Another Salvo 21w/9Ah HID Review

[Mal Bridgeman]

Most of my diving has been done in the clear blue waters abroad and it would be fair to say that whilst the fish are quite interesting the "thing" that does it for me are the corals be it coral gardens, or massive architectural structures. I have for sometime been disappointed with the monotonous "bluey/greeness" of everything so bought a UK400 sometime ago to illuminate them. I say illuminate them ....very close up it does start to fill in some colour....but I never really got on with hte "pistol" grip and entertained a number of people when the coiled lanyard clip I had on it got caught ....mmmm that's another story.

It all got me thinking....

Recently whilst diving in Stoney Cove I noticed a lot of people diving with Umbilicals, HIDs in particular, and I was really impressed at the light output and what a massive difference they made to wreck diving illumination for example but as well as benefitting the wearer in what they could see, it was obvious how such a light beam was of use to the buddy in murky conditions....allowing them to be seen.

I did ask a few questions on the boards as to what to go for.....10w? 18w? 21w? 2 hour? 4 hour? 8 hour? etc and I looked at the DiveRite range as well as the Halcyon range and just found I could not justify the cost of the high end units.....£1000 is a heck of an expensive dumpable weight!!

So I umm'ed and arrrh'd hoping something might come up 2nd hand that would appease me.....and that I would be able to upgrade as time marched on.

In the end though I became seduced by the Salvo torch and some advice from Barry on the board, that I really should try to get what I wanted because, overall, it would be a more economic route.

A fortunate work circumstance lead me to the path of Phill at divingniknaks and after a number of emails being exchanged, and a lot of soul searching over the cost and an amount of confusion over the reflector and whether the number "3" really made a difference, I decided to bite the bullet.

[ADVERT]
I would like to say that buying the light from Phill is one of the most pleasant dive kit purchasing experiences and even though there was a slight c*ck up over the delivery date, the unprompted arrival of a free spool made up for that and gives an indication of how much he values customer satisfaction.
[/ADVERT]

So the light arrives, well packaged. A quick read through some rather poor quality instructions ** ....but hey what can go wrong....so go to charge it up.....within a minute or two the "Charged" light comes on and I am worried. Phill reassured me that they come precharged....phew!

I fire it up in the kitchen and to be honest I am not sure whether I am impressed or not. I wait till it goes dark then go and scare the sh*t out of the fish in my pond!...but still not sure how bright it is in reality.

The ballast was larger than I had imagined and I was worried about how cumbersome it would be underwater. After reading more info from the board, I decided to mount the cannister on the waistband of my harness, DIR-stylee, with two loops of bungees attached to the light head and double ended bolt snap (1 tied on the Goodman Handle and one ziptied (non-DIR-stylee) on the ballast)....a plastic weight belt buckle completed the ensemble and I was all set.

I got the opportunity to get it properly wet in Pembrokeshire and boy, was it good. I dived in a threesome with Clare (Gledders) and Daz (Daz). Clare has an identical torch and Daz has a (50w Halogen) bathroom light It was then that I realised just how good this light is....In pretty bad vis I could see Clare's light a lot further away than Daz's and when it was slightly better vis I could see the bright white of Clare's light in stark contrast to the yellowy appearance of Daz's. As to the illumination of items it was astonishingly good....you can imagine that with such poor vis, the natural light was virtually non-existant which, with this light in hand, was not immediately obvious.

Another factor was burn time...and this is something I had not completely appreciated. In 4 days of diving I only needed to charge the torch once. Daz's torch (I am not picking on him....just contrasting) died much quicker....and on one dive if I had been able to take credit cards I am sure he would have bought mine off me there and then!.

My fears about the ballast and its size were unfounded because underwater the unit is very well balanced to a point where the size is irrelevant.....I simply did not notice the light head unit

I understand the lights sometimes don't "fire" underwater, especially if it's cold so I got into the habit of clipping it off on the RH shoulder clip and turning it on just before entering the water.....right hand cupping the reflector to "cushion" impact with the water.....then leaving it on till back on the boat....where I got into the habit of remmebering to turn it off and was helpfully reminded when I didn't!!

So as a first impression I am very pleased.....the light looks very cool and is great in use. I can personally commend the customer service from Phill and would not hesitate to go to him for more kit in future.

I am now looking forward to "proper" Red Sea ocean diving in June where I will get to illuminate the corals and appreciate just how beautiful they are.

Regards
Mal

** I have learned that you should remove the battery pack from the cannister to avoid heat build up since this affects the charging.....though this is not mentioned in the instructions.

[Woz]

One thing to watch with the Salvo lights are the elctrical connectors in the battery pack. A few have had to resolder them as because the wires are quite thick and stiff, they stress the little metal bits inside the connectors to the point where they snap. A bummer in the middle of a dive trip although I did manage to bodge it with some tape and a prayer.

Otherwise a remarkably sturdy bit of kit and well made, and very, very bright. I mount the battery cannister upside down off the side of the backplate which makes it easily accessible yet protected by my wing from the back and my lard at the front. Plus that red band around it is a swimming pool laggy band which goes over the latches to add a bit of security to it.

[Justin Owen]

my 10w 4.5ah comes tomorrow... taking it to 40m in dorothea on sunday, will let you know how it goes... praying to god i'm not disappointed after spending nearly £500 on a torch...!

[divingniknaks]

Mal,

Thank you for a great report, I have passed back the comments to Barry, will update this when I get his response.

I know we had a "dodgy" start but hopefully we're getting there now.

Woz,

Have also passed the comment re connectors back too. Although as we supplied the warranty connectors I know he is aware of it. Can't green you it won't let me. Have one here

Thanks again to you both for your support.

[divingniknaks]

Originally Posted by Justin Owen

my 10w 4.5ah comes tomorrow... taking it to 40m in dorothea on sunday, will let you know how it goes... praying to god i'm not disappointed after spending nearly £500 on a torch...!

So am I

Phill

[Justin Owen]

Originally Posted by divingniknaks

So am I

Phill

i'll be posting back on monday....!

[Mark Chase]

OK so here are some video shots of a 10W Halcyon in the hands of Andyp and me overlaying with the 21W Salvo. The Video is using a 50W Halogen and the Hid just wipes that out.

Bear in mind that the 10W is a fantastic torch before you even consider the awesome 21W

Andrew 10W



Me 21W Salvo over a 50W Halogen




The Salvo 21W gives out a column of light that makes the actually excellent 10W look like a pencil torch. It was a very comforting tool to have in the black dark depths of the Z I can tell you

ATB

Mark Chase

21W Salvo over a distance with Andyp on the 10W again

[daz]

Mal,

May I just take the opportunity to say.

Bastard

How do you manage with two bolt snaps on it? No problems with getting bolt snaps caught together

Daz

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by daz

Mal,

May I just take the opportunity to say.

Bastard

Tee Hee!!!

Originally Posted by daz

How do you manage with two bolt snaps on it? No problems with getting bolt snaps caught together

Daz

Take two bolt snaps into the shower?....I just Double-end 'n' go...you know I can't be trusted with 2 boltsnaps.


Mal

[Keiron]

Originally Posted by Mal Bridgeman

[NOT_AN_ADVERT]
and even though there was a slight c*ck up over the delivery date[/NOT_AN_ADVERT]

Glad you have got something for your botched delivery, have to confess that my first order with them has gone wrong too. However, I had an apology, so I guess so that makes it all better

I'm disappointed considering the level of Sandro's service, kind of expected the same from divingniknaks.