Is Milwaukee Lying as Much as Harbor Freight Braun About Lumens? LT3

See which lights and other tools have made the cut on our Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/torquetestchannel

With the battery – it is entirely possible that the ratings marked on the batteries are not valid, i see this way more often then not. So that could explain the discrepancy, battery says it is 3000mah but only tests to 2000mah. Do you still have the batteries? Can you test them? That would be interesting. So i agree, odd to see Milwaukee EVER do bad, they are a very trustable brand as i have learned through research just like what is done on this channel.

I do not have any brand preferences, when you think about that how dumb is that, to LOVE a company… while i do get that a given company might have a well earned reputation and deserve loyalty we all know that some of the "fanboy" thinking that "this brand is the best, just the bees knees…" Apple, cough cough, Apple… get this done due in part to awesome marketing and blind leading the blind. can't fault the companies for that,.

Fanboy syndrome is a serious pet peeve of mine, sorry it is just So dumb – what do they give back to you? ever thought of that? People carry water for many companies and don't even know why and worse, they don't have any facts or enough facts or recent facts or relevant facts… !!!

Anyway as a consumer i want performance and value, to have the products do what they say… and if that is brand X this year and brand Y next year, then Brand Y is the new favorite. Anyway great job as always, this test was so different than the last one i watched 2 minutes ago.

As a mechanic, the streamlight works great. I can use thru a 12 hour shift with no loss of light, put it on charger and in the morning it's ready to go again. It will last thru a gazillion charges.

I bought the Harbor Freight light and it crapped out on me too After a few months of light use. I still had the receipt, so I thought I'd just swap it. When I took it back they pointed out that it only had a 90 day warranty .

I'd like to see a test of lights that are meant to be mounted on rifles. Brands like Cloud Defensive, Modlight, SureFire, and Stream Light.

ive bought and lost at least 4 HF braun lights.. they are that good.. my fault i keep forgetting them lol

I tried many inspection lights over the years and the best one so far for me is the Sealey LED3604. I don't know if Sealey sells stuff in your neck of the woods, but if you ever come across the Sealey LED3604, try it, it is good stuff.

The streamlight seems reasonable considering it's run time and that a professional will likely charge it in their box at the end of each day/overnight.

I have the Braun light and it works quite well for general purposes. It does break when dropped but I have broken the business end off several times and glued it back with epoxy and reinforced with dental floss… it is by no means a tank… the pin in the center is plastic and is the weak point but I drilled out one side and shot a screw through the pivot and so far it has been working well.

I will mention that if you replace the battery make sure you use a PROTECTED button top 18650 unless you like angry pixies dancing in your hacienda or shop overnight.

Also even though it is not very rugged, I do like the fact that not only does the head flex BOTH directions you can also rotate the head so that the power button is on either side which is neat.

The harbor freight can actually be had for 20$ at this moment in time. So If that's the one you want.

👍👍👍Keep it up !

i have a few of the brauns, i like them minus the long charging times but we don't use them to often, in fact we almost never use them.

High CRI LEDs generally have lower Lumens per amp/watt than 5k or more blue LEDs so that is where the extra power is going to get a similar output.

Can you test the 12/18v options the big tool brands offer?

This isn't even it's final form made me laugh.

Milwaukee has a different Ah batterys with the red lithium which could cause the under rating

I’ve noticed that harbor freight Braun needs to have the battery cap screwed on right

Exelent review as always…👍🏼
Hey but no way 67 dollars for the Astro 80SL in Amazon is 89.07..😖
With all respet, for the real word price and runing time and strong I’m goin whit streamlight, or the best price and option of Astro , the 65SL at just 57 $

I have the Milwaukee Rover. It's an awesome light really. Nice broad flood.

Wait, are you guys in Duluth? I'm from Duluth!

I have the streamlight. was a bit let down on the one direction wand. being it has different light on both ends WTF!. But I use the wall charger and it only takes 2.75hrs to charge from dead. not 8hrs with the usb type hook up. Do a video test on the LightBar Pro … headlight system. Seems promising. Great use in automotive with a full surround light output. and bright enough to be useful. plus option for 2nd battery at a total of $90 with kit. $70 with just the light. I want an upgrade from the dual LED matco neck/head light and the Snap-on version. both die out in about 2.5hrs but with steady output of about 300 to 400 lumens

My biggest problem with my lights is I have the magnet on their carry them away with the vehicle

i almost bought the steelman because in another video of yours you mentioned it being a great product. i loved seeing how it went above its lumen rating, but seeing the lumens over the battery life make it pretty bad. its $15 on amazon right now and might still be worth it but that constant drop is just lame.

i hope you continue testing. id love to find a good budget one that holds more lumen over the battery life

I have the same HF light. At first I really liked it so I bought the changeable head style. That one I can count on 1 hand the amount of times I used it. The main head broke at the joint. I have the two other heads but they aren't as useful. My original is getting sloppy at the joint. I have an Astro with wireless charging on order.

I have two of the Braun and they start to flicker and seem to turn off on their own even with batteries swapped out.

The CRI information is underrated. Using those 6k+ LED's can be very tiring on the eyes. But nobody ever talks about that. They only see the lumen rating and think that will solve all of their lighting issues.

Make sure bottom is tight. And no problems turning on

I did wish they made them square or hex shaped. I'd also prefer one of those magnetic charging cables as I've had to clean out the port and also adjust it as it has been pushed in over time.

All we really need is:
-stays where you put it
-can be aimed in all directions while standing
-can't roll
-charging port is clean and easy to plug in and remove
-fast charge and lasts 8 to 10 hours
-joint is repairable and adjustable
-able to hang
-Bright
-easy to store
-strong

I ain't very good with electronics, but would using a potentiometer to adjust the brightness/turn on and off cause the light to die faster? I never understood why they make them like a 3 to 5 button clicks to operate some of them.

I have seen several mentions of this light switch issue for the Braun. I have one. Turns out that on mine at least this is a result of the battery cap not being tight enough. You need to really crank on it and then it does not go off. Also, the battery they include is longer than your typical 18650 so it barely fits in my charger and that probably contributes to the cap issue. But when I did test the battery out it actually delivered more than the stated capacity.

I’ve spent an absolute fortune on lights, specifically headlamps. And after all the brands and fancy ones I’ve tried over the last 10 years… I actually love the Nebo rebel that I’ve been using the past few years. I have three of them, and I use them every day, draining at least two of them completely.

And on the lower setting… It’s still super bright but can last up to 8-10 hours! They’re super cheap, The rebel only cost about $30.

and are built to a high standard just like my olights and others. I’m somewhat qualified to review these lights properly. I run a lab where I do component level board repairs for industrial clients, as well as test equipment calibration & metrology. I also work with a wide range of photonics test equipment. Like spectrometers and stuff like that. So I’m somewhat qualified to make these assessments.

I’ve disassembled all the lights I purchased, and I’m still impressed with the Nebo rebel. Build quality and attention to detail is top notch.

Should test ScanGrip light. Thanks

puking her guts out…. 🤣

You need to find the type of electrical meter that plugs into the wall and has a regular female 120vac plug on the front, that will be able to give you reading on even the non-usb type lights and chargers… have you looked into them before already??

I use a head torch a lot in my garage, would be interesting to see what run times and lumen out of other brands are. Great video btw, I enjoy watching them, well thought out and informative with a little light hearted humor every now and then. Shame DP doesn't make a torch to go deep and really light up your white ball… 😄 haha great episode btw.

The only issue I ever hear off with the Braun light is that you need to properly tighten the cap before use as that is what causes the button issue. If that is sorted they are usually fine from what I hear.

The Strion has removeable batteries, I like it much better and I have both.

Had the braun for 3 ish years now, daily use in aviation. No big issues. Been pretty good for 30 bucks. Low light setting is more than bright enough and last me all day, way more than 2 hours. I only use bright for short busts of time like inspections in large enclosed sections like the tail. If i need more light i get another type of flashlight. Form factor is good for my environment. Fits in tight spots. Better than using headlamps sometimes. Color is fine for reading colored wires, although most wires i see are white. Magnet base is strong enough to hold on a tinnereman washer or steel screw when i can find one. Hook would be nice sometimes but i have other lights for different situations. I use it plugged in sometimes at my tool box to use as a desk lamp when I'm building wire harnesses which hinged at the center is helpful. Hard to justify 2-3 times the price for a small light.

Am I the only one who broke the plastic hinge on the Braun light? I love the design but can't believe they made the highest stress part out of plastic, I didn't even drop it…

Something I ran across not too long ago that really impressed me was the EPower 360 work light. The thing is blindingly bright and it lasted through a 5 hour job. I think it was around 40 bucks a Costco. The magnetic swivel lights are super handy. Kind of wish I bought a couple more for presents.

I could care less on the actual "lumens" that my Harbor Freight Braun light puts out… it puts out a great amount of light for the $19.99 (on sale) I paid for it. I swapped the batteries for some higher quality cells and used the heck out of it for over past 3 years and it's still going strong. 🙂👍

Check out the Pelican 3410

Hi, just found your channel… I am hooked. Too bad you didn't include the husky or kobalt rechargeable light in your test.