Lumintop ODL20C Review (26650 Thrower w/ USB-C Recharging)

Today I have the Lumintop ODL20-C. This is a Thrower style light using a 26650 battery and it has USB-C on it for recharging. This light is using a Cree XHP35 HI LED Emitter, is capable of upto 2000 Lumens meaning it can throw a beam 860 meters. Thanks to FastTech.com for sending this to me to review.

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/V8DqyxV

YouTube Version of this Review:

Packaging
Packaging is similar to other Lumintops, with the light coming in a brown cardboard box that is tight fitting. A good amount of information is on the back of the box. Inside the light is well protected in black foam cut to fit.


The light does come with the light itself, lanyard, spare oring, USB to USB-C charging cable, 26650 to 18650 adapter, and manual, warranty card, etc. I like the addition of the battery adapter. It works pretty well and I think more 26650 lights should come with it. No 26650 battery was included but one is shown in some of the official marketing material. The manual is pretty good, with a diagram, runtime tables, and good directions.

Construction
Lumintop again has nice construction on this light. It’s pretty large for a single 26650 light, and is pretty heavy. Fit and finish is tight on this light. It’s made of aluminum and is hard anodized black with a mostly matt finish. The tail cap has a pretty deeply recessed center section, and a small hole for the lanyard. It features a large diamond pattern to help with grip. Inside the tail cap it features a heavy dual spring. The body tube features nicely greased orings on each end and threads that are ACME cut, they are anodized and smooth. The body tube is reversible. It features a trapezoid patterned grip on it. Each of the 4 trapezoids are parallel. 2 feature the large diamond grip pattern milled in and the other 2 are plain. It’s a different look to your traditional knurling and provide a medium/low amount of grip.



The head is decently sized and where a lot of the mass for this light comes from. Inside it features a button style contact and a large rubber ring to provide reverse polarity protection. Button top and flat top batteries as well as protected cells are all compatible with this arrangement. Heatsyncs are pretty deeply cut into the sides and around the reflector of the light. They are not sharp and work well. The bezel is smooth and may be glued, I could not remove it with my hands along, it does retain the iconic Lumintop red bezel oring. The glass is glass and anti reflective coated. It feels pretty thick. The reflector has just a slight orange peel, and to LED is nicely centered.

The button is fairly large and surrounded by a polished metal ring. The button itself has a little transparent area in it that allows the led’s underneath to act as a status indicator for power level. The button itself is pretty flat and has a nice snap to it. Ergonomics and balance are pretty good on this.

The silicone cover that protects the USB-C port on this light is quite large. It’s a tight fit and I find if you close up the light say to put a different battery in the cover has a tendency to pop open. The only thing I can figure is its air pressure but this doesn’t seem to affect the water resistance of the light. With the door closed it stays in place reasonably well but the little tab on it does get caught pretty easily. Not the best design here. I would like to see another included in the package like other brands do.

Size/Weight/Comparisons
This is not a small of light weight light. I found it to be on the heavy side. Weight with a battery measured in at 400 Grams. Length measured at 147.5mm, diameter at it’s widest was 59mm and 35mm at it’s narrowest.


LED/Beam/Runtime
This light uses a Cree XHP35 HI LED in a pretty neutral cool white. Being a thrower the beam pattern is mostly spot with a little spill. The Lumintop GT mini was even more focused. The reflector here has just a slight orange peel.

For my runtime test (Starting in Turbo mode until the light shuts off) I used a protected Keeppower 26650 cells that is rated for 5000mAh as it was one of the only 26650 batteries I had till recently. You do need a cell capable of at least 7A in order to activate Turbo. Total runtime I thought was a little short at about 105 minutes. However the bulk of this run time (about 95 minutes) was at about 1000 lumens which makes it pretty good. Turbo lasted about 5 minutes before the light started to take a major decline. Overall not a bad runtime in the big picture. One of the benefits of the weight of this light is that it’s able to handle heat pretty well. It gets warm but never hot during use.

Charging
This light has onboard USB-C for recharging and is capable of 2A. I didn’t see fast charging out of it but my USB-C meter is still on a boat in the Pacific somewhere. It does come with a USB-A to USB-C cable which is great since not everyone has USB-C cables laying around at this point. You do need a good charger to see 2A though, I had issue the first time I tried charging it getting less then 2A.

UI
UI is the same as the Lumintop ODF30 I reviewed last month. It features a single electronic switch mounted on the side. Ui is overly simple on this light. Low, medium, high in that order. When in high, double click to go to turbo. Eco mode (Still too high for my taste) is accessed when the light is off by long pressing the button till the light comes on. To shut it off while on requires a long press (2 seconds). Tho light also has Strobe but it can only be accessed from Eco Mode by double clicking to reach strobe. I like that strobe isn’t a part of the main group but this is a little awkward.

Lockout mode is also available. When the light is off long press for 4 seconds and the light will flash to enter lockout. To unlock requires unscrewing the tail cap. That’s certainly a different way to unlock and it’s not my favorite. Unscrewing the tail cap to mechanically lock it out seems more intuitive to me.

The light has low voltage reminder by flashing the LED under the button. This is a little hard to see if you don’t notice it. It comes on under 3V.

Pro

  • USB-C makes it to another light for recharging faster and easier. 2A charging was seen.
  • Good build and finish quality.
  • Ergonomics and balance are pretty good on this light.

Cons

  • Pretty beefy light and heavy but with good ergonomics
  • Only 2A maximum charging speed – 26650 batteries can safely accept higher speeds, and USB-C can deliver it.
  • No Neutral white option or cell included.

Conclusion
Another nice light in what I am calling 2018 the year of the thrower flashlight. While the weight is noticeable here it translates in the pretty decent runtimes and it deals with the heat pretty well. I would love to see neutral white be an option on this light but the cool white isn’t too cool which is good. I prefer the 26650 format for a thrower because it’s easier to bring with you and fit into a pocket or bag then a end over end 18650. The ergonomics on the ODL20C are good and I love that USB-C recharging options are becoming more and more common!

Link to this light on Fasttech https://www.fasttech.com/p/9659882 (non-affiliate)