Tool Box Buzz

I recently put the Milwaukee M12 LED Lantern 2362-20 through the paces.    This new LED Lantern is sold as a bare tool, and is part of Milwaukee’s newest lighting solution for the job site and frankly anyone who needs cordless, portable lighting.  [Note this light is also available in the M18 battery platform]

The Milwaukee M12 LED Lantern 2362-20 features a 180º-360º adjustable beam design to allow users to select between area lighting and task with a simple turn of a plastic bezel.  Having the option to switch quickly and easily between the two means “two-lights in one.”  I liked that I can choose  the intensity of a spot light and then adjust to general or area lighting.

Compact and Durable

Weighing 1-pound and measuring 10.6 inches this light is both compact and durable.  It has a 2 -meter drop rating and an IP4 water rating which means it was tested to endure 10 liters of water per minute for a 5-minute duration.  Both of these ratings mean that this unit will withstand the normal wear and tear of job site conditions.

A 2.1A USB port allows users to utilize the battery to charge tablets, smart phones, mp3 players.  In the event of a power failure or in remote areas this means you can charge your phone.

4 light settings:

To operate the light settings you simply press the power button.  The light settings cycle from high to low.  Holding the power button in for approximately 3-seconds activates the incredibly bright strobe – see video below.

1. High        – emits 400 lumen and runs for 8 hours
2. Medium – emits 200 lumen and runs for 15 hours
3. Low         – emits 40 lumen and runs for 67 hours
4. Strobe     – emits 40 lumen and runs for 16 hours

TRUEVIEW™ High Definition – Optimized Light Quality:

All of the newer Milwaukee lighting solutions are equipped with TRUEVIEW™ High Definition features.   The engineers at Milwaukee  have designed and utilized consistent and advanced light beam delivery coupled with accurate color rendering.

Why is color rendering important?

Think of electricians, HVAC and MRO technicians wiring control boards and circuits.   In poor lighting conditions with distorted lighting sources it is easy to mistake similar colored or shades of color wires.    Having a true representation of colors and detail, lead to a safer, more productive end product and work area.

4000K Correlated Color Temperature: (CCT)

Color temperatures over 5,000K are called cool colors (bluish white), while lower color temperatures (2,700–3,000 K) are called warm colors (yellowish white through red).

“Warm white” generally means a yellow-ish type of white, and “cool white” means a blue-ish kind of white. In the middle of that you’ll find “daylight white”, which is the whitest kind of white.   The M12 LED Lantern light falls somewhere in the middle of cool and warm.

Lighting terms such as, cool, warm and daylight are pretty imprecise terms, though. It’s useful to have a more accurate system to indicates the tint of the light. That system is called the color temperature, or Correlated Color Temperature (CCT).

The M12 LED Lantern comes in at 4000k on the CCT.  When you figure that daylight is somewhere near 5600k this light was designed to fall into the kind of light you’d expect to see mid-afternoon.  This type of light emission also produces less glare, eye fatigue and eye train.