Light for Life 5.11 Tactical

I have been looking for a replacement for the old banged up Mag-lite. After 20 years of service, tons of batteries and who knows 4-5 bulbs its now banged,scraped up and time to move on. Been looking at all the new polymer tactical bright standard, halogen, xenon, led's in all shapes and sizes which just confused me...man $200+ for flashlights!

The biggest gripe is that a good share of the time the battery is lacking horses or shortly dead when I need it. So that ruled out the one's that burn bright but gone too fast. And I am having nothing with them $$ batteries to sit in my truck. I have a nice small one for my console which fine for a quick torch.

Saw the 5.11 at a show which had me very interested...I mean lifetime no batteries maybe spending the dollars now would pay off after all plus quick charging in the car.

Been searching for a deal then on a auction site I found one and landed a brand new unit for $110 with shipping.

Here is my first month observation:

Good
*Its far lighter than the old Mag-lite with 4D cells. It uses capacitor batteries.
*3 simple switch on, pulse/strobe and high power.
*Charges fast. Came dead plugged in and indicator (which flashes slow to fast then solid once fully charged) showed 100% in two minutes. Yeah, advertised as a 90 second charge! Have yet to test the drain but have used it several times and avoided a recharge.
*No memory on the battery. Rechargeable Mag-lite I bought was $108 and returned after one summer. Everything I've had rechargeable in a year was crap so this guy will get the Arizona test soon.
*No roll hex shaped head...stays put when your trying to work on something.
*All LED and bright. Color is nice and white with a good hot spot and very nice spill. Some of the LED flash lights in low seemed useless I've tried. This gave good lighting and very bright when needed.
*Very nice charging base, solid and made to mount in a vehicle. 12v plug with bluish charging indicator.
*Professional belt ring..if thats your thing. The reflector is thick appears to be polycarbonate and held in place with 6 hex headed screws.
*Lifetime service.

Bad
*The bottom of the flash light is not water proof (water resistant)so if dropped in water you may be screwed. Read in other reviews that rain was OK, nothing on anyone having dropped it in water. Many tactical lights are fine submerged in water. My old Mag-lite was simply water resistant.
*Charging base may collect dirt facing up. Will need removal from time to time in my truck.
*Even though I have never done it. I liked the idea of the 4D/5D cell mag-light being a weapon/tonk tuner. After one bonk it likely would have little use with D cells flying.

The old Mag-lite is headed to my shop for power outs and tight close work. Will update this if I remember well into the summer.

Not a bad review, thanks for sharing.




I'm not usually too fond of rechargeable lights due to the short lifespan of the internal batteries though.

It will be interesting to see what the life cycle is for this light. I know that Lithium Ion batteries have a life cycle of about 3 years starting the day they are manufactured. If the device/battery sits on the shelf for a year then you generally only have about 2 years of battery life. Also good old AZ heat will help send them to an early grave as they like to be stored at lower temps, such as about 40-45* at about 40% charge.

Capacitors are nothing new and are on tons of equipment subjected to heat and decades of service. So these capacitor batteries are supposed to perform the same, that's the plan anyway. They ship it completely dead it charges from 0 to full in 1.5 minutes. There is no loss in cycle so it is warranted for life....we will see.

I have a cordless tool set with Lithium batteries and its better than the older(charge quicker too) but the heat still has taken the life out of them and first summer lower capacity. The cost of replacement batteries made me return it and invest in batteries for the older set.

I understand 5.11 has a smaller one targeted to release this year sometime.

This is a bit long after the original post, but being an engineer I have to add some caveats to current capacitive energy storage technologies.

The charging cycles, yah, that is pretty much unlimited, you can charge it millions of times and it will not degrade much.

Time wise, it will start to go bad, after about 10 to 12 years... in Arizona maybe 10%to 20% faster
still, 8 or 9 years is about 4 or 5 times what I would expect from an everyday use rechargeable battery.

Still good through the summer in my truck plugged in. Its not a flashlight meant to pack away and carry....it discharges fairly fast under 1 hour tops but will rejuvenate in a minute. Its light weight because it does not contain a chemical battery...so its no good for tonk training.

I like it cause I do not need to inventory battery and what stage of use it is. Still have a conventional one also.

Interesting. Might have to check one of these out.