ThorFire TK4A Flashlight Review
Kevin Felts 03.31.17
The ThorFire TK4A flashlight has five brightness settings and uses four AA batteries. Operation is with a push button just behind the bezel. Push the on/off button to cycle through the brightness settings. To turn the flashlight off, hold the on/off button down.
The flashlight has an LED in the on/off switch that indicates battery health. Green = more than 60% battery life, Orange = less than 60%, Red = less than 15%.
The ThorFire TK4A was put through the standard battery of tests, except using it to drive nails. I like to change the test up from time to time. So, for this flashlight the hammer test was omitted.
Specifications
- Weight with batteries: 9.05 ounces
- Length: 4 7/16 inches
- Diameter: 1 5/8 inches
- Carry pouch
- Extra o-rings
- Lanyard
- Moonlight: 1 lumen
- Low: 30 lumens
- Mid: 200 lumens
- High: 600 lumens
- Turbo: 1,100 lumens. After 3 minutes on turbo, the flashlight will drop down to the high brightness setting.
If a brightness setting is used for more than three seconds and turned off, the ThorFire TK4A will return to that brightness setting when turned back on.
The lanyard is made from heavy cord, almost like boot lace string. I would compare the size of the lanyard to almost 550 cord in diameter.
The carry pouch needs to be about an inch shorter. When the flashlight is fully inserted, it is flush with the top of the pouch and has to be pushed up from the bottom to be removed.
Freeze Test
The ThorFire TK4A was set to its lowest brightness setting, placed in a one gallon jug, and covered with an inch of water. The jug was then placed inside a deep freezer and left overnight.
The next morning the flashlight was off.
The jug was removed from the deep freezer so it could thaw. Once thawed, the flashlight was inspected and found to have a good amount of water inside it.
With the tail cap off, the flashlight was placed in direct sunlight for several days. Eventually the ThorFire TK4A started working again.
The flashlight was placed in a jug of water again, and air bubbles started to appear around the tail cap. After several minutes the flashlight was taken out of the water, the tail cap removed and there were several drops of water inside the light.
Drop Test
I stood on a railroad cross tie and then dropped the flashlight several times from a height of around four feet. There was a hiccup in that the flashlight turned itself off.
The flashlight was turned back on but did not work properly for several minutes. The batteries were removed and the TK4A was allowed to sit for an hour or so.
When the batteries were put back in, the flashlight worked as it should.
Truck Test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUB31E9Hrpw
The ThorFire TK4A flashlight was placed on a hard rock road and was ran over several times.
Next, the flashlight was tied to the bumper and thrown from the truck. It was drug down a dirt road for around 75 yards or so. The lanyard holes were crushed and the flashlight no longer worked.
It seemed that I had finally been able to break the ThorFire TK4A for good. At this point there was no waiting for it to dry out.
ThorFire TK4A Final Thoughts
Leaking water can be an issue or a non-issue. Unless the flashlight is going scuba diving, waterproof may not be an issue. On the other hand, the Amazon page for the ThorFire TK4A says the flashlight is waterproof.
It does what it is supposed to do, and that is throw a good solid beam. So, I bought another ThorFire TK4A flashlight to use around the farm.
I live in a rural area and use flashlights to check on the chickens or see what the dogs are barking at. The 1,100 lumen turbo mode can light up the top of a tree 200 feet away, and the low setting provides enough light so I will not disturb the chickens when checking on them.
