Princeton Tec Aqua Strobe

by Princeton Tec

Product Features

• Can be seen as far away as 3 miles in good conditions.
• Waterproof up to 500 ft. 8 hour burn time. Flash rate up to 70/minute
• Just 3.4 oz with AA battery
• Can be clipped to your body or gear
• Includes battery (1 AA), velcro strap & lanyard

Product Description

An ultra compact, lightweight life saver on the water. The Aqua Strobe floats heads up in the water and can be seen as far away as 3 miles in good conditions.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000KCYG6W
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,118 in Sports & Outdoors (See Top 100 in Sports & Outdoors)
  • #8 in Sports & Outdoors > Boating & Water Sports > Boating > Safety & Flotation Devices > Strobe & Safety Lights

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nice strobe, if it worked for more than 2 days., September 13, 2011

By 

Tak - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Princeton Tec Aqua Strobe

Update: Strobe failed during PFD check just before night paddling. Item was received and opened just 3-4 days ago to test and have attached it on the PFD unused since then. Strobe flickers lightly instead of flashing brightly. Doesn't seem to be a battery problem since I get the same problem even after changing to new batteries. Not as reliable as I thought.

Update 2: Contacted seller and was told to contact manufacturer directly. Just dropped Princeton Tec an email, so let's see how their customer support is. I'm not sure how often these defects come up, but for now, I would not recommend buying this as an emergency or night time signal device.

Update 3: Princeton Tec did not reply to my request for replacement/repair. Reds Gear did agree to a refund, but I have to pay for the shipping back to them.

Conclusion: Avoid this strobe unless you want to take the risk of it failing during an emergency.

It's not the cheapest strobe out there, but it's definitely one of the more reliable ones from the reviews that you can find online. And when it comes to safety products, reliability is the #1 priority. No use having the best equipment that doesn't work when you need it to.

This strobe is waterproof, floats, and simple enough to use. You would most likely need to use 2 hands to turn it on though - one hand to turn the light casing while the other hand to hold the body. Comes with a VERY VERY long velcro strap. I triple looped it into the slots in the strobe before going one final around to secure it. Those who prefer a shorter one can just cut it because the velcro strap sticks to itself, i.e. like a 1 sided velcro that sticks to itself.

The light gives off a static discharge sound with every flash, so you would have to get used to the sound if you have it attached to your PFD's shoulder straps. At 70flashes/minute, that's quite a number of ticking sounds going off beside your ear.

Overall, I like the simple design of it. The reason this strobe gets a 4* is because of the design of the battery compartment. There is enough space for two batteries if the designers had made some minor adjustments to the layout of the battery compartment. It would have been much better if the casing was slightly adjusted to take 2xAA batteries in parallel. This would give it double the battery life in almost the same housing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Failed after a couple days, November 24, 2011

By 

Eli J Madden - See all my reviews

This review is from: Princeton Tec Aqua Strobe (Misc.)

Started working intermittently now it doesn't work at all. Tried different battery, checking the contacts, etc etc. Not only a waste of money but a safety hazard.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very handy, good idea. Poor instructions., August 26, 2010

By 

Wulfstan "wulfstan" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This is a handy little emergency strobelight. It's completely waterproof, lightweight, and even floats.

There are a couple minor annoying things about it:

1. The instructions tell you that it is very very bad to install the battery with the wrong polarity. Makes sense, but then they never tell you which is the right way (the + end with the little knob needs to be pointed up) Note that the instructions also say it's bad to mix old and new batteries- which doesn't mean much here as the product takes but a single AA battery (included).

2. The instructions do not tell you how to turn it on (screw the top down for on, loosen it a tad for off).

3. The lanyard is too darn fat to fit in the hole at the end.

This works well as a replacement for a flare for automobile use, or for location if you get lost. Many use it for dive safety.

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