It's always quite a pleasant surprise when I get a completely unanticipated package in the mail. Such was the case from Brite-Strike Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of Tactical Illumination Products. There were two products inside: one I'll review at a future date, and the other was today's review topic: the EPLI Illumination Tool. The most surprising characteristic of the EPLI has to be its size compared to its performance. About the size of your average tactical pen, the EPLI offers two levels of light power and three different functions, and all on two AAA batteries.
Now, I have to admit: when I first pulled it out of the box I thought, "Wow... great... woo hoo... another handy-sized LED powered light." Then I started reading the material included about it, put the batteries in and had my outlook radically changed. Powered by a CREE-XPC-Q5 LED lamp (did all that mean anything to you? Nope? Me neither. I copied it right off the published material. My understanding is that it's a 5W LED) this small light is capable of producing upwards of 160 lumens of light on its "high" setting. Yes, this little thing has more than one setting.
Manipulated by the touch-pressure OR "click-on" tail cap, you can get:
- High power - 160 lumens
- Low power - 10 lumens
- High power strobe
According to the published material I received with this light, it is:
- Waterproof
- 14.5mm wide by 132.5mm long (about 1/2" across and 5.5" long)
It feels like it's manufactured out of the "standard" mil-spec aluminum most "tactical" lights are today. The one I received for testing is all black except for the lamp head assembly which is silver. The metal clip is sturdy and is sized / placed so that you can carry this light just like you would a pen in your breast pocket.
The two AAA-batteries will reportedly support the following run times:
- High Power: 1.5 hours
- Low Power: 6 hours
- Strobe mode: 3 hours
I cite the published information because I haven't managed to kill the batteries yet in my testing.
So, how thoroughly can you test a light such as this? The simple answers...
It turns on and off and strobes as the paperwork says it should.
I have thrown it down my street as far as I could, went and picked it up and it worked... all five times I did that.
I dropped it into a bucket of water and left it overnight. It worked as it should the next day.
It's been riding around in my pocket (different ones) for the past few weeks and hasn't become uncomfortable.
The Brite Strike website has an MSRP for the EPLI of $59.99. While that's an excellent price for such performance out of such a compact package, I'm sure that - before long - you'll be able to find the same model at reduced pricing from various vendors.
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About The Author:
Lt. Frank Borelli (ret) is the Editor In Chief for Officer.com, and has over 29 years of military and civilian law enforcement experience. An instructor since 1989 and having delivered training across the country, he stays active in police work, training, and writing. Frank has had four non-fiction and two fiction books published along with two research papers of specific interest to the law enforcement and/or military communities. All can be found / purchased on his Author Page on Amazon.com linked above. If you have any comments or questions, you can contact him via email to [email protected].
