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Need light during an emergency power outage. I dare say this wonderful light will be constantly by your side. Just set this light in the snow by the car and go to work. If you're looking for something in a closet or crowded garden shed, this is the ticket. This flashlight is a tool I use every day.
On a camping trip. If you are interested in area lighting instead of spot lighting-such as underneath a sink or in a crawl space, you cannot have a better light source. This flashlight will give you the illumination you need. Yes, the incandescent light isn't much to write home about, but it is just an extra feature-one which you might have use for on occasion. How about putting snow chains on your tires in the dark.
I've replaced them several times, and I have been careful to get the correct bulbs in the Makita packaging. I have 2 complaints:* The incandescent flashlight bulbs burn out very quickly. Not gets dim, it just shuts off with no warning. Once the battery even starts to go below full charge, the light shuts off. I use this light quite often, the fluorescent light is bright and really lights up the place. They just must get too hot in the lens and burn out. Pretty annoying when you're under a sink or in otherwise tight quarters and suddenly in the dark.I'm still glad I bought it, but you should be aware of these issues. I've given up on that side, use a regular Maglite if I need a beam.* They are very fussy about the battery charge.
I am very happy with the performance of the fluorescent portion. I had to pay to send it back to Makita but they fixed it under warranty. You should consider this part of it non-existent. The fluorescent part works great - bright and runs for a long time on a battery charge. I have just about every tool in the Makita LXT line.
I also had problems with my first one - it would on it's own start randomly looping through the lights - fluorescent on, fluorescent off, flashlight on, flashlight off. The flashlight is good but not up to the same standards as the rest of the excellent LXT line up. The flashlight is virtually useless. I have had no issues with it since. It's about as bright as an old 6 volt lantern.
Please ignore the negative reviews. I have several portable lights, but this is the light I go to beacuse it works great, in either regular or flashlight mode. This light is great. I have used it extensively and never had any issues with its construction or quality.
The incandescent light is just OK. I put one of those in my BML185 and turned it into a powerful LED spotlight, with better battery life. To those who are concerned about forgetting to push the button twice to turn off the light, just take the incandescent bulb out and forget about the "flashlight" portion that you complain about anyway. The fluorescent light works great. I'm not sure what was wrong with the light that other reviewer received because you sure can't get quality like this at the dollar store.
If anyone's interested in converting the incandescent light in their BML184 or their BML185, you can get an 18v LED bulb on ebay shipped for under twenty bucks. Very sturdy construction. I'm not sure why Makita is still using incandescent bulbs in their 18v lights when their 10.8v light has a nice bright LED bulb. If the incandescent portion of this light was replaced with a nice bright battery saving LED, I'd rate 5 out of 5. (I own that, too).
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