Any reviews on dustys lights?

[Reku]

Has anyone used a light made from this guy? I've read a few reviews but I am looking for more. From what I've heard they are fantastic for the price. I'm thinking of buying one or two.

dustys-lights | Veteran Made in the USA

Thanks

 

[BRT]

Look on the Northwest Dive Club forum.

 

[Reku]

Thank you!

 

[tbone1004]

cheap and bright, yes, but the head is huge and that is a deal breaker for me. They also use pretty cheap batteries that are low voltage, 7.2V packs IIRC and that will cause the light to taper off pretty quick. Nice for the price, but you have to ask yourself if you really need that much light and that much burn time for what you're doing.

 

[Reku]

cheap and bright, yes, but the head is huge and that is a deal breaker for me. They also use pretty cheap batteries that are low voltage, 7.2V packs IIRC and that will cause the light to taper off pretty quick. Nice for the price, but you have to ask yourself if you really need that much light and that much burn time for what you're doing.

What does "taper off" mean in this context - I don't understand. The reason I am looking into this light is specifically because they are regarded as being extremely bright while also lasting awhile. Currently I use 2 DRIS 1000 light's and they don't cut enough through the muck where vis is like 5 inches (everything I dive in michigan is low vis), in a few months I was planning on taking cave classes and that's where I would use the brightness and the burn time the most. Do you think this light would be safe to use in an overhead environment with my 2 other lights as backups? Thanks for the response!

 

[tbone1004]

safe sure, just not ideal, especially in a cave. This is what you have to remember about visibility. A good light, no matter how bright it is, or how tight it is, can not make visibility better. It is either there or it isn't. If the vis is 5" because the particulate is so dense, no amount of light will allow you to see through it. In a cave, the big head will be less than ideal, but is what it is. I would recommend going on Cave Divers Forum and perusing the used light section. UWLD-13 and UWLD-15 have tighter beams which are nice, and you can find HID's for pretty cheap on there.

Here are a few problems with that light for what you want. It is too much light for murky water where you will get a lot of backscatter problems. You can't turn it down, and it likely isn't tight enough of a beam to not induce significant backscatter. The low voltage battery pack is also a problem because as the pack voltage drops, so will your total light output, especially towards the end of the pack life. It's a good light for the price, really is, but it won't fix your low vis problem, and it isn't ideal for cave diving. Just my opinion though, plenty of guys are happy with it

 

[Reku]

Wow awesome response. Thanks for the information I'll take all of it into account. I may go poke around the cave fourm for awhile and see what I can find.

 

[fmerkel]

Not sure what tbone's issues are but it would seem like he hasn't actually used the light. I have for 3+ years.
Light head size > it's a standard D-cell Maglite cut down with LED's inserted; 2 1/4"w at the head, 7" long total. If that's too big, so be it.
Batteries used to be 6-cell NiMh. I had one and frankly those were plenty for NW cold water diving. Good for 2 hours on high, 4 hours on med. You can barely tell the difference between hi and med. There is a low good for 8 hours. probably about the same as your backup lights.
He switched to new LED's and now uses a 4-cell lithium ion (2 cells in parallel), for a bit more punch. Run times are about the same, but the cell is smaller. If you need more run time he has a battery 2x the size, and 2x the price. The tech divers required this one.
The light does NOT, repeat NOT taper off during use. When the battery hits 'low' it either strobes (NiMh batteries) or turns off due to protection with the Li-on cells.
I'd call the light a distributed tight beam. Unlike an HID if you drop the head you are not out $100-150. I hate HID lights for real world use. They work great.....when they are working.

FWIW, when (not if) you use up the battery on a 'commercial' light it'll cost you $100-200 likely. Dusty light use standard off the rack type packs costing about $50. The charger is simple and something like $20. Both are simple and solid, key features he puts in his lights.
The lights have become almost a 'standard' in Puget Sound for active divers. As you might know our waters are cold and visibility is often not great. The lights are straightforward, well made, and reliable. They may not suit everyone's purpose, but if they do it's hard to get a better deal in that type of light.

Many of the active divers (50+ dives/year) in our club use them and have been doing so for years. I've never heard of anyone needing anything more than a new battery. My wife and I are still going on original batteries, both NiMh and Li-on in 3+ years of diving them almost every weekend.

 

[RVBldr]

The lights have become almost a 'standard' in Puget Sound for active divers. As you might know are waters are cold and visibility is often not great. The lights are straightforward, well made, and reliable. They may not suit everyone's purpose, but if they do it's hard to get a better deal in that type of light.

Pretty much concur with the above with lots of these lights in use here in the Seattle' green water. There are better lights, but at twice the price for sure. I've got 90 dives on my Dusty's with no issues and it does give you a couple hours of use. The beam could be a bit narrower, but it does a decent job locally and holds up very well. In clear water the supplied diffuser would come in handy but around here I just use it to protect the lens on the surface.

 

[tbone1004]

my light is just under 2" OD by about 2.75" long, so that's where I'm coming from. It's a significant advantage. If he's gone to a 4s2p battery pack at 14.8V that's a serious increase from 7.2v, but if it's still a 7.2v pack, it will not be able to maintain max brightness for very long due to the pack voltage dropping with the LED's.