheld light. It's small enough to fit in my bag and hand comfortably while still being bright enough that I've used it standing on it's base to light up rooms in my house during a power outage. I also love that the charging port is so well protected.
I ran into a similar problem with power banks, that they were advertising much higher milliamp-hours than they were capable of - 50% higher in one case. I contacted the support to see about getting an exchange, and the tech flat out told me, "yours is working fine, that's actually all it's capable of, the advertised rating is just so we can compete evenly with companies who are lying about their performance." He seemed to be oblivious to the fact that he worked for one of those companies lying about their performance, perpetuating the problem.
Can everyone please read about 'Tragedy of the commons', please?
The problem isn't any individual company's behaviour, since 'being the good guy' just makes you the sucker who loses out and that doesn't solve it.
The problem requires enforced rules and intelligent oversight. Which unfettered capitalism is never going to provide...
@@IMelkor42 Sorry, but you never "lose out" being the "good guy". Money is far less valuable than integrity. "What doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" The "sucker" is the one who chases money.
@@NorthernKitty I agree in principle.
But if you maintain your integrity, and then go bankrupt because you couldn't compete against the unscrupulous actors. Then the end result is the same, a marketplace full of unscrupulous actors...
@@IMelkor42 Then so be it. You can only control what YOU do, not what others do. I have been bankrupt and it was still the better option than participating in corruption and profiting from it.
The ends never justify the means.
@@NorthernKitty Still have to disagree, I'm afraid. That's the point of rules, and the enforcement thereof. Control for the benefit of the collective good.
The way I see it, there are three possible responses to the 'Tragedy of the commons' scenario:
1. The pessimist/cynic. Says that there's no point in trying to prevent the dishonesty and corruption. Everyone does it, the aim of the game is to be the person willing to be the least scrupulous - everyone else are potential suckers to fall for your scams (the 'Trumpian' philosophy, if you will).
2. The pragmatist/realist. Acknowledges that a perfectly fair playing field can't be achieved, but is nonetheless worthwhile to aim for. Justice in this world is won through effort at diligence, working against those willing to deceive and defraud. The underpinning philosophy of modern liberal society, a nation of laws and regulations.
3 The naive. Believes that so long as they remain 'pure' in their own actions and principles, then this virtue will spread to others out of admiration or some form of osmosis.
Finally!! I've been trying to wade through joke Amazon reviews for a couple years. This is the best testing channel I've found yet, and not just for flashlights. Nice Job!!
I don't own their flashlight but I do own quite a number of other Anker products and I am always impressed with their performance and quality.
True, Anker products are usually pretty decent. Plus, if you use a sharpie, you can add a "W" for the Lolz.
This is a great example of why I will always recommend Anker anything. Cables, battery banks… they are a trustworthy brand
I used to run a cheapo Amazon "2,500" lumen light on my rifle, and when I finally upgraded to a real deal 1,000 lumen flashlight I was amazed. Lit up my entire room like I had my lamp on instead of lighting up like 1/3 of my room like the previous light. Not very scientific, but it was a very obvious difference.
If you see this I’d be surprised but I have ran the sofirn q8 plus for about 2 years and it’s been a amazing light it does have a software system so if you do buy it to test out it In advanced mode but I’d love to see another light test love your videos and appreciate the no bs stance that you stick by
For what it's worth to anyone reading, most of those images on Amazon advertising the lights are actually images of the Imalent MS18 flashlight. That's the only light I'm aware of that's currently on the market and anywhere near 100k lumens. All that said, for
There's actually a new flashlight from Acebeam, the X75 which has 80K lumens.
It's most likely as much as the MS18. When the MS18 was tested it measured a bit under 100K lumens.
I'm happy with the cheap lights being what they are, I just wish they didn't stop working after 6 months.
@@spejic1 check out sofirn flashlight brand thet are good flashlight and on the cheaper side
@@spejic1 Check out any one of these brands. Acebeam, Nitecore, Emisar, Manker, Reylight, Imalent, Zebralight, FourSevens, Astrolux, Fenix, Thrunite, Noctigon, Surefire, Elzetta, Klarus, Lumintop/BLF, Convoy, Sofirn, Wuben, Eagtac, Jetbeam, Weltool
Considering what kind of LED flashlights you can get now for $20 compared to a incandescent flashlight your dad probably paid the same price for and that only has about 3 lumens. Ill take the chinesiom LED one. Although I do wish everything would stop coming from China
Great test! Man, there should be some way to pressure amazon and those manufacturers to give ACCURATE ratings for their products! I love flashlights and its so freakin frustrating when you get it and it isnt what they said on the packaging or in the ads! Thank you for this review. I think you did an awesome job.
They won't do anything to change things as they're massively benefitting from the setup.
Just look at the price$
He took 16 minutes (more likely a couple of days) to review 6 flashlights. That means he would only need another 5 years to review the other 1 million possible scams. And in that time how many new copy and paste listings do you think would go up. Amazon is an open marketplace. Be a diligent shopper, not a lazy complainer.
This video is extremely valuable and informative in seeing how these advertised products mislead compared to the more reputable products.
Thank you for making this video, I found it really insightful and helpful in my purchasing descisions.
I bought a flashlight from Amazon, touted as 10,000 lumens. I don't know if it's actually 10,000 lumens, but it is extremely bright. The spotlight function on it illuminates things about 300 meters away. It was only $30, so I'm happy with it.
what flashlight did you buy and how long does it last at 10k lumens?
@@MisterL2_yt I forget which one exactly, but the battery will generally last for a few days of use before I have to charge it again.
@@user-zr6pl6nb6z a few days of being used? :D
Can you figure out th emodel?
Thanks for this video. It has be abundantly obvious that most LED light sold on Amazon or elsewhere have ridiculous claims. It is very nice to see there is a brand that does not play those stupid games though, and thanks for pointing that out.
Another product cluttered with bogus claims are the batteries themselves. It is all too easy to find impossible claims for 18650 batteries, and name brands are very important for weeding out the really bad ones. Some of the 18650 batteries are absolutely pathetic.
I've always bought flashlights on Amazon strictly by emitter (real #cree) and battery rating. STILL most crapped out because they can't actually stand use (all worked out of the box, then 2 to 6 months in, fell apart literally or figuratively,
Stumbled (ouch) on your channel randomly, instant subscribe! Thanks for the feature work.
More proof why I've ALWAYS said Amazon needs to go down! Me and 4 co-workers bought the same 32gb micro SD card years ago for a good price. It was a reputable name brand. We got the cards and NONE of us could format them. They all said much lower capacity than 32gb in disk formatting software. Heck! We couldn't even save anything on them. We all returned. When I looked closer, there were TONS of people who bought name brand flash drives and SD cards, etc, from Amazon who had similar complaints. They bought from different sources on Amazon. It appeared that Amazon didn't even try to take any corrective steps to protect buyers. I wrote them and told them that they are totally complicit in the scams that take place on their platform. NO REPLY! They just keep collecting money and get richer and richer.
I've been shopping on cheap Chinese sites for over 20 years. I totally accept all/any risks for things I buy off those sites. I was stunned to see the same things being sold on Amazon eventually, but much higher prices. I'm pretty sure there's no safety checks being done on any of these things I buy from the Chinese sites. I would think though that buyers expect that since Amazon is such a big company, that anything they buy via Amazon would have undergone strict safety testing. Not so much!
I've been wary of Amazon lately. Now, after reading comments like yours, I think I should boycott them altogether.
I've had the same experience with flash drives from Amazon. The cheap junk from Chinese sites has morphed into more expensive junk on Amazon. So much for trusting the reputation of a big-name company.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of Etsy sellers who resell crap bought in cases from alibaba and they might “customize” one thing or say they “hand made” it and charge ridiculous amounts for it. If they sell just one, they cover their whole case order. Always reverse image search!
Its telling the name of the brand isnt listed. Try buying from an actual name brand manufacturer like PNY or Scandisk. Look for manufacturers with tends of thousands of reviews. Try to be smarter when online buying.
If you want good products with quality control. Stop buying from China :/ - It fuels the problem.
Thank you so much for testing all those flashlights. It also reveals Amazon's dark side. I wish there are more honest product reviews like this in many area of consumer products.
"dark side"
Like it
Amazon is only concerned with profits not honesty. They ban on-site reviewers that do credible negative product reviews. Happened to me. Most of my negative reviews were on batteries and flashlights. I also had many neutral and positive reviews. When banned, they wouldn't say specifically why and gave an email address to contact to dispute the issue. After multiple attempts by me asking to work out whatever the issue was, Amazon never replied (at all). It was just smoke and mirrors to look like there was a process. Since then I've found that I can often do much better price-wise from other sellers like Walmart. I still do a little buying from Amazon but it's less than 10% of what it was and I'm saving money. So Amazon's shenanigans ended up saving me a substantial amount of money.
You do know that at 10% the price you are still giving them money and they still profit from you, for a product you already had and didnt need another? Just checking.
The same thing happened to me, posts about flashlights and batteries! EXCEPT there was no dispute possible.
I also had lots of neutral and positive reviews, and they deleted those alike, several years worth, yet oddly did not delete many of the even older reviews.
It started to get annoying that I was receiving emails fairly often, that people commented on my reviews (these were not negative reviews), yet I couldn't even reply back to them when they had questions or whatever.
Not just flashlights, they really need to curate their product catalog a LOT better, it's turning into aliexpress basically.
Thanks for the video! I like this kind of work that shows the truth versus marketing fiction.
I've ordered a few flashlights from Amazon, and I've generally been happy. For most of my purposes, a huge lumens output isn't all that important. I usually need something small to pick up when I need to do things around the house at night. I tend to choose headlamps because I like having my hands free. In a headlamp, huge lumens can be a disadvantage because the light occasionally hits something nearby and blinds me.
I'm not familiar with Anker, but I would consider them for a flashlight that really needed to work in a tough situation.
In the past, I've always been a fan of Princeton Tec. I don't know whether they still exist. When I wanted something that would be reliable, I bought one of their flashlights or headlamps.
The key thing that I've realized is the most useful is not only having a 500+ lumen high mode, but also a "moonlight" setting at 5 or less. When you're crawling out of a tent for a bathroom break in the middle of the night you don't need or want anywhere the amount of light that's appropriate for searching for a trail marker or spotting the shore from a boat. Brands that have been around for a while like Nitecore and Fenix get this, but a lot of the cheaper ones will give you something like 6 modes from 50 to 600, which is actually pretty useless. I've found one or two from cheap-ish Amazon brands that do this right, but for every one of them there's 50 more that are much more highly rated that don't.
Fascinating.
I own the Anker Boulder (and also the Anker LC90 which apparently preceded it) and both are the best flashlights I have ever owned.
I deliberately avoided the absurdly-high lumen lights that apparently come from Chinese sweatshops.
Thanks for sharing! I work in the building automation field and have to get up to ceiling tiles sometimes so I was looking for a solid flashlight
This sort of thing is what got me obsessed with batteries because I was testing obviously fake capacities advertised on amazon battery packs. This has been happening for at least a decade. :/
So you're saying that if a battery pack is the size of a USB flashdrive and claims to have more KW hours than a tesla battery it's not legit? ;^)
this is why i just bought eneloops in the end
A lot of these lights seem like pretty good deals once you have someone like this to actually show you what they really do. It's too bad these companies can't just be honest.
Gotta love Anker's honesty. Great brand
I would be interested in seeing how Maglite's LED flashlights perform. Something big, medium, and small like the ML300LX (3X D), Mini Mag Pro (2x AA), and the Solitaire (1X AAA). They aren't big for lumens but are known for durability and put all the numbers right on the face of the package.
The MiniMag Pro was such a disappointment for me; fell about six feet and never recovered. Replaced, and the replacement simply stopped working one day.
I agree with Eulogy; had two of the mini ones at work, both were dead after a couple of months. And the lifetime warranty conveniently does not extend to the LED.
Maglite was big once - but only by lack of serious competition.
The only one I still have is a desert tan MAG-TAC.
.
I now mostly use Nitecore, Thrunite, Olight, Astrolux.
And BLF GT of course. 😁
I still have 3 mini mags from 20 or so years ago. Talk about durability they made it through my dumbass teenage years, falls, water, leaking batteries you name it. I just use the cheapy led lights most of the time nowadays cause they tend to grow legs and walk off.
I have had a 3 D cell Maglite with incandescent bulb for 30 years. I used it as a tucker to see from the cab if the pull trailer wheels were turning. I sometimes also used it to check tire pressure by whacking them. The flashlight had low expectations and it has met them for decades now.
I used to work security and was on some pretty dark sites. I finally decided to purchase a decent flashlight online and started with Amazon. I admit, not the best place to look, I had a budget and was not convinced with what I saw.
After three days of online searching, I finally found a brand I had never heard of, but had really high ratings for their products. I searched their website and finally decided to purchase a small handheld light that advertised 3000 lumens, water resistant, shock and drop resistant, and had a rechargeable 5000mh 21700 battery for $80. Granted, I was skeptical of the purchase because I felt like I might have just bought into a scam.
Two days later it arrived and I began looking it over and testing it. Let's just say that I nearly blinded myself because I was accidentally pressing down on the button. I immediately knew at that moment I had made an excellent purchase. The light is well worth the money spent. I highly recommended it to other security officers, friends, and family, and still do to this day.
So if you want a great flashlight, I highly recommend getting the Fenix E35. You won't regret it.
All of the Fenix flashlights I've seen were excellent in both build quality and performance.
@@jameswarner7435 definitely built well, and not very well known. I plan on buying another when I have a chance. Well worth it.
Fenix is a real company that aspires to be the next streamlight, unlike Amazon specials
Fenix is a reputable brand that's been around for a while.
At $100 I would hope so.
Thank you so much for calling out amazons BS. I don’t have the resources as you do test every light.
I appreciate you to the max for this video. Now I just have to like and subscribe to show appreciation.
Have you guys ever tested that one from the infomercial, where they light stuff on fire with it?
One of my "favorite" things about amazon is just how specific "Amazon's Choice" can be. For example, that RECHOO LED flashlight is "Amazon's Choice" in "Handheld Flashlights by RECHOO". Suspiciously specific, that!
Always remember Amazon only wants your money, they do not care about you. I assume anything they recommend is what they got paid by the company to recommend. I try hard to avoid anything they recommend.
Thank you so much for protecting consumers with this amazing content. I hope Amazon sees this.
Amazon seeing this would change nothing. Big companies care ONLY about profit. Until they are forced to tell the truth by heavy fines or rebelling consumers, they will keep lying.
I love these kinds of videos. It helps out greatly like project farm,a channel I HIGHLY RECOMMEND for everything tool related and more.
11:10 with that car LOL. Thanks for doing these tests, I've been looking at lights and it's clear that like every other product on Amazon the market is flooded with falsely advertised Made in China junk.
Amazon has become absolutely terrible for buying various stuff. Same produce, different name, different supplier, all crap, all chinese. Hell, we're arming the most evil racist turdbag nation with the power to kill what we believe in, freedom and fairness. I should really cancel my amazon.
Best flashlights I've owned (personally) are the emisar D4V2, sofirn SC31, and sofirn SP36. Pocket melters lol
yes they are like my Fenix LR35R but a tad weaker
yeah sofirn is killing it with value
Ah, so here is the comment section for the enlightened.
Can't wait for my D1 mini to come next week 😁
D4v2 - 4000 lumens in a flashlight smaller than any of the ones in the test? You're making me excited already. Don't make me buy a third one ;)
@@migacz112 I'm at 18 Hanklights (Emisar and Noctigon) and counting. I think they are the absolute sweet spot for quality and price. Also, unlike most brands, Hank Wang, the owner, answers every email sent to him personally within a day. I don't know how he does it. A D4V2 with 4x 519A emitters is around $60 and it is beautiful (RGB aux leds) and tough.
You guys need to test some old school Q-beams. I remember having 1 million candlepower as a kid and lighting up the world! Maybe candlepower is better than lumen power?
That's back before lying to the moon was the norm. Pretty much every cheap product on Amazon sold in high quantities from random brands has fake stats.
If it's a tool, the power is a lie.
If it's a power inverter the output is a lie
If it's a generator the max output is a lie
If it's a radio or amplifier the power is a lie... And on and on.
They just let these random import brands put whatever they want on the package. Which is why I largely avoid them unless I know what I'm looking for and just ignore their stats.
Never had a q beam but I've heard positive things about them. Probably a long gone brand now?
@@volvo09 I honestly have no idea. Since I got more into cars than hunting, I really haven’t had a need for them.
Lumins are a measure of candela over an area of 65.5°
I don't remember what I had I used as a delivery driver. I could give my dogs dogs a heck of a workout in the backyard while drinking a beer too.
lumen is the total light output while candela is the intensity.
so a 1000 lumen flashlight with 80K CD would be a tight spot long range "spotting" flashlight while a 1000 lumen 15K CD would be a floodlight flashlight with wide spread and low range
Thank you for taking one for the team!
And doing the work on testing these!👍😃
I was also wondering this for a while now,
When I saw all the different light's on Amazon.
With all the wild claims on brightness and distance range!
I'm ready anointed that it is hard to see what the actual Watt is of the LEDs and the type they are using!
And the mAh capacity of the battery!
A lot of times they are not very transparent and clear in the product discription!
Last time I bought a flashlight was in the 90s. Recently, I got one of those cheap overly rated flashlights, and was blown away by how much better they were. And now I'm being told that these are considered junk. Now I am oddly excited to go flashlight shopping lol
It's not that they're junk. They exaggerate how bright they actually are. But they're still bright and much better/brighter than their 90s counterparts.