I have both the waterproof and non-waterproof versions. The waterproof version will not hold a charge very well and therefore gives very little operating life. About to throw it away, I decided to look into what was happening as the non-waterproof version works great and others have had the poor battery performance as well with this model.
The rotating on/off switch does not penetrate thru the plastic. Instead it moves a magnet that causes one to three internal magnetic reed switches to activate and allow current to flow to the light. The dimmer moves one of them as well I think. To try it yourself remove the cover, unscrew the three top screws then unscrew the battery charge lid retainer (one screw to the plastic tab). Pull the light out no wires get in the way. Try a refrigerator magnet over the black area until the light comes on.
The problem is with the reed switches. In the OFF (open) position the switches are not truly open, rather they still have a resistance of about 2000 ohms on my light enough to leak away most of the battery in a few days.
The magnetic switch idea was good but either the switches are cheap or they are defective in design. Only solution is to leave the light on the charger until ready to use hardly a good answer.
I was actually lost looking around on the internet for the "Perfect Father's Day Gift" for not only my Father, but my Husband as well. I wasn't thinking I would hit it out of the ball park with the same gift for both.
For my father I thought flashlight or spotlight because what do you buy for the man that has everything? I remembered when I was little, 5 or 6 and my Dad would always have a Mag light flashlight for everything, one in his truck, one in the house, when they came out with the small ones he bought those too, so I figured a flashlight or spotlight might help him around the lake and would definitely be a great gift for him.. I can't afford anything else that man would want :)
My Husband, the Camper, Camping is his life, I got him a Tent for Father's Day, a Beautiful Coleman Tent he wanted, but then I bought the light for my Dad and had to get the same for my Husband "from the kids".. :)
First let me tell you, we've been faithfully disappointed in LED technology lights time and time again, until we found a lantern we recently purchased for our camping trip that boasted 400 Lumens, then we saw that an LED light could actually work, light your way, and not eat your batteries one after another. That light was the game changer, Guide Gear was the brand and it also is a fantastic buy, I will review that one separately.
I actually purchased the Stanley FL5W10 5 Watt/520 Lumen light on sale and was drawn to the fact that not only was it waterproof, but you can dive 6 feet under water with the light on!! It's not a deep dive light, but it is a neat little gadget if you've lost something near the shore at the lake. Aside from that, when dropped in the water it flips light side up, which is very handy when you accidentally drop it in the water, then of course it is BRIGHT YELLOW in case you didn't leave it on when you dropped it.
The other factors that drew me to the light, lol (pun intended), was that not only is it rechargeable, but it comes equipped with a DC and an AC charger with the package!!! YOU CAN CHARGE IT ANYWHERE!!! When it is done charging it BEEPS for you, if you leave it on the charger it will kindly remind you. It boasts a 10 Hour Use time on dim, so that's a pretty great thing in addition to being rechargeable.
Just a little bit of Battery advice, Batteries build up a memory with bad charging habits, it's like filling up your car with gas all the way once, then filling it up again and again and again once you've only used a quarter of a tank, the rest of the gas is old starts to lose it's ummph.. Batteries do this too, although they used to be much worse.
I always live by the rule of charging ANY NEW ITEM, YES, INCLUDING CELL PHONES, CORDLESS PHONES, FLASHLIGHTS, ETC, FOR A FULL 24 HOURS BEFORE YOU EVEN TOUCH IT. Even though it may beep and say it's full, leave it on for a FULL 24 HOURS before using it for the First time. Once you use it, don't take it off the charger then immediately put it back on over and over, and lastly let the battery go completely dead once per month to every 6 weeks, then charge it again to full. This will help extend the life of your battery hopefully and help prevent a bad build up or "Memory".
Now then, back to the light, The quality of the light, what you've been waiting to hear about, oh my good gosh this thing lights up the way.. I have never owned a light so powerful, it is absolutely 520 Lumens strong.
We live in one of the few places on the planet and in the USA that you can actually see the stars at night. We live in a very rural area with not a lot of traffic, light pollution or neighbors.. one such of our few neighbors lives around 5 acres away from my house, and a slew of dense cedar trees between us scattered here and there; well he always hangs outside in the evenings with some buddies, without fail and I wanted to check this light out, show it off for my husband so he could be proud of his new light. so I call the neighbor, I asked if he was outside, of course he is.. I stood on my porch and I shined the light in his back-back-back yard, meaning a hundred and fifty or so yards from his porch and i was lighting up very clearly whatever I shined it on, not faint, but an extremely clear line of sight, and he said WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT? I said our new Spotlight, he says "no kiddin", then I told him it was LED.. he said "LED?? No way!"
his crew immediately drove over in their ATV to check out my Husband's new Spotlight, then they all left me, including my husband and my son to go over to the neighbors to drink beer and play with the new light some more.. my mistake.. or was it.. HA, I had a nice hot bath in peace and quiet after a day of it being all about the Dads.. :)
My Father told me his story later when he called to tell me how much he loved the light, except he lives on the lake and they actually got in the water AT NIGHT and played with the light. He fishes at night, so he wanted to see what it could actually do.. he loved it, he lives in an inlet on the lake so the water is a bit calmer than the main lake and he couldn't believe how well he could see under water AT NIGHT with the light.
Anyhow, the light lives up to it's claims and more, it is dimmable, and is "dunkable" and I'm sure you can "Drop it 10 Feet without damaging it", although we haven't tried that out yet. I uploaded a picture comparing the size to a standard DVD for you to be able to see just how small this light is. Smaller than you'd expect compared to most spotlights but SO POWERFUL, It's amazing.
I would recommend this light for any household, Rural, City Living, Campers, Travelers, in your car on a road trip or just around town, this light is quite possibly the best light we have ever purchased.
*** Update 8/8/11: When I wrote this review my spotlight was manufactured by/for Stanley and the product on this page was a Stanley light and was yellow, Now it is Black and Decker they appear to be related, or share manufacturers, or have sold the technology, whichever, they appeared to have changed only the color from yellow to red/orange (typical B&D coloring), it's the same light I reviewed, only they changed manufacturers on us who reviewed the light prior **
I hope to have helped you with your purchasing decision.
Thanks for reading!
Buy Stanley FL5W10 5 Watt LED Waterproof Rechargeable Spotlight Now
Have many lights, maglight, surefire, 100, 200 lumens lights from Sams club etc. this one lights up and puts spot on the mountain behind my home, at least 2 miles. My other 100, 200 lumens disappears into the night. It is small, light and compact. Better than my large 1 and 2 million candle power lights which are hard to carry and much larger in size.
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This is the second spotlight I bought this week. The first was a Coleman 4351-700. I did not realize from looking at it on the Internet how big and heavy it would be. It is enormous and extremely heavy because it uses a sealed lead acid battery (SLA) (like a car battery). My wife said it was too heavy and she couldn't get her hand around it. I returned it without ever opening the bubble pack packaging.
The Stanley seemed like everything I ever wanted. I need it for my sail boat where space is at a very high premium and every pound of weight really matters.
This light is small, powerful, and light weight. The light has a very tight beam and is even more powerful than I need. It was easy to light up trees that were 1500 feet away. I didn't have line of sight to anything further away on my first outing. You can adjust the light brighter or dimmer than the default setting. I didn't notice much more light when I went to the brightest setting. I could see a significant difference at the dimmest setting, but dimmest would still be bright enough for most uses. The instructions say that you can get 50 minutes at the very brightest setting and 10 hours at the dimmest.
Another reviewer said they could not turn the unit on using only one hand. I can, but it is easier using two hands, one to hold the unit and one to rotate the on/off switch.
Now for the bad news. This unit uses NiMH batteries (which are not bad). However, they are very susceptible to damage from overcharging and like to be kept charged. They do not have a memory effect like NiCads.
You can NOT leave the charged connected after it is charged (max 5 hours), and you must charge the unit at least once every 30 days even if you have not used it. I would have been happy to spend more money to get a unit that let you keep it on the charger by just having the unit turn off the charge to the batteries when they were fully charged. There is apparently more risk of damage using the 12 volt charger because the manual has a special STRONG warning about NEVER leaving it on this charger for more than 5 hours.
I knew when I ordered the unit that it had a non-standard battery pack. I assumed that this meant that I would someday have to purchase a replacement from the manufacturer. However, the manual states:
"The battery should last the service life of the unit." In other words, dead battery=throw entire unit away. They could have made this unit to take six off-the-shelf NiMH AAA batteries, it would have been worth the extra cost.
The manual tells you that battery recycling is required when you dispose of the unit. However, very few people would have the tools and patience to disassemble the unit to get to the batteries. The solution is either to not recycle, or smash the unit open with a hammer.
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Looking at some of the negative reviews, I'm guessing some people can't read. "I charged it for 24hours" or "It was already charged, but I charged it overnight anway" Duck duck durgh duh!!! The instructions plainly state to only charge the product until the light is green, but no more than 3 hours, or you risk damaging the light. Guess what is sounds like most negative reviewers here did? That doesn't mean some people didn't get a lemon, which happens, but I'm leaning towards "users fault" with many of the bad reviews. I guess it is Stanley's fault, for not realizing too many Americans are too lazy/simple minded to read. They should have built in an automatic charge kill function.
I bought 2 of these over a year ago, one for my dad and one for me. They've worked great so far. They hold their charge a long time. They're small and bright. The flashlight feels solid/well built. It has a dim/bright control. I have thoroughly tested the waterproof claim during several night-time swimming adventures, the light passed the test/abuse. What's not to like?
I only have 1 complaint. The on and off control should be simpler/quicker.
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Purchased for my old cellphone when the default one had broken. It did the job for as long as I've needed it and thankfully the micro-charger is pretty universal this has since been utilized for my tablet.
