You can buy our 680 lumen light, a hand mount and a bunch of batteries for well below your budget....
680 Lumen Dive Light | MAKO Spearguns
I Need A New Dive Light!!!
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You can buy our 680 lumen light, a hand mount and a bunch of batteries for well below your budget....
680 Lumen Dive Light | MAKO Spearguns
spoolin01
Contributor
Nice light, esp with the hard mount. Can you characterize burn time with rechargeables? Can a single 18650 be substituted for the CR123s? The size of this light is nice for the claimed lumens, I just don't think CR123 batteries are worth messing with.You can buy our 680 lumen light, a hand mount and a bunch of batteries for well below your budget....
680 Lumen Dive Light | MAKO Spearguns
Thanks for the positive comments! To be honest, we have not tested the light with rechargeable batteries and we do not sell them either.
If you want to buy rechargeable batteries, you should probably look for the A123 replacements. From our understanding, there is a wide variety in the quality and capacity of rechargeable batteries and i'm not comfortable giving recommendations on them.
If you want to buy rechargeable batteries, you should probably look for the A123 replacements. From our understanding, there is a wide variety in the quality and capacity of rechargeable batteries and i'm not comfortable giving recommendations on them.
beanojones
Contributor
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Is that the substitution?
One 18650 for two cr123s?
I'm lost with these new fangled batteries.
lemke
Contributor
In reference to quality batteries, Panasonic is one of the best. Stay away from anything with "FIRE" in the name.
spoolin01
Contributor
Me too. It gets more complicated than I can follow so far, with the differences in voltages, chemistries, non-standardized sizing within 'sizes', and driver circuitry all affecting usability. I like the size of the light for speargun use though.
Triker
Registered
Look at Atorch's line. My LDS sold me the TC05, a rechargeable light which I have loved so far. There were some quality control issues at first, but his distributor stood behind them and it now appears they have the bugs squashed.
K
KeithG
Guest
Thanks for the post. Lots of useful info in the responses.
I am looking for an upgrade replacement for my divebuddy's monster RCD8 (yep - 8 D cells! Old school. Big & Heavy!). My RCD8 is now a spare since I use the target lights on my camera strobes for night dives. Unfortunately, her RCD8 keep on running.
I tried the elcheapo China dive light via eBay route, but I am stuffing that $40 sucker in the kitchen drawer. I am afraid to take it in the shower.
So I want an inexpensive (not cheap!) general purpose light for high viz Caribbean Vacation night dives.
Cheers...
R
redacted
Guest
Yes, the made in China lights can be frustrating and quite a crap shoot. But they do have a lot of power (1000lm +) and they allow you to control it. 1000 lm is great in poor visability (and for a daytime light) but it is way too much for Caribbean night dives. I find 200 - 300 lm to be best in that clear water.
I have made peace with my made in China lights after a couple of flooding incidents. Surprisingly, the batteries tend to take it in the shorts but the electronics seem to survive with a good FW soak and thorough drying. They seem to all come with very low quality, too soft, and sometimes ill fitting o-rings. I start by replacing the battery access o-rings and keep my fingers crossed for the first dive.
The more popular lights with USA distributor names are probably made in China but benefit from some better quality control. But they seem to lack the selectable power settings which I find very useful. I suspect that part of the reason for lacking this feature is it will be the next failure point in time. These things use a small but very powerful magnet in the rotating ring to operate the internal switch. But they rust and eventually fail. The good news is the magnets are also available (on ebay) and not expensive (like 10 magnets for under $5). So you can wait for it to fail or, better yet, inspect it periodically and head off the problem. When you do, make sure you upgrade those o-rings also.
I have been using these made in china lights for about a year now and always carry a couple extra spares but find them hard to beat for price and performance in spite of some reliability problems. I'm still looking for the next manufacturing defect.
GrumpyOldGuy
Contributor
Look at the DRIS 1000 with 3 C batteries. It is all metal, very robust, well made, very bright. Twist on/off means you are unlikely to have it turn on by accident and run the battery down. With the C batteries it is good for 3 night dives plus intermittent use for looking under holes, etc... If you are doing tons of night dives, rechargeable batteries are the way to go, but for intermittent use common C batteries are nice.
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