Home Depot, a ToolGuyd sponsor, sent over this Husky clamping LED worklight for review consideration.
Before we talk about this specific clamp-on worklight, there’s something I want to talk about, but probably shouldn’t.
Advertisement
Home Depot has sent me too many (but never unwanted) LED worklights and flashlights over the years, sometimes even after I already buy the same model(s).
It’s usually a combination of the Husky team wanting me to check out a new model, Home Depot sending over a couple of promo tools for review consideration, or my own excitement when I spot a new Husky lighting product in-store at a great price.
So, a couple of times now, I ended up with too many Husky lighting products on my hands. When this happens, I donate and give away the extra samples.
Whenever I give away tools to family, local contractors, or readers, I rarely ever hear any feedback about the products unless we have a review arrangement in place or I specifically ask for a status update.
However, things are different with Husky LED lighting products. After I give away a Husky flashlight, worklight, headlamp, or similar, there is a much greater chance that the recipient will call me up with feedback or just to thank me again.
Everyone LOVES so many Husky lighting products, and I think this clamp-on light might be another winner.
Advertisement
I at first thought that the Husky worklight featured here was actually two different worklights. I don’t recall ever seeing a clamp-on worklight quite like this one before.
To start, its head can rotate a full 360°, and its pivot range is more than 180° – maybe ~220°. The head can tuck into the clamp body, creating a low profile for easy carrying and storage.
Lock the base into position and rotate the head out, and it’s a self-supporting worklight that can be placed on any horizontal surface.
I found the worklight to be highly adjustable, capable of being aimed in any direction needed.
The clamps are quite good and versatile, featuring pivoting jaws with rubbery faces that are secured using a total of 16 fasteners.
Using the inner jaws, the worklight can be clamped from pipes, or in this case a hammer.
The clamp faces are fairly grippy, and they secure to slightly uneven and textured materials better than smooth and slippery materials – at least until you increase the clamping surface area.
For the best grip, you need a deeper clamping depth, as the faces aren’t quite wide enough to support the full weight of the lamp head by themselves, at least not on certain materials.
When clamping to a smooth vertical surface, such as a door, there’s some flexibility, as really only the lower jaw requires greater clamping depth to stop any rotational slipping.
It can securely clamp to horizontal surfaces as well, but the inner jaws are needed to help out a little to balance the weight.
However, I have found that if the clamp head is folded inside the base, I can clamp it to the short edge of my benchtop without it slipping, as this greatly reduces the weight and mechanical leverage exerted on the clamp jaws.
When clamped to a flat horizontal surface, I need at least the first inner jaw to be in contact with the top surface to secure the clamp.
Given that I like the free-standing versatility, the lamp head adjustment, and the size of the base, I think these are fair compromises.
I was concerned about this at first, but over time I’ve found that the size of the jaws have never gotten in the way of my use of the worklight.
I have been able to secure the clamp to overhead flat surfaces, such as cabinet doors and 2x construction materials, with just the clamp faces providing sufficient contact.
It’s only really when you have a very off-axis center of mass that you need to be mindful of.
At the rear of the worklight head, you can see the rubber flap covering the micro USB charging port, a power and mode switch, and 4-LED charging and battery charge level indicator lights.
The battery indicator lights turn off after a few seconds.
The base can be locked into position for free-standing mode, or unlocked for clamping mode. To lock the base into its open position, you need to open the clamp to its maximum position and press a wide lever. I learned that it’s best to do this with one hand from the inside, but there are ways to do it with two hands as well.
Key Features & Specs
- 1500/700 lumen brightness
- 3/6 hours runtime
- Built-in rechargeable battery
- USB charging (cable included)
- Aluminum and ABS plastic construction
The clamp can be secured to most pipes, doors, wood framing, and other such surfaces.
According to the ANSI FL1 ratings, it can endure drops of up to 3M (10 feet) and is weather and water resistant to IPX4 standards.
Verdict
What I Like
Bright.
Very uniform illumination – the lensed COB LED emitter emits floodlight illumination very well-suited for a worklight.
Versatile clamping and positioning options.
Solid build quality.
Compact storage profile.
Battery indicator.
What You Might Not Like
Some users don’t like built-in rechargeable batteries, and I won’t try to change your minds.
The clamp needs deeper reach on flat materials such as a table top surface or door to prevent slipping. Meaning, don’t expect to fully extend the light and support it horizontally on a 1″ strip of material.
(This is a center of mass consideration. Yes, the clamping force could be stronger, but then it would be a lot harder and maybe even dangerous to use the tool in free-standing base mode.)
The power button has 3 modes – high, low, and off. If you’re using the worklight at high brightness, you have to press the power button twice to turn it off. This doesn’t bother me or impede its usage.
Overall
I actually haven’t used this as a clamp-on worklight very much, but I do use it in free-standing mode. I like the adjustability and different illumination angles possible with the rotating and pivoting head.
I don’t really have any complaints. It’s bright, adjustable, versatile, and seems to be well-designed and engineered to be tough.
It has metal construction where you need it, such as with the one-piece clamping base locking bar, and where the hooks latch onto.
The clamping pressure is very well-tuned. I wished for greater clamping strength at first, but then I found that it was a great compromise that allows for easy free-standing operation.
I think the $50 pricing is fair. The construction is more complex and robust than I had initially anticipated from online images alone, and the worklight delivers more premium illumination characteristics compared to less expensive lights.
You can buy the Husky clamping worklight online with free shipping, or find it at Home Depot stores.
Price: $49.97
“But This Doesn’t Suit My Needs”
That’s okay, Husky LED lighting products aren’t one-size-fits-all.
Will
That’s a pricey meatball.
MM
I have to say this looks pretty nice for a general purpose worklight. The fact it can stand up, clamp, and you can move the head around really makes it flexible. I can see it being great for camping too, you can clamp it to a tree, outdoor table, tent pole, etc. I also like that it has dual brightness settings, it’s nice to save battery for tasks that don’t need a lot of light.
The price is honestly not that bad given that it has built-in batteries. I’m sort of on the fence about that part. I do like the ability of Dewalt, Milwaukee, etc, brand lights being able to run off the normal line of rechargeable batteries.
fred
https://www.amazon.com/LOVORK-Adjustable-Rechargeable-Waterproof-Construction/dp/B08P5D1Q1W/
The head doesn’t seem as flexible – but this one on Amazon might be worth a look for comparison.
I have not tried either one.
Stuart
The Husky has a COB LED emitter, which means one shadow instead of dozens.
fred
No where near the same thing – but most of the guys in our plumbing business carried one of these COB AAA-battery lights in their shirt pockets:
https://www.tooldiscounter.com/product/e-z-red-pocket-cob-light-stick-ezrpcob
Koko The Talking Ape
Or rather, the Husky will cast a single sharper-edged shadow, and the LOVORK (?) will cast a single softer-edged shadow. Each shadow from each individual LED will blend together by diffracting around edges of objects.
So actually, that might be preferable. Or I suppose you could put a diffracter on the Husky for the same effect. It could be a piece of clear textured plastic, like some covers of old 4′ fluorescent lamps.
Stuart
Nope. I have multi-emitter LED lights and panels, and no matter the price or quality, they leave multiple shadows.
Some might overlap, but you still end up with multiple shadows. Even if softer, they’re noticeable.
For applications where it matters, you need diffusion to blend the light together to eliminate distracting shadows.
There’s no need to diffuse the Husky light, its beam output is broad and uniform. You can potentially add diffusion to soften the light by increasing its apparent size, but you would also be reducing brightness.
Steve
I’d be interested in this as a “Special Buy” item. I’d consider it at $29.99, but buy it instantly at $19.99 to $24.99. Hopefully it will be on promo in the future.
Stuart
I don’t see that happening. The construction seems much too complex to stray far from its regular price point.
PW
This looks like a genuinely clever and useful design. I can think of a number of projects where this would have fit the bill. I have a half dozen work lights, but nothing quite like this. I also have had positive experiences with husky led lights.
But an internal integral battery is a deal killer. I’m sick of trashing otherwise useful items after 3 years because the battery died and it’s uneconomical or hard to fix.
Adrian
I agree about the integral battery, but on the other hand, it would be a hard sell to get me to adopt an additional battery platform, especially for a store’s house brand.
Although I personally don’t want this light, I think the integral battery was probably the right way to design this particular product. Given that it’s disposable, the $50 price point feels a little high. I agree with Steve that $30 would make this more compelling.
Matt the Hoople
I agree with this sentiment. Unless it uses standard batteries (like 18650 or similar) which can be fairly easily replaced by disassembling, then it’s trash after a few years. The absolute worst part of this is that, if you REALLY like the light, chances are it will have been discontinued and you’ll never find another like it. I like the form factor. If it had easily replaceable batteries and a third brightness (around 100-150ish lumens) for close up work with even longer runtime, I buy two.
MM
I’m 100% sure that it does use standard batteries. I don’t know which ones, but nobody is going to make custom-spec batteries when they can just buy something off the shelf.
I’d think if the batteries failed it would be no biggie to open it up with a screwdriver and replace them. I have repaired countless rechargeable tools over the years and I’ve never found one that I couldn’t get batteries for. Sometimes the batteries aren’t very well known but big electronics parts vendors like Digi-Key, Allied, etc, have always had them, it just might take a bit of research to find the right ones.
Hey Stuart, what’s the chance you can open that sucker up and take some photos?
Jared
I agree with you that they will be a standard size – the challenge might be in accessing them.
E.g. the plastic case might be designed not to open – one-way tabs perhaps, or glue. Usually you still can open even products built like that, but the complexity and risk of causing damage increase.
Sometimes batteries are soldered into place too. Soldering is a skill not everyone has. Soldering a battery that could be damaged by heat is also more challenging than, say, soldering a plumbing connection.
That’s not to dispute your main point though – this light probably could be refurbished if the battery starts to fail. It’s just not as easy as tools that use rechargeable batteries in a standard-sized bay.
MM
Sure it’ s possible it might be very difficult to open up but I think the chance of that is pretty slim.
You got me on the soldering. I learned it as a child because my father was into HAM radio so to me soldering batteries is as normal as using a screwdriver. I got tons of practice as a kid helping him on stuff and working on my own projects from Radio Shack, R/C models, etc. In high school I was into car audio, in college I made money on the side by modding Playstations to play imported games using a head-magnifier and a needle pointed iron to solder 36 AWG leads to tiny hair-thin traces on the circuit board, and my research involved designing & building lab test equipment from scratch. So I’ve had an incredible amount of experience soldering everything from hair-sized strain gauge leads up to truck battery cables. Sometimes I need to be reminded that is a skill that not everyone has.
TonyT
Because the rechargeable batteries really should be recycled or otherwise properly disposed of, it should be fairly easy to get to them.
Robm
It seems like a neat idea, but I wouldn’t buy it at $50. Seems like a lot of money, especially when I’ve got a few magnetic lights that I bought for far less that have a replaceable LI battery. For that price point there are far to many options available out there.
John
Disposable after battery dies is a deal killer for me.
Steve
That’s part of the reason why I won’t spend any more that $20-$30 on a product like this.
teicher
I like this light too, I messed around with it at the store and thought it would be a good thing to have on hand. The price was steeper than expected, and if the battery isn’t serviceable its going to end up like the rest of the disposable work lights on the market. I’d rather have a serviceable one when given the choice.
Since you have one in hand Stuart, can you try and open it up to see if the battery could be swapped out?
S
Yes – can you see if you can open it and how the batteries are installed?
Nathan
I bet the battery is replaceable but you have to take the back off and potentiall un solder a connection or 2.
but over all I think I’d pass too. If only becasue I have a few other power tool battery lights that would work were I would use this.
relative same brightness too. But if I didn’t have that I’d look at it closer.
MikeIt
Just this weekend I was working on my car and wondering why there aren’t any good clamp on lights. A while back I bought a magnetic work light to stick under the hood when working on my car. I finally needed to use it and when I put the magnet on my hood, I found out my hood was ALUMINIUM! I ended up putting a hand clamp at the edge of my hood and that provided a steel surface for my magnet. This light looks just like the thing I was looking for this weekend. I don’t mind the rechargeable battery but the plastic construction does concern me even though I know everything is plastic these days. $50 seems a bit high to me, but if it goes on sale I will most likely pick one up.
RobRob
Husky is a MPP- or OPP+ brand，I thought this site only introduce at least MPP. Only because Husky is Home Depot Related?
Stuart
This is definitely not an entry-priced product, it’s mid-price point at the least.
Entry, mid, or premium-priced, everything’s fair game if it’s interesting enough.