Hi guys,
I'm a fresh newbie on posting here but I've been reading countless posts here for quite some time now, and it had helped me make such a good decision on which flashlight to buy. So I'd like to return the favour by posting about my experience with gearbest.com and the Klarus G30 too.
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IMG_8607 by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
I too was a bit apprehensive about buying from a China-based site but because of good-enough reviews and with some safeguards in placed, I went ahead and purchased - actually, my GF intercepted my purchase and got it first for me for US$53, as a gift - at gearbest.com.
It arrived July 26, 2016 & I wrote its arrival date on the box, as to what I do with the rest of my gadgets, either on the box or the piece itself. The crappy 18650 batts I had from an old Ultrafire 300lumens unit couldn't power it well enough, so I researched a lot about a worthwhile batt - which ended up being the Samsung INR18650-25R (flat top) - and I found the best price on a USA website. Though we're based in Canada, I was going to USA around that time, hence I ordered.
Brought with me my Klarus G30 on my USA trip. Got the Samsung batts, charged them a bit then powered up my G30. Wow, it's bright!!! Then a few mins later, it went kaput! The light would flicker and seems like something inside was loose. After a few attempts to rectify it, the unit just went dead. Even after I fully charged the Samsung batts, nada. I felt very bad then I remembered a bad review I read earlier about how the user ended up buying again, but from a different website caused of a very bad experience with gearbest.
I decided to just try and test gearbest's after-sales support policies and accessed my GF's gearbest account to report to them about what happened. To my surprise, within 24hours, they replied me with a few options...... to which I opted for option#2 - a replacement - of course.
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Screen Shot 2016-10-01 at 10.36.59 AM by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
I finally received the replacement G30 on Sept 26, 2016. Although the package was damaged - all wrapped up in a Canada Post plastic though - and with a slight grazed on near the tip of the unit, everything worked well, so my thoughts on claiming from Canada Post or worse, complaining to gearbest again to replace this, was muted. Heck I even blasted it to turbo mode and let it shine on the ceiling for 75mins to test it well and it held up well! No issues whatsoever. So I just used a marker and coloured black the small grazed area - which was already down to the bare metal of silver colour - and everything went well. Following pix shows the old one (with its box) on top and the new one below. Now I'm just gonna use the old unit as a paperweight, perhaps ;-)
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IMG_3747 by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
KUDOS INDEED TO GEARBEST.COM! To those who feel apprehensive about dealing with gearbest.com, DONT WORRY & just deal with them.
Now for the G30 review........ I was very happy that the flat-top Samsung INR18650-25R worked well together. I was a bit worried that I could only use the regular li-ion ICR type, even with a PCB. Esp since the INR was the best of both worlds - stability & performance. Plus the Samsung 25R is one of the best INR in the world and I got them for a mere US$15/PAIR.
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IMG_2549 by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
The battery indicator light only indicate the battery life for a few seconds then it would shut off. I guess this was designed this way to save battery. But I agree that it would've been better to had left it on the whole time, esp since its just a tinny dot which wouldn't use too much power. The back switch went pressed & held for 1-2secs would activate the turbo mode BUT ONCE YOU LET GO, the light goes off. I guess this is for those quicky moments only unlike the side button which would on the unit continuously until its turned off. My only gripe for the Kalurs G30 is that it does get uncomfortably hot when its on the turbo mode after a few minutes of usage. I think I'll hack it a bit by putting electric tape on the flat surfaces to act as an insulation a bit.
But aside from this, the KLARUS G30 is a perfect kick-*** flashlight that is compact, powerful, heavy duty, ipx-8 rated, high performance, has both flood & spot simultaneously, very affordable & from a good brand !
As for the power of 2,450lumens, I tested it outside 1 night versus the Ultrafire 300lumens and ...... it literally turned night into day! Pix below were taken in our bedroom with the room light off from a distance of 1.5meters. Left is the UltraFire 300 Lumens (zoomable. 2nd pix showing the square diode) & Right is the Klarus G30.
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IMG_8261 by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
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IMG_7950 by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
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IMG_6623 by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
Then I ordered 2 Klarus K1 18650 battery charger from gearbest.com and received them after a few weeks. I chose this single charger although I've 4 Samsung 25R, because you can set it to charge slow (0.5mah) or fast (1mah) + auto detect what type&volt of 18650 batt NiMH/Li-Ion/Li-Fe + auto shut off when fully charged + charging indicator + more auto protection features + a very very low price of US$7-8 each (shipping inclusive) ! Oh yah, plus its micro-USB port can be charged from any USB port, whether direct to the wall socket adapter or thru a laptop etc.
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IMG_2542 by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
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IMG_2367 by
Richard joseph Paraguya, on Flickr[/IMG]
So now my rig is complete and I'm all set for the next few months/years for my flashlight needs! Sorry if this is a bit lengthy and it not only covered the G30 but I wanted to be as thorough as possible and figured that the batt & charger info would be useful too.
Have a great wekend guys. HTH