Glo-Toobs

I am slowly adding more and more items to my kits, and my latest purchase is some Glo-Toobs and I thought I'd ask some of your opinions or experiences with them.

http://www.glo-toob.com/

I dont have too many choices down here and these seem to be the most robust type of this style of lights I could get my hands on.
I was thinking of shipping some Krill lights from the US because I cant find any in Australia, but with the costs and hassles etc I chose these instead. (I still might import some though)

I have white, blue and amber Glo-Toob FX lights. I tried to get red but they were sold out.

So far I like the amber light, and its already stashed in the car.
I like the white light too, but I haven't made up my mind about the blue light. Its not a bright and its been my experience that blue attracts the mozzies.
I like the small size too, but I dont like the fact that they use another size battery (12volt A23 size)
The mode changes took me a while to work out too, but I've got that worked out now.

So has anybody had any good/bad experiences with them?
Any other comments or opinions about them?
Any suggestions of alternatives? (Especially if they use AA)

Thanks Wayne

I think they are pretty darn cool. Here is some reading:
Glo Toob thread on CPF

-john

I like them myself, I have the red and blue models without all the mode functions, just on and off. Sure it's another size battery, but they are small. And TAD gear is coming out with a new survival capsule to wear around your neck that will supposedly hold a glotoob inside -- can't wait for that one!

Interesting to hear your experiences with the Glo-Tubes. I was thinking of buying some of these for myself as well. I was a little surprized to hear the blue is not as bright. The blue-ish LED lights I have a some of the brightest when compared to their siblings (CMG Infinities in my case). But the CMG's I have are the teal blue/green color, not a dark blue and maybe that's the difference. I was trying to find the color Glo-Tube that "stands out" the best at night. The most eye catching, which may not equate to the brightest. I'll get around to deciding and actually buying a Glo-Tube one of these days.

I asked this question myself, on CPF. I think the general thought was the green stood out the most.

As a result, I've been getting green FX models.

FWIW, knifeworks.com seems to have good prices on the FX ($20 ea).

-john

When you hold the white and blue up next to each other, the white is noticably brighter. The blue has tiny little bubbles through out the epoxy coating too.
I guess I had higher expectations of what I thought the blue would look like.

One of the things I was thinking with the blue was hanging it away from my tent next time I go camping. Hopefully mozzies will be attracted away from my tent, and I will use the amber as the light in the tent to avoid attracting them.

The white does stand out from a distant and when flashing is quite noticable.

Thanks
That was good to read through.

Thanks. I used to be active on CPF a while back but haven't visited recently. I figured the green would probably win, but I kindof hoped for a blue one to do well ... just because I like blue!

I was planning on buying from KnifeWorks as well. The Glo-Toob(s) and a Becker Necker. Two things that fall into the same category: I don't need them, but I want them! Usually I can cobble together some bogus "need" to justify spending money, but I'm failing on the Glo-Toob. Makes me "want" it even more!

I have owned both the Krill and the Glo-Toob. After getting my Glo-Toob, the Krill went away. It is a P.O.S. by comparrison. The Glo is brighter, stronger, completely waterproof, hands down an excellent bit of kit. Although the Glo-Toob uses an N cell, they are cheap and easy to find (here in the U.S. at least). The batteries I purchased are Lithium, so have a long shelf life and in the unit last upto 80 hours of runtime on the FX, 30 on the regular model. You won't get that performance from the Krill. IMHO, you just can't go wrong with the Glo-Toob.

I currently have one Red "Regular" Glo-Toob I keep on my Maxpedition FatBoy pack, and a White FX model on my B.O.B. The FX is surprisingly easy to change settings on. Also, if you check e-Bay you can often find the Glo-Toobs for much less than the web-site prices.

Thanks for the comparison.
The thing I like about the Krill is the AA batteries.

I can get the Alkaline A23 batteries no prob, but I dont think I will bother trying to get Lithium in this country (yet)

I've been looking on eBay, and freight costs are usually the killer because most are listed in the US.
I paid $38 each plus $4 frieght (Australian Dollars)
To import one from the US from eBay works out to $45 ish US Dollars including frieght, which means it will be nearly $60 Australian.

Another thing I discovered is the battery fits in my Surefire spares carrier. I think the carrier is the SC1. I use the Surefire E1e and the KL1 LED conv. head. So I dont use the globe holder in the centre of the carrier. The A23 fits neatly into this space.

I think I will giveup on the Krills and just stick with these.

FWIW, even though I think the N cell is the same physical size, the Glo Toob uses a 12V 23A cell. Since I think the N cell is only 1.5V, I doubt it would work. As you mention, the 23A cell is fairly easy to find in the US.

I'm also unaware of a lithium version of this cell. If you can find a source, please point us in that direction as I'd be interested!

-john

Just one more happy Glo-Toob owner. I EDC the blue and will be picking up a white one as well. I think they're great for omnidirectional signaling and as a source of ambient light.

I also think this is an incredibly cool picture of Glo-Toob-wearing fire fighters:

How big is that Picture.
After 10 minutes I stopped it. Some of us sitting on the other side of the world dont have very fast internet.

Is that the picture from Glo-Toobs home page. If so I've seen the thumbnail view of it.

A23s are lithium already. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I've seen a lot of distributors who are saying that some models take N cells, and others take 23s. Glo-toob.com says all are 23s. Huh? I'm waiting on GT to reply to that question, but if anyone here knows, tell me please? I'm thinking about adding some.

I think those distributers are mistaken. It's a simple issue of voltage and cost.

Glo Toob uses the 12V battery instead of the 1.5V battery because it makes driving the LED much easier and cheaper.

While some of us geeks would like to see them add a boost circuit which would allow them to use a 1.5V battery, adding the circuit would increase the cost. If they went to the trouble of adding that circuit, the only way they would realize a benefit is if they switched to a more common battery like a AAA or AA.

Of course, the length of the AAA/AA would significainly change the light. They could consider the 123A cell instead (in that case they could probably also avoid the boost circuit since it is 3V) but again they have a form factor issue.

While I'd love to see an AA or 123A version of this light, I think Glo Toob very carefully picked the A23 cell and I don't see how it would make sense for them to change it.

-john

Very cool picture.

-john

Not down here there not.

Glo-Toobs are very nice.

They are quite handy for signaling a bus. It's easy to miss someone standing in the dark with a black down jacket. A little blinky light also alerts other drivers so they don’t run you over in the darkness. Get a green one and put it on the strobe setting. Reds, blues and whites look like brake/headlights. All the bus drivers liked them.

I have the blinky kind and they are far superior to the krill lights. The Glo-Toobs are smaller and much brighter. And they work in the icy cold. I tried both but the Glo-Toob easily won. The krill uses a more common battery though.

Inova also makes a handy signaling light called the 24/7 but the Glo-Toob is smaller.

My other choice to signal the bus was an official U.S Airforce rescue beeper/stobe.

Not an super survival item, but I gotta get to work.

Hmm.... Every 23 I've seen is, at least as far as I can remember. But they are made of 8 stacked 1.5v mini coin cells, so you could do an alkaline. At least I think the energizer ones I mine for the LR44s are lithium.... Hmmm... I'll have to check.

I thought they were lithium.

Unfortunately all I can find are Alkaline over here.

Yup, it's the same pic as the thumbnail on their site. It's totally surreal; definintely worth waiting for the whole image to download...

And don't you Aussies have broadband? <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Yes I am on broadband right now, but the speed isnt that great. We dont have braodband everywhere, and the backbone across the country and the link to the US doesn't give us anywhere the speed you get over there.

Usually I am on a standard modem connection, and down here in the bottom of Australia it is pitifully slow.

I don't have any Energizers handy, but I have a pack of Duracells:

21/23
12V MN21/A23

They say alkaline right on the battery.

Looking on Energizer's web site for A23, I find the A23BP-2:

"Chemistry: Alkaline"

It also indicates 40 mah for those who are curious.

-john