Salvo 12W led (unbiased) review

[phillip1]

Just go a Salvo 12W led, the light seems very well built and the battery canister is very compact and nicely designed.
since it comes precharged I decided to use it on an exploration dive here (Dominican Republic) to a recently discovered cave yesterday.
Now I usually dive a 10W HID and I have had bulbs burn and recently in the middle of a dive the bulb popped out of the socket! I am sick of the unreliable nature of HID's so I decided to give LED's a chance. Right form the beginning of the dive I could tell this light was more or less as bright as my 10W HID, granted the hotspot is a bit more difuse but not by allot. We were in an unexplored cave with kind of tight sidemount passages so I could not really tell the projection of the light until we found a very big tunnel that keeps going and stays big and wide for a while, here the light projected just as good as a 10W HID it has a bit wider beam but lights up just as much. As for signaling, as I said the hotspot is a bit wider but not by allot, if you are signaling your buddy with this light and he fails to see you, he is either way too far away or not paying any attention to your signals.
When I got back home I tried the HID side by side with the Salvo LED in the dark, the beam on the HID was a bit tighter but the LED lit up just as much and seemed to have a whiter color. I think that the performance of the LED is on par with the HID, but if LED's are as reliable as people say they are then in my opinion it's a no brainer.

[sskasser]

Light? LIGHT? All I could read was:

...<snip>...We were in an unexplored cave with kind of tight sidemount passages so I could not really tell the projection of the light until we found a very big tunnel that keeps going and stays big and wide for a while, ....<snip>...

Wow, nice report, Phillip (and the part about the light too) Sounds like a great dive. Willing to share more details?

[Webmaster]

I have a Salvo 12W as well. The spot is more diffuse, although perfectly functional, but there appears to be more light outside the spot from the LED. It does a pretty good job of lighting up the cave.

The only thing lacking was a secure handle I think. Mark Wenner showed me this the other day where he had made a handle for his DR handheld.

The grey piece is some sort of electrical conduit holder. The screws, nuts (with nylon inserts), and washers are stainless. Then I just sewed in an adjustable buckle on some 1" flat bungee to make the hand loop. Jam the screws through that and tighten it all down.

I think the DR light might be slightly larger in diameter than the Salvo. I had to cut a section of mountain bike inner tube to slide over the battery cannister so that the conduit holder would grip it. Makes for a solid handle though.

[FW]

How much are they? The light, not the handle

[sskasser]

http://www.salvosupply.com/rebel_led_lights

From what I can tell (and remember), to have the hand-held version of the 12 watt LED in Marbry's picture, you buy the 12 watt umbilical cord light, plus the 2.6 Amp Li-ion Power Pack (which works for either the 9 watt Rebel hand held or the 12 watt Rebel umbilical version).

[phillip1]

I use the light with no handle as I keep switching back and froth from my helmet clip to my hands, I think it is really a great product and I was not expecting it to illuminate like that.
As for the cave itself below is a bit more detailed account of the dive.
We did two dives the fisrt was a quick dive to see if it goes, we used al40's, the second was with AL80's, total dive time was 90mins.
The cave we found is located near Cabrera, about 1km east of El Dudu, it is about 700mtrs from the ocean, and is 100% salt water below 14mtrs and has in some places coarse sand on the bottom (unusual for here). It basically has 2 sides the left tunnels are a collapse type cave until you get down to about 14mtrs then it turns into a weird yellow rock that is no longer collapse style but eroded and dissolved rock tunnels. This side of the cave is kind of tight and we decided to turn after about 20mins due to really bad viz, I was in front and at one point I could not see anything up ahead anymore, but I think it still keeps going and we will for sure be back to see were it goes. The right side starts out wih a tight restriction through a small breakdown pile and then opens up into a huge and I mean huge hangar shaped tunnel, this goes for about 150mtrs and then you get to an intersection were the tunnels get a bit smaller but keep going in opposite directions. In this part the walls are very white rock, with a very pronounced halocline at about 14mtrs. We will be back here in a few days, I kind of had a cold that got much worse after the dive but it was well worth it.

[phillip1]

How much are they? The light, not the handle

They are $780.00 a bit pricey but I think worth it if the LED's are super reliable.

[Webmaster]

They are $780.00 a bit pricey but I think worth it if the LED's are super reliable.

I got the 12W head with the attached battery rather than the remote cannister which was somewhat less. Although I did get a spare battery. It's nice eliminating the light cord and cannister.

Marbry

[sskasser]

I use the light with no handle as I keep switching back and froth from my helmet clip to my hands, I think it is really a great product and I was not expecting it to illuminate like that.
As for the cave itself below is a bit more detailed account of the dive.
We did two dives the fisrt was a quick dive to see if it goes, we used al40's, the second was with AL80's, total dive time was 90mins.
The cave we found is located near Cabrera, about 1km east of El Dudu, it is about 700mtrs from the ocean, and is 100% salt water below 14mtrs and has in some places coarse sand on the bottom (unusual for here). It basically has 2 sides the left tunnels are a collapse type cave until you get down to about 14mtrs then it turns into a weird yellow rock that is no longer collapse style but eroded and dissolved rock tunnels. This side of the cave is kind of tight and we decided to turn after about 20mins due to really bad viz, I was in front and at one point I could not see anything up ahead anymore, but I think it still keeps going and we will for sure be back to see were it goes. The right side starts out wih a tight restriction through a small breakdown pile and then opens up into a huge and I mean huge hangar shaped tunnel, this goes for about 150mtrs and then you get to an intersection were the tunnels get a bit smaller but keep going in opposite directions. In this part the walls are very white rock, with a very pronounced halocline at about 14mtrs. We will be back here in a few days, I kind of had a cold that got much worse after the dive but it was well worth it.

Great description, thanks for sharing. Good luck on your further efforts there.

[w ripley]

Nice report.

IMO the writing is on the wall. Everything I see points to the LED technology as the wave of the future.

I went the Tillytec LED route with primary and backups, having sold all 3 of my HIDs. With my buddy and I going the rebreather path because our cave dives were pushing well past 4 hours, having lights that will run 10 to 12 hours is important, which the LEDs do. Plus, many of the LEDs have multiple lights in the head, which ensures that if one dies there are others still buring brightly. And they are much more robust in construction.

Several of us have had trouble with the DiveRite 500 lumen LED, but it's just a matter of time until DiveRite gets the bugs out of that light. On the other hand, many using it aren't having any issues at all. Go figure.

Thanks for the report.

Bill