Tool Box Buzz

Metabo Cordless LED Site Lights

Three new Metabo cordless LED site lights recently hit the market. We took these new lights to our job sites to see how they worked.

LED lights like these are becoming more and more popular and are now the only work lights I use. LED lights offer many benefits, including longer lifespan, quality light, bright light, operates cooler than incandescent and halogen lights, and use less electricity.

Safety is certainly an important thing for me on a job site, and one way to protect my crew and subs is to ensure the job site is well-lit with LED site lighting from string lights to more focused work lights.  From the working perspective, poor lighting on a job site can lead to mistakes, poor quality, and accidents.

We specifically looked at three Metabo LED Site Lights:

1. BSA 18 LED 10,000 Cordless Site Light [AC/DC feature]
2. BSA 18 LED 4000 Cordless Site Light
3. BSA 12-18 LED 2000 Cordless Site Light [runs on 12-volt and 18-volt batteries]

Lumens and AC/DC Feature

All three lights emit different lumen but have similar features, except for the LED 10,000 site Light. This light offers an AC/DC option, and the BSA 2000 light can operate on 12-volt or 18-volt batteries.

• LED 2000 Lumen – 2,000 lumens
• LED 4000 Lumen – 4,000 lumens
• LED 10,000 Lumen – 10,000 lumens

The LED 2000 Site Light also uses COB-LEDs and provides true color lighting – ideal for electricians working with colored wires. COB-LEDs stands for chip-on-board LEDs, and they are the latest and most advanced LEDs on the market today. They are brighter, consume less power, and output a higher quality beam of light compared to older LEDs.

Site Light Size

The BSA 12-18 LED 2000 Cordless Site Light head is super compact and the smallest light of the three site lights.  This light is ideal compact for tight spaces and electricians.

The BSA 18 LED 4000 Cordless Site Light is also compact but larger than its little brother.

The Metabo BSA 18 LED 10000 Cordless Site Light is the largest of the three site lights and looks more like a panel light with a tilting base leg. It has a large-surface LED and provides bright and even light output. It has AC/DC functionality, allowing you to plug in when power is available or stay with the cordless operation.

Dimmable Power Switch

All 3 lights have a central power button, with an outer rotating dimmer function, and a 5 LED battery gauge is next to the power button. The LED lights will flash briefly when it reaches a low battery.

The Metabo site Lights are all IP54 rated for high impact resistance, are protected against sparks, dust, and water. We saw the drop protection in action while using the LED 2000 Site Light on one of our projects, it fell twice from 10 feet with no major damage. The fall did dislodge one of the base leg magnets.

USB Ports

Both the 4,000 and 10,000  Site Lights have a USB port for charging and operating USB devices (max. charging current 1 A)

Mounting and Positioning

All three lights have swivel positioning stands, with a 5/8″ thread for tripod mounting. The swivel stand base has integrated holes for mounting on a wall or ceiling screw.

The 2000 site light has a base that allows the light bezel to swivel 360 degrees, the 4000 site light head can be swiveled horizontally by 270. Both lights have hanging features on the lamp base and housing opening and the base has Integrated magnets for attachment to metal surfaces.

The LED 2000 and 4000 Site Lights both have magnets on their stands, and we found the magnets worked ok but need to be stronger. This was why we dropped the LED 2000 twice. It was mounted to an HVAC duct and was lightly bumped, detaching it. The swivel bases on these two lights can also be used to hook onto some surfaces.

Robust Construction

The build quality of these lights is impressive. From the adjustable swivel base with detents to the rubber dust and water boots, the rubberized stands, the LED 10,000 power plug, and the solid body and battery cover and rubber seal construction – I was impressed.

Mediocre Runtime

The LED 2000 Site Light will operate with both 12-volt and 18-volt slide on battery packs.

And run at max. brightness setting for 5 hours with an 18 V battery pack.  Battery run time with a 4 Ah 12-volt battery at max. brightness setting will give you 2.8 hours.

The LED 4000 Site will operate at max. brightness setting for instance 5.8 hours with an 18 V/10 Ah battery pack

The LED 10000 Site Light will operate for 2.5 hours with a 10 Ah [18v] battery pack

CAS Brand Battery

These lights operate on the CSA brand battery. CAS stands for Cordless Alliance System partnership, nine manufacturers of similar company size and with a clear focus on power tools have gone to the system, allowing 100% compatible batteries to be interchanged with other CAS manufacturers’ tools.

It’s the closest thing we have to a universal battery platform. Some of the brands you may recognize are Metabo, Mafell, Lamello

Room For Improvement

We’d like to see the magnets on the 2000 and 4000 lights as well as runtime on all three lights improved to reach a full day of work on Max. setting.

Conclusion

The Metabo site lights o   We like these lights enough that they will find a permanent home with our crew. Recommended!

Metabo Cordless LED Site Lights Video Review

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