OT - Flashlight for review

[Stormin Mormon]

Is this worth $25?

[Bob F]

Are you serious?

[RicodJour]

I've found the Coleman lights to be a bit short on the stated lumens. Not nearly as bright as some other brands. The price on such flashlights has come way down. You can find 2x or 3x combo packs where the per unit price is substantially less.

R

[RBM]

It's a matter of personal taste. The runtime is terrible, the lumens are incredible. I use a streamlight 3 AA Xenon/ Led, which is totally indestructible, put out about 30 lumens, and on led has a runtime of 80 hours.

[Frank]

I bought one to give wife for Christmas. Have not tried it but it looked like a good deal to me. She has a bunch of incandescents she keeps around for our frequent power failures and all they do is drain batteries. Comparatively, to me, it appears similar to the 3 watt Cree I bought at Lowes last year for $30. Lowes light uses 2 C batteries and I thought run time was only an hour but I've got more than that and its going strong. I use it for hunting and it is the best light I've ever owned. There may be better but I'm not buying those $100 lights or buying fancy batteries.

[Stormin Mormon]

I've got to get smaller head antennas, and third eye. Someone keeps asking me if I'm serious. Those bouncy eyes on top of my head antennas keep getting me funny looks.

No, I'm not serious. I'm Stormy.

[DerbyDad03]

re: "She has a bunch of incandescents she keeps around for our frequent power failures and all they do is drain batteries."

You can get crank flashlights for under $20. I have a "LED Tower" light from HD that can be charged with an AC adapter, run on standard batteries or recharged with a crank.

Just curious..have you considered crank units for you frequent power failures?

[Ashton Crusher]

I'm no expert but 115 lumens sounds pretty good. I bought a three pack of 40 lumen LED flashlights at CostCo for $16 total. They weren't as bright as I'd hoped but then they were not very expensive. If you buy one of these please post your "review".

[Retirednoguilt]

Given the high light output and low battery life, the answer depends on your intended use. If you are using it as an emergency light to find your way to the toilet in the middle of the night, you don't need anything nearly as bright and can make do with something much cheaper with much longer battery life. If you plan to use it to change a tire at night on a completely dark street, it may be ideal for the glove box.

Another respondent suggested a crank generator unit. I've been disappointed with mine (from Target). After only a few months, I found that even with a full cranked up charge, instead of the advertised 1 hour of usable light, I get about

5 minutes of usable light and need to re-crank the thing very frequently to use it. Maybe it has a defective NIMH battery that's not holding the charge as it should.

[Bob F]

Could that be the result of not fully chargeing it for storage?

[DerbyDad03]

If I recall correctly the instructions for mine said to charge it at least every 3 months with the AC adapter.

Dunno...might that make a difference as far as how long a crank charge might last?

I don't use mine enough to be able to answer that.

[Bob F]

If left uncharged, most rechargeable batteries die.

[Stormin Mormon]

The intended use is to carry in my pocket. For when I'm working on something in the dark, or need to walk down unlit stairs, or find somthing in the dark corner of a room. Sorry, I hadn't stated my intended use. I presently carry a mini mag with Teralux module.

[Retirednoguilt]

Mine didn't come with an AC adapter, and the battery charge fades badly after just a few hours of non-use, even after a full charge.