Bogus Dive Light Claims?

[Eric Sedletzky]

DRIS1000 3C handheld measures about 250 lumens. I have this light and mesaured it. Typical alkine C cell can sustained about 1-1.5A of draw. The LED can therotically output 1000 lumen if you put 3+A into it, which C cell can't do. And not to mention anyone put 3A into that Cree, what will be the service life. You can decide if this is BS or not.

What you see also says a real 250 lumen is actually lot of light for average nigh fun dive.

Wow!
That was “enlightening”

 

[Rick_C]

Thanks for all the detailed posts. Great info and very helpful!

For people checking in that aren’t watching the video in detail here’s a recap:

1. Ocean Quest manual claims a run time of 1.5 – 3 hours on high level with 18650 batteries. SCUBA.com states “Up to three hours” but, the light only ran for 57 minutes in bucket test.

Yes, I think everyone is correct that the package the light came with included crap batteries and charger, but the posted performance claims seem unattainable with any 18650 battery/charger.

2. The light appears to be designed for the larger 26550 lithium rechargeable, but nowhere at SCUBA.com does it provide this option. As a matter of fact, in the question/answer SCUBA.com someone asked about 26550 and SCUBA.com replied that the MFR only recommends 18650 Lithium ION

The performance claims listed seem achievable with 26550 lithium rechargeable batteries, but not with the 18650’s included with the light

3. As a side test, I compared the brightness of the Ocean Quest 3600 lumen to my OrcaTorch 2500 lumen. While I don’t have a way to accurately measure lumens the OrcaTorch appeared much brighter.

So, in addition to the very inaccurate runtime claims, lumen claims also appear to be very misleading.

 

[noj3333]

@tbone1004, can you recommend a good charger that would charge and test both AA Li-Ion Rechargeables and 18650's? What about a recommendation for a source for good 18650's too?

 

[tbone1004]

@noj3333 any of the liion chargers should charger the 14500/aa size batteries.
I use this one, but I'm sure there's others out there
Opus BT-C3100 Charger/Battery Tester

 

[noj3333]

Source for batteries as well, do you buy them from the same site... about to put an order in...

 

[tbone1004]

@noj3333 I do yeah, too hard to find any other reliable source

 

[noj3333]

Ty, appreciate it!

**Edit**

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I just picked up:

Four batteries...
"Protected Panasonic/Sanyo NCR18650GA 3500mAh 10A 18650 Button Top Battery"

A cheaper charger (hope it works well, I don't need all the bells and whistles)...
"Nitecore New I2 2 Bay Li-ion Battery Charger"

And, two 18650 plastic cases for safer transportation...

Again, thanks for the information...

 

[fmerkel]

The Opus is great. I have one. I also have a Zanflare C4 and Liitokala Lii-500. They may a little less expensive, a tad easier to use, but less powerful with fewer charge options. All are analyzing chargers and superior to the simplistic chargers you get with lights. The internal resistance function on the Lii-500 is garbage, otherwise a fine charger.

Some folks don't like the little fan on the Opus. It can be noisy and being tiny (and cheap) can fail. But, the fan does cool which allows the Opus to have extra power. Discharging and fast charging can produce a lot of heat. Heat is the enemy of li-on. Fan is pretty easy to replace and/or lube. I've replaced mine with a superior unit but kept the old one going by lubing it for years.

These are other good li-on sources:
Earth's #1 source for IMR 18650 Batteries, Chargers, Cases & Wraps | IMRbatteries.com
Mountain Electronics

You certainly can use a 26650 in the light if it fits and makes proper contact. The negative canned response is a clear indicator that they don't have a clue what they are doing. No surprise there.

 

[Rick_C]

For 18650 and 26650 Lion Batteries I've had some good luck with illumn.com and orbtronic.com
There are also some good sellers on ebay but you have to make sure to dodge all the fake ones.

 

[tbone1004]

@noj3333 The Nitecore is fine, I have one of their 4-bay chargers and use it often, it just doesn't have test mode. I would have gone with a 4 bay charger since you bought 4 cells, but if you're travelling it's a bit bulkier. Much easier to just throw them all on the charger at once for me though. They also will charge a pair of 26650's if you have any of those and the 2 bay chargers often won't.

@fmerkel I'll have to keep an eye on my fan. It is rather annoying when it runs since it's small and high RPM, but haven't had the bearings go on it yet