Under Hood Work Lights - What Do You Use?

Astro14 said:
I have the Makita 18V - battery life on full bright is about four hours. Light is bright and even. I am in both the Makita and Milwaukee battery ecosystems - and it just stands to reason that the light with the 5.0 Ah 18V will have a longer battery life, at the same brightness, than the 2.5 - 5.0 Ah at 12V.

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shortyb said:
I use the same Makita DML818 as @Astro14 does. A bit pricey initially (~$200 for tool only at HD), but solidly built and comes with the attaching bar/hook set-up that allows for a good range of adjustment. I have 9 Makita batteries that range from 2.0-5.0Ah so it fits right in. Very bright (on high setting) and even light, with a couple 5.0s it'll burn for seemingly days on end.
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The Makita looks like a nice light. I like the convenience of it folding in half. DeWalt makes an under hood light of a similar design. For me personally, the downside to these two is I don't have any other tools, thus no batteries or chargers, and I'm really trying to keep from having multiple charger and battery types.

Trav said:
I have an older one from Astro but it needs to be charged but after reading in this thread I realize it is time. I am looking at this Dewalt from HD for the price it seems like a good buy. I have plenty of the regular non powerstack batteries I no longer use to feed it.

Dewalt DCL045B
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When searching for under hood work lights, I saw that FCP offers the Astro. Tempted by the lifetime warranty, I looked at it. It's lumen rating is higher than most, and that's a plus. But I am not excited about the built in battery, as you mention.

From the lights mentioned so far, the DeWalt, Makita and Milwaukee seem to fit what I prefer. They are all removable battery. They all hang from the hood, needing no magnet, or little swivel hook that requires a hole in the hood frame. They are all rated with 1200+ lumens. I like the larger batteries on the DeWalt and Makita. I would have to buy batteries and a charger for either of them. I am going to have to buy batteries for the Milwaukee, as I only have M18 batteries, but no new charger.

If I have the patience, I'm going to wait for Father's Day sales.
 
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Using an old Harbor Freight flourescent light that is pretty old but works well. If it dies before me I will get a battery led.
 
cptbarkey said:
I dont like under hood lights much because they arent really multi use.

I have this cheaper one that can be moved around https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Z6B19YN?th=1

I also have M18 and M12 rocket towers which are very heavy duty. They were a bit of an investment but I'm getting good use out of them.
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Just picked up a similar one at Costco for 30 bones. Haven't used it yet. Twists alll kinds of ways...
 
BHopkins said:
The Makita looks like a nice light. I like the convenience of it folding in half. DeWalt makes an under hood light of a similar design. For me personally, the downside to these two is I don't have any other tools, thus no batteries or chargers, and I'm really trying to keep from having multiple charger and battery types.



When searching for under hood work lights, I saw that FCP offers the Astro. Tempted by the lifetime warranty, I looked at it. It's lumen rating is higher than most, and that's a plus. But I am not excited about the built in battery, as you mention.

From the lights mentioned so far, the DeWalt, Makita and Milwaukee seem to fit what I prefer. They are all removable battery. They all hang from the hood, needing no magnet, or little swivel hook that requires a hole in the hood frame. They are all rated with 1200+ lumens. I like the larger batteries on the DeWalt and Makita. I would have to buy batteries and a charger for either of them. I am going to have to buy batteries for the Milwaukee, as I only have M18 batteries, but no new charger.

If I have the patience, I'm going to wait for Father's Day sales.
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One of the reasons I run Milwaukee is the combo chargers. One charger mounted on the wall does both voltages. It's just a space/efficiency thing.

That said, if you don't mind additional platforms and thus chargers, that's great.

I've also run the M12 across open front doors (catch the roof or A pillars) for illuminating a dash while installing switches.
 
M12 Milwaukee for me. I also have a couple cheap usb rechargeable headlamps that are surprisingly bright and last surprisingly long.

Anyone remember melting the air hose for the air ratchet on the incandescent drop light? I don't miss that at all.
 
Tomioka said:
Tomioka

Post in thread 'What are you working on today?'

2008 Ford F150 4.6L intake manifold replacement. I dreaded the job every time I kept thinking about it because it's a lot of R&R work. Didn't take that much pics because I ran into a bunch of snafus particularly the last half of the manifold install.

Manifold removed which begins the horrid part of the job, cleaning and removal of coolant. Coolant down the tube seals and the valley. Cleaning and checking head mating surfaces since I read a few instances of pitting around the coolant passages. Put a dab of RTV around the coolant passages on the head. After the cleanup was done, I also...
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Absolutely love those labels. Great idea!
 
rszappa1 said:
I use the old fashion trouble light with the screw in bulb...It works for me...
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I also used the traditional trouble light, for a very long time. But I just got fed up with them. Having to drag it around, along with the cord, wherever I needed the light. Hanging it by the hook didn't always put the light where I wanted it. Accidentally dropping it, and having the filament break, and having the replace the bulb.
 
kschachn said:
And burning yourself as you had to blindly reposition it at some critical moment. Then it would slip down to the floor and go out as @BHopkins noted.
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Yep, had a brand on my arm from the wire grate cover for awhile. Even just putting a CFL bulb in the thing was a huge upgrade.

Really happy with the new LED stuff. Not sure kids who grew up with LED can appreciate just how much better it is.
 
Simple/affordable does it for me... basic clamp on aluminum housing fixture with a 4000 lumen led bulb with 3 tint settings built in.
 
Kryptic Mentality said:
Simple/affordable does it for me... basic clamp on aluminum housing fixture with a 4000 lumen led bulb with 3 tint settings built in.
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That would definitely be a super economical way of doing it. And when I was younger and super squeaky tight with my money, I used the aluminum reflector clamp light, but with an incandescent bulb. (LED bulbs weren't a thing then.)

I would never do it again. Under the hood, it was OK, although I wasn't crazy about getting the clamp to grip the hood as well as I liked. But the real pain was when working under the car. It seemed to always be in the way, But that's me.
 
Trav said:
I ended up buying the Astro 151SL for $100, the deciding factor was the 16ft HD cord that you can use it plugged in not just on the battery. It came yesterday and I am impressed with the build quality, the light output is good and the cord is excellent, overall I am happy with it.

https://www.jbtools.com/astro-pneum...aluminum-rechargeable-underhood-light/?wi=off
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I like that cord feature. I have something similar by Milwaukee and maybe half the time a cord would be an improvement.
 
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