SPORT UTILITY LIGHT (SUL)

Sport Utility Light (SUL), retail $19.95 (www.liquilite.com)
Manufactured by Liquilite (www.liquilite.com)
Last updated 07-28-06




The Sport Utility Light ("SUL") by Liquilite is a sports bottle with a hidden secret: it sports an LED flashlight with two brightness levels and three signalling modes available from a single pushbutton on its side.

You can affix the bottom piece (which contains the LED flashlight) to the bottle so the LEDs face up inside the bottle or so they face down so you can use the SUL like a flashlight.


SIZE



To use your new SUL, feed it first (see directly below), and then you can go to town.

The bottle itself holds 22oz (250ml) of liquid; such as water, juice, cool-aid, milk, pop, or whatever you wish. You can either unscrew and remove the top and drink directly from the bottle, or lift up on the little spout on top and squirt the liquid into your mouth.

To use the light, press and release the button on the side of the blue portion at the bottom once for low mode, again for high mode, again for slow blink, again for SOS (three faster blinks, three slower blinks, three faster blinks, then a pause where no light is emitted; repeat), again for strobe mode, and again for off.

You can take the bottom off and reinstall it the other way to use the product as a flashlight - you don't need to put this piece on the bottle in order to use it as a flashlight.

The SUL comes with a generous lanyard with a spring-loaded "dog collar" clip affixed to it; this lanyard may be clipped to the ring near the top of the bottle specifically for that purpose.



To change the batteries in your SUL when necessary, look on the bottom of the blue piece for a rectangular door affixed by two screws. This is the battery door. Using a medium phillips or standard screwdriver, loosen the two screws. They are captive, so they will not come out of the battery door where they could become lost.

Remove the battery door, gently place it on the ground, and kick it into the garden so the praying mantids will think it's something to eat and strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

If necessary, remove and dispose of or recycle the three used AAA cells from the battery compartment as you see fit.

Insert three new AAA cells into the battery compartment, orienting them so their flat-ends (-) negative face the springs in the compartments for them.

Place the battery door back over the opening, and tighten the two screws firmly, but not overly tight.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that battery door into the garden with all those hungry, hungry praying mantids now?



This is a sports bottle with a light on it (a piece that attaches to the base), not a flashlight designed to be used every day and thrashed and abused, so I won't try to drown it in the toilet, smash it against a concrete sidewalk, throw it against a wall, stomp on it, sit down hard on it, or otherwise abuse it. So this portion of the web page will be somewhat more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight who's sole purpose in life is to be a flashlight.

(Update 12-16-05: I have been given explicit written permission to perform some of the more abusive tests on this product...please stand by for my findings.

(Update 12-16-05: I administered that terrible smack test on the base of the unit (fifteen whacks against the corner of a concrete stair; five whacks against the side of the unit, five against the top, and five against the bottom), and found the expected damage. There is some very minor gouging on the side of the product and on the top and bottom of the product where it was struck. No optical or electrical malfunctions were detected.

This is more severe punishment than the typical user would expose the unit to, so I'm confident that the SUL will not malfunction or become broken just through casual handling or accidents.

I did not abuse the sports bottle portion of the unit because I already know what the outcome would be: very minor scuffing of its exterior surfaces at worst.

(Update 12-16-05: Ok, I gave "The Smack Test" to the bottle itself, and after ten whacks against the corner of a concrete stair (five whacks against the blue top, and five whacks against the side of the bottle), no damage whatsoever was found.

I believe the bottle and top are diswasher-safe in the top rack, but the base (the blue thing with the LEDs, switch, and batteries in it) is not.

The base is at least water-resistant, but it is *NOT* waterproof or submersible. When I performed that dreadful suction test on the switch, significant air leakage was detected. So please try not to drop it in creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, oceansides, docksides, puddles of grey mouse pee, slush piles, mud puddles, tubs, toilet bowls, cisterns, sinks, fishtanks, dog water dishes, or other places where water or water-like liquids might be found. A little rain or snow probably wouldn't hurt it though, so you need not be too concerned about using it in moderately bad weather.

If it fell in water and you suspect it got flooded, disassemble it as you would for a battery change, dump the water out if necessary, and set the parts in a warm dry place for a day or so just to be sure it's completely dry inside before you reassemble and use it again.

If it fell into seawater or if somebody or something peed on it, douche all the parts out with fresh water before setting them out to dry. You don't want your SUL to smell like seashells or urine when you go to use it next. Besides, salt (from seawater or pee) can't be very good for the insides.



Photograph of the product lit at full intensity, with water in it.


Beam photograph on the test target at 12".
Measures 21,300mcd (low) and 89,800mcd (high) on a Meterman LM631 light meter.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrometer plot of the LEDs in this product.
Ocean Optics USB2000 Spectrometer on loan from TWO-CUBED.


Quicktime movie of the S.O.S. mode (.MOV format) of the Liquilite.
This clip is approximately 3.8 megabytes (3,982,136 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than fifteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.


Quicktime movie of strobe mode (.MOV format) of the Liquilite.
This clip is approximately 1.7 megabytes (1,851,712 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than five minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide them in other formats, so please do not ask.



TEST NOTES:
Test unit was sent by Troy of Liquilite and was received on the morning of 12-07-05.

Product was made in China. A product's country of origin really does matter to some people, which is why I published it on this web page.


UPDATE: 00-00-00



PROS:
Decent brighness
Multiple lighting modes
Can be used as both a lantern *AND* a flashlight
Uses batteries that are common and relatively inexpensive


CONS:
Not too water-resistant - SHOULD BE for a SPORTS BOTTLE!!!


    MANUFACTURER: Liquilite
    PRODUCT TYPE: Multipurpose flashlight/signalling device/water bottle
    LAMP TYPE: 5mm white LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 3
    BEAM TYPE: Medium spot with soft corona
    SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/mode change/off on side of base
    BEZEL: Plastic; LEDs & reflector protected by plastic window
    BATTERY: 3xAAA cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
    WATER RESISTANT: Splash-resistant at minimum
    SUBMERSIBLE: No
    ACCESSORIES: Lanyard, 3 AAA cells
    WARRANTY: 1 year

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating





Sport Utility Light (SUL) * www.liquilite.com






Do you manufacture or sell an LED flashlight, task light, utility light, or module of some kind? Want to see it tested by a real person, under real working conditions? Do you then want to see how your light did? If you have a sample available for this type of real-world, real-time testing, please contact me at ledmuseum@gmail.com.

Please visit this web page for contact information.

Unsolicited flashlights appearing in the mail are welcome, and it will automatically be assumed that you sent it in order to have it tested and evaluated for this site.
Be sure to include contact info or your company website's URL so visitors here will know where to purchase your product.


WHITE 5500-6500K InGaN+phosphor 
ULTRAVIOLET 370-390nm GaN 
BLUE 430nm GaN+SiC
BLUE 450 and 473nm InGaN
BLUE Silicon Carbide
TURQUOISE 495-505nm InGaN
GREEN 525nm InGaN 
YELLOW-GREEN 555-575mn GaAsP & related
YELLOW 585-595nm
AMBER 595-605nm
ORANGE 605-620nm
ORANGISH-RED 620-635nm
RED 640-700nm
INFRARED 700-1300nm
True RGB Full Color LED
Spider (Pirrahna) LEDs
SMD LEDs
True violet (400-418nm) LEDs
Agilent Barracuda & Prometheus LEDs
Oddball & Miscellaneous LEDs
Programmable RGB LED modules / fixtures
Where to buy these LEDs 
Links to other LED-related websites
The World's First Virtual LED Museum
Legal horse puckey, etc.
RETURN TO OPENING/MAIN PAGE
LEDSaurus (on-site LED Mini Mart)



This page is a frame from a website.
If you arrived on this page through an outside link,you can get the "full meal deal" by clicking here.