What is a tactical led flashlight?

According to some people the word “tactical” is just another marketing ploy used to sell flashlights, a mere adjective that is used to make buyers believe that they are purchasing a product that is better than most run of the mill flashlights.

The reality is that a flashlight designed for tactical use is indeed different from a regular flashlight. However, not every product sold with the tag “tactical led flashlight” meets the design requirements that would make it appropriate for field work.

Tactical flashlights have been around for over 100 years!

First introduced in 1900, the tactical flashlights of the time were bulky, heavy, not nearly as sturdy and worked on dry cells. In fact, the bulbs often gave way in response to the acceleration created by firearm recoil. A decade down the line, the first US patent was filed for tactical lights with a series of improvements. These lights were designed to be mounted with a gun.

Over the years, tactical lights underwent mammoth changes and by the 1980s they were a common sight in the hands of law enforcement personnel and were being used independently of weapons. Despite the upgrades, the tactical flashlights manufactured 3 decades ago were no match to the products available today.

The current range of tactical flashlights are not just smaller, brighter and lighter, but also more effective than the older versions. They are actually meant to work as self-defense products, even when used on their own. Powered by LED bulbs and lithium ion batteries, these flashlights perform extremely well when used indoors as well as outdoors.

A tactical flashlight can handle multiple tasks!

They are light: A well-made tactical LED flashlight can easily be held in one hand and operated at the click of a button. In fact, its light weight means that it can be held in the left hand, leaving the right hand free for the use of a weapon or pepper spray.

They are bright:

A tactical LED flashlight should offer no less than 500 lm of light output. In fact, if you can get 600 lm or even more (Real Lumens Output) from your flashlight, it can double up as a self-defense gadget as the brightness will be enough to blind an attacker.

They have different power modes:

Tactical LED flashlights are designed to work in a range of situations; from lighting up the backyard in the dark to blinding intruders with the strobe mode, these portable devices should be able to do it all.

They have Zoom:

The Zoom feature give the Tactical light the flexibility to be operated in various conditions, whether to shine on a distant object or to light up a wide area.

Can be operated with a 26650 Lithium battery:

The 26650 lithium battery has at least double the capacity then the standard 18650 battery. This will gives you twice the run time enabling you to operate your flashlight for up to 15 hours without recharging your battery.

Water Resistant:

This is very important since you want to operate you tactical flashlight in all weather conditions, unfortunately many brands claim to have IPX5 or even more which will enable them theoretically to operate in all weather conditions. But…when you check to see if they have an O ring gasket sealing their LED you will find among many of them that there is none, thus exposing their LED to rain and snow. So make sure to stay away from such brands.

Unfortunately many flashlight brands that are marketed with the 1000 lm claim or even more offer on an average only a Real output of 325 lm. Fortunately Brightex Technologies in cooperation with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has tested the real lumens of 7 popular flashlights all claiming to be the brightest flashlight with stated lumens ranging from 700 up to 1200 lumens, test results reveal that many of them delivery only a fraction of the promised lumens claim. So if you are looking for a truly powerful tactical flashlight make sure that the lumens claims are backed up by an independent lab test results.

So before buying your next tactical flashlight make sure they have all the above features and that their stated claims have been verified