Wurkkos TS15 Mini Thrower Flashlight Review
The Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight runs (and includes) one 14500 cell (and can use AA) and has a Luminus SFT25R for fantastic throw. Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight product page.
Versions
There’s just one version of the Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight.
Price
The Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight sells for $31.99, and that includes a 14500 cell, too!
What’s Included
- Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight
- Wurkkos 900mAh 14500
- Charging cable
- Lanyard
- Spare o-rings (2)
- Manual
Package and Manual
Build Quality and Disassembly
The Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight has nice build quality, especially considering it costs just $32.
Both the head and tail are removable from the cell tube. Threads here are anodized. The cell tube is reversible, which means that the little cell orientation label you can see below might end up in the wrong orientation. These labels should be on the tailcap!
There’s a beefy spring in the tailcap, but no spring at all in the head.
I didn’t stress test it, but the bezel didn’t unscrew.
Size and Comps
Dimension: 91.6mm (length) x 29mm (head diameter)
Weight: 51g (without battery)
If the flashlight can headstand, I’ll show it here. If it can tailstand, I’ll also show that here!
Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. The version below is a custom laser-engraved Convoy S2+ host by GadgetConnections.com. I did a full post on an engraved orange host right here! Or go straight to GadgetConnections.com to buy your Convoy S2+ now!
Also in the photo above, my Standard Reference Material (SRM) flashlight is the Hanko Machine Works Trident, an 18350 light. While I have not reviewed or tested the Gunner Grip version seen here, I have tested a Hanko Machine Works Trident Total Tesseract in brass. I love the Trident, and it’s a striking contrast to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, another great SRM.
Retention and Carry
A lanyard is included, and it attaches through this hole in the tailcap.
The tailcap also has a magnet, which is strong enough to hold the Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight easily.
That’s all for carry options. There is no belt clip.
Power and Runtime
The Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight runs one 14500 cell. A button-top 900mAh cell is included. The light will also work with a single AA cell, too.
The cell goes into the light button first – positive end toward the head.
Below are a few runtime tests. The light does have low voltage protection, which kicks in around 2.9V.
The switch also gives an indication when the voltage gets low.
Charging
Charging is built in. There’s a USB-C port in the head. This port has a press-in cover.
A USB-C to USB-C charging cable is included, too.
Below you can see a C to C and A to C charging test. Both are fine, with charging at around 0.9A (or 1C), which is just fine for this 900mAh 14500.
The manual is a bit ambiguous about recharging 1.5V cells (such as Eneloops) in the Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight, but I don’t recommend it, anyway. Specifically, the manual says “The red and green indicator lights flash alternately when using AA battery.” which probably means that red and green indicate an error (but it doesn’t say that.) So don’t do it.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo | 900-350 | 2m+0.97h | 850 (0s) 796 (30s) |
2.42 |
| High | 350 | 1.2h | 320 (0s) 313 (30s) |
0.84 |
| Medium | 100 | 4h | 102 | 0.29 |
| Low | 10 | 32h | 12 | 0.02 |
| Moonlight | 1 | 80h | 1 | [low] |
Pulse Width Modulation
Every mode uses PWM! It’s quick PWM, though, so nothing to really worry about.
Click here to see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.
Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.
User Interface and Operation
The Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight is controlled by a single indicating e-switch.
Here’s a user interface table!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click | On (Memory) |
| On (Except Turbo) | Click | Off |
| On | Hold | Mode advance (L>M>H) |
| Off | Hold | Moonlight |
| Any | Double click | Turbo |
| Turbo | Click | Return to the previous mode |
| Turbo | Double click | Moonlight |
| Any | Click 3x | Strobe |
| Strobe | Click | Return to the previous mode |
| Strobe | Double click | Strobe advance (SOS> Beacon> Strobe) |
| Off | Click 4x | Iterate lockout |
| Lockout | Click | Blink twice to indicate lockout |
| Lockout | Hold | Momentary moonlight |
LED and Beam
Wurkkos is using the Luminus SFT25R emitter in the TS15 mini thrower flashlight. It’s a cool white option, stated at 6000K-6500K. There’s a smooth, fairly large reflector.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
CCT is high, living up to the cool white name. CRI is low, too.
CCT (Correlated Color Temperature) refers to the measurement of the color appearance of light, expressed in Kelvins (K), which indicates whether the light is warm (yellowish) or cool (bluish). A lower CCT (below 3000K) is considered warm light, while a higher CCT (above 5000K) gives cooler, bluish light.
CRI (Color Rendering Index) is a measure of how accurately a light source renders colors in comparison to natural sunlight. Scored on a scale from 0 to 100, higher CRI values indicate that colors appear more true to life and vibrant, similar to how they would look under the sun.
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 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)
I keep the test flashlight on the left and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right. These photos are taken around 18 inches from the door.
I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!
Summary and Conclusion
I like lights that are surprisingly unusual for their physical characteristics. The Wurkkos TS15 mini thrower flashlight is certainly one of those – the throw is incredible! I love that it’ll run AA and 14500 too. The user interface is good enough, and very familiar (many Wurkkos and Sofirn lights have this user interface.) The price is right, too!
The Big Table
| Wurkkos TS15 | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Luminus SFT25R |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $31.99 |
| Cell: | 1×14500 |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | Yes – with on-cell protection |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | “with cell: all modes without cell and/or tailcap: no modes” |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 900 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 796 (88.4% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 55.44 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 401 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 1169lux @ 5.971m = 41678cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 408.3 (101.8% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | 6000-6500 |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 6100-6700 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Wurkkos |
| All my Wurkkos 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 I like
- Low cost
- Fantastic throw
- Familiar user interface
- Includes 14500
- Can run 1.5V cell (primary or rechargeable)
What I don’t like
- Very cool white
- Click from Turbo doesn’t go off, it goes to the previous mode
Notes
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