Amazon has the Dewalt DCL182 USB-C rechargeable LED worklight on sale for Prime Day 2024.
For a limited time, the price has been slashed from $99 to $59, reflecting a 40% discount.
The same Dewalt worklight is selling for $99 at all of the other authorized dealers I checked, and so Amazon’s claim of a 40% discount seems accurate.
Advertisement
The worklight recharges via USB-C and delivers 1000 lumens max brightness. It’s described as being jobsite-tough, and is dust and water resistant to IP54 standards.
Mounting and positioning options for the pivoting light include a flat base, hanging carabiner hook, and integrated magnets.
Runtime is said to be up to 12 hours on low and 3.5 hours at max brightness. It can be fully recharged in 85 minutes with a 5V 3A charger (not included).
Sale Price: $59
As a Prime Day deal, the discount is only available for Prime subscribers. Learn more about Prime membership here.
Advertisement
Alexk
I’ve been thinking about the new Milwaukee phone sized light, which has a max of 500 lumens. This Dewalt looks nice and has 1000 lumens. I don’t need 1000 lumens, but then again, I don’t “need” another light – which is not what I tell my girlfriend, but this site is like tool confessions, right? And Stuart channels our tool god and forgives us.
Any thoughts on both lights?
Small size and neutral color output is more important than intensity.
Think this would be more convenient than a flashlight, with the options to hang, stick on or clamp in situations when I don’t have or need my rocket light on a tripod.
JR Ramos
I’ve not seen or used either of these but saw a video of the Milwaukee and own a couple of Milwaukee’s other lights (the little M12 Rover is a winner). I don’t have the means to accurately measure large floody lights like these but to me the Milwaukee do not seem to achieve their stated lumens (that’s really common across the lighting industry except for bulbs). But compounding that is how these are just open mule designs, 100% flood. So if you compare X lumens in a flashlight, for instance, even a floody one, and expect the same-ish light from these mules, you’ll be disappointed. I think that Rover model says 700 on high but beyond 3-4 feet you’d probably think it was more like 300. It’s a super light, though, and I can see where this new phone-sized one would be pretty handy. I won’t be buying it because it looks less useful for me than the Rover even though it’s bulkier and needs battery packs.
Milwaukee has a pretty nice light quality so you will absolutely like their “tru view” or whatever more than the cold white emitters DeWalt is still using (and which also have an ugly tint…separate from color…but it’s functional). The Milwaukee leans a little warmer than neutral (I’d call it around 4000K where “neutral” is typically thought of as 5000K give or take a little)…but it’s not warm like old incandescent. The color renditioning is excellent. Again, I haven’t seen this new light in person but photos suggest that they are using the same emitters (which may be a flavor of Optisolis or something equivalent-ish from a China manufacturer). I think Milwaukee could do a lot better with these lights with some changes in approach and design but they’re not bad and they give nice light and they’re fairly efficient powerwise.
I think these are *grossly* overpriced, but that’s what the big brands tend to do, and at least they generally have sound parts and are pretty durable. I would let an employer buy the DeWalt at $99 or the bargain price of $59 but left to me I wouldn’t buy it at all unless it were $40 or less, which is probably where it could be. The form factor on these is the selling point. There are lots of “side light” flashlight models these days and some are quite good, for the same or less than this sale price, but they’re less positionable not having clamps or kickstands, just tail magnets.
Jared
I own the 1000 lumen Bosch and I was going to say something similar about brightness. 1000 lumens is a good amount of light, but in a flood pattern – it’s not going to be TOO bright.
I like my Bosch and use it a lot for mechanical work, but there are times when I still want more light (especially if I have to position it at some distance from what I’m illuminating).
Alexk
Thanks JR for you detailed feedback. I have a NEBO with magnetic tail and both a forward light and side light. It’s a good light and with the pocket clip I can walk at night hands free, but it isn’t the best design for work. I’m just liking the idea of something that can fit in a small tool bag and have multiple hanging options. I worked with someone who used a rover and it was a nice light. These cost more than I’d like to spend, but I don’t know what has the same features and is reasonably priced.
Julian Tracy
I actually ran into an old Minolta Lumen light meter and for the heck of it, measured my M12 tower light with it. Lumens are read when the light beam is 3’ wide. According the lumen meter, it read almost perfectly it’s rated output.
Stuart
I don’t have the Dewalt, the Milwaukee just landed at my door.
I don’t think I saw any mention of color temp or accuracy.
Without testing both, this one has the edge when it comes to brightness, Milwaukee might have the edge with light quality.
There could be a difference in beam spread and uniformity.
The ToolGuyd approach is to buy both.
Dewalt’s work lights have served me well. I know that Milwaukee tends to have better light quality, but in practice it rarely matters to me. When it does matter, I use neither.
This one’s on sale now, making it a better value.
I’m not sure which I’d pick. If you need more light, this one’s got it.
I feel the Milwaukee is smaller, so that could be a factor.
Art
The icon one 2100 Lumen is way better. Heavier duty, great magnet. Nice solid feel with 3 different settings
MM
I don’t have this light, but I have a similar model, the Olight Swivel. In fact I have a few of them. The multitude of different mounting methods makes them super useful. I bought my first one to use as a worklight for automotive or inside control cabinets & machinery. I soon ended up buying more to keep around the house, they’re just so useful. They are a very convenient automotive worklight because they’re so compact and the combination of the magnetic and hook mounts mean you can put it in many places you can’t fit other styles of worklight. They’re great for camping since you can easily hang them on a tree branch or inside your tent, etc. They’re also nice to have around the house if there’s a power failure since you can hang, stick, or point them wherever you need light. This style of light is a great idea.
alex
i dont own any, i thought about buying and i would deff get the olight swivel pro over both the dewalt and the milwaukee. the milwaukee is probably very nice being slim but you loose light output. the dewalt is probably comparatively sized. Ive seen olight have a nice amount of sales over the year so it would probably be cheaper. lastly the olight is a light company so they probably make the better product
Stuart
On what basis do you think Olight would “make the better product?”
Ken
Got a generic version on Amazon for about $20 and it comes with adapters for Milwaukee, Dewalt and Craftsman. Just as good and maybe even better.
Adam
This is a smaller light that has an internal battery, and no adapters are needed.
Be careful with generic lights. Because of the low, slow power draw, and no communication with the battery, you will often wreck the battery so that it is unusable.
Saulac
Beware that the magnet is on the back of the light, not the hook which would have allowed adjustments of the light when using the magnet.
Jared
I think this looks like a pretty good deal.
I fully appreciate there are flashlights and rechargeable floodlights on the market from non-tool brands than can keep up or surpass this Dewalt, often for the same or less money.
Nevertheless, sometimes it’s nice to have a light that uses your power tool batteries so you get extra-long runtime and can swap in a new battery when needed. If that’s what you want, this is a good choice – and while this may not be the most lumens-per-dollar, the price is perfectly reasonable.
Roy
But this light doesn’t seem to use DeWalt batteries – it has an internal battery charged by USB-C
Jared
Oops. I didn’t look too close and just assumed. You’re right.
Randy
The profit margin on lighting products from tool companies must be insane. Even reputable flashlight brands have better specs at that sale price.
Stuart
Why would it be different from anything else?
MM
I don’t want to speak for Randy but I’ve often thought the same thing about the relatively high margin of lighting products. The reason is the production cost of a light is a lot lower than that of many other power tools. It’s just a plastic housing, a switch, and the LED emitter. The first two on that list are already in every power tool already, while the LED(s) are cheap. Consider that one can buy many power tools for a similar price which contain components which are a lot more costly to manufacture like motors and gearboxes. The profit margin on a $100 light is much higher than on a $100 drill or power saw.
MFC
While this might be a “sale” since it’s normally $99. I don’t believe $99 is going to remain it’s regular price. Klein’s similar light is normally $49 I believe, and you can get a dozen dozen dozen generic lights like this one, for $10-$30.
Since it’s not a proprietary dewalt charging base, there’s no reason to buy this one in my opinion, unless you’re just a hard-core DeWalt fan. In that case, buy a bunch of DeWalt decals and slap em on all the Yellow and Black knock-offs and save yourself some money.
Yes, I’m sure quality will be better, and people spend lots of money on quality products, but I don’t see DeWalt as that kind of product and their price should reflect that.
This is coming from a contractor that has lots of DeWalt 20v and 60v tools.
Alexk
There are a lot of similar style lights in the $30-$100 range.
The Dewalt on sale, looks good. Doing a search for the Olight Swivel, brought me down a well lit rabbit hole.
Thanks to various comments on here I realized I’d like magnets on the stand, not the body, for more angle options. I might consider one with a spotlight as well as the flood, and from a couple of comments about wanting more light, I’d consider 2-3k lumens.
More research is needed.
Fenix CL28R 2K lumens $100
NEBO Omni 3K $48
Nitecore NW120 600 lumens $35
Olight Swivel 400lumens $35
Husky 2K lumen worklight $30
I love the form factor of the Milwaukee light and feel pulled to get it, but I don’t think it’s the best bang for the buck. Will check out the Husky at HD. Maybe it will light up my life, but doubt it would put a bright smile on my face like the Milwaukee.
Stuart
Generally speaking, I feel that Dewalt and Milwaukee tend to be most reliable for construction/jobsite environments.
From the others, I’ve had good experiences with Fenix, Olight, and Nitecore.
Husky is good too, but they tend to change suppliers a lot, and you never know if one product is as good as the last.
When looking at high lumen outputs, check for runtime graphs. You’ll find that a lot of lights start out bright but then ramp down for the sake of thermal management.