# NEW Black&Decker V2 Million Power Series spotlight



## BlueBeam22 (Feb 15, 2009)

I just bought what seems to be the newest model of the Black&Decker V2 Million Power Series rechargeable spotlight (from Home Depot), and I am extremely impressed by it. It uses a 12V SLA battery and a 35W/55W dual filament H3 halogen bulb with a sliding switch on top to toggle between high beam (55W) and low beam (35W).

It seems to be the best pistol grip style thrower I have ever held, and can light up objects over 600 yards away with ease. It has a very concentrated pencil beam with a scorching hotspot right in the middle. I can't believe just how bright this thing is for only 55 watts, and how it out throws some of my 100W halogen spotlights.

Here are some pictures:



























Beamshot of the new Black&Decker shining at a plant 20 yards away:






Now the Power On Board HID for comparison. Notice how extremely close the Black&Decker is in both coronal and hotspot brightness!







The new Black&Decker spotlight has a built in AC charger, and a green light that blinks when it is full. I have experienced very good runtime with this light so far. I really like the style and feel of the light, and highly recommend this light to anyone in need of an extremely powerful spotlight. My friend bought one of these recently on my recommendation, and he is equally blown away by it and happy with it in all ways.:thumbsup:


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## kramer5150 (Feb 15, 2009)

I just saw these at HD 3 days ago. They are a new item I think. IIRC they are $29. I have a $25 gift card so I think I may pick one up. Seems like a real bargain at that price.

How would you say the build quality and heft is?
How would you compare it to the husky XR-E spotlight?
Where can you get replacement bulbs?
Color tint looks very white.

thanks once again for taking one for the team!!


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 15, 2009)

kramer5150 said:


> I just saw these at HD 3 days ago. They are a new item I think. IIRC they are $29. I have a $25 gift card so I think I may pick one up. Seems like a real bargain at that price.
> 
> How would you say the build quality and heft is?
> How would you compare it to the husky XR-E spotlight?
> ...


 
Hello kramer5150!:wave:

You are correct that they are $29 at Home Depot.

The build quality is extremely good, and seems very rugged for the price. I imagine it could take quite a beating and keep on working. The weight is pretty average for a spotlight its size.

To answer your question about how it compares to the Husky LED spotlight, the new Black&Decker seems to have twice the throw of the LED spotlight and is many times brighter.:thumbsup:

The beam is very white, and it is just as white on low since it is a separate lower wattage filament being properly driven rather than some other spotlights that just underdrive their one high wattage filament for the low and make a sickly yellow/orange beam. Sorry, but I am not sure where to get replacement bulbs for it.


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## kramer5150 (Feb 15, 2009)

OK thanks...
do you think you could take a side by side beamshot with the POB spotlight at say ~ 50 yards? I was also considering the POB light.


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 15, 2009)

kramer5150 said:


> OK thanks...
> do you think you could take a side by side beamshot with the POB spotlight at say ~ 50 yards? I was also considering the POB light.


 
Sure, I will do it tonight.:thumbsup: I have compared the Black&Decker to the POB on some trees over 300 yards away, and they both easily lit them up. The POB's hotspot on the distant trees was quite noticeably brighter, but the Black&Decker was surprisingly close and performs unbelievably well for being smaller than the POB.


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## BVH (Feb 15, 2009)

Hey Blue, have you taken it apart yet to see if a ballast will fit? Have ya? Have ya?


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 15, 2009)

BVH said:


> Hey Blue, have you taken it apart yet to see if a ballast will fit? Have ya? Have ya?


 
Lol BVH, I have not taken it apart yet, but would definitely consider it for an HID conversion if I didn't already have the N30. The reflector quality of the Black&Decker seems top notch and gives a nearly perfect beam for an incan spot. However, I will be posting a picture of the light taken apart soon for anyone who might want to get one for a conversion.

Here are the pictures I took tonight. The Black&Decker is actually much brighter in person than it appears in the pictures.

Power On Board HID shining at base of tree 50 yards away:





Black&Decker:


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## Illum (Feb 15, 2009)

For those who aren't planning HID builds...

any idea how big the battery is?


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## BVH (Feb 15, 2009)

I'd guess a 4 AH.


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 15, 2009)

I just looked at the specs on the package, and it has a 12V 3.0 AH SLA battery.


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## Patriot (Feb 15, 2009)

Nice light BlueBeam! 

I was noting how the beam shape resembled the POB but after seeing the first pic that you posted I didn't think it was anywhere near as bright. The POB just about turned that little shrub below the window white and the lower portion of the window disappears in over exposure. The B&D didn't come close to doing that. The second picture really makes the difference way more apparent though.

Thanks for showing it to us.


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 15, 2009)

Patriot36 said:


> Nice light BlueBeam!
> 
> I was noting how the beam shape resembled the POB but after seeing the first pic that you posted I didn't think it was anywhere near as bright. The POB just about turned that little shrub below the window white and the lower portion of the window disappears in over exposure. The B&D didn't come close to doing that. The second picture really makes the difference way more apparent though.
> 
> Thanks for showing it to us.


 
Thanks Patriot36!:thumbsup: 

The Black&Decker is amazingly close to the POB in throw, but the POB's 1500+ lumen advantage over it really does show in the coronal brightness and spill. The beamshot of the POB was the older one I posted in the HID beam pics thread here. As bright as the POB is, the Costco/Ti Mega clearly smokes it in all ways (IMO)!

I am very happy with my purchase of the Black&Decker as it is a great alternative to my N30 and POB when I want to use something extremely powerful with the instant-on capability, but still relatively small and easy to carry. Its throw for size ratio seems much higher than that of my 15mcp Thor and other huge halogen spotlights.

I probably like this light for some of the same reasons you like the PH50 (not that these two lights are comparable by any means).


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## Patriot (Feb 16, 2009)

It looks to be a very nicely build light. I'd have to chuck the SLA and convert it to Li-po though.


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 16, 2009)

Patriot36 said:


> It looks to be a very nicely build light. I'd have to chuck the SLA and convert it to Li-po though.


 
I really like how it is built.:thumbsup: Its striking resemblance to the MegaRay was what caught my eye and interest in the store, and upon examining it closely I could tell it had to be a pretty decent light at that price. 

The handle on top is very sturdy and makes it convenient to carry on a walk, and I especially like the feel and look of the long tubular body. 

I promise more beamshots soon comparing it to some of my other lights like the N30, 3mcp Vector and 15mcp Thor.


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## Showolf (Feb 16, 2009)

Hi everyone... I'm the friend Blue is referring to in his initial post, and can 100% confirm everything he said regarding this awesome spotlight! I have been blasting with it all night, and it easily lights up far away objects like my 18MCP THOR! Yes... I can't believe I just said that, but it's true! My mouth has been dropping watching its beam tear across long fields and emblazing light poles 3-4 blocks away! This black beast completely smokes both my Husky 2.5 and 3 million candlepower spotlights I've used, and is the best distance covering pistol gripper I've seen by far... It has great runtime too, as I've used it intermittently now for three hours and no dimming yet. This light is totally epic!!!! I can't wait to bring this camping with me......................


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 16, 2009)

Showolf said:


> Hi everyone... I'm the friend Blue is referring to in his initial post, and can 100% confirm everything he said regarding this awesome spotlight! I have been blasting with it all night, and it easily lights up far away objects like my 18MCP THOR! Yes... I can't believe I just said that, but it's true! My mouth has been dropping watching its beam tear across long fields and emblazing light poles 3-4 blocks away! This black beast completely smokes both my Husky 2.5 and 3 million candlepower spotlights I've used, and is the best distance covering pistol gripper I've seen by far... It has great runtime too, as I've used it intermittently now for three hours and no dimming yet. This light is totally epic!!!! I can't wait to bring this camping with me......................


 
It is amazing how this light keeps up with much larger spotlights! It does have the amazing throw and beam concentration similar to my Thor, and I am glad to hear you like it so much. Its throw is the one thing about it that sets it apart from all other pistol grip style lights I have used, as I simply don't recall ever using one of any size or wattage that matches it in throw.


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## MetalZone (Feb 16, 2009)

Wow with all the rave reviews I want one! USD29 seems like a bargain for something with this caliber. Only question is when will they bring this to the major Malaysian hardware stores. But the sad part is I bet it will be significantly more expensive here though I hope not...


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## jxwhadley (Feb 16, 2009)

How does the B&D compare with the Brinkmann Qbeam Big Max 3 million?

Thanks in advance-


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## Parker VH (Feb 16, 2009)

Please keep us posted if this looks like a good HID conversion candidate.


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 16, 2009)

jxwhadley said:


> How does the B&D compare with the Brinkmann Qbeam Big Max 3 million?
> 
> Thanks in advance-


 
The Black&Decker out throws the Brinkmann and has a much brighter hotspot. 

ADDED: I just wanted to say that I will most likely get a chance to take the beamshot comparison and disassembly pictures some time next week, and promise to get them posted as soon as I can.


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## Showolf (Feb 17, 2009)

I have definitely had way more fun than should be allowed with this amazing light! Highly recommended...


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## toby_pra (Feb 17, 2009)

Very nice review!:twothumbs


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## Showolf (Feb 19, 2009)

I took this spotlight to the beach last night and its performance confirmed that it is easily the #1 pistol gripped thrower available... I was hitting whitecaps crashing 500-600 yards away from shore! Simply awesome....


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## [email protected] (Feb 19, 2009)

As always nice light comparison Mr. Spotlight! :thumbsup:


Now looking at the 2 lights it's obvious the POB is flogging the B&D... what's hard to accept (at least visually) is the the B&D is running a 50w halogen bulb! :thinking:










BlueBeam22 said:


> I promise more beamshots soon comparing it to some of my other lights like the N30, 3mcp Vector and 15mcp Thor.



Ah yes... I'll be looking forward to this one (even if my bandwidth isn't)


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## kramer5150 (Feb 19, 2009)

Why does the POB color tint look so green in all those pics? Is the color tint _that _ bad? The B&D by comparison may be dimmer, but it looks to resolve a lot of detail due to its color tint.

thanks again!!


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 19, 2009)

toby_pra said:


> Very nice review!:twothumbs


 
Thank you toby pra, I appreciate it!:thumbsup:



Showolf said:


> I took this spotlight to the beach last night and its performance confirmed that it is easily the #1 pistol gripped thrower available... I was hitting whitecaps crashing 500-600 yards away from shore! Simply awesome....


 
I am glad it is performing so well for you. This light is definitely my favorite pistol grip spotlight I have ever used. It sure has no problem lighting up objects 600 yards away!




[email protected] said:


> As always nice light comparison Mr. Spotlight! :thumbsup:
> 
> 
> Now looking at the 2 lights it's obvious the POB is flogging the B&D... what's hard to accept (at least visually) is the the B&D is running a 50w halogen bulb! :thinking:
> ...


 
Thanks [email protected]! The POB is quite a bit brighter than the Black&Decker, but the Black&Decker is unbelievably bright and powerful for only 55 watts. It must have a really good battery and high quality reflector to be able to achieve that kind of performance. I am still very impressed at how it is so incredibly close to the POB in throw, and based on my experience so far it nearly equals the N30 in throw (the N30 is still a lot brighter in overall output though).




kramer5150 said:


> Why does the POB color tint look so green in all those pics? Is the color tint _that _bad? The B&D by comparison may be dimmer, but it looks to resolve a lot of detail due to its color tint.
> 
> thanks again!!


 
I'm not sure why it appears so green in those pictures, it is actually much more blue than that. That being said, the Black&Decker does give much better color rendition.



Here are the pictures I took tonight. I know I still need to post one of it taken apart, and will get that done as soon as I can.

The target plant is around 20 yards away, and the hotspots of the two lights are directly on it. The first beamshot is of the Black&Decker and the second one is the N30.














The Black&Decker is my favorite spotlight of all behind my N30 and Mega Illuminator, and I feel it has the highest price to performance ratio of any incandescent spotlight I have ever owned.:twothumbs


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## Showolf (Feb 20, 2009)

BlueBeam22 said:


> Thank you toby pra, I appreciate it!:thumbsup:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Great beamshots! I personally prefer the Black & Decker due to its whiteness and ability to well define any object it hits... I don't think you will find a 55W bulbed spotlight more impressive than this one! I would have believed it was 55Watts had I not read it on the package specs... It surely performs right up there with any of the big boy lights, and is really tough to beat for the price!!!!


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## jxwhadley (Feb 20, 2009)

Does the light or the box it came in show a model number? I went to my local Home Depot and they JUST ran out of the model SL202B. Googling it however, turns up this one: http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=17985

This is either a different model or a previous version of yours. 

Thanks!


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## Parker VH (Feb 20, 2009)

Under tech specs of the light in your link it says it's a 75W Halogen.



jxwhadley said:


> Does the light or the box it came in show a model number? I went to my local Home Depot and they JUST ran out of the model SL202B. Googling it however, turns up this one: http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=17985
> 
> This is either a different model or a previous version of yours.
> 
> Thanks!


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 20, 2009)

jxwhadley said:


> Does the light or the box it came in show a model number? I went to my local Home Depot and they JUST ran out of the model SL202B. Googling it however, turns up this one:
> 
> This is either a different model or a previous version of yours.
> 
> Thanks!


 
Mine is model number SL302B, and is different from the orange one. I owned the orange one (SL202B that your link goes to) for a short period of time a few months ago, and I do not recall it throwing as well as the black one does. It ended up breaking (would not operate) after the first few uses and I took it back.

The package my new one came in states that it uses a 55W/35W bulb, and it is a dual filament whereas the orange one had only a single filament.


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## Parker VH (Feb 20, 2009)

So could you swap out the dual filament bulb for say, a 75 or 100w halogen H3 in this unit?


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## BlueBeam22 (Feb 20, 2009)

Parker VH said:


> So could you swap out the dual filament bulb for say, a 75 or 100w halogen H3 in this unit?


 
I would think so. The bulb itself appears to be exactly the same in size and shape as any other 100W, 55W or 75W H3 bulb I have ever seen. I am just not sure how the high and low settings would affect a single filament bulb.


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## Bushman5 (Feb 26, 2009)

swap in one of the PIAA H3 (or H4) bulbs.....pure pure ultra pure white light!


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## BigMHoff (Mar 13, 2009)

I got one at Home Depot. It seems to work fine, but the little green and red leds dont light up when charging/charged? It works great. Really bright. Big, but it fits in the big rectangular "cup holder" in the center console of my Ram. Amazing for $30! Every pick-up truck needs one!


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## AnAppleSnail (Feb 4, 2010)

I just bought one, and powered it on once I got it home. It's charging, and I'll be playing with it soon. The heft is about right for one-hand use, but I may need to shift the bulb - my low-beam is unfocused. Perhaps that's deliberate?


Edit:
Update - DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG! It hurts the eyes to use this in most underground spaces. Buy this box of sun, especially if you don't already have a spotlight.


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## IlluminatedOne (Mar 10, 2010)

I just got one of these lights at Home Depot, really great light for $29.99.

I have not had chance to really test the throw, other than shining it down the street and seeing the road signs reflect back at me.

My low is unfocused too. 
Although i was thinking that dropping in a single filament H3 bulb would probably make the beam nicer as it would be more centered. 

I will have to try to get out some where with a large area without much ambient lighting.

I should stop reading on this forum i have ended up buying 3 lights in less than 2months, and now i have just ordered a Maha C9000 oo:  .


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## IlluminatedOne (Mar 10, 2010)

I took my light apart and took a few pictures, i think that it may be possible to fit a HID ballast in there if you ditched the SLA and AC adaptor.


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## IlluminatedOne (Jun 29, 2012)

Just thought i would do a small update as i have been doing some minor mods for this light.

I wanted to be able to run the light directly off a cigarette socket or a 24ah SLA battery i have so have modified the light so now the 12v DC socket on the light is connected directly to the internal battery.
Which also means the internal charging circuit is now not used but i just tapped into the DC jack on the circuit board so i have a direct connection to the battery and can use my own external SLA battery charger if need be. 
But i think the little 3ah battery is not charging up as it used to as it only gets to about 12.4v rather than the usual 14v when charged. But now as i can actually remove the SLA inside and run it on external power its not really important and a replacement SLA would probably cost more than the light is worth. 

Also i did some LUX measurements for the light before i modded it and as the battery is not 100% you may get better output if your battery is in better condition than mine.
So the numbers i got were

Low Beam 35w [email protected]
High Beam 55w [email protected]

Now after i have modded it and running off a 24ah external SLA off the cord i get 
Low Beam 35w [email protected]
High Beam 55w [email protected]

I also did a ceiling bounce test i measured lumen output of around 640 OTF on high and around 400 OTF on Low using my quark on HIGH as a benchmark at 85 OTF lumens.

Often thought about putting one of those DC-DC boost boards of ebay into it but not sure if there really is much point as those Stanley Fat Max LED spotlights put out around 700lumens and considering the better run time these old incans do seem bit old hat these days although the color rendering is fantastic .

I am still thinking of maybe doing a HID mod at some point but there is not a lot of room in there with the battery inside, but maybe mount the hid ballast inside and run it from a smaller lithium ion belt pack.


Anyway just thought it would put some lux numbers up as i don't think anyone has tested this light IIRC.


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## Dima (Oct 9, 2016)

Hello. Please, tell me where i can buy battery for flashlight Black & Decker SL203B?
Thanks.


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