Tool manufacturers have come along way with cordless lighting options. The age of lithium ion batteries powering LED lights has transformed cordless lights. In years past work lights that accompanied cordless drill kits seemed like it was just a way to drive the kit price up with a lackluster light bulb that would barely illuminate for a short amount of time. As we walk down the tool aisle what once used to be a very limited selection has become full of options with cordless lighting led no other by Milwaukee and their TRUEview lighting.
What exactly is TRUEview? It is the color pallet of the LED light that shows the proper color of the object that is being illuminated. Many LEDs have a bluer hue which can distort the true color of, for example, a red and orange wire. Others can have a softer hue which pronounces more yellows. Milwaukee has come up with the perfect balance of light wave length that I have to say is a great balance between a blinding blue and an incandescent yellow. Backed by their Red Lithium battery platforms they have produced an extremely impressive ranging of work lights.
One imparticular that is such a versatile and impressive light is the M18 Search light, but don’t lets its name fool you because you can do much more than just search with it. Coming in at 3.1 lbs, the 2354-20 is a multi-mode light that has both flood and spot light modes as well as the ability to combine both into an extremely bright light.
Looking at the spotlight, the 2354 uses the center diode to project 600 lumens over 700 yards. On a 5.0 battery this mode will run for 6 hours. The beam has a tight cone of intense light that is great for use in utility work for spotting electrical poles. The unit is a 198 degree rotating head that allows your light to be either held or even set on the ground in a vertical orientation. While in my crawl space, I found the light to be easier to handle as I, well, crawled around. The wide base in horizontal mode is durable to be pushed into rocks and other aggregate.
Moving into flood mode, the user will get 1200 lumens of wide spread light over 4 diodes in the corner of the head. This mode on a 5.0 will give you 4 hours of runtime. As mentioned above while in my crawl space this is the mode that was great to use. There is a wide spread of non-blinding light. Because of the rotating head and the flood mode it allows this light to be a great small and portable area light from changing tires in the dark to locating objects across 7 football fields.
So as we would expect Milwaukee gives us a 5 year warranty on the tool but that accompanies its IP54 rating, which allows the light to be operated safely in all weather conditions. The light is also accompanied with a strobe mode for emergencies that outputs 1250 lumens at up to 5 hours on a 5.0 pack. But for those extreme low light situations the user can put the light in flood and spot mode projects 1250 lumens in both wide and focused light rays. I can not stress to you the versatility of this light for only $99. There are some great spot lights on the market, particularly the Dewalt version with its red LED mode, but the Milwaukee takes the roll of the spot light to the next level. A kit is available for this light which comes with a shoulder strap. To all Milwaukee users if you don’t have this light I highly recommend adding this to your arsenal.
Spot
Spot/Flood
Flood
To purchase yours head over to ACME TOOLS.
The Jimboslice Workshop 