The key factor in this category is reliability. You can never be sure when you will need this torch, but you must be 100% confident that whenever a disaster situation occurs your torch will work, first time and every time.
Reliability is something that is common across the full Surefire range, their products are built to withstand pretty much anything that can be expected in the field and beyond, so one would expect that any Surefire would do the job. This is not the case, however, as there are two flashlight features that do not lend themselves well to this scenario.
The first is battery choice. Rechargeable batteries are no good for this application as they do not hold their charge for long periods of time. If you were to charge a 10X Dominator, for example, and place it in your disaster kit, when you came to use the torch in the future the chances are the battery would have drained and you would be stuck waiting for a battery to charge and be losing vital time. Therefore we must use a torch that uses 123A lithium batteries - chosen for their 10 year shelf life. That way we know that when we take the torch out of the disaster kit, the torch will work immediately.
The second choice is bulb type. While modern incandescent bulbs are generally very reliable, they all burn out eventually. If there is even the slightest possibility that the bulb will burn out then the torch is not destined to be used in a disaster preparedness kit. For this job we must use LED technology as there is no filament to burn out, no glass to shatter, just a solid-state light emitting diode which is virtually indestructible - there are after all plenty of true stories from Surefire's US military users where an RPG attack has left weapons and vehicles imobilised yet the Surefire torch keeps working.
The last consideration for disaster response is the battery runtime. In a disaster scenario you can't always be sure how long you will need the torch for and how long before you can obtain more batteries, therefore unless you are able to store a large volume of batteries, you should opt for a torch with a low beam (or a high power torch with a low-beam option) and longer battery life, rather than vice versa.
The torches recommended for Disaster Response and Preparedness use are listed after this Buyers Guide article or you can click the following links for in-depth information about each of the torch models -
Click 'Next' below to go the next section of the Buyers Guide - I Need a Torch for Work - Medical and Emergency
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