Ikelite PCm vs PCa, UK SL4, Princeton Surge

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DiverDun

Contributor
Messages
75
Reaction score
3
Location
Ottawa, ON Canada
# of dives
500 - 999
I am a new diver and want to buy a secondary light. Later it will become my backup light. I will use it in murky water and to assist in some ship wrecks.

Has anyone used the PCm light and can you compare it to the PCa, UK SL4 or Princeton Tec Surge in terms of light intensity, reliability and battery life. I like the small size of the PCm and the fact that it only takes 4 AAs.

I would like to use NiMH batteries but I know that Ikelite does not recommend them.

The PCm isn't available yet in my LDS. Does anyone know of a good on-line store in Canada, or one in the States that has cheap shipping rates to Canada.

Thanks
Jim
 
I have both a PCa and PCm, as well as a PrincetonTec Surge. Both of the Ikelite's are great. I keep the PCm in a pocket all the time. It works great on daylight dives for looking into holes, under ledges, or helping in murky water. The PCa is used for night dives, with the PCm as a backup. I can't tell that one is substantially brighter than the other, but the PCm seems to eat batteries faster. I assume this is because it only has 4 batteries instead of 6 like the PCa.

If I was buying lights now I would get two identical so spare parts are interchangable. The bulbs for the PCa and PCm are different.

As for the PrincetonTec light. It makes a great light for around the house, or even on a boat, but don't take it underwater. They have a lifetime warranty on flooded lights. This is good because I never got more than 5 dives out of the light before it flooded. The last one only survived one dive! I have one sitting on my desk waiting to be mailed back for exchange, then it will be land based light.
 
DiverDun:
I would like to use NiMH batteries but I know that Ikelite does not recommend them.

I think the reason they don't recommend NiMH is they give off a small amount of hydrogen gas as they discharge. In a water tight (therefore air tight) space, there is some concern that the hydrogen could build up enough to become explosive. It would most likely happen when switching the light on or off (spark arcing from one contact to another). Probably not a huge risk, but Ikelite has to protect themselves from the lawyers.
 
Thanks for the comments.

How long do you think the PCm would last on one set of batteries. From the litterature they would seem to suggest about one hour?

Thanks

Jim
 
ArizSig:
As for the PrincetonTec light. It makes a great light for around the house, or even on a boat, but don't take it underwater.

My Surge has been well below recreational limits a number of times without any problems, as have some of my other P-Tek lights.

A 4 AAA cell light is too small for a backup IMO. Works okay for a third pocket light, but not as a primary backup in anything other than tropic water.

MD
 
MechDiver:
My Surge has been well below recreational limits a number of times without any problems, as have some of my other P-Tek lights.

A 4 AAA cell light is too small for a backup IMO. Works okay for a third pocket light, but not as a primary backup in anything other than tropic water.
If it is the PCm you are referring to, it is a 4AA, not AAA. Your concern must be for battery life, I assume, since the 7.2W PCm is brighter than the 7.5W Surge.
 
Charlie99:
If it is the PCm you are referring to, it is a 4AA, not AAA. Your concern must be for battery life, I assume, since the 7.2W PCm is brighter than the 7.5W Surge.

Yep, I did read that incorrectly. Thanks for the note.

My primary backup for cold, dark water is either a 3C or 4C light, so my statement about the 4AA would stand as well. I just don't consider that enough of a light for primary backup under those conditions.

MD
 
Charlie99:
Your concern must be for battery life, I assume, since the 7.2W PCm is brighter than the 7.5W Surge.

Really? By observation, or what? I haven't been able to find an apples-to-apples comparison. My Surge is brighter than my old SureFire 6P (which puts it bumping right up against the "force option" level), and considerably brighter than my SL4s.
 
lairdb:
Really? By observation, or what? I haven't been able to find an apples-to-apples comparison. My Surge is brighter than my old SureFire 6P (which puts it bumping right up against the "force option" level), and considerably brighter than my SL4s.
Based upon direct comparison of Ikelite PC Lite and PCa lights with the Surge; coupled with the knowledge that the PCm uses the same bulb as the PC lite, and appears to use the same reflector as the other PC lights.

Princeton Tec seems to have generally chosen to have longer bulb life at the expense of having less light output. I have found this in comparing Princeton Tec lights to both Ikelite and Underwater Kinetics. For example, compare the the Princeton Tec 40 with the UK Q40.

For the short NDL diving I'm doing, my choice is for brilliance over bulb life. The PCa and PCm lights go one step further, and sacrifice battery life to get a size reduction. Since I'm using NiMH rechargeables in my PCa lights, and they last for 2 dives, that is an acceptable tradeoff for my type of diving.

http://www.divernet.com/gear/lamps0300/lamps0300.htm is a good article on 30 lights, including photos of the beam pattern. Unfortunately, it doesn't include the Surge or PCm.
 
ArizSig:
As for the PrincetonTec light. It makes a great light for around the house, or even on a boat, but don't take it underwater. They have a lifetime warranty on flooded lights. This is good because I never got more than 5 dives out of the light before it flooded. The last one only survived one dive! I have one sitting on my desk waiting to be mailed back for exchange, then it will be land based light.

I have two. One I purchased brand new ... it flooded on the first dive. I took it apart, cleaned it thoroughly, and tested it in a bucket of fresh water overnight. The next day I took it apart, cleaned the water out ... and it's sitting on my workbench waiting to go back. The second one I found at about 75 fsw at Porteau Cove (B.C.) about two weeks ago. It was encrusted with silt and barnacles ... and had obviously been down there a while. I picked it up, removed the silt from the lens, and turned it on ... it still worked! I cleaned it up and it's my second backup light today.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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