This is the Bosch GLI VariLED, an LED worklight that can be used with their 18V or 14.4V Li-ion battery packs. It’s slim and has a neat feature that I think would be particularly useful. Too bad it’s only for sale overseas, and isn’t available in the USA (yet?).
The relatively new LED worklight features a pivoting base that allows users to angle the light to where they need it. Bosch says that the light has 8 settable lightning angles, which means there are likely hard stops to prevent the light from shifting around due to its weight. There are 3 LEDs which output 300 lux of light. Lux? Well, let’s just say it’s probably reasonably bright.
See Also: What is a Lumen, What is Lux, and more LED Technical Stuff
Bosch also engineered the worklight with a hard rubber strap, presumably for hanging the light for better aiming.
What I found particularly noteworthy is how the spot and flood lighting modes are changed. From the looks of it, simply twist the lens. Part of the lens is optimized to focus the beam into a narrower path, the other part is optimized for spreading the beam. It seems to be a simple yet effective way to focus, or rather “focus” a beam.
I didn’t think VariLED was a good enough way to describe this, as I variable usually means variable brightness, hence the multi-spread wording of the title. Maybe vari-spread would have been okay too, but it sounds a bit funny. Not that multi-spread doesn’t, but it seemed like a real enough term to make up for the purpose of this post. Can you think of a better way to describe the functionality?
The worklight is impact resistant and said to withstand drops onto concrete from 2 meters (6-1/2 feet) high.
Runtime is ~135 minutes per 18V battery Ah, and the specs say it will run for 420 minutes when powered by an 18V 3.0Ah battery pack. That’s 140 mins/Ah. *Shrug,* power tool brands often do a bit of rounding with their math. Runtime is a little less (115 mins/Ah) if you use a 14.4V battery pack.
Another neat part is of course how the worklight folds down into a very compact size, compared to traditional worklights and LED worklights which tend to take up a lot of space in a tool bag or box.
Price: £43
Buy Now(via Amazon UK)
Note: Amazon UK does NOT ship tools to the USA.
Bosch FL12 LED Mention
I wanted to squeeze in a mention about Bosch’s 12V LED worklight, which might actually be even better than the 18V VariLED. It’s got a magnetic base, clip, hanging hole, and is really compact. I only recently started testing it, but I’m already quite fond of it.
If you’re looking for a compact LED worklight, and bought into Bosch’s 12V cordless power tool lineup, the FL12 is a great accessory to consider buying. It’s odd how the FL12 is available in the USA, but the 18V LED worklight of similar compact and versatile spirit isn’t. Maybe that’ll change sometime.
Buy Now(FL12 via Amazon)
Not a Bosch fan? Here’s a recent look at all the LED worklights that Milwaukee is soon bringing to market in 2015 and 2016.