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The Muyan LED lights are nice little utility lights.
Compact and convenient in size and generally have great
output.
The body of the Muyan light is made of aluminum with
what appears to be either a powder coat finish or very
strange anodize. Machining work is good, but a little
rough here and there. There is a slightly granular texture
to the surface. The head contains a silver reflector
to catch the light from the LEDs and project it forward.
A polycarbonate lens covers the LEDs for protection.
Around the middle of the body is a rubber textured sleeve
for grip. The tailcap is knurled for grip as well, and
has a hole on one side for lanyard attachment. A wrist
lanyard is included. On the end of the tailcap is the
clickie switch for operating the light.
The bezel consists of an array of 5mm LEDs soldered
to a printed circuit board. The LEDs protrude through
the silvered reflector which gathers the sidespill light
and helps project it forward.
Output is in the form of a smooth central spot with
a rayed corona and wide spillbeam. The color temperature
of the light is surprisingly nice and is closer to normal
sunlight white than many 5mm LED lights I've reviewed.
Beam at one meter at target center and at target edge
to show spillbeam.
Unfortunately, this particular review sample had
a little problem - it flickered. Badly.
I found the problem: The contact between the tailcap
and the body. They let the powder/anodize coating
go too far up the side of the light and there is a
light coating on the very end of the body tube where
it should only be silver exposed aluminum.
The fix was surprisingly easy for mine - I removed
the tailcap and cleaned the threads of the tailcap
and the end of the body tube, then, using force (e.g.
while pushing down hard like with a childproof bottle
cap), I tightened and loosened the tailcap so it stripped
the coating off of some of the threads and the end
of the body tube - no more flicker.
A reader familiar with these lights also mentioned
an even easier fix: rub sandpaper on the lip of the
body tube where the tailcap connects. It looks silver,
but there may be a little bit of the black body coating
on the silver - remove the black coating and it makes
solid contact and resolves the flicker problem.
I also contacted Muyan about the problem. They have
a full replacement policy for lights which have any
issues like this, and they stated that they do their
best to test each light before it leaves their hands.
Runtime Plot: Standard alkaline discharge curve, but
decent runtime.
Runtime
completed with Rayovac batteries. More information on
runtime plots is available HERE.
The switch is a simple rubber covered clickie protruding
from the tailcap. Click once for on, once for off.
There are O-rings at the connection points between
the body and both the tailcap and head. However I do
not know if the front of the bezel is sealed against
water entry. I'd give them a "splashable"
rating.
Ergonomics: The light is small, easy to grip, and easy
to use. The rubber sleeve definitely enhances grip and
the length is just right for my hand.
Size compared to a common 2AA aluminum light
For batteries, the light takes 3 AAA alkaline cells
in a carrier. Simply insert 3 cells with the negative
side of the battery against the coil springs in the
carriers. The result will be 2 batteries pointing in
one direction, and one pointing in the other in the
carrier. Remove the tailcap to change the batteries,
drop out the carrier, put new cells in the carrier and
replace. Batteries were not included.
What I Liked: Bright, Good battery life, Compact
What I Didn't Like: Bad flicker
problem. Muyan will replace defective units.
Other Things I Noticed: Personally
I don't care for lights with battery carriers all that
much, but this isn't a showstopper or anything.
Conclusions: Without the flicker
problem it's a great little utility light. In fact,
it's my favorite of the 3 lights I recently received
from them.
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