[EU] Cheap night dive torch in Europe / UK

[Checkout87]

Hi all,

Long time lurker here . I have a question about night dive torches.

The liveaboard that I'm about to go on doesn't rent out torches so I have to bring my own (+ backup). This is only for night dives (and maybe lighting-up dark areas during day dives but that's a secondary concern). I do not do any video / filimg and am keen to stay on budget as I am buying a lot of gear at the moment.

Does anybody has good recommendations for a night dive torch around the £150 ($200) mark?

I have read a lot of threads here but most are US and with shipping + taxes it makes these uncompetitive.

Thank you.

 

[stepfen]

Welcome to SB.
Personally I have never spend big money for torches. There are so many Chinese ones around that to me it doesn't worth it. I currently use this one:

34.06€ 50% OFF|Sofirn SD05 Scuba Diving Flashlight XHP50.2 21700 Lantern 3000lm IPX8 Waterproof Magnetic Ring Orange Peel Reflector 18650 Torch|LED Flashlights| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

I took the 21700 battery kit and the battery is very good too. It is supposed to be 4000mAh and should easily get you 1 hour at full power. The torch also works with the more popular 18650 batteries but haven't tried them so I don't know how long it will last.
Quality overall is quite good.
I would just buy 2 (or even 3 - why not?) of those.

 

[minos2014]

Hello.My friend. I am about to recommend the S20 dive light, Is a very budget dive light and super bright

Here you can order from chinascuba shop

 

[Wibble]

I bought several cheap and nasty Chinese torches from the likes of eBay. They all failed within a short time. That's a bit of a generalisation, but alas was true for me.

Maybe there's some better ones around nowadays. Don't be suckered in to believe they're all a bargain and wonderful.

My backup torches, clipped to my harness, are Ammonite LED1 and LED2. They're AA and C-cell batteries and work reliably after many hundreds of dives over many years. There's variants of them with rechargable batteries -- think they're Stingray.

The Apeks torches are overpriced. They look like they bought out the rights from Exposure who made a few small diving torches.

 

[Erik Forsberg]

I am a huge advocate for the @XTAR D26 Whale, the "1100 lumen" version.

I own three and they are pretty cheap. I bought mine for $40, but prices has gone up a bit since.
They have been rock solid for the last 4 years and 60 dives and the only way to break one of them was when my son took it and used it as a hammer

The super big advantages are that they use a magnetic switch that is lockable and that they use 26650 batteries and not 18650, which is the norm.
I can easily do two full dives with the light on max the entire time without it running out of batteries and I charged it every night on a liveaboard, so I could get three day dives + one night dive out of a single charge.

I wholeheartidly endorse the D26 Whale ( the full black version), but I have heard that the newer D26 with the blue ring on them are a bit more flimsy.

Cheers,

 

[Checkout87]

Ok thanks for all the advice guys. Ended up buying some orcatorches and am pretty happy with them. Weren't cheap but feel like decent quality.