Red Hat
Diving
Ferei W170 Dive Light
The Ferei
W170 is the top of the range dive light from this Chinese manufacturer. On
unboxing first impressions were of a very high quality piece of kit, which
comes in a very nice bag ideal for stowing the torch, straps and chargers. It’s
a nice package.
Turning on
the light is amazing as the pure cool white light is very bright at 2200
lumens.
Wanting to
charge the torch up and get it diving was my priority as it is an exciting
product but the instruction booklet supplied with the torch is terrible and in
no way tells owners all the information they need to know about the torch
features. I found out more by getting hands on and finding things like the 3 power
modes by accident. The torch comes with 3 charging parts. A car charger which
is highly useful. There is the standard charging cable which as normal goes
into a box and then plugs directly into the torch and this is the setup for the
AC charging at home. I am unsure if you use the box section when charging in
the car?? But I think not. I haven’t found any info on that yet, which isn’t
very good (clearer manual required). Good points though are that the torch is
fully sealed so you do not have to open up the torch to charge it. This does
leave the charging point exposed to salt water. It’s clearly stated that this
charging point needs to be rinsed and dried after every dive in salt water.
Once I
figured out how to charge the torch a red LED illuminated on the plug and after
3 hours it turned green. This torch takes 5 hours to fully charge but after 3
and 4 hours the charging is at 80% and 90% respectively. Full charge is said to give a run time of 95
minutes at full power. This should just about give you time for 2 good wreck
dives. If you are like me and like to do long shallow scenic dives this run
time may be a bit short. You don’t need to use full power all the time though
and can easily move to mid power which will suit this type of diving. I would have liked to see a slightly longer
burn time on full power though, as you do need it if you are in murky water.
The head of
the torch is also sealed and contains an American Cree LED surrounded by an
aluminium reflector all behind a toughened ultra-clear optical lens.
The torch
itself is a lantern style and has a very comfortable rubber coated handle, with
lanyard attachment points fore and aft. It is constructed with a Type III
military grade hard-anodizing aerospace-grade aluminium body (sounds good). This
is said to resist scratching and corrosion. I will need more time to see if
this is the case but after my testing so far the unit is bearing up remarkably
well.
So this
package on the face of it looks good, here is how I got on underwater.
On land the
light was very bright with a large intense hot spot surrounded by a nice even
halo. Underwater I noted as you would expect that the halo focused a bit making
the beam narrower. This was good as too wide a beam is like full beam in the
car in the fog. So at full power (because I hadn’t as yet found out about the
other settings) the torch performed very well illuminating the murky depths of
Loch Long. One thing I did note was a slight fogging of the lens. The cold
water and the intense heat from the LED must have caused this although the
torch does have inbuilt heat sinks. This cleared as soon as I left the water
and I have found no information to know if this is normal when in cold water?
It was on my
second dive of the day when I experienced a brilliant feature built into this
and I believe all of the Ferei dive torch range. After 60 minutes run time the
torch blinked. Initially I got a bit of a fright but I did remember reading
about this. When the battery level reaches around 20% the LED will blink once
every minute for the remaining 20 – 30 minutes of burn time. As LED torches
either have power to work or not this I think is a brilliant idea, once you
know about it that is!
After the
dives
I had a good
look over the torch after the dives. All trace of the lens fogging had
disappeared. After the rough treatment I had given the torch there were only a
few light scratches. What I did note was that a fine coating of rust had formed
on one of the exposed charging terminals. The worst of this was removed with a
cloth but it will require dedicated attention after every dive trip to keep it
in tip top condition.
Cost.
This torch
retails for £676 if you look it up on Amazon and you do have the option to buy
it in gold as well as black colours. Thankfully though you will not need to pay
that amount as John Hewitt of Red Hat Diving is selling this torch at around
£300. Check out John’s website at http://www.johnhewitt.com where
you know you will be able to buy with confidence.
Conclusion
Pros
This torch is powerful and well made from quality
products. It produces a brilliant white light with a pleasing beam ideal for
diving in UK waters.
Great plug in charging without opening the torch.
Reasonably fast charging 80% charge after 3 hours 100%
after 5hours.
Excellent low battery warning.
Can be charged in a car ideal for the traveling, camping
diver.
Very comfortable to use.
Cons
I would have liked to see a bit longer burn time to
ensure 2 dives on full power. This will only be a problem if you are in the
water for more than 95 mins with the torch on.
I didn’t like the fogging of the lens. It’s likely just
due to the heat of the LED but I can find no information about it.
Lastly that exposed battery terminal will corrode if not
cared for.
At time of writing an up rated version of this torch has
become available with 3 LED’s in the head. This produces around 2960 Lumens and
has a burn time of over 2hrs. This all sounds good if it can do all this.
Mike Clark
firstly let me wish you all a very happy 2014 when it comes. 2013 has been a good year for diving but a late start to the season and the arrival of winter storms has made it a short one.
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