If Your Life Depended On It...

Nephron44

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May 30, 2016
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If your life depended on it, be it military/law enforcement operations, firefighting, search and rescue, basic survival, etc, what brand light would you choose? What brand has NEVER let you down despite really using and abusing it? Let's say you don't have spare parts readily available to maintain frequently.

For me it would be any LED Surefire model and Maglite (old non LED models). Streamlight used to be on my list, but their lights have been giving me too many problems recently.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
 

aginthelaw

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I have led streamlights since I retired (9 years ago) that are still going strong. The ones I've used at work needed minor repairs some of which I took on, but that's the stingers and sl-20's. Anything else I couldn't count on. My backups were the ra twisty and hds that i got around 2004(?) and they've never needed repair.
 

Tachead

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Surefire, Malkoff, Elzetta, & HDS are my choices. Anything from those companies I feel comfortable depending on when my life is on the line.

However, anything can fail so the two is one and one is none adage is always a good idea.
 
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Zak

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Aug 12, 2016
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I don't actually own one, but probably a PFlexPro. They're built from components well-known to the DIY flashlight community by someone very experienced, then potted to reduce opportunities for failure.

I do, however own a bunch of lights I assembled myself from similar components, so I have a pretty good idea what to expect.
 

thermal guy

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Malkoff! Doesn't matter what make or model. There's just not much to go wrong.said this before but I'm a huge fan of another light manufacture and they are very tough very dependable light but, way to much that can go wrong with them. With malkoff you got a battery tube a potted led and a simple switch that can be field repaired. And that's it.
 

RamTuff

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Well, since retiring from the law enforcement, wildland firefighting arena, I've pretty much depended on Surefire. In 1991'ish, after trying many different lights of the time, myself and three other colleagues landed upon the MagLite MagCharger. And indeed, our lives depended on these lights. I carried the same Mag Charger from '91 until 2007, not the same battery stick of course ;)

-Dave
 

XR6Toggie

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From a law enforcement perspective I would go with Elzetta, Malkoff, Streamlight and SureFire. When we used the incandescent Maglites years ago the bulbs had a habit of breaking and you can only carry so many spares. I have a new generation ML300 Maglite but due to the weight I don't carry it very often.

I have dropped my Streamlight Stinger on the road, in puddles and knocked it around numerous times and it still works fine. A while ago I even got my Malkoff M61 covered in OC spray after an arrest. I just washed it under a tap and it was good to go again.

I have also heard many good things about Pelican and Fenix lights but haven't used them myself.
 

ven

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Malkoff, Surefire,HDS,Oveready,Elzetta . Those in no order would be my top five considered .
 

AVService

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I am working every day where I am lost essentially with no light.
So it is just as important that I carry more than 1 light that I trust than which brand it might be usually.

I always carry a Zebralight and usually a Convoy S2+ as second so that I get more throw than the ZL in my second light.

While I do trust Malkoff,SF and HDS maybe at a higher level I am also reluctant to carry the extra weight and expense in my EDC where there is a decent chance I could loose one of them too!

I have never had the ZL or Convoy fail on me either.

I also always have 2 or 3 lights on keychains and they have all been dead on reliable as needed,except the Nitecores which all seem flaky to me.
 

WalkIntoTheLight

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If your life depends on it, you'd be foolish to carry just one light, no matter how good it is.

Calculate it:

Assume your "best ever" brand is 99.999% reliable. That is, it will fail only 1 in 100,000 times. Pretty damn good!

Lets assume your "mediocre budget light" is only 99.9% reliable. That is, it fails 1 in 1,000 times. Pretty meh.

But if you carry 2 of those mediocre lights, the chance they will both fail is down to only 1 in 1,000,000 times, or 99.9999% reliable.

IOW, 2 mediocre lights are way better than 1 fantastic light.

At the very least, carry a backup cheap light, in case your overly-expensive fantastic light does fail.
 

Cerealand

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What if I carry two HDS?:nana:

Malkoff and HDS for me. They have been great to me.
 

Lumen83

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Surefire. I don't own any products from Malkoff, HDS, or Elzetta, but I've heard enough on here about them that I would put those on the list as well.
 

Tachead

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If your life depends on it, you'd be foolish to carry just one light, no matter how good it is.

Calculate it:

Assume your "best ever" brand is 99.999% reliable. That is, it will fail only 1 in 100,000 times. Pretty damn good!

Lets assume your "mediocre budget light" is only 99.9% reliable. That is, it fails 1 in 1,000 times. Pretty meh.

But if you carry 2 of those mediocre lights, the chance they will both fail is down to only 1 in 1,000,000 times, or 99.9999% reliable.

IOW, 2 mediocre lights are way better than 1 fantastic light.

At the very least, carry a backup cheap light, in case your overly-expensive fantastic light does fail.
I see where you are coming from and I definitely always recommend backups for essential items as well but, you have to remember that often when your life is on the line the time scale is in seconds or even milliseconds. You may not have time to swap to a backup. That is why carrying a dead reliable primary light is so essential. Sure, anything can still fail, but, when it failing at the wrong time could result in your death you tend to want to give yourself the best chance possible.
 

Nephron44

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May 30, 2016
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281
If your life depends on it, you'd be foolish to carry just one light, no matter how good it is.

Calculate it:

Assume your "best ever" brand is 99.999% reliable. That is, it will fail only 1 in 100,000 times. Pretty damn good!

Lets assume your "mediocre budget light" is only 99.9% reliable. That is, it fails 1 in 1,000 times. Pretty meh.

But if you carry 2 of those mediocre lights, the chance they will both fail is down to only 1 in 1,000,000 times, or 99.9999% reliable.

IOW, 2 mediocre lights are way better than 1 fantastic light.

At the very least, carry a backup cheap light, in case your overly-expensive fantastic light does fail.

So if I carried 100 cheap gas station lights, the probability of all of them failing is much lower than the probability of one Surefire failing. However, I would trust my life to one Surefire over 100 cheap gas station lights any day.

I understand your logic, and the math does make complete sense, but it is not entirely applicable to a real life situation.

The math assumes perfect circumstances, but real life is much too unpredictable and fluid to accurately apply such a model.
 

xevious

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It depends a lot on the environmental conditions you'll be in. If they are extreme, like tactical conflicts or fire fighting, then simple UI and very rugged body is called for... Surefire, Elzetta, HDS, Malkoff. Law enforcement can be reliably handled by a number of mid tier brands, though I'd say it varies by model--you still want a fairly simple UI but with at least a strobe (and not too complex to activate). And of course reasonably rugged. For civilian outdoor and survival, I think a lot of lights can satisfy the need, but I'd feel most assured with a Zebralight.
 

AVService

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It depends a lot on the environmental conditions you'll be in. If they are extreme, like tactical conflicts or fire fighting, then simple UI and very rugged body is called for... Surefire, Elzetta, HDS, Malkoff. Law enforcement can be reliably handled by a number of mid tier brands, though I'd say it varies by model--you still want a fairly simple UI but with at least a strobe (and not too complex to activate). And of course reasonably rugged. For civilian outdoor and survival, I think a lot of lights can satisfy the need, but I'd feel most assured with a Zebralight.

Same here as I have already offered here but it is also worth noting that the newest ZL interface can easily be programmed as a simple single level interface too as needed and pretty simply switched between this and the more standard ZL way AND even a third entirely different interface as well!

More flexible really than any other UI that I have seen.
 

Random Dan

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If your life depends on it, you'd be foolish to carry just one light, no matter how good it is.

Calculate it:

Assume your "best ever" brand is 99.999% reliable. That is, it will fail only 1 in 100,000 times. Pretty damn good!

Lets assume your "mediocre budget light" is only 99.9% reliable. That is, it fails 1 in 1,000 times. Pretty meh.

But if you carry 2 of those mediocre lights, the chance they will both fail is down to only 1 in 1,000,000 times, or 99.9999% reliable.

IOW, 2 mediocre lights are way better than 1 fantastic light.

At the very least, carry a backup cheap light, in case your overly-expensive fantastic light does fail.
Your calculation relies on the assumption that the two lights failing are independent events. This is likely a safe assumption if the failure is due to poor construction or faulty components; the fact that my Fireflies was shipped with a bad e switch doesn't make my Emisar any more likely to fail. However, I suspect that independence is not a safe assumption if the failure is due to a lack of durability or waterproofing. If you are in harsh or demanding conditions, it makes both of your lights more likely to fail.

That said, redundancy is certainly a good thing. I always have my HDS rotary and a backup Lumintop Tool with me and if I anticipate needing light I'll bring at least a Malkoff MDC, maybe a PFlexPro and an Oveready as well.
 
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