Is Milwaukee Lying as Much as Harbor Freight Braun About Lumens? LT3

[Music] welcome back to ttc and welcome to the third episode of our light lumen test series in our first episode we built an unapologetically diy light integration sphere to test light lumen output and paid a lab who's actually qualified for this sort of thing to test the same lights we did in order to calibrate our sphere with some very encouraging results today we look at a whole category of lights we use a lot around the shop so maybe you do too light bar style inspection lights today focusing on models that for the most part can swap out batteries or at least have a charging dock option something that within this category is more rare than you might think so today we're going to lie detector test their lumen output versus what they claim chart their light output over their runtime versus what they advertise there as well take a look at charge time and current delivery then destroy about 250 bucks worth of lights for all of our amusement with some drop tests that's going to include brands like milwaukee streamlight and well starting out in order of price as usual the infamous harbor freight brawn inspection light this 29.99 folding rechargeable work light can sometimes be had for 24.99 when it has a sale and this has been the go-to light bar style work light in the past couple years for diy and home gamers at 390 lumen it probably has just enough light output to be useful for professionals too but full disclosure this would be our third brawn we've purchased as we're no stranger to them in the past we've had issues with the on off switch and general durability problems so we moved on but maybe today it will see some redemption it having a removable 18650 size lithium battery caused us to want to do a whole category like this one although i'm not sure harbor freight had the idea of you swapping out batteries in and out as the plan for this tool as it does come with a micro usb cable without a wall adapter and appears to be able to be used while plugged in which is apparently something people want to know even though we wouldn't use it that way the 18650 it does come with is rated at 2200 milliamp hours but of course part of the beauty here is you can purchase or use one of your own 18650 cells with an independent charger and have those ready to go with higher capacity as well swapping out batteries without having that charged downtime of course that does add 20 to 30 dollars for quality options of those that we're willing to leave around unattended charging so maybe wouldn't qualify as the cheapest option here anymore its base cap includes a magnet which is pretty useful we measured that at about 11 pounds of force and see here there there's that light switch issue again right out of the packaging this time just required us taking the base cap off and putting it together on again and tightening it for it to work its light output is also the bluest on the day of the options that we bought not our preferred type of light quality given the choice but what about those lumens let's see the braun advertises 390 from the main light and 52 from the top flashlight letting the light run for 30 seconds first per the ansi fl1 standard we're seeing 350 351 352 350 lumens i'll be honest with the torque that their impact wrenches put out versus their claims we were expecting like 300 max on this guy not bad on low we're seeing about 110 120 105 bronze says 109 so that's pretty spot on then for the top light we're getting 43 lumen not half bad 89 percent of what they're saying when you total that all up stay tuned to see what happens to this light output over its runtime and if it can survive hitting the pavement our next cheapest rechargeable on the day is the steelman pro we picked this one up because it's also quite cheap around 32 bucks looks similar to the braun light had similar specs at 400 lumen and had features similar to a more expensive light we'll also be testing today it's also similar to the harbor freight in that it has a removable 18650 style battery included yet it's only really 18650 in size and name only this included cell from steelman frustratingly has some type of lip on the top of it meaning every other 18650 we had on hand would not work inside of this light you need to use a battery like steelman provides which is also quite limiting at 2200 milliamp hours another frustrating part is this light is completely round it rolls off of almost anything on a slight incline and it's charged as a barrel plug style so you can't really use any charger you have laying around that's micro usb if you lose the charger this comes with you're sort of sol a usb style design would make a lot more sense and no magnet to speak of either which is out the gate sort of a deal breaker for us we didn't really notice that when we purchased this in the futures but it does have an included uv black light setting which you can use for finding leaks with dye which is something we use so it's kind of handy no top light on this one so just the 400 lumen claim to contend with today with almost a third of its smd leds being dedicated to the black light we're curious if it's really gotten any of the beans let's see it waiting 30 seconds and 590 592 590 lumens dang we had to check this one out a few times just to make sure we weren't seeing something odd but it doesn't seem right that it should make that much but it does curious how a 2200 milliamp hour battery that you can't upgrade is going to fare at that level output 148 percent of its claim though i know we're only three episodes in but that's usually not the direction things go on this series if you want to peek at how low budget inspection light bars off of amazon go check out the dr pepper model we tested last time it boasted 700 lumens and a milliamp hour battery and made half of either of those claims where it mattered our next led bar is sort of half stature compared to the others the red lithium led rover from milwaukee designed as sort of a stick and stay work light more than a handheld which is not a big problem for us having to hold on to it the whole time like the steel man is is not really our preferred method this model is the 2112-21 it usually goes for 50 and advertises 445 lumen the higher of the two smaller stick light options from milwaukee it comes with a fancy braided milwaukee usb cable and while i'll be honest we knew very little about milwaukee red lithium usb lights in general when we just saw this one and looked like a good 18650 cell next to it and thought well that's a real winner but what's inside is a proprietary usb 3.0 stick that may have an 18650 inside of it but as far as we can tell it's not a universal design it's meant to be used only to be charged inside of this tool or with one of milwaukee's independent charging docks a bit of a bummer to learn that sort of like the steel man with that proprietary design but with a 3 000 milliamp hour battery at least included and it being potentially useful in a lot of other tools as well the light that comes off this thing is very nice though milwaukee calls it their trueview high definition lighting not sure the cri rating on that or how close it replicates the sun but we'd guess it's a full 2000 kelvin lower than the brown light and more pleasing to the eyes and helps identifying wire colors and such the seven pound magnet is useful for its size and weight but not super strong you will notice that the light it cast is super crisp though it cuts off very cleanly on the edges which is nice for us working up close and let's say a dash you don't have that light washing over into your eyes let's see it though 445 lumens from this little short guy it's showing more like 355 355 and this is fully charged maybe it's how we're holding it though it is a bit awkward of a sized light to test so let's open up the flashlight hatch and that's seeing 350 no change another surprise for us on the day if you were to tell us at the beginning of the day that the milwaukee light would be fibbing more than harbor freight twice as much at that this milwaukee will have to go through a lot more testing though to see if it can redeem itself today our next most expensive light is around 65 to 70 bucks and showed up in this huge box the astro adsl quick swap system it's hard to do a light bar style light and not include astro as well even harbor freight points out that but this one was chosen because it appears to be their newest and only swappable battery light of this type you sort of get a whole kit with this one it's got a thumb wheel for adjustment on the back and its main light is two strips of cobb led for a total according to them of 800 lumens or 150 from that top flashlight the bottom's got a quick release and out comes a 4 500 milliamp hour 26 650 size lithium cell but it comes with an 18650 and sleeve to show that you can use that size too which is sort of the best part you can use any of your own 2650 or 18650 cells in this light the charging base has a rating of three amps and can charge the battery that's in the light or the spare cell beside it of course these are currently charged for now let's see what you can do waiting 30 seconds and 877 875 72 we're calling that 875 but well up on that 800 claim but what happens when you use the smaller battery included let's see 775 750 770 we're calling that 770 closer to that 800 figure now and that 150 lumen top light that's showing 190 185 185 lumens now for our most expensive light of the day by popular demand in the comments section the streamlight stinger switchblade this was 74. and advertises also 800 lumens like the astro maybe we were fooled by the image though or this box when it showed up but this thing is massive this isn't even its final form unfolded this is 17 inches long you definitely get your money's worth if we're just talking size and weight of course streamlight makes a version the strion and that's only 500 lumens and was smaller but it was just 10 less so we figured the switchblade was the one to go with but yeah good luck fitting this into any small spaces when it's unfolded luckily it does work well folded though to the tune of its main 800 lumen light but its backside also has something special going on to the tune of 500 lumens of their color right technology 90 cri leds which is pretty cool similar to the milwaukee very easy on the eyes and even a black light function like the steelman was rocking for identifying leaks while this one certainly can't swap out its battery cells it's closed up good and tight it can use one of streamlight stinger smart chargers for wireless docking to the tune of 30 bucks with the cable but maybe you already own one of those if you're buying a stream light having a lot of luck with the last streamlight flashlight we tested anxious to see what this one does of its 800 it makes 672 671 674 we're calling that 675 lumens a bit surprised to see that and this is the main light here's the 90 cri side rocking 580 590 lumens of the 500 it advertises so the main lights 125 down and the backlight is about 85.90 up from where it's advertising a bit wacky there but at least at that lower lumen level it means it should last a while with this light's massive 5200 milliamp hour battery let's find out with our runtime lumen over time test we're going to see the two shortest lights first at least well folded the streamlight advertises three and three quarters hours on high and the milwaukee rover says only two hours you can tell right away the light color difference with the stream light you can also rock its back panel for similarity we measured the lumen output every 20 minutes on each light you can see how the streamlight drops steadily over time while the milwaukee holds steady but ultimately calls it quits at 2 hours and 40 minutes in which is pretty good versus its 2-hour claim the switchblade lasting a long time with a huge battery 3 hours and 40 minutes right at its three and three quarter claim let's rope in the braun steelman astro now in order on the right the white line of the brawn hangs with the milwaukee for a bit before they meet up with the steelman at one hour mark then steelman and braun head down from there the brawn trips in its low lumen setting before we click it back to high and then it wants to go back into his low setting again and finally dies an early death around two hours met shortly after by the steelman those 2200 milliamp hour cells not really helping anyone out the adsl came down from its high lumen level steadily but never quite putting out less lumens than the streamlight until it goes lights out at around three and a quarter hours like it advertises to die was the brawn lasting under two hours of its two and a half hours advertised going into and out of high mode in the process we imagine it would last two and a half hours if you allowed it to trip into its low setting the steelman next lasting two and a half hours like they claim but not being super useful along the way for the last hour or so the milwaukee died next just over two and a half hours past this two hour claim that lower lumen level helping out probably the astro died next when it said it would a more dramatic downward curve than the stream light but also started higher the switchblade lasted the longest with the largest battery and making less than advertised to start out with so that helps we also take temperature on the lights during the runtime here's that our main takeaway here was just how much energy was turned into heat from the steelman can't be too efficient that and the brawn dropping in temp from switching into low and then back into high when we force it to the overall low temperature curve of the switchblade also sort of standing out here of course with these lights runtime is only half the story when it comes to rechargeable how about that downtime in most of these lights it's as simple as swapping in a new battery cell if you have it which is a bit more tricky or expensive for milwaukee and steelman but all of these products can be charged with what's included so let's give each of them the best shot there the harbor freight advertises four hours charge time despite its small 2200 milliamp hour battery somehow looks like it's accepting one amp pretty standard there with the charge light now green let's see three hours not super quick but also better than they advertise so that's always a plus on this channel the steam one takes a barrel plug so we didn't really know how many amps accepted it took two hours and 20 minutes when we plugged it into the wall the milwaukee brags about fast charging up to 2.1 amps and 50 within half hour 80 within one hour looks like we're seeing 1.8 amps here pretty typical of two amp charging products that we see and well yeah we roughly saw the charge times that milwaukee calls out just under two hours here but only accepted 2600 milliamp hours not really sure the reason there it certainly lasts long enough compared to their marketing the adsl has got a whole nother thing going on you can charge within the light in the dock here that looks like one amp or fast charge on the side slot for just over two amps pretty good and also charge the spare battery at the same time with both of them up to three amps this one not needing a charge but it does get there looks like the 26 650 4500 milliamp hour cell took four hours which is within the range of what they advertise the streamlight though oh man that 5200 milliamp hour cell you could of course charge it with their charging dock here but this light is not being helped out a lot at this charging current of 0.87 amps when fully drained that's gonna take a minute with it fully charged we're seeing eight and a half hours i mean they advertise eight so it's never going to be good but you're honestly supposed to have eight hours of free time to be charging this thing when it runs dry from a top brand like streamlight that's really supposed to be targeted towards the professional this was surprising to us you'd hope that they would maybe deliver more current to these batteries in order to generate less downtime when they need a charge but if we're honest none of this matters if these lights splatter and spread into a million pieces when you drop them time to break every single one of these or try to let's see three feet on the harbor freight steelman streamlight astro here's the milwaukee harbor freight three feet again and again now five feet about shoulder height caused it to conk out hearing now with the button thing again reassembling this with the battery it does work again drop again at five feet you can see the top lens broke off but that's oddly the only thing still working on this light initially bending it caused the light to flicker again like we thought it would work but it was completely kaput after this retired at two five foot drops here's the steelman three foot drops no problem although it does turn off each time you drop it sort of weird here's that at five feet and here's this five foot third attempt she's done nothing could bring her back after this three drops at five feet milwaukee time three foot no problem five foot three times no problem ten foot three times no issue 16 foot she puked her guts out just put them back together though and she's good to go here's 20 foot this is not only at the top of our ladder but tossing it up to a mark to hit this height two runs of her puking her guts out and she lost her belt clip magnet but still works just some weight reduction at the end of the day a little scuffed up but this thing's mostly a tank now for the adsl three foot is fine five foot is fine at ten foot we decided to drop it square on the top light it didn't seem to mind until we tried to turn it on now that's dead but the main light's still trucking 16 foot pukedex guts right out but similar to the milwaukee you just put them back together it's ready to rock 20 foot it puked its cuts out and it still works but feeling a bit wobbly now it's probably enough for this light let's check out the stream light three feet fine five foot fine ten foot more scuffs but doesn't care 16 foot still okay but it did get a bent hook here 20 foot this thing is just too big and beefy to die although it did eventually lose one of its three magnets pretty stout we couldn't kill it here's a look at all the testing we've done on these lights shown in order of price you got brands here images model numbers and price then what they advertised in lumens including auxiliary lights then how they tested biggest takeaways for us here were how much the steelman made given its claim and given it's not even using all of its smd leds for the main light output and how milwaukee was being more ambitious about its lumen claim than harbor freight somehow despite their reputation on this channel for harbor freight's wild marketing claims then the streamlight being a full 125 lumen under its main light marketing but making up for most of that with the 590 that i was supposed to put out of its 500. here's our measured run time the harbor freight coming up short in our example of course you could swap in your own battery if you want then oddly the steelman and the milwaukee both having the same run time then look at the average lumens across run also exactly the same yet somehow the milwaukee has a much larger battery 3000 versus 2200 well they both use smd leds as well we found that odd it lasted longer than advertised but where is all the energy going we were curious so we destroyed our red lithium usb 3.0 to open it up and find out these are not easy to dissect but it does appear it's got an lg 30q or 3000mah power cell inside so our best guess is as good as yours maybe these high cri style smds use more current back to the chart though both of these lights lasted a long time with the adsl having more lumens on average with charge time the walkie get some props with fast charging in less time than its run time and the stream light eight and a half hours just seemed unrealistic for a professional for a charging style most of these can swap batteries which is nice these two require special batteries you'll be buying from them these two can take standard lithium cells and the streamlight can't but does have a charging dock option at least here's their durability if we had to rank them in order based on the drop test milwaukee was the biggest surprise there and for magnet strength over here the steel man not having one was really a missed opportunity we think we feel there's a lot to like in this category of lights we see more and more techs using them and it must be for a reason there's really only the braun and steelman we probably wouldn't recommend ourselves for what we do but from the rest of these and how you'd use them yourself hopefully we've provided some hard-hitting data so that you can make that decision yourself an informed one instead of manufacturer specs and one sentence amazon reviews from someone staring into a light and saying wow this is bright appreciate you coming along for the ride we'll be doing more of these with lights that are new to the market thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: Torque Test Channel

Views: 126,157

Keywords: 2112, 76800, 78952, 80sl, 52sl, streamlight, switchblade, strion, braun, harbor freight, harbour freight, astro, milwaukee, rover, steelman, lights, led lights, lumens, rechargeable lights, battery, 2112-21

Id: lj_2dN6LTmo

Length: 21min 54sec (1314 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021