So a quick primer first – intrinsically safe products are, to make a fairly long (wikipedia link here) story short, intrinsic safety is a standard that manufacturers adhere to that prevents sparking in electronics, and further, keeps any sparks that do manage to occur inside the device so that they don’t have an opportunity to ignite any potentially explosive atmosphere.
For many users, this matters very little, but for some (like me) it can be very relevant – in my case, when we’re investigating a possible natural gas leak or a carbon monoxide leak, there’s a potential for explosive gas mixtures, and to ignite these would be… less than ideal.
Oil and gas workers as well as folks who work in flour mills or other industries where these dangerous fuel-air mixtures can occur can also benefit from (and are usually required to have) intrinsically safe electronic devices.
This light is one of my personal favorites – it’s got a neat feature unique to Nightstick, which is the dual lights – one (out the front) is a standard beam pattern, and the second (visible on the bottom in the photo below) is a floodlight pattern.
I’m a big fan of the floodlight feature especially – I actually hot glued (not visible in the photo) a neodymium magnet to the tail of the light, where there’s a convenient hollow spot in the plastic casing, which allows me to set it on any ferrous surface and use the light hands-free (yes you can do a similar thing with the clip, but I like the magnet).
At any rate, this light is a great bargain for the price, and in my mind, the intrinsic safe aspect is just a nice bonus for most users – it’s also waterproof! It’s found here on the interwebs, for your convenience.
If you really don’t need the intrinsic safe aspect, the Nightstick folks also offer a similar light, the NSP-2422R, which is still waterproof, also has a pair of magnets built in at the factory as well. If you know you only need the waterproof aspect, this light is probably a better choice for you (although it’s actually a couple dollars more than the intrinsic safe version above).
That’s all I’ve got for today.
-T