WINDFIREWF-501B Flashlights 1200 Lumens Tactical LED Flashlight 1 Mode High Powered Handheld Torch Water Resistant Portable with Holster Duty Belt Holder (Battery Not Included)

I wanted a flashlight similar in size and design as the E2D Surefire Defender (200 lumens), but I didn't want to pay nearly $200.00 for it. I found this one on sale through Valuelink Supplies at Amazon for $15 plus $5 shipping (Ultrafire Cree Xm-l T6 Led Flashlight Torch 1000lm 501b). It arrived quickly and I was very impressed with what I got. It is very close in size to the E2D, just a little fatter which was fine. I had an E2D to compare it to and last night used them side by side. At close to medium range the UltraFire blows away the E2D. The UltraFire has more of a flood pattern so it lights up a much larger area at close to medium range. Despite the more flood pattern, it is also considerably brighter than the E2D at close to medium range. For long range they are both about the same. At about 250' away they lit up about the same area. The Ultrafire has more of a white light while the E2D was a bit yellowish. So when it comes to LED performance, the $20 Ultrafire beats the $200 E2D by a good margin.The Ultrafire has 5 operation modes, strobe, SOS, bright, medium, low. There was no manual in the box to know if any of those modes can be disabled. It remembers the last mode you were using when you last turned it off.The construction is nice and it looks like a quality unit. The one criticism I have is with the switch assembly area. The rubber switch buttons protrudes about 1 mm beyond the metal case. That prevents you from being able to balance it upright. The switch will not accidentally turn on if you press the flashlight against a flush surface, but it sticks out just enough to prevent the flashlight from standing up. It would not be very hard to modify the switch so that you can set it upright. Probably adding an o-ring between the case and the rubber button would provide the necessary clearance to stand it on end. I was going to rate it a 4 due to this, but considering I like it better than the E2D, and it costs 1/10th the price, I went ahead and gave it 5 stars due to the great value.Overall this is one great little flashlight that is extremely bright. If you were in a life a death environment I would go with the SureFire as I'm certain the USA built Surefire in the long run may be more reliable. However, for the 99.9% of the population that is not in a combat environment, and just wants a small everyday carry flashlight that is blinding bright, you'll get a lot of value for your $20.I've only had this 2 days so far. I'll report back if any quality problems develop. I did notice on mine that the switch retaining ring was a little lose. That is the silver colored ring with 2 small holes in it that you see when you unscrew the bottom of the flashlight. I took a small pointed object and tightened the ring, alternating rotating between the two holes until the ring was seated tightly against the switch assembly. Some people have complained of problems with the switch and the loose retaining ring could be a source for those problems. Be sure yours is tight so it doesn't get loose and cause problems down the line.For now I'm as happy as a tick on a fat dog with this item.

I purchased a number of flashlights including four of these recently all in one order. What I can tell you is that in a general sense you get what you pay for - if you pay less than 25 or $30 for a single flashlight it's gonna be garbage.These four flashlights first of all came three in one type of box and then a fourth one in another kind of box. Each one had a different brightness level and a different shaped illumination cone. One of them was extremely bright and filled the whole room with light, just what I wanted for tactical flashlight. However the other three were more like spotlights although all four lights had the same model number and manufacturer on them. Obviously made in China in two different factories!So I put batteries in them and started testing them all out because I quickly realized that the pushbutton switch on the end of each flashlight that was supposed to change the mode on each light from high to low and then blinking actually was doing different things on each flashlight!In the end after I finish testing them, the best one that I really liked and had a good illumination cone ended up blowing out completely because it got so hot it simply burned up.The other three ended up with the button malfunctioning and I couldn't get the light to stay on a couple of them and on two of them there was a slow blink, a fast blink and a low beam, but no highbeam so completely useless.These lights get fairly hot when you use CR 123 batteries in them, a lot of power – a 3 V flashlight is a great thing if it works properly but if it's not made properly it will get hot burnout, the switches are faulty and there's no quality control here so that you really don't know what you're getting.There are multiple flashlights with this same model number or WF 502 made by7 Ultra Fire and all of them seem to be pretty much the same garbage unfortunately.I rarely make purchasing mistakes of this type, as I read the reviews very carefully but in this case I seem to have made a mistake and returned all four flashlights as soon as possible.Again you'll get what you pay for, I don't think you have to pay $200 for a Surefire or similar but I have gotten some good 3 volt flashlights that take CR 123 or similar batteries and that are extremely powerful and very bright and very reliable for about $35-$40 on Amazon.

I like the flashlight itself. Great light, one button, one click on/off. Flashlight is bright and not big and bulky. I use it for working on cars. The holster however, is NOT good. It is open end on both ends allowing flashlight to easily fall out. I lost mine 3 times in the first day alone. It needs an end enclosure so it doesn't slip out without your knowledge.