Professional Tool Reviews for Pros

With 15,000 lumens of LED light and four mounting options, ProBuilt's ProLight 360 is one of the best area lights we've seen.

While most people recognize ProBuilt (now a Southwire company) for their popular Wobblelight, it’s far from the only lighting solution they make. And if you’re new to the brand, their Pro-level lighting is tough and durable. Some might even say they’re overbuilt, but that’s exactly what we like to see when making an investment in lighting. The ProBuilt ProLight 360 is a new offering that fits in the category of high output area lighting, so let’s take a closer look at what it has to offer.

Using LED chips for illumination, the Southwire ProBuilt ProLight 360 puts out 15,000 lumens in 360 degrees around the light, plus the top (or bottom, depending on how you mount it).

The throw rating is 40 feet for effective lighting, but you’ll be able to see a little beyond that for identifying tripping hazards and obstacles.

When it comes to the quality of the light it casts, you’re looking at 5000K. Actually, you shouldn’t be looking directly at 15,000 lumens, but you get the idea. 5000K is about as perfect as you can get for the human eye to accurately identify colors, so we like this for electrical installations where seeing accurate color matters.

Like many LEDs out there, the chips carry a 50,000-hour rating, so it will be a long time before they fail on you, even with everyday use.

The first thing you’ll notice when you pick up the Southwire ProBuilt ProLight 360 is how heavy it is. By itself, it weighs in at 13 pounds, but you get some mounting accessories that add to the overall package weight.

That weight is an indication of how much metal is used in the construction. From solid framing to large heat sinks, there’s a lot of steel in play. But that heavy construction is going to take a lot more abuse than any plastic will, giving us the impression that this light will hold up for a long time.

With an IP65 rating against dust and water ingress, you can confidently use this model indoors or out.

You have four mounting options with the Southwire ProLight 360. There’s a floor stand, tripod adapter, hanging hook, and magnets, all with the same heavy-duty construction as the rest of the light.

The nice thing is all four options come with the light rather than as separate purchases. Since this model is a temporary lighting solution, it means you it can travel to a variety of jobsites with the versatility to work almost anywhere.

You might wonder about a magnetic mounting option for such a heavy light, but these are pretty big magnets with real holding strength.

If you’re mounting the light close to a wall, there are two power switches on the base you can use to turn off half the unit. They’ll be inaccessible when mounted up high, but just set the switches the way you like when you set it up and use the plug as your power switch.

15,000 lumens is a lot to work with and it’s split out over 360 degrees around the light plus the top or bottom. It makes for a great area light and Southwire’s 40-foot effective working range is pretty accurate. But how does that translate into what you need on the jobsite?

It depends on where you use it. In our 40 x 47 shop, we use twelve 8200-lumen LED bay lights to give the entire space enough working light for any task we might cover. On its own, the Southwire ProBuilt ProLight 360 allows me to see where everything is, but it’s not great as a primary work light.

When it comes to exterior work, that seems to hold true as well. Ideally, though, I prefer the directional light of Southwire’s dual head work light for exterior work and use the ProLight 360 more for safety.

Realistically, the way to go is to use a couple of different lights in combination. A couple of ProLight 360s can light up a pretty large workspace for safety while the XLE series supplement it to light up the specific area I’m working on.

There’s also the issue of whether you have the light mounted on the floor or bench, overhead, or even horizontally with the magnets. Each one casts light from a different perspective and effective applications.

One benefit of LED lighting is cooler temperatures. The ProLight 360 makes it up to about 150 degrees, but not nearly as hot as a halogen.

At the end of the day, the Southwire ProBuilt ProLight 360 is an outstanding area light. It’s got the build quality to last on tough jobsites along with the output to give you a wide effective lighting area.

It does its best work mounted overhead, but with the floor stand and magnets, it’s very effective in multiple mounting positions. When you’re working on a specific section of a jobsite, I recommend you use the ProLight 360 for safety lighting and grab one or two XLE series lights to illuminate where you need to see more detail.

At $495, these lights aren’t cheap, but they’re well-built and bright. They can easily replace two or more other area lights you’re currently using, so consider that against the price.

On the clock, Kenny dives deep to discover the practical limits and comparative differences for all kinds of tools. Off the clock, his faith and love for his family are his top priorities, and you'll typically find him in the kitchen, on his bike (he's an Ironman), or taking folks out for a day of fishing on Tampa Bay.

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