Pistol Light Death Match: 10 Go In, 1 Comes Out

I test ten full size lights to the breaking point for vibration, thermal regulation, salt water immersion, g-force, and impact. One light (almost) survives.

Background

I’ve tested lights for practical usage, showing how lights perform in various environments. I’ve also tested using calibrated laboratory equipment.

But the previous testing hasn’t covered reliability. I want my light to perform even after being exposed to harsh conditions. Our lights are bumped and jostled around, are exposed to sweat and harsh water environments, can be dropped, and sometimes even turn on inside our holsters. So I came up with a number of tests to exceed anything I would experience in daily life to see how well a selection of ten lights would hold up.

Werkz is not sponsored by any light manufacturers listed here. We make holsters, so if you’re in the market for holsters for pistols with lights, please check out https://werkz.com/

The Contenders

This set of ten lights is from our previous testing. These lights have undergone the practical and lab testing, so I wanted to bring them forward and test them all in our torture tests. I’m going to destroy over $1500 worth of lights so you can see which one might be most durable!

Lights	Price	Waterproof Rating	Construction Notes
Streamlight TLR-1HL	$129	IPX7	Aluminum body with plastic switches and battery door
Surefire X300U-B	$296	IPX7	Aluminum body with plastic switches and battery door
Modlite PL350	$329	IPX8	Aluminum body with plastic switches and tailcap
Inforce Wild2	$179	“Up to 20 Meters”	Aluminum body & switches
Streamlight TLR-9	$126	IPX7	Aluminum body with plastic switches and tailcap
Nightstick TWM-30	$129	IPX7	Aluminum body with plastic switches and tailcap
Nightstick TWM-850XL	$92	IPX7	Aluminum body with plastic switches and tailcap
Olight Baldr Pro	$149	IPX4	Aluminum body with plastic switches and tailcap
Olight PL-Pro	$129	IPX6	Aluminum body with plastic switches and battery door
Thrunite TW10	$39	IPX8	Aluminum body with rubber covered switches and charge port

A lot of these lights have aluminum housings and bezels, plastic switches and rear battery doors. Some doors use a tool-less mechanism, and the Nightstick lights use a phillips head screw. The Modlite PL350 and Streamlight TLR-9 have batteries that are inserted through a removable front bezel, allowing battery changes without removing from the pistol. The Olight Baldr Pro and Thrunite TW10 both are rechargeable. Prices range from $39 to almost ten times that amount. For full specs, review the data at https://lowlightdefense.com/.

From a durability standpoint, I want to call out the Inforce because it looks and feels indestructible. The battery door mechanism slides out, not only avoiding hinge failure, but it allows the o-ring to get maximum contact to prevent water intrusion. The switches are aluminum. It feels like it is made to take a beating.

Vibration Testing

Lights do get shaken, whether from recoil, carrying them around, or transporting them. Vibration testing stresses the electronic and physical assembly of the light. My testing uses a vibration table which primarily vibrates up and down. Lights are turned on and mounted on rails attached to the table. I set the machine to 90 minutes of max amplitude vibration and am looking to see if any of the lights disassemble themselves or fail as a result of the test. While any damage is noted, a light fails when it no longer functions properly at the end of the test.

I made sure all lights turned on before testing, changing batteries if need be. I also made sure the lights were tight on the rails so they didn’t go flying off. I then started the vibration machine. Note that our machine “goes to 11” — the max setting is one hundred and eleven!

At first, the machine had a hum, and the lights just sat there seemingly undisturbed. But as the test went on, things got interesting. The vibration table started shaking a lot more violently; it appeared that it entered a harmonic that caused it to vibrate at a higher amplitude. The Olight PL-Pro started to flicker a bit. We weren’t sure if things were going to fly off. We also noticed that the Modlite PL350 had a piece of “something” bouncing in the lens area; it must have broken part of the reflector.

At this point I just let the vibration machine do its thing. Remember, I’m not testing how long a batteries last; I am only testing to see if the lights fail and don’t come back on with new batteries.

Key Observations:

• Immediately: Olight Baldr Pro started flickering
• Immediately: Modlite PL350 had something break off or was floating in the reflector
• 32 Minutes: Modlite PL350 started flickering on / off, then stayed off
• 34 Minutes: Olight PL-Pro turned off
• 46 Minutes: Nightstick TWM-850XL started flickering
• 48 Minutes: Olight Baldr Pro turned off
• 56 Minutes: Surefire X300U-B started flickering

Once the 90 minutes were up, the Streamlight TLR-1HL, the Thrunite TW10, the Inforce Wild2, the Streamlight TLR-9, and the Nightstick TWM-30 and remained on.

Once stopped, I manipulated the switches to see if any of the 5 that were off would turn back on. All of them turned back on. When I removed them from the rails, the Surefire X300U-B seemed to have switch problems — it would only occasionally turn on, and a hit with the palm would sometimes get it to stay on. However, changing batteries cleared up the issue. The Inforce Wild2 was running, then I switched it off, and it wouldn’t turn it on. Changing the batteries fixed the issue as well.

In short, all lights survived, with no issues that new batteries didn’t resolve. I’m a bit shocked as I figured at least one light would come apart under this test.

Thermal Regulation

Lights should know how hot they are getting, then step down current to keep temperatures under control. High temps can not only be extremely uncomfortable for the user, but can also damage internal components or batteries.

I’ve heard reports of people accidentally leaving their light on when reholstering, or having the light turn on in their holster (see https://www.reddit.com/r/CCW/comments/pif8oj/anyone_like_their_pl350_and_phlster_holster/). If this happens, you don’t want to end up burning yourself or destroying your holster, nor do you want your light to self destruct.

I set up this test on a table where each light was suspended by a small sheet of holster plastic, then covered with a towel. This was meant to simulate the closed environment of a holster. I ran the lights to see how hot they could get, and whether they could deform the Kydex. I also measured the light temperature at intervals to see how hot the light would get. After the test, the light and holster plastic are inspected for damage. For this test, I expected that some of the lights would get hot enough to deform the plastic, and I thought it was a real possibility that one of the lights could burn itself out.

Degrees Fahrenheit	Effect
111	Burning Pain
119	First Degree Burns
131	Second Degree Burns
140	Pain Receptors Become Numb
145	Kydex Can Start to Deform
162	Skin is Destroyed on Contact

Here are our temperature readings.

Light	1 Minute	2 Minutes	5 Minutes	7 Minutes	10 Minutes	15 Minutes	20 Minutes
TLR-1HL	75	85	92	100	103	114	109
PL350	80	86	90	100	104	111	112
X300U-B	77	78	91	101	106	124	132
Wild2	81	86	102	112	125	139	143
TLR-9	86	90	95	102	109	113	111
TWM-30	75	83	88	93	98	105	112
TWM-850XL	72	79	100	110	117	118	117
Baldr Pro	65	67	67	68	70	74	76
PL-Pro	63	66	69	71	70	76	76
TW10	60	60	58	57	57	57	54

Of these lights, only the Olights, the Thrunite (at a staggeringly low 60 degrees max), and the Streamlight TLR-1HL stayed below our 111-degree “burning pain” threshold. And both the Inforce Wild2 and the Surefire X300U-B exceeded both the first and second degree burn thresholds. The Wild2 got to a numbingly-hot 143 degrees! The high temps may be fine when the light is out and not holstered, but if it comes on inside your pants, you have a chance of being burned.

After about two hours of runtime, I removed the lights from the Kydex. None of the sheets deformed. I do know some lights have been reported to deform their holsters, so perhaps the limited surface area of the light touching the Kydex prevented any of these from being warped.

When inspecting the lights, I found two had hazed over their lenses: The Inforce Wild2 and the Surefire X300U-B. While this wasn’t a terminal failure of the lights, it is something that concerns me and possibly could impact light output.

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Salt Water Immersion

Lights have to stand up to rain and sweat, wet clothes, or damp holsters, and they can get dropped into water. We want to know our light will still work after being exposed to moisture. All these lights, except the 2 Olights, say they’re waterproof to at least one meter, so I want to put them to the test.

Sea water is about 3.5% salt. Blood about 0.9% salt. I decided to go with the higher percentage for our two meter dunk tank. The idea is to immerse the lights into the tank for a few days and see how they fare. My tank holds about 7 gallons of water, which is about 59#. 3.5% is about 2# of salt. I mixed it all up as best I could, trying to get the granules to dissolve, but you’ll see some granules in our video.

I put batteries in the lights and turned them on before dropping them in. I wasn’t expecting any immediate failures, so this was mostly to help visualize. I am most concerned about whether the light will work again with fresh batteries (or charge) after recovery from the tank.

I started with the PL350. I put in a charged battery, dropped it in, and it started blinking immediately. Not sure why.

The Baldr Pro seemed to have some bubbles coming from the battery door when I dropped it in, and it started flashing immediately. Also note that by this time the PL350 had given up completely.

I then let everything sit. For five days. I dumped the lights out, rinsed them off with clear water, and went through them. Here is what I found:

Light	Immersion Observation (If Any)	Removal Observation (If Any)	Water Intrusion	Worked Without Battery Change?	Battery Area Observation	Worked With Battery Change?	After Dry-Out
TLR-1HL			None	No	Dry	Yes	Works
PL350	Flicker, then turned off within a few minutes	Switches feel weird	Yes, in battery area	No	Wet	Sort of. Turned on, but stayed on at a lower level.	Works
X300U-B		Haze seems to have cleared up	None	No	Dry	Yes	Works
Wild2			None	No	Dry	Yes	Works
TLR-9			None	No	Dry	Yes	Works
TWM-30		Water in reflector area	Yes, in reflector Yes, in battery area	No	Significant Corrosion	No. Switches feel less “clicky”	Failed
TWM-850XL			Yes, in battery area		Significant Corrosion	Sort of. Turned on, but stayed on at a lower level.	Failed
Baldr Pro	Started flashing immediately		Yes, in battery area	No	Significant Corrosion	No	Failed
PL-Pro		Electrical marks across charge pendant area	None	No	N/A	(After charge) No	Failed
TW10				No	N/A	(After charge) Yes	Works

First, I want to highlight the lights that did well here. The Streamlight TLR-1HL and TLR-9 had no issues, as did the X300U-B, and the Wild 2. The TW10 also worked after I got a little charge in the battery.

I want to highlight how difficult this test was. The lights got dropped in while on and ran until they were out of charge under water. Salt water. I suspect the heating effect that we’ve talked about in a previous test, plus the cooldown, could easily cause pressure changes inside the light above what the water pressure alone would cause. Bravo to these 5 lights for passing this test

The PL350 is a bit of a mystery to me. It failed shortly after drop in, and had water intrusion. And yes, I did verify the bezel was screwed on all the way both before and after the test. However, it did work properly after drying out.

The two Nightstick lights failed due to water intrusion. I had learned my lesson from the previous TWM-30 test; the battery door was screwed down all the way. Regardless, water entered and once fully dried out, they still didn’t work.

Don’t assume all lights are waterproof against immersion. Only lights with IPX7 or IPX8 ratings claim to be able to be immersed under water.

Olight claims the Baldr Pro is only splash proof, and the PL-Pro is capable of withstanding high pressure water. However, I wanted to test them equally with the others. I tested, and they failed. The Baldr Pro had water intrusion due to the door not sealing; I could see water bubbling out after dropping in. The PL-Pro is sealed but apparently fried itself in the salt water. If you know how this could happen, please comment below.

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This test caused our first casualties. 5 lights passed, 1 works after being dried out, and 4 failed.

G-Force Test

The purpose of this test is to simulate heavy recoil by mounting the light on a rail, and dropping it so that it stops suddenly. This simulates the direction of recoil on a weapon, which pushes the rail rearward and the light forward. I have not measured the amount of force applied, but I believe this to be much higher than pistol recoil.

Light	Initial Observation	Follow-Up Observation
TLR-1HL	Pass	Pass
PL350	Drop #4: Sheared the rail key, fell off, and broke lens.	Still works
X300U-B	Drop #3: Switch turned to “off”	Pass
Wild2	Drop #2: Batteries failed. Replaced and light turned on.	Pass
TLR-9	Pass	Pass
TWM-30	— Disqualified —	Can hear something moving inside
TWM-850XL	— Disqualified —
Baldr Pro	— Disqualified —	Can hear something moving inside
PL-Pro	— Disqualified —
TW10	Pass	Pass

The TLR-1HL, TLR-9, X300U-B, Wild2, and TW10 all stayed attached to the rail and functioned after all 5 drops. After drop #3, the X300U-B switch turned off, but once switched back on it worked again. And after drop #2, the Wild2’s batteries failed. Once replaced, that light functioned properly as well. For the TLR-1HL, TLR-9, and TW10, those lights just kept running without hiccup.

Lights from Nightstick and Olight weren’t functioning, so they were disqualified after the immersion test. That said, I ran them through to see if they held together and stayed attached to the rail, which they did.

Again the Modlite disappointed. I had the rail clamp tightened down as much as I dare — these lights can easily strip out the threads — it was tight. But unlike the other manufacturers’ rail keys, Modlite chose to use one that was not solid, and it sheared off. While I doubt any pistol will undergo this amount of recoil, all the other lights survived just fine. I’m happy the light continued to run, but mounting it on a weapon would be useless. It would simply fall off under recoil.

Drop Test

I decided we needed to bring the destruction level up a notch, so I headed outside to drop the lights. This is a less controlled test, with the lights landing any direction. This includes landing on the battery door, which won’t happen when mounted properly to a pistol. So, I wouldn’t take this test as definitive. But it sure was fun!

The crew came out to watch. And take bets on which light would survive.

I dropped the first group off the building one by one. They crashed into the sidewalk, bounced, and the Werkz crew picked them up. Unfortunately, our X300U-B didn’t survive the drop — the battery door broke and wouldn’t go back together. The light was dead. The other lights still worked, so I took them up again.

For our second drop, the battery door opened on the TLR-1HL. We were able to get it closed and run it again.

On drop number 3, the TLR-9 stopped working. It was dead.

Fast forward to drop number 6, which is where the TLR-1HL battery door again took an impact. This time, the door broke completely both externally and internally, and the light couldn’t run without someone holding the door closed. It was eliminated.

At this point, I had the PL350, the Wild2, and the TW10.

On drop number 8, the Wild2 finally gave up the ghost. It was still externally intact, but it wouldn’t turn on.

And then there were two…

On drop number 9, the TW10 finally stopped working. It also was intact, but wouldn’t turn on. That leaves the PL350 as the only light to survive 9 drops from our building. Sure it had a beat up bezel and broken lens, and the switches had lost their feel and were much stiffer than normal, but it would turn on.

Light	Drop 1	Drop 2	Drop 3	Drop 4	Drop 5	Drop 6	Drop 7	Drop 8	Drop 9
TLR-1HL	Pass	Battery door opened, but once closed stayed closed and works	Pass	Pass	Pass	Battery door broken
PL350	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
X300U-B	Battery door latch broken
Wild2	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Stopped working
TLR-9	Pass	Pass	Stopped working
TWM-30	— Disqualified —
TWM-850XL	— Disqualified —
Baldr Pro	— Disqualified —
PL-Pro	— Disqualified —
TW10	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Stopped working

These lights all did pretty well. The X300U-B battery door broke on the first drop. The TLR-9 stopped working after drop 3. The TLR-1HL battery door broke on drop 6. The Wild2 stopped working on drop 8, and the TW10 stopped working after drop 9. That left the PL350 as the only light still working.

Summary

Lights	Vibration Test	Thermoregulation Test	Immersion Test	G-Force Test	Drop Test
Streamlight TLR-1HL	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Battery door broke on drop #6
Surefire X300U-B	Pass	Exceeded 2nd degree burn threshold Hazing on outside section of lens	Pass	Pass	Battery door broke on drop #1
Modlite PL350	Debris noticed in lens area	Pass	Flickering upon immersion. Doesn’t work properly after replacing battery. However, works after drying out thoroughly.	Sheared rail key, broke lens, but still works	Still working after 9 drops
Inforce Wild2	Pass	Exceeded 2nd degree burn threshold Hazing on lens	Pass	Pass	Stopped working after drop #8
Streamlight TLR-9	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Stopped working after drop #3
Nightstick TWM-30	Pass	Pass	Water intrusion. Doesn’t properly work after replacing batteries.	Disqualified	Disqualified
Nightstick TWM-850XL	Pass	Pass	Water intrusion. Doesn’t properly work after replacing batteries.	Disqualified	Disqualified
Olight Baldr Pro	Pass	Pass	Flickering upon immersion	Disqualified	Disqualified
Olight PL-Pro	Pass	Pass	Shows current flow around charging port. Won’t recharge.	Disqualified	Disqualified
Thrunite	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Stopped working after drop #9

So what is my conclusion? After running through these tests, I’m shocked that these lights, even the inexpensive ones, held up so well.

Honestly, I was surprised that no light failed for the vibration and heat tests. The vibration test could have caused bezels to fall off, or made electrical components lose connection. The PL350 did end up with something floating in the lens area, but I wouldn’t consider that a failure. And the thermoregulation test could have caused a light to self destruct from its own heat.

The water test turned out to be the killer, taking out both Nightsticks, and both Olights. Plus the PL350 had water intrusion that apparently caused it to turn off underwater.

The g-force test only caused one failure. The Modlite rail key wasn’t strong enough to hold the light in place, so the light fell on the lifting handle and broke the lens. This should be considered a failure. At this point, the light would be useless on a firearm as it would eject off the front with any recoil. But it still worked, so I decided to drop it off the building.

My opinion is that if any light survives to the drop test, then it’s a solid light. For this test set, the lights that survived are:

• Streamlight TLR-1HL
• Surefire X300U-B
• Inforce Wild2
• Streamlight TLR-9
• Thrunite TW10

The TLR-1HL and the X300U-B both failed for battery door issues. If it wasn’t for random luck, those two lights may have been the ones to survive to the very end because it’s unlikely battery door impact issues would happen in the field. The Wild2 and TLR-9, and then the TW10, failed after impact for reasons I haven’t determined yet.

The last light working was the PL350, which is a bit unsatisfying because the light had debris in the lens area, had experienced water intrusion, and sheared its rail key.

By the way, I would love to hear your first-hand experiences with reliability of any of these lights. Please post a comment below and let me know how your light has performed for you.

So who is the winner? I think the winner is all of us. These lights are tough.

I won’t provide a clear winner, but after working with and reviewing a lot of lights, here is my analysis.

If a light won’t survive the immersion test, then I’m probably not going to run it. That eliminates the Nightstick and Olight lights tested.

If I hate the switches, I won’t run it. That means the Thrunite is off the table for me.

If a light can sit undisturbed for a month, but drain the batteries in that time, then I won’t run it. That eliminates the Inforce for me. I haven’t published data on this, but I performed a battery drain test on a number of lights. The battery drain test included putting new batteries in lights, getting a reading on light lumens, putting the light on a shelf for a month, then rechecking it. For the Inforce Wild2, it started at over 1,000 lumens, and after 5 weeks it registered 4 lumens.

That leaves the Modlite PL350, both Streamlights: TLR-1HL and TLR-9, and the Surefire X300U-B. Out of those, I prefer the switches on the Streamlights and the Modlite. But the Modlite had a bunch of little irritants in the testing, and it’s the most expensive light. I prefer the switches on the TLR-1HL over the TLR-9. I won’t say the TLR-1HL is the best for everyone, but for me, it’s still the light I prefer. Like me, I’m guessing that there are certain features you prefer most, so your decision may be different, and I respect that. But if you’ve watched this video through, you’re a lot more educated on why your light is best for you. It doesn’t matter what I pick — it matters what you pick.