[Closed] PSA: cheapest lights I've seen in a while

What batteries does it take? Need a new light as my Chinese solar storm has just gone kaput after one ride

Not sure on exact name but it comes with a battery made up of 4 aa size cells

The battery looks to be the std cheap as chips and totally unsealed, potentially crap ex-laptop 4x18650 battery that you get with most cheap chinese lights & at this price I wouldn't expect more (I'd love to be proved wrong but at this price?).
Howsyourdad1, you've been burnt once with a 'bargain', I'd suggest spending a little more to guarantee something reasonable or at least from a well known shop. Trouble with the these bargains is, that when all the ppl start returning there rubbish batteries, the shop tend to go "all turtle" (spoke shirts lights anyone?).
Though for the price if the light head is any good, it does look a reasonable (especially compared to the ppl still selling single XML lights for more) but I'd budget to buy an replacement battery too.

I've ordered one, will let you know what I think, but for £15 I'm willing to take a risk.

I have two of the original magic shines (single LED) that I bought a few years ago when they first appeared, and they're still going strong despite all the concerns that everyone had about their quality/longevity.

The original magicshines came with much better chargers and batteries than some of these copies of copies of copies.
Just keep an eye on it and potentially just keep the head unit as a nice option to go with an upgraded battery pack/charger.

here's the same unit at tinydeal (direct from china)

http://www.tinydeal.com/waterproof-cree-xml-t6-charging-2200-lumens-5-modes-flashligh-p-110226.html

so £15 seems a good price even if you junk the batteries and get a smudge pack for reliability/dependability.

At £15 even if it just lasts this winter i'd be happy. I still have a magic shine light I purchased 4 years ago and its still going strong. My other cheap Chinese lights are still going and have the same batteries as this. The only thing that worries me is I don't leave them on charge in the house or overnight in case the thing catches fire 😆

z1ppy, I dont think the batteries I have bought are poor, it was the head unit. It was also £7 so yes I've been burnt as you say but to me is was a small risk.

What is better and more reasonable for a head unit then? I have some 18650 batteries fully charged and waiting to be used! thanks in advance

Didn't realise you'd only paid £7, that is hardly worth worrying about. Most are £20 odd, so with another £15 + postage for this light, the overall cost just starts to add up, was what I meant

TBH all the batteries sold on these cheap lights tend to be poor, as AlexSimon says above they used to be better but have tailed off (nose dived) in quality since. If you pop the battery out of the bag, you might find the battery is plastic wrapped but has waxed cardboard ends, these will leak unless you seal the battery in a plastic bag (or better), so it might work fine but the overall quality is poor (is my point)

I like the solarstorm X2 units, & think there great value but from a reliable/reputable (localish) supplier you can return the unit to, if it turns out to be fault. Is my current recommendation, with the proviso that a better battery may need to be sourced.
Torchy (Big_f_d_d on ebay) had some dual XML unit for £40 which I thought worth a punt but have seemingly sold out, so other than SSX2 or light that cost £100+, there's not a lot I can think of off-hand in between, I can happily recommend. So by all means give this unit a try, just don't come crying to me, if it turns out to be another dud 😉

Still waiting on my 7x XML from DX..............

Amazed how dim my old magicshine P7 is, suprising how quickly you can get used to having your own mobile sun.

just had some, thanks Op.

I have a sample light from a (the?) company that makes these lights rather than a re-seller. Same headband mount, same battery pack holder, charger etc, just a different (older) casing shape. It's a POS : ) Light level varied when on high from new and the battery has died really fast. It now has zero output and is landfill.

£40 or £15 I'd still think it's a waste of money and resources.

At £15 even if it just lasts this winter i'd be happy

I got the same as the OP from Lightmalls. I use it on the bars paired with an SSX2 on my helmet. The light from the SSX2 is a bit more yellow than the triple and doesn't seem as 'clean'. Might have to get another for the helmet.

A slightly yellow light should give better contrast and reduce glare compared to cool blue white. I tint mine.

It is worth noting that The claimed light output on these discount china lights are somewhat over estimated.

Nice bit of honesty in the advert too, especially as 3800 isn't divisible by 3.

Probably give out around 2100 lumen in reality but still good value for £15 though.

2100 ha, no!
It will put out at best 1000 lumens.

I'm tempted to order one, does anyone know if it will work with a 10.8v battery pack?

I had one that looked identical to that- could be different inside o'course. It was kind of stupid, on full power it ran only 2 XMLs, on reduced power it ran all 3, but it was never better than anyone else's 2XML light and obviously quite a bit bigger and heavier. Quite nicely made head unit, a mate's still using it, battery was alright, charger I think I threw in the bin unused as it looked like impending homelessness.

I have a pretty good charger I use for all my battery packs so for £15 it's a steal,just put the battery in an inner tube to keep it waterproof.

just had an email to say it's been dispatched.
I've been using last years cheao ebay cree job and it's still going strong so I guess I have one for my bars now and one for my head, woe betide any driver coming towards me.

how easy is it to replace the battery if it does die? Is there an off the shelf replacement?

I'm waiting for one of the bike mags to do a group test on those Chinese Crees instead or better still up against the £200+ set. Waiting in vain I suspect, no advertising revenue from the ebay lot.

Been a few reviewed in mags recently bruceonabike
Think this months mbr has a few of the cheaper end reviewed against the more expensive options

I think the problem is there are 'fake' chinese lights too, you've no idea if you're buying a real solarstorm or something with 2 christmas tree lights for LED's.

"Fake" Chinese lights???? Really????

I'm not being funny, I am genuinely interested, have you actually brought one that has Xmas tree type lights in it? Cos I've brought a few over the last couple of years for myself, the wife and a couple of mates and they have all been very very bright, ok maybe not as bright as they say they are, but still more than bright enough, especially with one on the bars mounted with a hope qr mount from crc and one on the helmet by cable tying the plastic bit of the head torch mount to my helmet.

I also know quite a lot of others that have brought a variety of Chinese lights and I'm not aware of any that were "fake" and in all honesty if they can be made this cheap then why would they bother falling them

Good price... Just registering my interest in the thread to keep tabs

There are definitely fake Solarstorms out there dhyetiman. Almost seems like there are more fake than legit at the moment. Shoddy build quality and terrible batteries.

two of my friends have bought similar units...
one has been fine but the others battery died after 20 minutes on the first ride and hasnt worked since
i've been using the candb seen unit for over 2 years without any problems...i did tell them to buy these lights but they wanted to save a few quid...which hasnt quite worked out as planned for one of them

here's the same unit at tinydeal (direct from china)

http://www.tinydeal.com/waterproof-cree-xml-t6-charging-2200-lumens-5-modes-flashligh-p-110226.html

so £15 seems a good price even if you junk the batteries and get a smudge pack for reliability/dependability.

Except you could buy a light and IPx proven battery from Torchy for £25 more, which works out a bit cheaper overall - and you get cover on the head unit too.

Hmm, except that offer has now gone (the Oriloe, 2x LED @ 39.99).

Which is a shame as this thread had prompted me to get on and order it!

Still showing as 14.95 for me so I've ordered one as a bar light for the hardtail

I had one of these about 18 months ago, although I paid nearer £30 for it then.

It was bright. But unfortunately it had a habit of cutting out (and I mean cutting out, not dimming), usually at very inopportune moments. Battery life was just about acceptable if you really juggled the settings.

I still have a single LED Chinese job for my lid and it has been great for over two years. The triple LED and associated bits and pieces being inside the same sized casing as the single inevitably made it feel less solid than the single. And so it proved.

Good luck, though. At that price you could buy three in the hope that all are good'uns, even if only one is good, you are still doing well.

I had a single led Chinese lamp (the first one I ever ordered) and that was cutting out, I noticed the bezel that holds the lens in was loose, tightened that and it was/has been fine ever since. Think it was just a loose connection

I must admit, it's a shame they just turn off once the battery runs out with no real advance warning, luckily my night rides aren't generally that long and if they are I have a spare battery pack anyway, but can be a bit disconcerting, especially if you don't have one on helmet as a backup

Mine arrived today and it's pretty good, no way on this earth is it 3800 lumins but for £15 it's a bargain.

Agreed. Way more powerful than the single cree's but would love to have one tested for its actual output

So where would you go to get it tested? Is it just a case of shining the light into a machine that measures lumens? Or is it more complicated than that?

I find it weird how many people buy the Chinese lights despite their seemingly atrocious reliability and safety records, but carbon parts with an impeccable record are viewed with skepticism 😕

I have had 4 Chinese lights over the last 7 years and all have worked perfect and still do.

Mine arrived yesterday after seeing this thread. Looks great and fits my magicshine batteries and charger too. Anyone any idea on actual runtimes?

I have mine and it created a fabulous strobe light effect in my garden for 10 mins last night. Great fun, just need a bike to fix it to now.

My night rides are not generally more than 2 1/2 - 3 hours and it seems fine for that, keep on low for all the climbing and just put on high for the descents only ever had it run out once but that was a much longer ride and I'd left it on high a lot more than usual (first time out with it)

Mine turned up the other day, they seem pretty well built to me, but as others have mentioned they're not 3600 lumens worth, but still a lot brighter than my supposed 900 lumen magicshine.

Done a couple of rides now, very happy with them. Ain, t technology great......10 years ago I was riding around with what looked like a couple of motorbike lamps and a battery as big and heavy as a hardback book. Now riding around with a 15 quid light 10x as bright. Great psa nutsnvolks, cheers.