Maratac AAA Copper Flashlight Review

Got this little guy from County Comm for around $40 a few months ago. It's based on their standard Maratac AAA platform, but instead of aluminum or stainless steel, they went with a beautiful hand polished solid copper body. It's heavy, and feels awesome in the hand. It's UI is slightly revised from the earlier AAA versions. The PWM frequency is much higher than the previous versions and instead of starting on medium like the others, it now starts on low. I prefer that.

The light comes hermetically sealed in this foil pouch. Opening it up is like breaking open an ancient treasure chest.

Unwrapping:



This thing is so beautiful. The pictures really don't do it justice.





And yeah, this thing is solid copper:



The machining looks fantastic, as does the laser-etched logo.



XP-E (notice the plastic aligning things on all four sides. Looks like a 4Sevens). The LED's tint is definitely classified as "cool white", but it's about the creamiest cool white I've run into.

The LED is well centered:













It was a lot smaller than I had expected, even with it being a AAA light. Here's it next to a 4Sevens Mini AA:



I know this review is very picture heavy, but with a light like this it almost has to be. Part of the lure is the beautiful metal and its interesting oxidation. It'll look different depending on what part of the country you live in, how often you carry it, how often you clean it. Every one of them out there riding day-to-day in pocket look different.

Like I said, it's gorgeously machined. The polished look lasted for about two days before a bright pink patina set it. The pink turned a bit toward the brown side, and more recessed areas that weren't disturbed during normal carry became the slightest shade of green (not Statue of Liberty, mind you).

My only gripe is that the threads were dirty when I got it and it was mode skipping worse than any light I've ever had. But after I deep cleaned them and re-lubed them it was working a whole lot better, though it still skipped every once in a while. Through regular use the mode skipping is now a non-issue.

The modes are low → medium → high, and there are no goofy blinky/strobe/SOS modes to muddle the flow. There is no memory, and it reverts back to low after being off for several seconds. Low mode is advertised as being 1.5 lumens, with medium putting out 18, and high 80. Those numbers seem on the money. Runtimes are 50 hours, 4 hours, and 48 minutes, respectively.

The lens is treated with an anti-reflective coating and the light features reverse polarity protection, so you won't fry it if you stick a battery in backwards in the dark. The weight, without battery, is nearly 27 grams.

Output is great. The low is low and the high is very respectably bright. Runtime is great for the output. It cost me approximately $45 inc. shipping from CountyComm.com (the only place you can buy it from). Maratac makes four other AAA models, all featuring the same body: two stainless steel models (a satin and a polished model) and two aluminum models (black anodized and "natural" anodized).

Since I got it I've documented the patina progression. Here are some examples.

Day 3:



Day 5:



Day 16:





Day 40:





Overall I'd say it was definitely worth the money. It's a curiousity, sure. You might think the novelty would keep it from functioning as a great light, but it in no way does. I've EDC'ed this many, many times and it's never failed me.

If you dig copper things, you won't regret spending the money on this. ;D

 

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Worth it! ;D

You won't regret it! :thumbsup:

 

Thanks for the comments, everyone! Perhaps I need to be getting a kickback back from County Comm, haha.

 

Bummer! I hope they make another run.

 

Thanks for the link! I'd heard their stuff was sold somewhere else but I never knew where.