List Price: $64.00
Sale Price: $34.97
Today's Bonus: 45% Off
I found a few things lacking with this flashlight, such as Bosch being behind the curve in offering a LED version or conversion to LED as some conventional flashlight makers such as MAG offer. Second, is the lack of a storage place for the flashlight in Bosch drill cases. Lastly, it is only marginally bright and given all the bulb choices today this is somewhat surprising.
Also, having also ordered the Bosch 36618-02 18v Li-Ion drill kit I found there is no place to put the flashlight. The top of the well built case is molded for a side support handle that this drill/driver does not use and the bottom of the case has a molded area above the charger that would otherwise appear to fit the flashlight. No thanks to the engineer that designed this case.
When I contacted Bosch about that they did not seem to care & simply stated "that's the way it is". Wow! What contractor or homeowner wouldn't want to have a place to put an approx. #50 flashlight to keep get damaged?! Without a battery in place, the contacts of the flashlight are exposed & unprotected as many drill flashlights do these days making a place to put it desirable.
If not for the reputation and quality of the related drill that the batteries are used with, I would have chosen another brand of drill such as Milwaukee that offers a LED version flashlight. Having made the (Bosch brand) drill & battery reputation my main priority, I reluctantly chose the Bosch flashlight as my rechargeable project light. The stand is nice in a limited way as it has set detents and enables the light to be hung or hooked on a nail/screw, but it may not always offer the best angle when aiming the light and it stores folded over the lense blocking the light if used as normally stored. This also makes the light somewhat longer when the handle is moved out of the way to use which diminishes its otherwise compact shape. All-in-all, the ONLY choice for the 18v Litheon drills making it a forced choice if someone wants reasonable run time and a light powered by their rechargeable drill batteries.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Edited for clarity: This flashlight is sold as a bare tool, designed for use with Bosch 18 volt lithium-ion batteries that are not included and a charger that is not included. This does not detract from the merits of the flashlight: it is intended as a complement to an existing arsenal of Bosch cordless tools rather than as a stand-alone product.I purchased this flashlight two months ago to use with my other Bosch 18 volt lithium-ion battery powered tools (impact driver, compact drill, hammer drill, recip saw). My experiences with these have been overwhelmingly positive, so I had high expectations for the flashlight.
Initially the flashlight appeared to function satisfactorily, projecting a decent amount of light over a long distance; however the first bulb burned out after just a few hours of total use throughout the course of a single day. My (slim pack) battery still had some juice left after being removed from the flashlight. No bulb should be outlasted by a single charge of the battery that powers it.
The flashlight comes with an extra bulb; last week I installed it and tried again (with a fully-charged battery). The new bulb immediately began flickering and then died out completely within minutes. The battery still had a charge.
Pros:
-Flashlight has decent light projection.
-It complements the other Bosch 18v lithium tools which are outstanding in my experience.
-It won't drain batteries too quickly (since the bulbs die first).
-The awkward-seeming handle provides surprisingly effective support for the light at several different angles.
-This flashlight is actually quite useful as a work light when all of the following conditions are met: the included unreliable light bulbs are replaced with bulbs marketed for a competing 18v product line's flashlight; Bosch's compact "slimpack" batteries are used rather than "fatpack" batteries; the flashlight is on for brief periods of time, with sufficient cooling periods in between uses; and a backup light is kept on hand for the not-uncommon occurrences of Bosch flashlight failure.
Cons:
-The light bulbs included with the product are unreliable garbage and last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, failing at random with no warning whatsoever.
-This flashlight is slightly overpriced when compared to the majority of competing 18v flashlights with better or comparable functionality.
0 comments:
Post a Comment