SPIDER FIRE LED FLASHLIGHT

Spider Fire LED Flashlight, retail $55.99 (www.spider-fire.com...)
Manufactured by Spider Fire (www.spider-fire.com)
Last updated 09-13-10




The Spider Fire is an insanely bright, rechargeable LED flashlight. It comes in a metal body, and has a glass window (or "lens" if you prefer, even though it does not modify the light's beam in any manner) protecting its SSC (Seoul Semiconductor) P7 white 5 watt LED and stippled (texturised in an "orange peel" fashion) reflector.

It feeds from a rechargeable 18650 lithium ion (Li:ION) cell, and includes two cells (one to use and one spare) and a charger that is designed to charge either just one cell or both cells at the same time.


SIZE



To use the Spider Fire, feed it one of its included 18650 Li:ION cells first (see directly below), and THEN you can go set fire to the side of a bathtub factory (yes, it's really that bright!!!)

Firmly press the tailcap button until it clicks and then release it to turn the Spider Fire on.
Repeat the same action to turn it off.

There is no momentary or signalling mode available; please do not look for or expect to find one.



The power source in the Spider Fire is a rechargeable lithium ion (Li:ION) 18650 cell, so you never have to worry about purchasing disposable batteries...ever!!!

To charge the battery, unscrew & remove the flashlight's tailcap, gently place it on the floor, and kick it down the stairs so that the hungry, hungry piss ants will think it's something yummy for their insect tummies, drag it to their nest, then find it unpalatable so they just squat over it and pee on it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

Slide the discharged 18650 cell out of the barrel and into your hand.

Pick up the charger, and turn it over. Gently pull the AC prongs so that they're perpendicular with the charger's body (they protrude straight out of the charger's body at a 90° angle).

Insert one or both cells into the charging cradles on the front surface of the charger; orienting them so that their flat-ends (-) negatives face the leaf spring-type contacts for them in the charging cradles, then plug the charger into any standard (in North America anyway) 2- or 3-slot 110 to 130 volts 60Hz AC household receptacle (outlet).

A light below each cell should now come on: red indicates charging is in progress, and green when the charge cycle is complete.

When the light(s) glow green, unplug the charger, and remove the 18650 cell(s).

Slide one cell into the flashlight's barrel, orienting it so that its button-end (+) positive goes in first (toward the flashlight head), and firmly screw the tailcap back on.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that tailcap down the stairs with all of those ants with full bladders now?

Current usage measures 1,813mA (1.813A) on my DMM's 4A scale.



This flashlight appears to be reasonably durable, and it is. When I performed that terrible smack test on it (I beat the devil out of it: 20 whacks against the concrete floor of a patio: 10 smacks against the side of the bezel and 10 smacks against the side of the tailcap), only some rather minor damage was found. There is some fairly minor (significant, but minor) gouging to the bare Metalwargrowlmon - er - the bare Metalburninggreymon - um that's not it either...the bare Metalikkakumon...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 poop} up!!! ) on the sides of the tailcap & bezel where it was struck.
And I think I might have seen the devil fly out of the tailcap after the 6th or 7th hit and make an arc toward the ground.

No optical or electrical malfunctions were detected.

You'll see I gave it 20 smacks instead of the usual 10; this is because I accidentally repeated the test.

The Spider Fire is weather- and splash-resistant, and even submersible to shallow depths for brief periods too, but it is not submersible to depths greater than ~12" under any circumstances. I performed "The Suction Test" on it, and did detect a leak. This leak is quite small (hence the weather- and splash-resistant rating I give it), but the light will ***SLOWLY*** flood if it is dredged in deeper water or if it is left in shallow water for an extended period of time.

The window (or "lens" if you prefer) is made of glass, not plastic.
I determined this via the admittedly crude method of attempting to cut through the poor, helpless, defenseless Spider Fire's window (lens) with the blade of a folding knife.
Needless to say, the attempt failed.
Would I ***REALLY*** try to gouge out the lens of a brand spanken new flashlight that I paid perfectly good money for?
You bet your sweet patootie (sugar-coated toliet muscle) I would, if it's in the name of science.

The barrel has a wide band of knurling (crosshatch-shaped texturising) on it. This means that retention (the ability to hold the flashlight when your hands are cold, oily, or soaked with diet Lime Coke, cool-aid, orange juice, iced tea, bird {vulgar term for feces}, coffee (hot or iced), pee, gasoline, puke {been drinking too much again I see}, ice cold chocolate milkshake, Fanta strawberry soda pop (fizzy or flat), or water) should not be a significant issue here.

The light produced by the Spider Fire is a pure white, with no red, pink, yellow, blue, purple, or "rotten squid urine green" tint to it.
Not in the main beam; not in the corona (spill beam) either.



Beam photograph on the test target at 12".
That "rotten beluga whale urine green" tint you see is a photographic artifact and does not exist in this light's beam.

Measures 4,520,000mcd on a Meterman LM631 light meter.
This intensity isn't because of an especially narrow beam; it really *IS* that bright!!!

This light is advertised to have an intensity of 900 lumens; however you need an instrument called an
integrating sphere to measure light in lumens, and I do not own or have access to one of these instruments.



Beam photograph on a wall at ~10 feet.
The greenish ring at beam perimeter is a camera artifact, and does not actually exist.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in this flashlight.
USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.


ProMetric analysis
Beam cross-sectional analysis.
Image made using the ProMetric System by Radiant Imaging.









TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on Ebay on 07-05-08, and was received at 2:47pm PDT on 07-14-08.

The charger is stated to have an output of +4.2 volts at 600mA.


UPDATE: 02-05-10
I have given this light (plus three others) to my aunt; therefore I no longer have it at my disposal for future analyses or comparisons -- and the dreadful "" icon will now be appended to its listings on this website.


UPDATE: 09-13-10
Product has partially failed, so the relatively new (but still somewhat dreadful) "" will now appear next to its listings on this website.

The actual failure mechanism is unclear, but it comes on only VERY dimly fairly frequently. Cleaning the battery's and flashlight's electrical contacts appears to resolve the issue, but it returns -- usually within several days.

In exchange for this flashlight, I gave my aunt the Ultrafire WF-502B 3W Cree Flashlight.





PROS:



CONS:



    MANUFACTURER: Unknown/TBA
    PRODUCT TYPE: Handheld flashlight
    LAMP TYPE: White SSC P7 LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 1
    BEAM TYPE: Medium spot w/soft corona
    SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/off on tailcap
    CASE MATERIAL: Aluminum
    BEZEL: Metal; glass window protects LED & reflector
    BATTERY: 1x 18650 (2,400mAh) rechargeable Li:ION cell
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: 1,813mA (1.813A)
    WATER RESISTANT: Yes
    SUBMERSIBLE: Yes (to shallow depths for brief periods only)
    ACCESSORIES: Two 18650 Li:ION cells, AC charger, wrist lanyard
    WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating





Spider Fire LED Flashlight * www.spider-fire.com...






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