Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test.

Mark Chase · 3rd July 2008, 19:41

Tektite 200 and Jotron AQ4 Strobe

On test

Way back in February a group of YDrs set about trying to obtain some cheep Jotron AQ4 strobes. At the time Rob Lumb from Lumb Bros contacted me to see if id be interested in trying out the Tektite 200 strobe as an alternative to the Jotron AQ4

Shortly after three Tektite 200s turned up in the post I started to attempt to get some footage of the strobes in action. This, it turned out, is not so easy. I had two attempts fail due to the auto focus being confused by the strobe. My next attempt I used a fixed focus and just set the camera up at the pre set distance and waited. This worked but wasn’t exactly great footage. After this it seemed that every planned dive was either pants viz or blown out by the weather. I tried to get footage in Mexico and my Vee-cam failed and finally we were off to France for the Leopold gig and I felt I just must get some footage there. However conditions were bad with flow on every dive and a need to lay line and on the last dive when I was I planning to have a go in the slightly improved viz, the French blockade happened and yet again I was thwarted.

So as a result I have yet to get any quality footage of the strobes. I have on here what I have managed so far and hope it will give you some comparative data but rest assured if my Vee-cam comes back and works OK ill be replacing this with something better ASAP

Jotron AQ4 v Tektite 200

For many people the Jotron AQ4 is the best strobe on the market. It demands a pretty hefty price tag of between £50-60 so perhaps it should be. First impressions of the Jotron were, what did they spend all the money on? Admittedly it has a funky sliding battery compartment and a switch but apart from that I can only assume its is well supported and thoroughly, tested because it isn’t exactly a lot of kit for up to £60

By comparison the Tektite 200 coming in at around £40 is not cheep ether but I was more interested to see if the Jotron deserved its £10-20 premium in terms of performance.

On paper the Jotron is off to a winning start. On one web site it claimed to be water proof to 500m and pumping out an amazing 36,000lumins of light at 50 flashes per min. (Note: on another site it claimed 300m which was confusing but a tad more believable). The Tektite 200 is only rated to 150m. So basically, if your Mark Ellyat read no further and get the Jotron, but if your not planning 150m+ in the near future the Tektite is worth a second look.

If for no other reason because the Tektite 200 has 2.5 times the burn time of the Jotron. 12hours burn for the Jotron AQ4 and 30 hours for the Tektite.

So if you not planning 150m+ but you want the strobe to signal your position if lost at sea I’d go for the Tektite. 12 hours is disappointingly short especially if you have a less than fresh battery to power it. The tektite pulls this off by running on two C cells as opposed to the Jotrons single cell and by having a slightly different flash rate.

Surprisingly the Jotron has a single O ring seal under the screw cap and a magnetic proximity switch. The strobe head is pretty tough looking and I am not 100% certain how it’s held on. It could be glued as attempts to un screw it failed miserably. Apart from the tough looking lens cover, I am amazed such thin plastic and a single O ring is 500m rated.

The on off is via a sliding mag switch which is a known weak point of the unit. One of Pete’s has been back for repair within the first 18months of diver abuse.

Sorry I mean use.

The Tektite approach is a lot more basic. Good old fashioned screw down connection over double O rings. That’s it in terms of flood points. The rest is solid with no visible joints. Simple and effective. Unlike my very annoying Photon Torpedo which seems to come on when it feels like it I had no such problems with the Tektite despite taking it down to 65m on one occasion. Once off, it staid off. Also having clear plastic cover the O rings showed you that you haven’t unscrewed the thing too far. Howard (The Dudes) Heiser fell apart on the lift up in Scapa because in an attempt to turn the dammed thing off (it kept coming on mid dive) we had inadvertently unscrewed it too far.

The Tektite also comes with a free game.

This is the spring at the base of the canister which falls out when you change the batteries. Reassembly involves gently flicking the can so the spring sits where it’s supposed to. It reminded me of those games as a kid where you had to get all the ball bearings in the holes by tipping the little box just so.

Nintendo Game boy users can pi## right off about now

I was very pleased to discover that total loss of this spring is not a disaster. The strobe will still work which is excellent as you could feasibly lose the spring and not notice.

A blind man wouldn’t struggle to tell you that the Jotron is the more expensive item. It even feels more expensive. However in terms of usage the Tektite is much more diver friendly. Both come with those daft Velcro straps that are instantly thrown away. But only the Tektite comes with a loop end to allow easy mounting with cave line for the simple half prussic mounting of the strobe on shot lines. Try pushing cave line through the side loops of the Jotron and you will be pulling your hair out.

The final feature of the Tektite I liked was that the strobe module was available for separate purchase. So should you break it you could save a few pennies by just purchasing a replacement module.

PERFORMANCE.

This is the simple bit.

There is nothing to choose between them in terms of power but the Tektite burns for 30 hours rather than the Jotron's 12. If I were forced to say which one is brighter id say the Tektite.

For me for the burn time alone the tektite is the clear winner.

Tektite on the left.

CONCLUSIONS

The Jotron is more expensive and for your money you get a more sophisticated polished looking item. However in my mind its switch design and measly 12 hours working time mean it can’t compete with the Tektite for 99% of divers. The only exception to this would be the 1% of very very deep divers out there for whom the 150m depth rating is a cause of concern.

Tektite strobes are available from Lumb Bros: Price £39.95

LUMB BROS Tektite Range Of Torches And Strobe's

The cheapest place I found for Jotron AQ4s was hear at £49.99 + 2.50PP

Jotron AQ4 SOLAS approved Emergency Strobe

Most boring video in the world ever

jiseson · 3rd July 2008, 19:56

aq4 in US $59!
LVA Boat Supply Mall*::*Lights

not sure how with crappy dollar and shipping from over where evere-but u folks pay too much for everything!
i bot one from these people-took a while to get-but it eventually arrived

SimonK · 3rd July 2008, 20:23

The AQ4 comes with a test cert that has 3 tick boxes, 50, 300 and 500m. Mine has the 50 and 300m boxes ticked.

Best source of strobes is your friendly local sat diver

Simon

kiwidiver · 3rd July 2008, 21:47

I have had a jotron for about five years now with no problems.I have had a muppet drop a stage tank on mine and split the case sent it back total time away seven days(which is not to shabby given the new zealand post service) and a new one showed up in the post no charge.I thought that was pretty good service.

Mark Chase · 3rd July 2008, 23:03

Quote: (Originally Posted by kiwidiver)

I have had a jotron for about five years now with no problems.I have had a muppet drop a stage tank on mine and split the case sent it back total time away seven days(which is not to shabby given the new zealand post service) and a new one showed up in the post no charge.I thought that was pretty good service.

Yes i have to say the Jotron is the standard round my neck of the woods as well. We use two bundled together incase of a failure so thats £100 hanging on the shot.

If the Tektite stands up to the rigors of diving for a year ot two its a worthy option because it sure is bright enough. But it must also be robust.

I have the Tektite 300 on order which they claim is 30% brighter still. Ill report back at the end of the year on how it performs.

When it comes to shot line strobes, there is no such thing as too powerful

ATB

Mark

jiseson · 4th July 2008, 00:28

i have the tektite 300 -it s had one leak--they replaced it pronto! seems about equal to the Jobtron.

tony13 · 4th July 2008, 02:52

About 10 years ago we started using the Tektite 300 around here, brightest strobe I've ever seen. The only problem was they wouldn't last, some would go for a year or two but most would quit sooner than that. Tektite admited to a friend of having a problem with their stobe heads and was working on fixing it. From what I was told the 200's had the new head but I went and bought a Jotron a few years back and never bothered to try another Tektite. IMO the Tektites are brighter and would love to hear that they are more robust. I even have a few of the Trident strobes and find those to be very reliable but not the brightest out of the group. A friend found one that I lost on a wreck 2 years ago, and with a new battery it still works.

So how's the life span on the newer (5 years or younger) Tektites been for everyone?

diverreb · 4th July 2008, 20:49

The brightest & most reliable strobe ever made, IMHO, was the Ikelite Strobe Head that fit on their four C-Cell Underwater light. Unfortunately they stopped making them years ago.

After that I switched over to the Tektite 300's. They are extremely bright, but the Strobe Module, which is almost as expensive as the whole strobe, fails with stunning regularity. The company is very good at replacing them for a nominal charge, but they should figure out why the continually fail.

I've heard they changed them numerous times, but the end result is still the same.

The other thing with them is that the should be turned on and off on the surface. Doing so at depth tends to cause leaks over time.

Great product, but I wish they'd figure out how to make the strobes last.

Richie

Mark Chase · 4th July 2008, 21:19

Quote: (Originally Posted by diverreb)

The brightest & most reliable strobe ever made, IMHO, was the Ikelite Strobe Head that fit on their four C-Cell Underwater light. Unfortunately they stopped making them years ago.

After that I switched over to the Tektite 300's. They are extremely bright, but the Strobe Module, which is almost as expensive as the whole strobe, fails with stunning regularity. The company is very good at replacing them for a nominal charge, but they should figure out why the continually fail.

I've heard they changed them numerous times, but the end result is still the same.

The other thing with them is that the should be turned on and off on the surface. Doing so at depth tends to cause leaks over time.

Great product, but I wish they'd figure out how to make the strobes last.

Richie

My 300 hopfully turns up next week. They aparently are bringing out a 400 mega strobe which I am already interested in.

Ill be diving the latest 300 and 200s for the rest of the year on dives between 50-80m so ill let you know how it stands up.

ATB

Mark

tony13 · 4th July 2008, 21:58

I have 2 of those Ikelite strobes kicking aroung in the garage, they don't work but I can't get myself to throw them out. One of these days I'll get to tinkering with them and maybe fix one.

3rd July 2008, 19:41	#1 (permalink)
Mark Chase I go down for ages Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Kent Posts: 2,539	Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. Tektite 200 and Jotron AQ4 Strobe On test Way back in February a group of YDrs set about trying to obtain some cheep Jotron AQ4 strobes. At the time Rob Lumb from Lumb Bros contacted me to see if id be interested in trying out the Tektite 200 strobe as an alternative to the Jotron AQ4 Shortly after three Tektite 200s turned up in the post I started to attempt to get some footage of the strobes in action. This, it turned out, is not so easy. I had two attempts fail due to the auto focus being confused by the strobe. My next attempt I used a fixed focus and just set the camera up at the pre set distance and waited. This worked but wasn’t exactly great footage. After this it seemed that every planned dive was either pants viz or blown out by the weather. I tried to get footage in Mexico and my Vee-cam failed and finally we were off to France for the Leopold gig and I felt I just must get some footage there. However conditions were bad with flow on every dive and a need to lay line and on the last dive when I was I planning to have a go in the slightly improved viz, the French blockade happened and yet again I was thwarted. So as a result I have yet to get any quality footage of the strobes. I have on here what I have managed so far and hope it will give you some comparative data but rest assured if my Vee-cam comes back and works OK ill be replacing this with something better ASAP Jotron AQ4 v Tektite 200 For many people the Jotron AQ4 is the best strobe on the market. It demands a pretty hefty price tag of between £50-60 so perhaps it should be. First impressions of the Jotron were, what did they spend all the money on? Admittedly it has a funky sliding battery compartment and a switch but apart from that I can only assume its is well supported and thoroughly, tested because it isn’t exactly a lot of kit for up to £60 By comparison the Tektite 200 coming in at around £40 is not cheep ether but I was more interested to see if the Jotron deserved its £10-20 premium in terms of performance. On paper the Jotron is off to a winning start. On one web site it claimed to be water proof to 500m and pumping out an amazing 36,000lumins of light at 50 flashes per min. (Note: on another site it claimed 300m which was confusing but a tad more believable). The Tektite 200 is only rated to 150m. So basically, if your Mark Ellyat read no further and get the Jotron, but if your not planning 150m+ in the near future the Tektite is worth a second look. If for no other reason because the Tektite 200 has 2.5 times the burn time of the Jotron. 12hours burn for the Jotron AQ4 and 30 hours for the Tektite. So if you not planning 150m+ but you want the strobe to signal your position if lost at sea I’d go for the Tektite. 12 hours is disappointingly short especially if you have a less than fresh battery to power it. The tektite pulls this off by running on two C cells as opposed to the Jotrons single cell and by having a slightly different flash rate. Surprisingly the Jotron has a single O ring seal under the screw cap and a magnetic proximity switch. The strobe head is pretty tough looking and I am not 100% certain how it’s held on. It could be glued as attempts to un screw it failed miserably. Apart from the tough looking lens cover, I am amazed such thin plastic and a single O ring is 500m rated. The on off is via a sliding mag switch which is a known weak point of the unit. One of Pete’s has been back for repair within the first 18months of diver abuse. Sorry I mean use. The Tektite approach is a lot more basic. Good old fashioned screw down connection over double O rings. That’s it in terms of flood points. The rest is solid with no visible joints. Simple and effective. Unlike my very annoying Photon Torpedo which seems to come on when it feels like it I had no such problems with the Tektite despite taking it down to 65m on one occasion. Once off, it staid off. Also having clear plastic cover the O rings showed you that you haven’t unscrewed the thing too far. Howard (The Dudes) Heiser fell apart on the lift up in Scapa because in an attempt to turn the dammed thing off (it kept coming on mid dive) we had inadvertently unscrewed it too far. The Tektite also comes with a free game. This is the spring at the base of the canister which falls out when you change the batteries. Reassembly involves gently flicking the can so the spring sits where it’s supposed to. It reminded me of those games as a kid where you had to get all the ball bearings in the holes by tipping the little box just so. Nintendo Game boy users can pi## right off about now I was very pleased to discover that total loss of this spring is not a disaster. The strobe will still work which is excellent as you could feasibly lose the spring and not notice. A blind man wouldn’t struggle to tell you that the Jotron is the more expensive item. It even feels more expensive. However in terms of usage the Tektite is much more diver friendly. Both come with those daft Velcro straps that are instantly thrown away. But only the Tektite comes with a loop end to allow easy mounting with cave line for the simple half prussic mounting of the strobe on shot lines. Try pushing cave line through the side loops of the Jotron and you will be pulling your hair out. The final feature of the Tektite I liked was that the strobe module was available for separate purchase. So should you break it you could save a few pennies by just purchasing a replacement module. PERFORMANCE. This is the simple bit. There is nothing to choose between them in terms of power but the Tektite burns for 30 hours rather than the Jotron's 12. If I were forced to say which one is brighter id say the Tektite. For me for the burn time alone the tektite is the clear winner. Tektite on the left. CONCLUSIONS The Jotron is more expensive and for your money you get a more sophisticated polished looking item. However in my mind its switch design and measly 12 hours working time mean it can’t compete with the Tektite for 99% of divers. The only exception to this would be the 1% of very very deep divers out there for whom the 150m depth rating is a cause of concern. Tektite strobes are available from Lumb Bros: Price £39.95 LUMB BROS Tektite Range Of Torches And Strobe's The cheapest place I found for Jotron AQ4s was hear at £49.99 + 2.50PP Jotron AQ4 SOLAS approved Emergency Strobe Most boring video in the world ever __________________ Is it supposed to make that noise ? I took my unit to the dive shop and demanded they bolt on every thing that would fit. Join my elite diving teem and get a Tshirt "Doing It Chasey"Hammerhead Eccr Advanced Diving System
(Offline)

3rd July 2008, 19:56	#2 (permalink)
jiseson DSIX/O2PTIMA Current Rebreather/s: Optima Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: long island,ny Posts: 527	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. aq4 in US $59! LVA Boat Supply Mall::Lights not sure how with crappy dollar and shipping from over where evere-but u folks pay too much for everything! i bot one from these people-took a while to get-but it eventually arrived __________________ *Jonathan D Iseson* Last edited by jiseson : 3rd July 2008 at 22:18.
(Online)

3rd July 2008, 20:23	#3 (permalink)
SimonK Custom Title Allowed! Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Cumbria UK Posts: 231	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. The AQ4 comes with a test cert that has 3 tick boxes, 50, 300 and 500m. Mine has the 50 and 300m boxes ticked. Best source of strobes is your friendly local sat diver Simon
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3rd July 2008, 21:47	#4 (permalink)
kiwidiver Custom Title Allowed! Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Inspiration Vision Azimuth Home Build Other Rebreather/s: Azimuth Home Build Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: new zealand Posts: 128	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. I have had a jotron for about five years now with no problems.I have had a muppet drop a stage tank on mine and split the case sent it back total time away seven days(which is not to shabby given the new zealand post service) and a new one showed up in the post no charge.I thought that was pretty good service.
(Online)

3rd July 2008, 23:03	#5 (permalink)
Mark Chase I go down for ages Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Kent Posts: 2,539	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. Quote: (Originally Posted by kiwidiver) I have had a jotron for about five years now with no problems.I have had a muppet drop a stage tank on mine and split the case sent it back total time away seven days(which is not to shabby given the new zealand post service) and a new one showed up in the post no charge.I thought that was pretty good service. Yes i have to say the Jotron is the standard round my neck of the woods as well. We use two bundled together incase of a failure so thats £100 hanging on the shot. If the Tektite stands up to the rigors of diving for a year ot two its a worthy option because it sure is bright enough. But it must also be robust. I have the Tektite 300 on order which they claim is 30% brighter still. Ill report back at the end of the year on how it performs. When it comes to shot line strobes, there is no such thing as too powerful ATB Mark __________________ Is it supposed to make that noise ? I took my unit to the dive shop and demanded they bolt on every thing that would fit. Join my elite diving teem and get a Tshirt "Doing It Chasey"Hammerhead Eccr Advanced Diving System
(Offline)

4th July 2008, 00:28	#6 (permalink)
jiseson DSIX/O2PTIMA Current Rebreather/s: Optima Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: long island,ny Posts: 527	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. i have the tektite 300 -it s had one leak--they replaced it pronto! seems about equal to the Jobtron. __________________ *Jonathan D Iseson*
(Online)

4th July 2008, 02:52	#7 (permalink)
tony13 New Member Current Rebreather/s: rEvo Other Rebreather/s: rEvo Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: NJ Posts: 47	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. About 10 years ago we started using the Tektite 300 around here, brightest strobe I've ever seen. The only problem was they wouldn't last, some would go for a year or two but most would quit sooner than that. Tektite admited to a friend of having a problem with their stobe heads and was working on fixing it. From what I was told the 200's had the new head but I went and bought a Jotron a few years back and never bothered to try another Tektite. IMO the Tektites are brighter and would love to hear that they are more robust. I even have a few of the Trident strobes and find those to be very reliable but not the brightest out of the group. A friend found one that I lost on a wreck 2 years ago, and with a new battery it still works. So how's the life span on the newer (5 years or younger) Tektites been for everyone? __________________ rEvo Shearwater
(Offline)

4th July 2008, 20:49	#8 (permalink)
diverreb DE/MD/NJ Wreck Diver Current Rebreather/s: Optima Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Dover, DE Posts: 556	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. The brightest & most reliable strobe ever made, IMHO, was the Ikelite Strobe Head that fit on their four C-Cell Underwater light. Unfortunately they stopped making them years ago. After that I switched over to the Tektite 300's. They are extremely bright, but the Strobe Module, which is almost as expensive as the whole strobe, fails with stunning regularity. The company is very good at replacing them for a nominal charge, but they should figure out why the continually fail. I've heard they changed them numerous times, but the end result is still the same. The other thing with them is that the should be turned on and off on the surface. Doing so at depth tends to cause leaks over time. Great product, but I wish they'd figure out how to make the strobes last. Richie
(Online)

4th July 2008, 21:19	#9 (permalink)
Mark Chase I go down for ages Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Kent Posts: 2,539	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. Quote: (Originally Posted by diverreb) The brightest & most reliable strobe ever made, IMHO, was the Ikelite Strobe Head that fit on their four C-Cell Underwater light. Unfortunately they stopped making them years ago. After that I switched over to the Tektite 300's. They are extremely bright, but the Strobe Module, which is almost as expensive as the whole strobe, fails with stunning regularity. The company is very good at replacing them for a nominal charge, but they should figure out why the continually fail. I've heard they changed them numerous times, but the end result is still the same. The other thing with them is that the should be turned on and off on the surface. Doing so at depth tends to cause leaks over time. Great product, but I wish they'd figure out how to make the strobes last. Richie My 300 hopfully turns up next week. They aparently are bringing out a 400 mega strobe which I am already interested in. Ill be diving the latest 300 and 200s for the rest of the year on dives between 50-80m so ill let you know how it stands up. ATB Mark __________________ Is it supposed to make that noise ? I took my unit to the dive shop and demanded they bolt on every thing that would fit. Join my elite diving teem and get a Tshirt "Doing It Chasey"Hammerhead Eccr Advanced Diving System
(Offline)

4th July 2008, 21:58	#10 (permalink)
tony13 New Member Current Rebreather/s: rEvo Other Rebreather/s: rEvo Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: NJ Posts: 47	Re: Tektite 200 V Jotron AQ4 comparison test. I have 2 of those Ikelite strobes kicking aroung in the garage, they don't work but I can't get myself to throw them out. One of these days I'll get to tinkering with them and maybe fix one. __________________ rEvo Shearwater
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