Weltool W5

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Weltool W5 specifications

Brand/model	Weltool W5
LEP type	N/A (Shine through)
Lumens	699 lumens
Beam intensity	1,970,000 cd
Battery config.	2*22500 / 2*21700
Material	Aluminum
Modes	2
Blinkies	N/A
Reflector	N/A (convex lens)
Waterproof	IP67
Review date	December 2021

If you’re into LEP flashlights, you know that Weltool was one of the first flashlight manufacturers using LEP. Their first LEP flashlight was named the Weltool W3, and was from 2018. After the W3 came the W3 PRO and the Weltool W4, which was at the time of the announcement the farthest-reaching LEP flashlight on the market (available to consumers).

Weltool saw that more and more competitors were entering this market, so they decided to upgrade their popular W4, in order to compete. So, here we are, reviewing the Weltool W5. And yes, I’m very excited.

Package quality.

Weltool didn’t have any packaging ready for this flashlight, so I basically got it shipped in a generic carton box. This does not represent the usual package quality and accessories!! The production model will have a nice box and accessories.

• The flashlight: Weltool W5
• Battery adapter
• 2*22500 batteries

No pictures of the packaging, because it was just a plain carton box.

Note: Weltool added a new version of this particular light, called the Weltool W5 Pro.

I already own the Weltool W3 PRO and W4, and both of them have rear-clicky switches. The W5 however, has a side switch and no mechanical switch.

My first impression… hmmm.. not so positive when it comes to the switch. It feels a little mushy so to say. It has a lot of travel, which is unusual for an e-switch. The switch is sticking out, so it would also be easy to accidentally activate it, although it will only activate with a long press. After talking with Weltool, they said the switch was done deliberately.

Weltool included 2*22500 batteries, that you can use straight away. Just make sure you remove the 2 insulating discs between the batteries. But in case you would like to use 2*21700 batteries, they included an extension tube. So if you rather use 2*21700 batteries with the extended runtime, that’s the way to go.

With the extension tube screwed down, it does look a little weird. I’m not a big fan of extension tubes because they don’t look as good as a normal battery tube, and they add an extra point of failure.

The copy I received doesn’t have a lanyard attachment point, so I don’t know if the production model will have one. Some people like it, and some people never use one. But missing a lanyard attachment point could be a deal-breaker for some.

Although my W5 didn’t have any additional accessories besides the extension tube, it looks like there is a slot to add a clip-on pocket clip.

Oh, and in case you wondered, the W5 has a flat tail cap, so you can use it to make it tail stand.

I was a little surprised to see the new type of machining of the battery tubes. It’s lacking the rough knurling seen the W3 Pro and W4. I’m not sure if that’s a pro or a con. I tend to lean towards a con. I liked the rougher knurling since it stands out from the other LEP flashlight manufacturers.

The tailcap still has the aggressive knurling that they are well known for.

And there is 1 more thing that I noticed. The threads on the battery tubes are really loooooongggggg. I counted 10 pitches, but it took 7 full turns to unscrew the tailcap. Still quite a bit, but less than the 10 pitches I counted. And to keep water out, the tailcap threads have 2 o-rings. After using the flashlight for a while, I noticed that all the o-rings are dry. So make sure you keep them lubed, otherwise they will break sooner than later.

The anodization is just perfect. I really enjoy Weltool’s matte anodization. The threads near the tailcap are anodized so you can do a quick lockout, and there’s no anodization on the battery tube attached to the head.

Weltool’s warranty according to their website:

From the date of sale (the serial number on the Lights body can show the date), the limited warranty for LED products is 5 years, and the warranty for LEP products is 2 years.

The above free warranty does not cover any damages or failure caused by:

• Problems caused by alteration, misuse, abuse, or unreasonable
• Battery leakage , improper operation or using poor quality battery
• The products do not purchase from Weltool directly or its authorized dealers or other illegal way
• Broken lens caused by external force
• Lamp, switch runs out of its lifespan
• rubber cap, O ring’s naturally aging
• normal wear and tea, imprinting, or color finishes
• Other problems caused by improper operation
• Discontinued products

There’s currently 2 types of LEP modules; the classic mirror type module, and the backlit (or shine through) module.

From all the LEP flashlights I have, most of the best performers have a mirror-type LEP module. This doesn’t mean the shine-through modules are bad.

Weltool decided to use the shine-through modules as well. And one of the benefits of using this type of module is the size of the module. A shine-through module is usually made of copper/brass, which is screwed into the body of the flashlight. That way, the heat dissipation is much better than with the older modules. The older modules had a plastic casing, so the heat of the laser wouldn’t be able to dissipate quickly enough.

And because this is an LEP flashlight, it doesn’t have a reflector but uses a convex lens instead. And to protect the convex lens, they decided to add a protective lens in front. In case you damage the front lens, you can find a replacement easily. But the convex lens would be hard to come by, especially in a few years’ time, because it needs to be with the right angle and size.

The bezel has a grey/silver color and could be stainless steel. But I’m not 100% sure since it doesn’t have the shininess from commonly used SS bezels.

If you hold the flashlight about 1 meter away from a white wall, you can see that the beam is pretty warm. But when you increase the distance between the wall and the flashlight, you can see more details in the beam. You can see some rings and different colors, depending on the distance from the center of the hotspot. The outer rings do have some sort of blue hue that is commonly seen in LEP beams.

LEP flashlights are not meant to be used by tint snobs and white wall hunters since their beams aren’t the prettiest.

• Length with short tube: 212 mm / ”
• Length with long tube: 262 mm / ”
• Head diameter: 60.4  mm / 2.38 ”
• Body diameter flat part: 30 mm / 1.18 ”

Weight: 

• Empty: 372.2 g / 13.13 oz
• Empty with extension tube: 411 g / 14.50 oz
• With 2*22500 batteries: 472.9 g / 16.68 oz

Flashlight comparison

Size compared to other LEP flashlights.

First group: Weltool W4 vs Weltool W5 short version 2*22500 and long version 2*21700

Bottom image: all LEP flashlights I currently own at time of reviewing this flashlight. It’s the fourth from the right in the last row.

Can you name them all?

The User interface is simple and straightforward. I dread the day that an LEP manufacturer includes Anduril firmware…. but fortunately, Weltool is smarter than that. Since there is no documentation at the moment, these are the things I have found. Just before publishing this review Weltool published the specifications.

Available modes:

• Low, High

From OFF:

• Half-press: nothing, since there is no half-press
• Single-click: nothing (but a green LED light in the switch turns on.. this is probably a battery level indicator)
• Double click: nothing
• Triple-click: nothing
• 5 clicks: lockout mode (will indicate this by blinking)
• Press and hold: turns on

From ON:

• Single-click: change between Low and High
• Double click: nothing
• Triple-click: nothing
• Press and hold: turns off

Shortcuts:

• There are no shortcuts

Mode memory:

• No

Blinky modes menu:

• None that I could see

Lock-out mode:

• Yes, by doing 5 clicks

PWM:

• Not visible by eye

The Weltool W5 is built for 2 batteries, and my package included 2 *22500 batteries, which both arrived at 3.7 V. This is a rather unusual size, and according to the battery wrapper, they have a capacity of 2400mAh each and are labeled as Weltool INR22-24. The specifications on their website tell you you can also use 2*22430 batteries in case you have those around. Weltool can include those in your order, and the 22430’s have a USB-C charging port. The 22500 batteries I got, don’t have onboard charging, so you need a standalone lithium-ion charger.

BTW. If you insert a single battery, and use a long metal cable, it will work, but only for a few seconds. So that’s not going to work, even if you could make up for the empty space.

If you don’t have any 22500 or 22430’s, you can still use 2* long 21700 batteries with the extension tube. Keep in mind that you can’t use flat top batteries, or button top unprotected batteries. But you need long 21700 batteries with button tops, otherwise, they don’t make good contact!!! This means you either need protected 21700’s or ones with a USB port built-in.

For the tests I performed, I used Weltool’s these 22500’s and Weltool’s 21700 batteries that have USB-C ports and button tops!

Lumen measurements:

All output numbers are relative to my homemade Integrating Sphere. It is set up with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter for measurements including a Kenko PRO1D ND-16 filter. The base measurement is done with a Convoy S2+ that has been tested at 255 lumens.

For Amp readings, I use a Fluke 77III DMM. For higher amps I now use a Fluke 325 True RMS clamp meter. For microamps, I use a cheap DMM with an easy-to-use micro amp setting.

All of my readings were taken from fully-charged Weltool INR22-24 batteries (22500 with 2400mAh). The measurements at turn on and 30 seconds were done manually. The 10 minutes measurements are taken from the runtime test.

Mode	Amps	Specs	turn on	30 sec	10 minutes
Low	0.45A	198	188 lm	184 lm	182 lm
High	1.63A	699 lm	597 lm	560 lm	525 lm

These numbers were very, very close to the numbers I got with the Imalent 21700 batteries (Samsung INR21700 40T) and Weltool UB21-50, 21700 batteries. Only those 2 batteries really fitted.

Parasitic drain:

• 24.8 µA )
  • Explanation on milliamps (mA): 1A is 1,000mA
  • Microamps (µA): 1mA is 1,000µA
  • So 24.8µA is 0.0000248A

Runtime:

The runtime test was done with the 50cm integrating sphere, including the Kenko Pro1D ND-16 filter and Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter. Please keep in mind that Lumens aren’t the most important aspect of LEP flashlights.

I tested both runtimes with 2 types of batteries, namely 2*22500 and 2*21700. If you look at the graphs, it doesn’t need any explanation.
The little spikes throughout the graph aren’t really visible in reality. Google spreadsheets does that by showing a difference but in reality they aren’t that big at all. I don’t really know why Google does that.

• Runtime High 2*22500 = 1h 27min
• Runtime Low 2*22500 = 4h 57min
• Runtime High 2*21700 = 2h 40min
• Runtime Low 2*21700 = 9h 18min

The battery indicator LED inside the switch changes colors, depending on battery level.

• Green light: full battery
• Red light: low battery
• Red flashing: Ultra low battery: charge batteries

Throw Measurement

Measurements were taken outdoors with a professional Hagner E4-X Lux Meter.

The measurements were taken 30 seconds after turn on. I tested with the 2*22500 batteries as well as with 2*21700 batteries, and both measurements were the same.

Mode	Specs	I measured	in Meters	in Yards	in Miles
Low	680,000 cd	640,000 cd	1600	1750	0.99
High	1,970,000 cd	1,716,000 cd	2620	2865	1.63

My measurements were a bit lower than the specifications. It’s interesting to note that I thought Weltool was going to use my measurements for their specifications, but a few days before publishing this review they showed their own measurements.

Keep in mind that max beam intensity is only half of the story. Sustained output is the other half. And in that regard, it’s doing pretty well. Here you can see the runtimes against some of its competitors.

The black line is candelas with 2*22500 and dark blue is with 2*21700. Still impressive to see a beam, reaching 2.5km throughout their runtime!

Weltool W5 vs Weltool W4

Here is a comparison between the W4 and W5 in terms of candela. You might argue, that the W5 is brighter, but that’s not how it works. A higher candela number would mean: higher intensity at the same distance. So a 2.5Mcd beam at 100 meters vs a 1.7Mcd beam at 100 meters, the former will be ‘brighter ‘/more intense.

You can see that the W4 stood its ground. If you ask me, which to choose, I would probably ask you if you prefer a single cell, or dual-cell flashlight. If you prefer a side switch over a tail switch. If you prefer a new model over an older model. If you ask me, if the W5 is a worthy upgrade over the W4, I would say no unless you need to have a longer runtime.

For the following beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and a 100mm lens. manual settings: ISO1600, .5sec , F4, 5000K

The tower is about 450 meters / 492 yards away.

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to me for review at no cost by Weltool. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.