When I started working on cars back in “ancient” times, if I needed extra light to see what I was trying to check, test, fix, or modify, I had my trusty 110-VAC trouble light. It had a 100-watt light bulb in a metal reflector that was caged in the front to keep the user from getting burned. If I wasn’t near a 110V socket, there always was an extension cord close by. I even had a 12-volt DC trouble light that clipped onto a car battery for emergency on-road repairs. To get light into confined spaces I used an AA-cell Maglite.
That was then.
This is now.
These days the market is flooded with rechargeable, LED “work lights” in all shapes, sizes and prices. Some of them are good. Some of them are cheap pieces of crap. Here at the Corvette Action Center, we’re advanced DIYs and in the process of working on the Corvettes we have in the “fleet” we have around here, we have tested numerous small, medium and large LED work lights.
The advantage of LED work lights are their brightness, low heat radiation and the low current draw of LEDs making for small batteries which means a small device.
Recently, we tried a line of LED work lights marketed by LumiLEDS as the “Philips Xperion 3000” series. This series includes ten work lights ranging from a couple of small penlights to a 1000-lumen, portable “flood light.”.
We tested five Philips Xperion 3000 work lights, the “Slim” (PN X30SLIMX1), the “Zoom” (PN X30ZOOMX1), the “Line” (PN X30LINEX1), the “Head” (PN X30HEADX1) and the “Flood” (PN X30FLX1).
A nice feature of the entire Xperion line of work lights they’re all reasonably affordable. They’re not the least nor the most expensive, all are a good value.
The headlight is great when you want to throw light onto a task that requires both hands. We liked the comfortable head band. Image: LumiLEDS
The first one we used was the headlamp. Features we really liked: an adjustable headband which was very comfortable to wear and the LED’s two intensities, 100 and 300 lumens. The Xperion Headlight also has a wide, 120° beam and is adjustable for elevation. Readers might find this surprising but up to now all the small work lights we tested were either pen-sized or handheld. We had never used a headlight before and the Xperion 3000 series unit is a gem.
Another good one is the Zoom light. It has bright light and a non-slip grip. The Philips Xperion 3000 Zoom is a versatile LED work light with a zoom lens allows adjustment from a “mini-floodlight to a mini-spotlight. It adjusts easily by gripping the serrated end of the light and moving it forward or backward. Its light angle adjusts from 130° down to 20° and its brightness varies from 200 to 1000 lumens. The lighting module pivots though a 180° arc. The zoom feature combined with the pivoting head had us able to put light just about anywhere we needed it. The Xperion Zoom also has a magnetic base which comes in handy when we needed light and were already using both hands .
Our favorite in the Xperion 3000 series was the “Slim”. It fits comfortably in our hands. It has a two-intensity light that puts out either 200 or 500 lumens and it has a 150 lumen spot light at the end of the light module. The light module swings though a 270° angle and it has a magnetic base.
The “Line” is best described as a a “light wand”. It has an LED array similar to that of the “Slim” but it has a much wider beam. We like the retractable hook and that the lower half of the light is comfortable grip.
The “Flood” is really a flood/spot light. It has three brightness settings 1000, 500 and 300 lumens, the last being its spotlight setting.. It has a shock-resistant housing. Its rotating handle is magnetic and the Flood also can be hung by its retractable hook. Two standout features are its ability to act as a “power bank” and its perfect size–not too big, not too small.
The only real negative of the Xperion 3000 series? None of these work lights come with a charging cable, but no charger.
The instructions for the five lights we tested state, “Recharge with only the charger specified by the manufacturer. A charger that is suitable for one type of battery pack may create a risk of fire when used with another battery pack.”
LumiLEDs spokesperson, Aubry Baugh, Manager, Aftermarket Marketing, could not suggest a particular charger, but told us that LumiLEDs believes that everyone has a charger that runs on 110VAC, puts out five-volts DC, and has a USB-A port and many people have several of them, so there was no need to include a charger and that kept the price down.
It may be true that everyone has a charger like that, but it’s not true that they all work well with these work lights. Some 5V chargers, can only produce a 1-amp or less current output which makes for longer charge time. Better chargers put out 2-amps which reduces charge time.
As for that “risk of fire”? DO NOT use any charger rated at more than five volts.
Since the manufacturer of these lights has no “recommended” charger, we think the “gold standard” would be a good old, Apple “12-watt USB Power Adapter” (PN MGN03AM/A) which runs on 110VAC, puts out 5V/2.4A and has a USB-A port. You can buy them on Amazon for 18 bucks–maybe a bit pricey, but they are ideal for frequent charging of automotive work lights.