This has a very long story behind it but a happy ending.
If you want to read a very thorough review go here. http://budgetlightforum.com/node/51969
Around a week before heading on a wilderness walking trail in the Imfolozi Game Reserve, I thought I would invest in a really good flashlight. If there is something that I have learnt over the years of overlanding and camping, it is – quality matters. Rather do the research and spend the extra money getting something that is high quality that will last. Sometimes, the expense is very difficult to justify and on rare occasions you don’t get the value out of going for the high quality option.
One example of an investment we made was our RV5 Oztent in 2012. We have probably put up and taken it down the tent over 150 times and slept more than 250 nights in it. The only issue with it is it has faded a bit and there are 1 or 2 tiny little holes in it but that is it.
Back to the point. I did some googling to try get some basics of what to look for in a good torch. As with everything, you can get so into it that you could research it for ages. This is a fairly long read but has all the basics. https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/flashlight.html. I was looking for something that was light to carry but was super bright that could be used for night watch while on a trail or when out on a night drive in the bush.
It quickly became clear that Klaus was one of the top brands for tactical flashlights. In my mind tactical meant it was rugged so was water and dust proof in case it was dropped or got wet. It also needed to be reliable and light to carry.
So after I did some research (all 30 minutes of it) and found that this flashlight was literally one of the lightest flashlights around, I thought “let me get one of these things!”
As we live in South Africa, buying from Amazon and Ebay takes time and you never really sure you going to get it and if you do, that it is right thing. A quick google search revealed a local site http://www.klaruslight.co.za/ . Online service in South Africa is still something that has to be perfected, so I wasn’t sure if I did order online when I would receive it. I thought I would send an email to their sales people and ask if they think I would receive my order before I left in a few days time.
David from Klarus emailed back that afternoon and said that it was no problem and he will have it delivered not the next day, as it was already the afternoon, but the day after that. Could he go ahead and process the order? Well I was impressed with the response and so said yes. Shortly after that the invoice and bank details arrived in my inbox. As promised the order was delivered to my office and on time a day and half later.
This really is only the beginning of the story. It gets better.
A day or so later after taking delivery, we organised to go on a night beach walk with Tidaltao http://www.tidaltao.co.za/ in Ballito. I thought it a perfect opportunity to give the XT12GT a test run. I had charged it overnight so the battery was full and I was ready to go. We arrived and started to look into the rockpools for all these amazing creatures that come out only at night. Almost as soon as I turned on my flashlight there were comments about how bright it was and you probably need to brace yourself from taking off before you turn it on.
I was super chuffed. I used the light on turbo and high mode for most of the time but had it on medium while walking as I was worried the torch would explode as it was getting warm on turbo mode after a few minutes. I have since read that it is supposed to have a safety mechanism to stop it from overheating and would step down the light. After around 30 minutes of use the light didn’t want to switch off and so I had to unscrew the back cap to turn it off. After putting the back cap back on and trying again it went on for 2 seconds then died. Now I didn’t know if it was faulty or I had already run out of battery so put it away and thought I would contact Klaus on Monday morning if it didn’t work after I recharged it.
That evening I recharged it and the same thing happened. Just not working like it should. Monday I got hold of David and said. I hate to say it but I think it is faulty. Can I send this unit back and you can check it and ship a new on if you find it faulty. David would have none of that. He knew I wanted it for trail so said he would ship one straight away and it would be there tomorrow so when I leave for trail on Wednesday morning I would have it. True to his word it arrived on Tuesday. I asked what I must do with the other unit and he said we can sort that out when I got back but he just wanted to make sure I had a light for the trail. I was super happy because I had my light for trail.
During trail I used the flashlight a bit on the first night but used my headlamp for most tasks as it is easier to have hands free light. Saying that I have a habit of putting a hand held torch in my teeth when needing light had two hands. This flashlight was light enough to hold in my teeth for a few minutes.
The third night I thought let me leave my flashlight as an option for others on the night watch at camp so they could choose between the provided heavy duty torch or my Klaus. It ended up that my light was the preferred option but it didn’t last the night. I think because it is so bright as a default setting and so people don’t turn it down to save battery. The medium to high setting was just as bright as the standard light used for night watch. The battery is very small compared to 3 X D Cells. Bottom line and the obvious lesson was the brighter the light the more battery power it will use so the shorter the battery life.
The service I received was exceptional. One would argue that you should receive premium service for premium prices and I would agree but it is not always the case.
I’m happy with my investment and as they ask in surveys “how likely are you to recommend us to your friends, 1 being never. 10 being always” I would choose 10.
Summary of the flashlight itself and the things I find cool about it. It comes with a magnetic charging cable which is great because you don’t lose the little rubber thing that goes into the charging socket if it had one. You can charge the light from any USB port like a vehicle, solar, battery pack.
Very bright and very light. The O ring towards the back of the handle is something that you don’t realise is a nice little finish until you use other flashlights and they slip out your hand. Superior build. The 2 built in mode settings are really nice to give you options depending what you are doing. I have now changed mine to outdoor mode and that works well for me.
