Dual LED Work Light on Telescoping Detachable Tripod 6600 Lumens

UPDATE 1-18-16:***** Amazon has changed the listing to include several versions of this work light. It seems to default to the version that has just one head, and no tripod base. To be clear, my review is for the dual head version that comes with a tripod, titled "Milspec Direct Power Tech LED Twin Work Light with Tripod - 6600 Lumens Output". *****Like many homeowners, I have a small collection of inexpensive Chinese made halogen work lamps for illuminating dark areas of the house, crawlspaces, garage, and outdoor work at night. Most of these get dangerously hot, tip over easily, have very short power cords that must be used with extension cords, and most of them do not have power on/off switches (probably because they get so hot as to maybe melt or damage any switches mounted on their housings).I was looking for a new work lamp that:- was as bright, or nearly as bright, as a typical halogen work lamp- did not get hot- did not fall over easily- could be easily adjusted for height and angle- had two or more light sources that could be independently aimed- had a power on/off switch on the lamp- had a usefully long power cord- was of decent quality- could be used safely indoors in confined areas- could be safely used outdoors in the weather- was still inexpensive enough to not break the bankI first found what appeared to be a decent LED work lamp that had three light panels and a detachable tripod stand, sold by ACE Hardware, Home Depot (Husky brand) and others. But its light output was actually a bit dim, and all reviews stated that it was extremely cheaply made and would break easily. Indeed, both ACE and Home Depot seem to have discontinued it and my local ACE told me that almost every one they sold was returned broken. I really did not want to repeat this kind of experience with some other cheaply made Chinese lamp. I wanted to spend enough to get into a higher tier of quality. Unfortunately, most of the lamps I found in stores and online seemed to be poorly made, or maybe had decent lamps but flimsy stands, or had lots of bad reviews online, or did not have all of my desired features.I finally found this Power Tech brand LED work light, model PT523230, sold by Milspec Direct and others. Some online research seemed to indicate that the lamp was a product of Taiwan, with Power Tech's offices being located in California. This product had good reviews, and since it cost about twice what most of the cheapo ones did, I hoped that this was indicative of better quality.My lamp arrived from Amazon, but it was missing the bag of hardware (bolts, thumbscrews, etc) so I could not assemble it. I needed it for a work project the next day, so I contacted Amazon and they said that since Milspec was the seller (albeit the product was shipped from Amazon's warehouse on behalf of Milspec), Amazon could not simply exchange it; I would need to order a new one and then apply for a pre-paid return label for the first lamp. I did this, but the replacement lamp would not arrive in time for my project. So I took a chance and contacted Milspec via their website, and then called their phone number. I was pleasantly surprised that a nice woman answered immediately, and forwarded my call to another woman who said that she would overnight the bag of parts to me, and I did received the box by UPS Next Day delivery. This suggests that Milsppec is a responsible company, and it is even better because Milspec is not the manufacturer, only a distributor.The work lamp consists of the following components:- two LED lamp 'heads', each with a mounting bracket that allows tilting the lamp up and down- a floor stand to which both lamp heads mount, using two thumbscrews, and this allows each lamp to independently swivel sideways. The stand supports the lamps and is has four rubber feet and a handle for carrying or relocating it- a folding tripod with adjustable height, to which the lamp's floor stand can optionally be mounted- a good quality, fairly long power cord that is permanently attached to the two lamp heads via a "Y" fitting that splits the power cord between the two headsThe assembly of the work lamp is a bit of a pain, since while there is a user's manual with a single illustration of the assembled lamp, the assembly inspections are pretty much useless. Because of this, I will provide the assembly instructions here for use by others:1) locate four identical medium-sized thumbscrews, four lock washers, and four flat washers2) place a lockwasher on the screw of each thumbscrew, and then put a flat washer on each thumbscrew; make sure that the lock washer is in between the head of the thumbscrew and the flat washer3) place the carrying handle on the center of the floor stand, and fit the threaded bolt part of two thumbscrews (with their washers in place) through the two outer holes on the handle's flat bracket, and then thread the screws into the nuts that are welded to the bottoms of the floor stand; tighten the two screws, as they are unlikely to be removed during normal storage and use4) place the mounting bracket of one lamp head on top of the floor stand (orient it so that it faces in the same direction as the tip of the carrying handle), and feed one of the two remaining thumbscrew/washer sets through the center hole of the lamp head bracket, then through one of the two holes that are located near the end of the floor stand, and thread the screw into the nut that is welded to the bottom of the floor stand; tighten, but not so much that the lamp is prevented from swiveling. Repeat for the other lamp head5) find the smaller of the two remaining thumbscrews, fit it through the small hole in the "Y' fitting of the power cord, and then into the threaded hole in the tiny metal plate that is wended to the back side of the carrying handle; this holds the power cord secure at the lamp end6) the work lamp is now ready for use (assuming that you plan to use it resting on the floor or ground)7) optionally, unfold the tripod stand, place the center of the floor stand assembly (from the above steps) into the metal bracket at the top of the tripod stand, and thread the remaining (largest of all) thumbscrews through the carrying handle, down through the tripod bracket, and into a threaded hole in the top of the tripod stand; this secures the lamp assembly to the tripod stand, and it may be detached at any time by unscrewing the large thumbscrew. This screw can be stored by screwing it back into the top of the tripod stand when not in useOK, now for the review.The lamp/floor-stand assembly (not including the tripod stand) has the following dimensions:- 23" wide, including the lamp heads- each lamp head measures 9" wide, 7.25" high, and 5" deep- 16" from the floor to the top of the carrying handle- 10" from the floor to the top of the lamp heads- 7.25" from front end of the front feet of the floor stand to the rear end of the rear feet; this is the total front-to-rear dimension- 12 pounds, including the power cord- power cord is 9.5 feet long (from plug end to the "Y" fitting), then the two power cords from the "Y" fitting to the lamp heads is another 14" each, so the lamps can be about 28" apart before the power cord prevents further separation- power cord has a typical three prong plug, requiring a grounded outletThe tripod stand has the following dimensions:- three legs, about 15" long each from center of stand to end of the foot on the leg- single thumbscrew tightens the fitting that allows the legs to be folded- 5" diameter when the legs are folded for storage- tripod has three vertical sections, which telescope using two twist locks; minimum height from floor to top bracket is 23", maximum height is 45". Maximum height of the center of the lamp heads with the tripod fully extended is about 55". If you plan to use the lamp in a location with a low overhead clearance, and you still want to use the tripod, the minimum height with tripod fully collapsed, from floor to top of carrying handle, is 39"The tripod and the lamp stand each appear to be made from steel tubing, powder-coated (painted) in an orange color. with all fittings and thumbscrews being black colored plastic.The lamp heads are made from cast-aluminum pieces, powder-coated orange. There are no structural parts made of plastic, everything is metal. The lamp mounting brackets are orange colored powder-coated steel. The up-down tilt adjustment is the only adjustment that cannot be made using thumbscrews; you need to use a wrench to loosen and tighten for this adjustment.Each lamp head consists of an LED housing and a power supply housing, and they are attached at the factory. The LED housing is in two cast-aluminum parts, the bezel and the finned heatsink. There is a silicon plastic gasket between the two aluminum halves, and this gives the housing an IP65 rating (meaning that it is dust-tight and can withstand rain and hose directed water, splashing water, or wind-blown rain). The gasket actually seals between the heatsink and the back side of the thick tempered-glass front window. The LED power supply has the same construction as the LED housing; two cast-aluminum pieces with a gasket between them, so it also meets IP65. Each lamp head has a power on/off switch that is sealed with a rubber boot, and the power cord enters the housing through a sealed fitting. Because of the IP65 gasketing, switch booting and power cord fittings, and powder-coated finish, the entire lamp assembly is suitable for use outdoors 'in the weather'. The power cord construction is consistent with the heavy orange outdoor-rated extension cords you are probably familiar with.I did some dis-assembly, research and testing for this review. Each lamp housing contains a single Epistar brand LED 'chip'; this is not one of those cheapo lamps that just uses an array of white LEDs, but rather the Epistar chip is in the same category of device that you might find in LED headlights and other serious illumination products. Note that Epistar's website says that it is a Taiwan company that is the largest manufacturer of LEDs in the world, and they supply high power LEDs to many other companies and also produce the LED backlights for some major brands of large screen TVs. So the pedigree of the LED seems pretty good. These LEDs do generate some heat, and part of the LED 'chip' is a thick metal plate which Power Tech has bolted directly to the inside surface of the LED housing heatsink, using white thermally conductive paste to assure good heat transfer from the LED to the heatsink. The heatsink is so beefy that I could not detect any rise in warmth of the LED housing after 15 minutes of use.The LED power supply housing contains a hermetically sealed aluminum power supply module, helpfully labeled "LED Power Supply". While the label on the back of the LED head says "120VAC, 60Hz, 30W per LED head", I found it interesting that the actual LED power supply module label said "100-240VAC, 50/60Hz, Class II, Output 18-36VDC, 900mA, Max 30W". This seemed to suggest that this might be a universal voltage supply capable of operating on other voltages besides 120VAC, and certainly it is not limited to operation at only 60Hz as the exterior label states. To learn more, I connected my oscilloscope to the output wires of the LED Power Supply module, and plugged the power cord into my laboratory VARIAC (variable voltage auto-transformer), with a digital voltmeter and ammeter on the power cord. I found that the output of the power supply was only a couple of volts as I raised the AC power from 0 to around 40V, and the LED did not start produce full brightness until the power supply was raised to 80V, at which point increasing the power supply voltage did not appear to increase LED brightness, and no additional current was drawn from the VARIAC. This shows that the work lamp is capable of operating on as little as 80V. Then I increased the VARIAC voltage to its maximum of 140V, and my light meter did not show any increased brightness, nor did the oscilloscope show a voltage of greater than about 18V. It was not apparent to me under what circumstances the power supply output would raise to the 36V shown on the label, and I don't know if this would damage the LED if the voltage did raise to that voltage. I was trying to learn whether the work lamp could be used on 220V or 240V, and I still don't know. I was not willing to risk damaging it by connecting to the 240V available in my laboratory, but the fact that the power supply output did not keep rising as I increased the power supply from 80V to 140V seems to suggest that at least the work lamp can safely and adequately be used on a wider variety of power sources that the exterior label suggests. It would probably give good results even on a weak, or fluctuating, worksite generator or field power supply.I did note that the work lamp consumed 280mA with one lamp head turned on, supporting the 30W power consumption rating on the label.Power Tech gives a brightness specification of 3300 lumens per lamp head, or 6600 lumens with both heads turned on. For each lamp head, this is roughly 2/3 the brightness of a typical inexpensive halogen work lamp, or about the same as two 100W incandescent bulbs (per lamp head), or four such bulbs total. However, the emitted light appears to be much brighter that what I would expect from that number of 100W bulbs, and I guess that is because ALL of the LED's light is directed forward while a bulb's light goes in all directions and only part of that directly reaches the eye.I used my work lamp in a home painting project, and liked it so much that I decided to also keep the replacement work lamp that arrived from Amazon a couple days later. I find that the lamps themselves seem to be quite nicely made, of solid components and good quality source parts, especially the Epistar LED chip and its power supply. The tripod is a bit less sturdy, but I think perfectly adequate and certainly not flimsy. I like that the lamp can be used with or without the tripod by removed one thumbscrew, although I find that unscrewing it many turns is a slight inconvenience and I could have wished for a somewhat quicker means of attaching it. At around $170 for this work lamp, I consider this to be a decent price given the apparent quality of the product. I did not give it 5 stars on account of the missing bag of parts and because the tripod sturdiness does not seem to quite match that of the lamps themselves.

This was to replace a regular halogen light set in my wood shop - too dangerous to have lathe shavings hitting the old halogens -Classic Chinese engineering - the bolts that hold the lights to the stand pass through hollow tubular steel and are caught by nuts welded to the opposing side. This works out fine if the nuts are welded in place flat to the surface - which they were not - and on one case it was so much out of skew that I had to re-drill the opposing bolt hole. This only took me a couple of minutes, but I am handy. Other than that, the construction quality seemed pretty much as a standard halogen light from a Big Box store.I also tried out the lights side by side to check the brightness - the LED appeared to be about 3/4 as bright as the halogen, but possessing a more focused beam.OK LED spotlight at the price. Three stars for having to re-fab the light bar.

So I got this light about a month ago. Since then I have used it about 3 maybe 4 times. I live on a farm and wanted something good and bright for when we are filling grain bins during harvest and for anything else. It is a nice bright light. Pretty comparable to a halogen light. The leds are bright and illuminate a pretty good area of ground. They seem well built and appear they will last a long time. I would count them as fairly durable. Being able to direct the lamps differently is nice, tho obviously its much brighter with both shining on the same spot. The detachable floor stand they are attached to seems pretty good, built well enough, and is easily removable from stand.The telescoping stand is where I have the issue. It is alright and I wondered why reviews said it was weak. The poles and legs are not heavy duty but they don't feel like thin cheap tin tubes either. My problem from the plastic base right at the bottom of the poles, where the cross bars attach from the legs. It was a cold night and while setting up the stand (not being rough either) 1 snapped off.. so I had to wire it on to get the leg to stay so it would stand. Then while again being careful and this time making sure not to break it an other one snapped. I was rather disappointed. with that. I have contacted Amazon wondering if there is any warranty or such that can be done. I can try different methods to fixing it such as some good ol' JB Weld, but I thought I would contact Amazon first.In all I would buy it if you are looking for a very good bright light that seems well built. However as others stated, don't be to surprised if the telescoping stand gives issue. When I bought it I did the math with just a single unit no stand and this and basically at when I purchased you were getting a stand free with the purchase of 2 lights. So I was kinda counting on a flimsy stand. I would definitely get this for the lights, tho I still think its a bit high even if it had a great stand.Update*I guess they weren't able to exchange it due to inventory ordeal, but Amazon was wonderful about it and refunded my money. Since it was only the stand that broke they made an exception and allowed me to keep the light as well. Amazon for sure proves customer support. Makes me happier buying off Amazon.