Light for Life UC3.400 flashlight will last a really, really long time

These are tough, dangerous times, so if you're in the market for a flashlight it's probably true that you want it to be rugged enough to get your money's worth, and to hold up under whatever world-ending abuses you and (and your torch) may encounter. Enter 5.11 Tactical's Light for Life UC3.400 -- a flashlight whose three LEDs take 90 seconds to charge and have 90 minutes of uptime. Even more interesting (especially to thrifty health nuts), the LEDs are apparently rated for "more than 50,000 charge cycles," which is... oh... 130 years, assuming you use it once every single day. Sure, the claim is pretty much unprovable and highly suspicious, but let's just say we know what we're getting our vampire friends for the holidays this year.

[Via UberReview]

[Jason @ Nov 11th 2008 9:21AM]

50,000 hours = 5.7 years, no?

[Phil Perman @ Nov 11th 2008 9:30AM]

If you read the press release, it all gets a bit confusing. The LED's are only actually rated to 50,000 hours, whereas the rest of the internal components are rated to 50,000 cycles, each of which gives you 90 minutes of light, and if you do that once a day will last you 130 years.

You would, however, have to change the LED's a few times to make it last that long

[Ayman @ Nov 11th 2008 9:31AM]

"more than 50,000 charge cycles," not hours, multiply that by 90min of up time & you get more than 75,000 hours

[Flashpoint @ Nov 11th 2008 9:32AM]

BUT, can you beat someone over the head reliably with it?

[James Dumoulin @ Nov 11th 2008 5:31PM]

8.561643836years of constant life time(if you don't count the 90 sec charging every time)

(((90*50000)/60)/24)365

90minuts * 50 000charges devided by 60(60 minutes in 1 hour) devided by 24 (24 hours in a day) devided by 365(365 days in the worst case senario)

[kidcanuck @ Nov 20th 2008 4:37AM]

Which is more than enough time for me to lose it!

[Magallanes @ Nov 11th 2008 9:22AM]

how much lumen?.

[Brad @ Nov 11th 2008 9:25AM]

5.11 Tactical also makes some pretty sweet pants. Praised by Andy Ihnatko awhile back, I can corroborate his satisfaction in their construction and design. The mini-pocket on the left, which was apparently designed to hold a magazine clip, actually fits an iPhone perfectly.

[Xenoterranos @ Nov 11th 2008 9:51AM]

As awesome as their pants are, they're known for their boots. The original 8" striker is still my favorite boot of all time. Hella expensive though.

[pfromg @ Nov 11th 2008 11:51AM]

>Praised by Andy Ihnatko awhile back

And that matters ?

A: I have never heard of Andy Ihnatko.
B I do hope you dont try to explain who Andy Ihnatko is.

[johnzilla @ Nov 11th 2008 1:58PM]

@prfomg

Thank you.

[jakeismoney @ Nov 11th 2008 9:26AM]

They claim a peak of 270 lumens, with a standard of 90. It also has a tactical strobe mode.

http://www.511tactical.com/lightforlife.html

[Rev. Matt oxley @ Nov 11th 2008 9:30AM]

270 lumens isnt a whole lot is it?

www.ragingrev.com

[Charles R Hamilton @ Nov 11th 2008 9:44AM]

270 lumens is very bright. Beats the hell out of your ordinary 3 cell maglite.

[MardiGras Bandit @ Nov 11th 2008 10:00AM]

According to Night-Ops and the last Brigade Quartermaster catalog, 90 lumens is enough to cause "an opponent immediate, severe psychological stress", so this flashlight is likely able to cause deep seeded depression...

...when you realize you spent $170 on a 5.11 flashlight. High speed flashlight with colors and IR + years worth of batteries = still a lot cheaper then this.

[Jake @ Nov 11th 2008 9:34AM]

They claim a peak of 270 lumens, with a standard of 90. It also has a tactical strobe mode.

http://www.511tactical.com/lightforlife.html

[jakeismoney @ Nov 11th 2008 9:41AM]

270 lumens is very, very bright for a small flashlight. Even 90 is pretty strong...

[csmitty @ Nov 11th 2008 10:18AM]

Its actually not a small light judging from the brochure and the actor/cop holding it. I thought it was smaller as well. So the $170 tag seems inline. Especially if it really charges in 90 secs. I'd get one for that alone. The maglite rechargeable is 218 lumens and NiCD so I bet it takes hours.

I might pre order. I need a light for the truck and both my maglites refuse to work.

[Doug @ Nov 12th 2008 12:55AM]

This light is about the size of a 3 Cell Maglight. They call this the "duty" light. Future models will include a midsize version that will be smaller.

[rajun50 @ Nov 11th 2008 10:04AM]

That's a strange looking cell phone...

[gonintendo @ Nov 11th 2008 10:09AM]

Sure?

[simon @ Nov 11th 2008 10:10AM]

'a flashlight whose three LEDs take 90 seconds to charge'
'the LEDs are apparently rated for "more than 50,000 charge cycles,"'
...
Did I miss the invention of LEDs which are capable of storing charge?

[Dee @ Nov 11th 2008 10:11AM]

Nice looking flashlight but doubtful it would be too useful in an emergency. Like the massive blackout back in 2003 which lasted a few days. This thing would only have a 90 minute shine. After that, it would need to be recharged. Unless you had a generator running, you would need to go looking for those good old batteries operated flashlight or candles.

[Chris Houston @ Nov 11th 2008 10:14AM]

"three LEDs take 90 seconds to charge"

I'd like to see how they charge a LED!

It's the torch battery that is being charged, which then powers the LED's, come on Engadget :)

[Spencer @ Nov 11th 2008 10:18AM]

When it says the LED's are rated to 50,000 hours, it means that after 50,000 hours they dim to 80% or 75% or something around that. They aren't shot after that time.

[phanbouy @ Nov 11th 2008 10:28AM]

Not a shot in the dark?

[leo @ Nov 11th 2008 3:17PM]

wow phanbouy, really REALLY pushing it there. Actually, yeah..... you pushed it over. kthxbye

[Nicolas Tejera @ Nov 11th 2008 10:51AM]

50.000 hours of lifetime for the LEDs, would be 5.7 years (not 130)...not long enough to stand if tough times are coming.

[butts @ Nov 11th 2008 11:30AM]

The 90-second charge time and 50,000 cycles is easily explained by the Supercapacitors they are using as "batteries". They charge very quickly, and since they store charge electrostatically and not chemically, they do not degrade with charge cycles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercapacitor

[Kevin @ Nov 11th 2008 12:20PM]

sells for this light will go way down once alot of pp buy it... the light last too long.

[ZaxCG2 @ Nov 11th 2008 12:53PM]

Isn't that the flashlight you use in Doom 3?! That would explain why it never died.

[spammerblackhole-engadget @ Nov 11th 2008 1:17PM]

The link on FlashlightNews.com (http://flashlightnews.org/story1762.shtml) also says that a 90 minute charge lasts for 23.5 hours. Then they state that that is 98% uptime. That makes for some funky math unless they have the light on for part of the time they are charging it. :-)

[jbcaro @ Nov 11th 2008 1:46PM]

90 second charge time is great if you happen to have a power source to charge it. But what if the power is out and you need to use the flashlight? How long will it hold a charge after being fully charged so that in the event of a power outage you have a flashlight that actually works? I didn't see the answer to those questions on the web link.

[jakeismoney @ Nov 11th 2008 2:21PM]

Maybe they'll bundle an accessory hand-crank charger with it.

[Maxx @ Nov 11th 2008 4:01PM]

Vampires can see in the dark. This would be a poor choice for a gift.

[Mike W @ Nov 11th 2008 5:03PM]

It's Still not as good as a SureFire.

[Doug @ Nov 12th 2008 12:57AM]

SureFire makes some great lights, but they don't make anything that's powered by Super capacitors and has a 90 second recharge time.

[Mike W @ Nov 12th 2008 2:03AM]

True...

[Greg M @ Nov 11th 2008 5:30PM]

The Lite For Life comes with a DC charger so if the power is out just charge it from an automobile! I've seen it work!

[james @ Nov 11th 2008 5:39PM]

I like my 3W LED Maglite, $23 at Home Depot. Add a set of Eneloop low self discharge rechargeable AA's and a charger and I've got a nice compact, bright, durable flashlight that I can pop ordinary AA batteries into in a pinch.

[DarkLight @ Nov 11th 2008 5:49PM]

OK, am I the only one flashaholic here?

You all obviously don't know what you're talking about, and probably have never seen a real tactical high-power LED flashlight.

If you've not heard of 18650 batteries, you certainly don't know them...

And this is not one. This fits in the Maglite's category: Marketing BS.

[DarkLight @ Nov 11th 2008 5:51PM]

Just so you get the idea, the real flashlights I'm talking about, with SSC P7 emitters can reach 900 lumen

[DarkLight @ Nov 11th 2008 5:53PM]

And yes, with 18650 batteries they last LONG (I'm talking 2 hours full intensity)... Those are not common batteries you can buy at a store, of course

[Reason @ Nov 11th 2008 10:31PM]

Yeah seriously.. I just purchased my first "real" flash light... It uses a Cree Q5 and 2 CR123A batteries.. I'm thinking about trying to drop in a MC-E in parallel and a multimode driver from Kaidomain... That would be a killer light in a small package :).. (btw, I don't really care much about the beam profile yet)

[NetMage @ Nov 11th 2008 8:14PM]

Totally missed the point. The LEDs in most of my flashlights are rated for a very long time, but rechargeable batteries only last a thousand charges or so until their capacity decreases. The energy storage in this light charges a lot more cycles and in 90 seconds.

If the iPhone could have used it, no one could have complained about the non-removable battery.

[Wwhat @ Nov 11th 2008 9:43PM]

Doesn't have a ring for a wriststrap? What if a grizzly wipes at it? Bit of a flawed design if it doesn't allow for a wrist strap I think.
Sure it comes with a nylon thing to put it on a belt, but that's not the same really

[Doug Adler @ Nov 12th 2008 1:00AM]

It will have a groove on the main body near the back that will allow you to add attachments and a wrist strap if you so desire. Problem is, if you add a wrist strap on the back, you'll have to take it off for charging as the light goes tail end first into the charger.

[Grant @ Nov 16th 2008 8:55AM]

Are you suggesting Engadget never did their research? Never.

[Samboini @ Nov 11th 2008 1:39PM]

That's simply dazzling!

[Martin @ Nov 17th 2008 12:06PM]

For those looking to secure one of the new 5.11 light for life torches you can make a pre-order here:

www.nightgear.co.uk

Apologies for the blatant plug, there is a lot of interest in this torch and the first shipment is likely to be completely pre-sold.