LEATHERMAN SERAC S1 FLASHLIGHT
Serac S1 Flashlight, retail $30.00 (www.leatherman.com...)
Manufactured by Leatherman Tool Group (www.leatherman.com)
Last updated 08-18-13
The Leatherman Serac S1 is a small LED flashlight in an almost all-aluminum body, and has a single Nichia 5mm GS-K1 white LED inset into a brushed aluminum "reflector" in its "business-end".
It is powered by a single AAA cell held in its all-aluminum body.
SIZE
To use your spiffy new (or corroded old
) Serac S1, feed it the included AAA cell first, and THEN you'll be ready to rock.
Firmly push the button on the tailcap until it clicks and then release it to turn the flashlight on.
Press & release it the same way again to turn it off.
To change the battery, unscrew and remove the bezel (head), gently place it on the ground, push it to the doorway leading to the basement stairs, and kick it down those stairs so that the hungry, hungry piss ants will think it's something yummy for their insect tummies, find it unpalatable, and take it to the queen -- who just sniffs at it, goes potty on it, and instructs the worker ants to do the same...O WAIT!!! THAT'S THE GOOD PART!!! So just set it aside instead.
Tip the old used-up AAA cell out of the barrel and into your hand, and dispose of or recycle it as you see fit.
Slide a new AAA cell in the flashlight barrel, orienting it so its flat-end (-) negative goes in first.
Finally, screw the bezel firmly back on.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that bezel down the stairs with all those hungry, hungry ants now?
Unable to measure current use due to how the flashlight was constructed.
The flashlight appears to be reasonably sturdy, and it is! Ordinary flashlight accidents should not be enough to do it in. I beat the living tweedle out of it (ten whacks against the concrete floor of the front porch; five whacks against the side of the tailcap and five whacks against the side of the bezel), and found only one spot of very minor gouging to the bare Metalparrotmon - er - the bare Metallillymon - um that's not it either...the bare Metaltogemon...ummm that's not it either...the bare Metalmalomyotismon...er...uh wait a sec here...THE BARE METAL (guess I've been watching too much Digimon again! - now I'm just making {vulgar term for feces} up!!!) on the side of the tailcap where it was struck.
And O NOOOO!!! It stopped working!!! (JUST KIDDING!!! IT WORKS FINE!!!) No optical or electrical malfunctions were detected.
The exterior finish is a Type III hard anodize ("HA-III" as us flashaholics know it), so it should stay new looking for longer, even if it goes up against keys, coins, or other flashlights during storage or transport. Technically speaking, it has a 6061-T6 HA-III aluminum body, and a stainless steel bezel (head). Even the reflector is made from machined aluminum, not plastic like many other flashlights.
The Serac S1 is waterproof and submersible. When I removed the bezel, relieved the flashlight of its battery, and performed that dreadful suction test on the barrel, no air leakage was detected. I clicked the tailcap switch several times while administering suction, and like I just said, no leakage was detected. Therefore, "The Toliet Test" really isn't necessary here, because I'm extremely confident that it would pass this test with flying colors. So if it falls into water, just shake it off and keep going. And if it falls in a dirty water-filled ditch, just douche it off with the garden hose or any other fresh water you have ready access to - good as new.
There is an O-ring on the bezel that engages when the bezel is screwed onto the barrel, so I don't think the Serac S1 will leak from that location.
Actually, I did perform immersion testing.
Here's proof that I really performed "The Toliet Test" on it.
After being submerged in approximately 12" (~30.5cm) of water at 74°F (23.3°C) for one minute, I dried the outside off with some Cleanax brand nasal tissue, unscrewed the bezel, examined both the bottom of the bezel and the inside of the barrel, and no water was found in either location.
No battery rattle can be detected whatsoever when the flashlight is turned on or off, regardless of how vigorously the unit is shaken.
The flashlight can be stood up (a bit precariously, but stood up in any case) on its tail on a dresser, counter, table, or other flat surface and beam onto the ceiling, acting like an electronic candle, even if a wrist lanyard is attached, because the attachment ring for it is not on the bottom of the tailcap, but on the side. As long as the switch button is not damaged or deformed, the flashlight can be used in this fashion.
The light has a distinct bluish tint to it around the central part of the beam, but this is reasonably common in flashlights that use a single 5mm LED, so I really don't consider this to be too much of a negative.
The reflector has a brushed aluminum finish; it is made from 6061-T6 aluminum.
The Serac S1 has regulation circuitry; this simply means that the light output will remain relatively constant throughout most of the battery's life.
According to the Leatherman web page about this flashlight, it is designed for a wide temperature range of -32°F (-35.5°C) to 140°F (60.0°C). The web page does not specify if this is operating or storage temperature however.
This evaluation look eerily similar to the one I made for the Serac S2?
Thought you'd say so.
They're similar enough that I was able to use its web page as a template for this one.
Beam photograph on the test target at 12".
Beam appears significantly more bluish in real life than it does in this photograph.
Measures 35,300mcd on a Meterman LM631 light meter.
Beam photograph on a wall at ~10 feet.
Those rectangular graphic things in the upper right quadrant of this photograph are marquees from:
Sega ''Star Trek''
Atari ''Tempest''
Venture Line ''Looping''
Jaleco ''Exerion''
upright coin-op arcade video games from the 1980s.
And those colored graphics toward the left are my "Viva Piñata" posters.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in this flashlight.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in this flashlight; newest (01-13-13) spectrometer software settings used.
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in this flashlight; newest (01-13-13) spectrometer software settings used. Spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 447nm and 457nm to pinpoint native emission peak wavelength, which is 452.590nm.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/43/seracs1.txt
USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.
Beam cross-sectional analysis.
Image made using the ProMetric System by Radiant Imaging.
TEST NOTES:
Test unit of this flashlight plus two others were sent by M.L. of Leatherman Tools on 09-11-08, and were received late on the evening of my birthday (09-15-08) - I had just finished blowing out 44 candles on my birthday cake when my sister came in from outside with the surprisingly compact package.
The entire shipment of flashlights was received at ~9:07pm PDT - by far the latest any shipment has ever been received.
According to my contact at Leatherman Tool Group:
"Leatherman Serac lights are designed in Portland, Oregon. The lights are manufactured in China. Leatherman's design and manufacturing engineers travel to the manufacturing facilities in China, on a regular basis to oversee production and quality control. Lights are inspected again once they reach the Leatherman facility in Portland, Oregon, before being shipped out to customers."
UPDATE: 00-00-00
PROS:
Impressive warranty period
Extremely durable (not 'bulletproof' but very tough) construction
Waterproof & submersible to shallow depths at minimum
Uses just a single AAA cell
Uses a battery that is easy to find and relatively inexpen$ive
NEUTRAL:
Light has a bluish tinge near beam center; but this is quite common for lights using a single 5mm white LED
CONS:
Could be a bit brighter
MANUFACTURER: Leatherman Tool Group
PRODUCT TYPE: Small handheld flashlight
LAMP TYPE: 5mm Nichia 5mm GS-K1 white LED
No. OF LAMPS: 1
BEAM TYPE: Medium spot w/bluish hotspot and wider, dimmer corona
SWITCH TYPE: "Reverse clicky" pushbutton on/off on tailcap
CASE MATERIAL: Aluminum
BEZEL: Metal; LED inset into brushed aluminum "reflector"
BATTERY: 1x AAA cell
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER RESISTANT: Yes
SUBMERSIBLE: Yes, depth not known
ACCESSORIES: 1x AAA cell, lanyard loop
SIZE: 3.23" (8.20cm) L
WEIGHT: 1.0oz (28.3g)
COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: China
WARRANTY: 10 years
PRODUCT RATING:
Serac S1 Flashlight * www.leatherman.com...
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