LED flashlight report for home repair

I was in Walmart, today and had a weak moment. The 10 LED lantern by Rayovac was whimpering and begging to be taken home.

The price scanner was not working. Found a Waldroid, who had to go get a 18 or so year old teen age waldroid, who was able to get out of the wrong screen and get back to price check. Price is $5.48; I figure three dollar light with three dollar battery. Not too bad.

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Amazon wants more than that money. About double.

I took it out, slit just enough plastic to expose the spring terminals. Put the provided square 6 volt heavy duty battery in.

The light is slightly blue, no surprise. Bright enough to shine a spot on the parking lot. Home, the light is plenty enough to shine into a tree. I'd have seen if there was a racoon up there. I could light up the side yard, if there was a person there.

Inside, the light got me down the dark hall. Shine at ceiling, and it's brighter than my two watt LED night light. Meter says it draws .350 amps, which is lower than a standard PR12 bulb of .500 amp. Will battery last ten times longer? I doubt it. I may try some day for fun.

I spent considerable time on the Rayovac web site, they don't give the amp hour capacity or run time of the batteries they sell.

Nerds like me need that info.

Overall, I like the light. I don't have any specific use, but next power cut and it will light up an entire room if shined on white ceiling.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon
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In 1980, I wrote to Rayovac asking information about their NiCds. The lady sent a book with 122 8-1/2 x 11 pages of technical data about all their batteries. I still refer to it.

Alkaline batteries don't really have amp hours. You can estimate the service hours if you know the amperage, duty cycle, and cutoff voltage.

Flashlights used to be a big hobby of mine, but now I have a Fenix headlamp that runs on 1 AA cell and gives more lumens than your lantern. On high, it will light a wall 500 feet away. I usually run it at half the lumens of the lantern because that's plenty, and I get 5 hours from a cell.

Eneloops make it possible. They're capable of more amperage than AA cells of the past, and they'll hold a charge for years. Counting electricity and battery depreciation, I pay less than a penny a charge.

The advantage to a single AA cell design is that it's easy to keep a spare on my pocket, and I can change batteries in pitch dark while holding an umbrella in my other hand. It's easy to keep several charged Eneloops on hand in case of a power failure, and I know how many hours of light they represent.

A headlamp puts light where I need it with no hands. (I have occasionally pointed it at the ceiling for diffuse light.) I've used it about 10 times a day for 18 months. At one point I had switch trouble. Contact cleaner fixed it. Otherwise, it has been flawless.

A headlamp is easy to keep handy, on my head, around my neck, in my pocket, or in arm's reach. I regretted buying black because yellow is easier to spot. I put a pink tape on mine.

I should be reported to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Flashlights for the way I've been neglecting all my pet hand-held lights.

Reply to
J Burns

Wait until a moonless night, go outside and use it to signal alien spacecraft. Be sure to have a camera too so that this controversy can be settled once and for all :)

Reply to
dadiOH

Oh, I did that last week. But, the radiation from the space craft wiped out my memory card in the camera.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Interesting. Of course, I had to look up "eneloops" since I never heard of them. At first, I thought it was a typo. Now I know it is a type of rechargeable battery.

I could definitely use this type of headlamp for a lot of applications, so I'll be checking out places to buy them to see what they cost etc.

Reply to
TomR

Costco has eneloops, at least they did last time I checked.

Thane

Reply to
Thane

Harbor Freight has a black and yellow headlamp that take two AA cells. I know that if I remove the bulb and reflector, a mini mag bulb conversion (such as Nite Ize) works nicely. LED and two AA cells, good combination.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Still did last week. Note that they're now branded as Panasonic and no longer Sanyo. Don't know if that was a corporate buyup, merger, etc...

Reply to
danny burstein

I was in Walmart, today and had a weak moment. The 10 LED lantern by Rayovac was whimpering and begging to be taken home.

The price scanner was not working. Found a Waldroid, who had to go get a 18 or so year old teen age waldroid, who was able to get out of the wrong screen and get back to price check. Price is $5.48; I figure three dollar light with three dollar battery. Not too bad.

formatting link

Amazon wants more than that money. About double.

I took it out, slit just enough plastic to expose the spring terminals. Put the provided square 6 volt heavy duty battery in.

The light is slightly blue, no surprise. Bright enough to shine a spot on the parking lot. Home, the light is plenty enough to shine into a tree. I'd have seen if there was a racoon up there. I could light up the side yard, if there was a person there.

Inside, the light got me down the dark hall. Shine at ceiling, and it's brighter than my two watt LED night light. Meter says it draws .350 amps, which is lower than a standard PR12 bulb of .500 amp. Will battery last ten times longer? I doubt it. I may try some day for fun.

I spent considerable time on the Rayovac web site, they don't give the amp hour capacity or run time of the batteries they sell.

Nerds like me need that info.

Overall, I like the light. I don't have any specific use, but next power cut and it will light up an entire room if shined on white ceiling.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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If you are looking for any type of LED flashlight Google T Mart. They have all kinds and no shipping. I have bought several things from them. WW .

Reply to
WW

Eneloops were so good that Panasonic paid Sanyo for a license to make them. Then Panasonic bought Sanyo. Part of the improvement came from technology to make them of purer materials than conventional NiMH cells. That means higher current capability, lower self-discharge, and more years of service.

The last time I checked, Eneloop AAs were avaialable with 2 capacities:

2000 mah and 2500 mah, as I recall. I bought the 2000 mah because the specs say they're designed for a lot more charge cycles.
Reply to
J Burns

In the past, I had a couple of headlamps that weren't very good. On was an Everready with 5 LEDs. The other was a Princeton Tec Fuel with 3 LEDs. They didn't provide as much light, didn't last, and didn't have good color rendition. They didn't have a regulator to maintain light output. Worst, they ran on 3 AAAs. That meant carrying 3 spares. Changing them in the dark would have meant fumbling with 6 cells and getting 3 cells in with the right polarity.

I've come to believe in the Fenix brand for design and reliability, and a 1-cell light is wonderfully practical.

Reply to
J Burns

I never bought any, but heard they were (are) good. The "precharged" NiMH are supposed to be similar.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Yes, Panasonic/Matsushita now owns Sanyo.

Oddly I had my first Eneloop failure this week. AAA in tiny light that I b ought to fit in the flashlight clip in my car's glovebox (the factory-autho rized light was a rebranded LED Lenser; I used a Fenix light from REI inste ad as it's brighter and fits the clip) only worked for maybe 1 minute when I went to use it. OK, recharge... dies again after one minute. D'oh!

I've been carrying a larger, similar AA light for over a year and that one is still kicking, but I gave it to my girlfriend because I just ordered a n ew EDC light, which should be delivered today...

I prefer more traditional handheld flashlights so my EDC was a Fenix E11, w ill now be a Sunwayman V11R (modified with high CRI emitter, yeah I splurge d) for the main reason that I tried to read a book in a dark hospital room with the E11 and found that the "low" mode wasn't near low enough to work w ithout shielding the light with my hand (and as a result was wasting juice doing so.)

My next most used lights are a Streamlight Night Com UV which I carry in a Surefire 6P holster and is used for more general repairs when I need a flas hlight with longer runtime and/or specifically need the UV capabilities (le ak detection, etc.) and a Zebralight headlight when I know I'll be working on a car or something where I'll need supplementary lighting.

nate

Reply to
N8N

"precharged" is another marketing term for "Low Self Discharge" NiMH which is the type of cell that Eneloops are the best known brand. Others include Maha Imedion, Tenergy Centura, etc.

The Duracell "Ion Core" LSD NiMH that have appeared in stores in the last year are rumored to be rebranded Eneloops in the AAA size and Eneloop XX in the AA size making them possibly the best deal going in cells these days, and readily available too.

nate

Reply to
N8N

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Wonder where they are? If they have no shipping, that means I have to go get them in person.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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Looks like they have amazing variety, including household 110 volt bulbs. Wow, I'll spend more time on this web site.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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Wonder where they are? If they have no shipping, that means I have to go get them in person.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Oops FREE SHIPPING. WW .

Reply to
WW

As the son of an editor, I have those weak moments, now and again. Sigh. Yes, FREE shipping.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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Similar to this, free at Harbor Freight with coupon and any purchase. The HF one comes with three carbon zinc AAA cells. I've seen similar to this in auto parts stores for five or six bucks.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I bought one on impulse about 5 years ago. I soon regretted it. It still has the original batteries because I've hardly used it.

The color rendition is poor. An unregulated LED light like that uses up most of your battery energy pretty quickly. After that, it's pretty dim, for most of the hours of battery life. I believe you need a #0 Phillips to change them.

With a first-rate headlamp, I know how much light I'll get when I press the switch, and I can change batteries with one hand in the dark. I suppose I average an hour a day, and that makes the hourly cost of depreciating and charging Eneloops very small.

Reply to
J Burns

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