# 18V Bosch Pro mobile worklights?



## zakazak (Dec 26, 2016)

Hello everyone,

I recently bought a few 18V Bosch Pro Battery tools and wondered if I could pair those batteries with a nice worklight / mobile lamp?

So far I only found two light from Bosch pro itself but I hoped that others could be paired with the battery?
Bosch GLI VariLED
Bosch GLI 18V-1900

I would like to have different dim modes cause sometimes I wont need it as bright for working (e.g. under a car) and sometimes more brightness would be nice.

Any suggestions? Thanks !


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## mildlyangryjohnny (Dec 26, 2016)

Gonna be so worth it once you find it. Don't know about the bosch light situation. My advice would be to return them and upgrade to milwaukee.  ha. They have alot of good battery led worklights came out pretty recently. Good is relative, of course. In my experience, decide on a brand/ battery system based on your needs--which requires some homework. Some brands specialize in certain types of work and certain Types of durability. Before making the initial purchase you'll want to know what will work within that system--how many different tools/ accessories will be available for that style of battery--based on the type of work you do. Also, will you want to buy instore or online. Bosch is a house brand for lowes. I dont remember seeing their worklights there, though--maybe a flashlight or two(?). You may have luck searching google, amazon or ebay.
Milwaukee is a house brand for the depot and they have several lights in store. Easy to pick up--try out and return if needed. The led worklights cant compete with the old halogen worklights in output. But you wont be replacing bulbs and having heat related degradation those lights are notorious for--also, [bonus] no heat added on hot days. I used to replace worklights yearly due to failures. The milwaukees i just picked up dont strike me as having the same faults. And not having to worry about cords is extraordinary. Brand is probably irrelevant. I am sure they all have their variants--i am just married to milwaukees system.

Not yet comparable in output and not up to snuff technologically as high output flashlights--but getting there. Last three gigs i did --all i used for lighting was battery based. It was awesome.

Good hunting.


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## zakazak (Dec 26, 2016)

Well I am from Europe so my situation is a bit different.

The brands I would consider are Bosch Pro (Blue) and Makita. Now Bosch uses Sortimo storage system which fits to my other tool storage ls from Sortimo.

I wonder if there are any adapter from bosch battery to e.g. makita. In general I would also use other lights but having one charger and one battery system for all tools would be best


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## mildlyangryjohnny (Dec 26, 2016)

Ahhhhh. I see. Yes, absolutely having one system is ideal--but not always possible. Sometimes it just happens that you require a tool with a particular nuance you just cant find comparable in the system you are married to.

Bosch and makita are both outstanding brands--is bosch still made in germany or is it outsourced to china? I was very sad the day i found out my beloved milwaukee was no longer made in usa.

I havent used bosch or makita battery options much in recent years because i use the milwaukee and ridgid systems. You might have access to festool cheap. They have some really cool stuff and metabo, as well. As for an adapter... i dont think they want for that to happen. You might be able to build something or use alligator clip leads to cheat but all of those battery packs--at least here in the states are set with proprietary connectors.

I just did a quick search "bosch 18v light" it brought up some cool stuff. I didn't see a stand light like the milwaukee. But there were some interesting options.

What sort of light are you looking for? An area/task light? A flashlight? A big light to replace large halogen worklights?


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## zakazak (Dec 26, 2016)

mildlyangryjohnny said:


> Ahhhhh. I see. Yes, absolutely having one system is ideal--but not always possible. Sometimes it just happens that you require a tool with a particular nuance you just cant find comparable in the system you are married to.
> 
> Bosch and makita are both outstanding brands--is bosch still made in germany or is it outsourced to china? I was very sad the day i found out my beloved milwaukee was no longer made in usa.
> 
> ...



A light that I can place below a car to work under it, but also not too bright (or with two brightness levels) so that I can put it into the engine bay and work on the engine or in "tight spots". 

Would be nice if it could alao be bright enough to lighten up a room or a wall.

So a flashlight might be too small I think.


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## mildlyangryjohnny (Dec 26, 2016)

Hmm. That is a dilly of a pickle my friend. I looked at both of the lights you mentioned. The small one is listed at 300lux. I have no point of reference to compare what that means. I understand light output in terms of lumens as a reference point. The larger lite you mentioned is listed at 1900 lumens. So to me it seems you will need both lights. The little one for the car work and the bigger one for the wall work. I didnt find anything that mentioned them having modes.

But consider this --a single 500watt halogen worklight puts out approximately 8000 lumens. Most of mine are actually double lamps i.e. 2x500watt at 8k per lamp =roughly 16000 lumens. For remodel work in a medium sized room 20'x20' one halogen stand light with 2 500watt globes is plenty sufficient to light the entire room for good visibility everywhere. The milwaukee battery stand light i just got i think is 3000lumens. And it can reasonably light up one wall maybe 12 feet long 9 feet high. But it is also on a stand so the light placement is centered left to right up and down. The bosch with no stand (light coming from floor level) at 1900 lumens feels like it could just barely work but you would have to move it alot and it just wont "seem" bright enough. The 3k lumens of the milwaukee is kind of enough but not really. I keep using it because it was expensive (so it must be used or i feel stupid) and it is easy to move and no heat. So it is definitely a trade off. They (the tool companies) just havent put enough time into developing their worklights. They will catch on. They sell the tools to sell the battery packs. Battery packs are like printer ink. They will catch on that if we find a decent light to replace our normal worklights we will end up using/buying alot more batteries...

Seems like you will need to get both. I think a cursory search on the ol'interwebs is going to show you pretty much what the options are. Those brands are huge, they've got budgets to market their stuff. It's not like with fancy specialized flashlights where you have to turn over stones and know the secret code to find out whats available. 

Cheers.


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## FDP (Dec 27, 2016)

I have one of the 18V VariLED models that I got to supplement my other 18V cordless Bosch tools. It is really great! Difficult to compare to conventional CPF products in terms of output, lux, etc., but the light is sufficient for tasks I perform (working under car, crawl space, etc.) The runtime is excellent and it is also a great power outage solution. The throw is not great, but this light was made for working in a room and not construction site.


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