The title above may be the understatement of the year, yes it is powerful and it is a torch but it is also so much more. The box calls it Bright Light Ranger Ultra bright, heavy duty LED light. It can be charged by mains, car cigar lighter or hand crank.
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click image to enlargeThe box contains the light and mains lead as well as an Instruction sheet. So you will need to purchase a cigar lighter adapter should you wish to charge it in this way.
The unit is 21x18x8.5cm and weights 1400grams. The 12 LED light 8x7cm is stored face away against the face of the unit to avoid possible damage. While the most typical action is to flip it through 180 degrees this will add 8cm to the height. It can be used in any point during the 180 degree flip it has no side to side movement.
The rear of the unit has two connections the top one for 6volt output to provide power (but again no lead is supplied) and the lower one for input to allow charging from a car cigar lighter, certainly this could have been supplied.
The battery itself is sealed and there is no access apart from a twist fitting to a 2amp fuse this is also on the rear.
The stated use for the Ranger wide area flashlight is for ‘wide area illumination for hobbies, leisure or professional use’.
The stated light bulb equivalent is to 60watt bulb. There are four rows of three LED’s that together give the stated level, there is only two settings on or off, you cannot have say half or one third of the LED’s on to give longer power.
Once fully charged it should be able to give light for up to eight hours, this is the time taken to charge it from fully depleted.
For those times when mains power is not available such as in a prolonged power cut or when camping etc, you can use the hand crank built into the right side of the unit and twenty minutes of cranking should give one hours light. While this is not hard work after two of three minutes you certainly begin to feel the work you are doing.
The box states two methods that I did not try as the required items are not supplied as standard. First it can be charged from a car cigar lighter (12volt) and the stated power is four hours charging for four hours of light output.
The second method is only mentioned on the box and in passing in the instructions and that is a solar panel, the stated charging time of six hours will give four hours of light but of course that must depend on the light and the efficiency of the solar unit. Reading the one mention in the instruction it states that the car charger is an option; it does not say the solar panel is.
There is a single LED which can be green, red or orange, green is master switch on, red is charging master switch off and orange charging master switch on. There is also a 6volt auxiliary output but as it does not specify what devices (other than optional) it can power I did not test this and no timings are given as to how long it will last.
Getting the power of a full normal light bulb means that this is really a light to cover a broad area, having the ability to charge from a car (optional device) or from the built in hand crank means it can be used in emergency situations.
The Bright Light Ranger is available from the link below for £89.95
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004H5245I?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634
http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/batteries-and-chargers/nevada-bright-light-ranger or from this link for £69.95
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