EBL 18650 Flashlight Review
EBL is selling the EBL 18650 flashlight that uses a reverse clicky and a “Cree” emitter of some variety. Read on for more information!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the EBL 18650 Flashlight product page.
Versions
Just this one!
Price
The Amazon price is $10 (referral link). I don’t imagine it’ll waver too much from that anywhere else.
Short Review
This is a light that should be avoided. The emitter is old tech at best, has a horrible beam profile, and the host itself is cheap.
Long Review
The Big Table
| EBL Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | “Cree” (No real claim is made) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $10 |
| Cell: | 1×18650 |
| Turbo Runtime | |
| LVP? | ? |
| Switch Type: | Mechanical |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 350 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | – |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 233lux @ 5.107m = 6077cd^ |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 155.9^ |
| All my EBL reviews! | |
^ Measurement disclaimer: Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.
What’s Included
- EBL 18650 Flashlight
- Lanyard
- Manual
Package and Manual
The light ships in a small cardboard box, with some nice printing. The printing includes specs and features, and a photo of the light.
The manual is very brief but gives an overview of the very simple light. Unfortunately, it seems to be a bad translation of potentially (or purposefully) misleading information.
With smart chips from Cree company from US, it can work for 5000-10000 hours.
Build Quality and Disassembly
This 18650 light is not unlike most other 18650 tube lights. However, the metal is fairly thin and light. The host/body doesn’t feel as quality as, say, a Convoy S2+. The bezel does have some glow… something – not glow tape. Probably unevenly applied glow paint – it’s not all that glowy. But it’s there.
That said, there are some individually good parts here. The threads, for example, are nice, thick square-cut threads. The switch is very responsive, and the boot is also pretty green.
The light is also very easy to completely disassemble. The switch assembly is held in by a retaining ring, which has two friendly divots and unscrews quite readily. The driver is the same – the board itself has two cutouts that allow pliers to unscrew it readily. The pill is aluminum, and the MCPCB is a 16mm variety.
Size
I measure 24mm in diameter, and around 117mm long.
Basically, the standard size for this style of light.
Retention
Included is a lanyard, which arrives already installed. The lanyard is on a ring on a ring…. a little excessive for my taste, but it works fine.
There is no pocket clip, nor is there really any place on the body to attach one.
Power
The EBL light is powered by a single 18650 cell. Both the head and the tail have springs, so any type of cell will work fine. (The “brass button” on the tailcap is sprung, too.) The manual doesn’t mention 2×18350 support, and I doubt the light has it. Nor does the manual mention a working voltage.
Here’s a runtime on a protected Keeppower 3500mAh 18650.
If I’m completely honest, I couldn’t tell the high and mid modes apart enough – there’s a chance that I started the runtime on medium, and when I checked the cell voltage at 100 minutes, reset the light to high. There’s also the possibility that I did things right, and the output is just higher the second go around because that’s about how good this light is.
User Interface and Operation
One mechanical tail switch is used in the EBL light. It’s a reverse clicky. This makes for a very simple user interface since all five modes must be cycled every time. High, Med, Low, Strobe, SOS. And the light has next-mode memory.
LED and Beam
There’s an emitter in this light. EBL claims it’s Cree, but I won’t bet on it. This emitter reminds me of my very first flashlight purchased from DealExtreme, about 12 years ago. It’s not a current-generation emitter, and it’s not good for our purposes.
The reflector is a shallow, smooth reflector. That reflector provides the user with a ringy, cool-if-not-purple beam. To be avoided.
Beamshots
These beamshots always have the following settings: f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.
Tint vs BLF-348 Olight S Mini Brass NW
(Yes, the beam is that ringy. This is possibly the ringiest beam I can recall.)
Conclusion
What I like
- Glow bits
- Green boot
What I don’t like
- Ringy beam
- Old emitter
- Can’t avoid strobes (2) in the UI
- Cheap host
- No clip or clip option
- Poor manual
Notes
- This light was provided by EBL for review. I was not paid to write this review.
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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