I still have my first Streamlight. It has to be about 40 years old now. It’s an old 3-D cell light with an aluminum body from the mid 1980’s. I still use it around the house with an LED bulb upgrade.
Times change though, and while it still works, there are certainly better lights around these days. Like Streamlight ProTac HL 6. It’s still full sized work light, but smaller and lighter than my old D cell, and with massively better performance. Let’s take a look at what 40 years of tech advances have to offer.
The Streamlight ProTac HL 6
The ProTac HL 6 is 10.5 inches long and weighs 1.3 pounds with batteries. It’s a work light designed to give serious performance. Like my original Streamlight, it has anodized aluminum construction. The HL 6 is IPX7 waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes and 1-meter impact resistance tested. Ut features an anti-roll head to keep the light from rolling away when you set it down on a flat surface. Unlike my original Streamlight, the HL 6 has a rubber sleeve over the aluminum body that provides thermal insulation and a sure grip. The HL 6 is sturdy and fair sized. This isn’t a pocket light, but it is a great pack or vehicle light.
When it comes to performance, the ProTac HL 6 puts out 5,300 lumens on high, 1,500 lumens on medium, and 450 lumens on low. There’s also a strobe setting. Run times are 2 hours on high, 3.75 hours on medium and 12.5 hours on low. The strobe will run for 4 hours straight. It uses Streamlight’s Features TEN-TAP programming and gives yo a choice of three user selectable programs: 1) high/strobe/low 2) high only 3) low/medium/high. I left mine on the default high/strobe. low mode.
The HL 6 uses two of Streamlight’s 5000mAh SL-B48 USB-C rechargeable protected lithium-ion battery packs. It comes with a USB C Y charging cable and optional wall plug so that you can charge both batteries at once. Charging ports are built into the batteries so you don’t need a separate charger. Being a USB C connection you can top them off from your phone charger in your car as well if it’s a common USB C type.
Hands On with the HL 6
I’ve been using my HL 6 for the past couple of months. Being winter I haven’t gone off on any great adventures, but I’ve been using it around the house, and have been taking it in the car with me. For routine use, the low setting at 450 lumens is plenty for navigating the house during power outages, and doing stuff like taking the trash out at night. It would work great for camping trips as well. Or for emergency stuff like changing a tire at night, or working on your car. 450 lumens really is pretty bright. The 12.5 hour battery life is more than sufficient for any kind of routine use, even if you plan on using it over a 3 day camping weekend or something like that. You aren’t running the light constantly, so 12 hours of battery life is plenty to get through a weekend and then some.
The higher settings come in handy when you do need to really light something up, or see something at a distance. Streamlight does a nice job of balancing candelas for throw at a distance, and flood so that it easily lit up my backyard. I’d use it for checking on my bird and squirrel feeders at night to see who was getting into them. Typically I’ll see deer right around or after dusk, and raccoons when it got a little later. I suspect there’s a couple blind raccoons wandering around now after I blasted them with the HL 6 on high. Sorry trash pandas!
The high setting is ridiculous, but in a good way. 5,300 lumens lights up everything. I could probably signal aliens with the HL 6 on high. Although that’s probably not a great idea. I could do without the probe… Regardless, it’s great if you need to punch out into the dark and see what’s out there. It was great for looking out over fields for deer. It would also be good for looking ahead for obstructions on the trail at night. Streamlight claims it has a 566 meter beam. I probably didn’t have anywhere quite that far to light up, but what I used it on was impressive.
I only tested the strobe, but it’s pretty powerful. It would make for a great signaling device if you were lost in the woods, or your car went off the side of the road in inclement weather. It’d serve a a good distraction if someone accosted you when you were out walking your dog too. You know, so that they don’t see the dog coming when you sic it on them.
Battery life on the HL 6 is extremely good for a light of its power. While I mostly used the low setting, I would bump up to high as needed, or just to see what it would do. I never drained the battery while I was using it and only threw it on the charger to top it off a couple times over the past couple of months. Obviously your mileage will vary depending on your usage but for routine use, it’s very good.
As a household utility and emergency light the HL 6 works extremely well. It would be a great work or utility light for your vehicle, or while camping as well. If I was still working the road as a police officer this would be an ideal patrol bag light. It has the battery life on low to work a night scene for a full shift, and the medium and high settings are more than sufficient for reaching out down a street or across a field when doing a search. While not billed as a tactical light, and a lot bigger than we typically see these days, it still works with the Harries technique, just like we used to do with the old full sized lights back in the day.
The ProTac HL 6 is backed by Streamlight’s limited lifetime warranty and sells for about $138 with the Y adapter and $148 with the Y adapter and AC plug. If you need a tough, high lumen work light with great run times, then you need to check out the ProTac HL 6.
Specifications: Streamlight ProTac HL 6 Flashlight
High Lumens: 5,300
Run Time on High: 2.00 hours
Run Time on Low: 12.50 hours
Beam Distance: 566 meters
Max Candela: 80,000
Battery Type: SL-B48 Rechargeable Battery Pack
Battery Quantity: 2
Length: 10.50 inches (26.67 centimeters)
Weight: 1 pounds 4.80 ounces (589.67 grams)
Colors: Black
MSRP: $138, or $148 with AC adapter
“I still have my first Streamlight. It has to be about 40 years old now.”
I still have my first SureFire 9P from 1995. I still use it weekly on my security rotation, and in fact will be strapping it again tonight. Only thing I ever changed was a bulb upgrade maybe three years ago, but the thing is bulletproof.