WelTool has a new specialized flood inspection style light with the new M7. The light takes an 18650 battery and has a Aspherical lens creating a super even beam with hard cut off edges. This is a specialized light so let’s take a quick look at it and it’s use cases. Thanks to WelTool for sending it to me.
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Packaging
The light comes in a red cardboard box, with Weltool branding on it. It’s a box that is designed to fit multiple models. Inside the light was packed in foam cut to fit the M7. Accessories were limited to the light itself, the included Weltool branded button top protected 2600mAh USB rechargeable 18650 battery, a pocket clip and a spare oring.
Weltool may have overdone it with their thesaurus when writing the description of this light on both their website and Amazon listing. In my opinion detracts from the light and just makes it look silly, less like a tool, and more like a marketing stunt. Weltool should hire a native English speaker to make sure everything translates well in meaning and isn’t over the top with buzz words. One of my favorite example is ““Eye of Heaven General”, the Eye of Wisdom, will watch over the hard work you pour your heart into.”
Construction
The light is made from aluminum, and anodized black. Overall machining is average, but I did have a small area in the head that seemed the anodizing was worn off, possibly due to shipping? Starting at the tail, you have a large proud rubber boot with a mechanical switch underneath. Inside the tail is a single spring, on the outside fairly standard diamond knurling can be found.
The clip attaches to the body in a head down only position. The clip makes and effort to allow for a slightly deeper carry but 29mm of the lights tail will still stick out. The clip is fairly robust for a push on design and is removable. The body and head sections are all milled as once piece. The body continues the same basic diamond knurling the tail has. The head grows slightly in diameter, and has a prominent anti roll ring that works well. The front bezel itself is plastic, and the lens itself is an Aspherical Acrylic lens. I do notice it collecting dirt down in the corner of the lense pretty easily.
Lastly the light has labeling around the rear switch saying “Only 18650 Available”, (Translation error?), and then up front it has the Weltool logo, model and “The Eyes of Heaven General” tagline they have chosen for this light, which happens to be slightly crooked.
Size/Weight
I measured length at 119mm, maximum diameter at 29mm, minimum diameter at 22mm. Weight with the included battery and clip is 122.8g. The light is only IP67 rated, meaning it can survive a drop into water up to a meter.
LED/Beam Pattern, Runtime
The make and model of the LED used in this light isn’t given, instead they call it a “X-LED”, more marketing and less facts for those who actually want to know. My guess is it’s something like a Cree XM-L series LED in a pretty cool white.
The beam as mentioned before is very round, consistent and even due to the acrylic aspherical lens. It has no hot spots, and really floods with little to no throw. Cut off is fairly hard on the edges as well.
The light uses constant current, and has no PWM which is nice. Output curve is pretty steady with no thermal or timed stepdowns, its brightness varies with the discharge profile of the battery largely. Total runtime I saw was 120 minutes, My runtime graph may not be entirely accurate due to the abnormal battery mine shipped with. More on that in the recharging section. I measured parasitic drain at 3.6uA.
UI
Ui on this M7 is very simple. You have two modes, low and high. Low is rated for 114 lumens while high is 353 lumens according to Weltool. You can full press or have press to switch between modes, the light does start on low. It’s nice they didn’t include strobe as that would not fit the intended useage of the light.
Recharging
I seem to have received a battery with a bit of a defective protection/charging circuit. On mine LVP kicked in at 3.44V, and reported as fully charged via the USB cable at 4.06V. I confirmed with Weltool that these are not normal behaviors. The battery that ships with the light is USB rechargeable, and only 2600mAh. I would like to see Weltool include a 3000 or 3500mAh battery in 2019 as the price difference is small and that would add a good amount more of runtime.
Pro
- Beam makes it good for upclose work, reading or short range inspection tasks, It’s very even
- I like that the light starts on Low
- Decent clip
Con
- Low 2600mAh battery included with the light with a pretty narrow range of operation 3.44V – 4.06V in my tests.
- I would have liked to see an additional low mode, for up close reading type tasks.
- I would have liked to see a magnet in the light, this could have made a nice under the hood type light if it had one.
- Seems a bit expensive at the time of this review.
Conclusion
This is a specialized niche light for specialized purposes. I can see it being useful for close inspection work within a few feet of you or to provide some light while working on something with your hands (Although a headlamp would be my choice to do this). This isn’t the best choice for a general purpose light, to use while camping, walking the dog, or just general use. My example had a few minor aesthetic issues with the anodizing and labels on the light, but other then that it’s ok. The labeling and writing for the marketing/technical details really are not for me, everything has been written in a grandiose fashion and that hasn’t always translated to english very well. This is a relatively easy fix for WelTool and I would encourage them to tame it down for future lights and stick to the facts that flashaholics and general consumers need when making a purchasing decision.
If you need a light with a super floody beam, for short distance work, this is an ok choice, but for most people a more conventional beam pattern with a bit of hot spot, more throw, will be more useful in general in my opinion. I feel like in terms of value at the time of writing this is a bit expensive for what your getting for most people.