Maglite ML300L Review

Maglite ML300L – 4 1/2 stars

Summary

If someone said “draw a torch”, most people would sketch a Maglite ML300L. A favourite with both home owners and professional users, this latest 3 D-cell LED Maglite maintains it’s bright 625 lumens for an amazing 16 hours on 1 set of batteries.

This torch is one of my most solid recommendations. Reliable & easy to use, this is the perfect torch for the house, truck or zombie apocalypse grab bag. Longer and heavier than the similarly spec’d 3 C-cell ML50L, it also makes a better baton for bashing intruders!

Brightness

The Maglite ML300L maintains its brightness of 625 lumens for 16 hours. That’s zombie apocalypse long. In the photos below, taken on Datchworth Green, the first photo is with no torch, the second showing the ML300L with the spot/flood beam set to spot. The village sign 10 metres away on the right is still visible and the illuminated white building (The Plough pub) 100 metres in the distance is also clearly visible.

Although not the 1,000 lumens of some other handheld torch choices, in practise due to the variable beam there’s not much difference, and it never feels underpowered.

Useful for

Big, bright and weighty. This is a house torch you won’t loose track of. It’s too big to get lost amongst the other stuff in that cupboard drawer in the hall. And because it uses regular batteries (not rechargeable) it’s less sensitive to being left there for 18 months unused. That’s important if the first time you need it is in an emergency. This torch is reliable.

This is a torch I would definitely take camping, though not necessary hiking. As well as being bright with a usefully long beam in spot mode, it can also provide many hours of dim, diffused light for a tent or sat outside cooking, in it’s mid or eco setting with Maglite’s light cone on top. And being so big it won’t get lost around the tent.

Notable features

The on/off button is slightly sunken in to the handle near the front of the torch, so it won’t turn itself on in a bag in the car boot. But it can still be pressed easily even with gloves on and gives reassuring feedback in the form of a decent click.

The flood to beam control is changed with just a 1/4 turn of the head. On full beam there is still enough light flooding out at a wider angle so you can always see what’s in the periphery. Not all handheld torches allow you to switch from flood to beam, so this is a useful feature.

Like all modern medium to large Maglite torches, the ML50L has 5 functions: high, low, Eco, strobe & momentary. These 5 functions are grouped in function sets of 3: The default (function set 1) is:

• High: 16 hours on 611 lumens
• Low: 77 hours on 130 lumens
• Eco: 117 hours on 58 lumens

To access these 3 settings, turn on the torch with either 1 click, 2 clicks or 3 clicks.

Design

The finely machined aluminium body is attractive and has a high quality feel. A timeless example of minimalist good design. The surface of the handgrip makes it easy to hold, not slippy, and easy to hold in gloves too. It’s comfortable to hold on a long walk. It doesn’t feel heavy, and is less fiddly that some smaller torches. The ML300LX, shown on the right opposite, has a matt finish and a more pronounced knurl grip, easier to carry in thicker gloves.

Available in 2 x C cell or 3 x C cell lengths, you should buy the longer, more powerful 3 x C cell model.