Looking for Best LED Flashlight

Hi, You can use rechargeable batteries on flash lights, real police or military models are very rugged, water proof and will last LONG time. Look around on the eBay.

Reply to
Tony Hwang
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.rei.com/product/793941

Battery use is quite less with Led, last winter I bought about 10 cheap and one good HD led flashlights, I keep them everywhere but only have changed batteries in a few of them, For a boat and ocasional use recharageables go dead in less than 1 year, alkalines can sit for 3-5 years and still work in Led lights, I would only want recharageable lights if I used them at least weekly, Ive been the recharageable light rout for 15 years, mine are usualy dead when I need them. Leds fire on much less current then regular bulbs, even my super bright Led bike light used daily still has the same batteries I got for it in maybe June, try a 25$ 3w-100 lumen alkaline powered flashlight, you will be suprised. Even the cheap .25 w lights are only about 1.25$ each at HD, I have them everywhere even my jackets.

Reply to
ransley

Unsurpassed light/price ratio on this from Harbor Freight

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Reply to
HeyBub

For boat use I would look for something waterproof, I doubt either the Task Force or a bicycle headlight would be suitable. The Task Force you might be able to make waterproof by greasing all the O-rings but you'd still have to deal with the switch (in the tail of the light.)

A bicycle headlight is generally water resistant, not fully waterproof. Many I've seen have weep holes at the bottom when they're mounted in the intended orientation, so rain wouldn't hurt them but immersion would probably kill them.

Mag-lites are supposed to be waterproof but I was not impressed with the light output or beam pattern of my LED mag-lite compared to the Task Force (I had the Mag first, so I didn't know what I was missing,) and it was unwieldy and heavy in comparison.

I think I'd be looking for a higher-end Cree 3W or higher LED flashlight, one of the "tactical" models for ruggedness and waterproofing.

nate

.rei.com/product/793941

Reply to
N8N

There are a zillion different models out there now.

I have an older one that uses D cells with multiple little LEDs, the advantage is it can run for 100 hours or more. It's not that bright, tho.

Newer 1-3 watt LEDs are very bright - and compact - but use a lot of power, will only run a few hours on a couple of AA cells.

Depends what you need it for.

Get a couple, they're mostly pretty cheap.

J.

Reply to
zzznot

Originally it was listed at, I believe 170 lumens, but last time I looked it was not at their website. Whatever, it is the best and brightest flashlight I have and when I was looking for something like it, it was best price.

Reply to
Frank

Might be a great light, but it is built for a bicycle, gives no idea about light output, and is pricey for your needs.

Reply to
Frank

Had something like that with a squeezy thing for the switch - the squeezy bit wore out very quickly. Not impressed.

CY: You can get em on Ebay, in quantity down near about a buck each, post paid.

Similiarly unimpressed with my 3-cell LED Mag; light output is crap.

CY: The base is an electrical connection. Screw the butt cap off, slightly sand the end of the tube, and where the end of the tube matches the butt cap. Sometimes they over anodize the tubes or butt caps.

My

2-cell Mag with a conventional bulb is just awesome, though. Only issue I have is that there's no provision for a strap so it can be hung from things - I'm tempted to see if I can drill the base and add a small eye-bolt.

CY: They do make belt holders. You can get the belt loop, and drywall screw the belt loop to the wall. The eyebolt should work fine. Take the spare bulb out, drill, thread, and put a nut on the inside of the cap. Might not have enough space for the spare bulb, then.

Had some of those, too (3xAA, incandescent). Utter shit. They never made it as far as the closets, and I don't know what I even did with them now :-)

CY: I'm with you. Garbage, most of them.

I have a big ol' oil lamp for that, and so far have managed not to burn the tent down ;)

CY: You da man!

Talking of which, I had a homebrew lamp made from a car headlight grafted onto the body of a cordless drill - it gave a huge amount of light and would run for quite a long time (just less useful for 'distance' work). I finally killed the battery in it though, so it went the way of the dodo :-(

CY: Now, that's frieking brilliant (no joke). Very clever idea. And the 12 volt battery would be rechargable. I had a six volt hand held spotlamp, the gel cell battery went dead. Wired it to alkaline lantern battery, and works fine again. Carbon lantern battery did not provide enough power.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

It SAYS, under "Specs"

1 LED 110 Lumens
Reply to
HeyBub

Four years ago, I asked this newsgroup for recommendations for a good flashlight. I can't remember who recommended it, but I bought a Streamlight twin task, which is Xenon, and LED. The model I got uses 3 AA batteries, but they have others that are rechargeable. I use this thing every day at work, five days a week or more, and I don't mean that I carry it, I use the thing, and it works as well today, as the day I got it, in fact it hasn't even burned out the xenon bulb yet. If you want top quality, built to take abuse and keep going, check out Streamlight

Reply to
RBM

Missed that. I was looking at laundry list on page. All lights should be required to put lumens on the package. That's how I shop for incandescents and cfi's.

Reply to
Frank

I like the idea of AA cells. In my experience, AA NiMH will hold a charge many weeks, and you can carry a charged set in your pocket in case you get caught short.

My most useful light uses 3 AA NiMH. Unfortunately they are soldered in. To me, that's a big flaw because I can't change to charged cells when using it as a lantern in a power failure, and it will be more trouble to repair if it needs new cells. However, the 14-hour run time has always been adequate, and the cells work fine after 2 years.

It's a Victor Bright Bar trouble light with 26 LEDs. It cost me about $25. The first advantage is that it floods an area with an even light that makes it easy to see what I'm doing. The second advantage is that it's versatile in the way it can be hung, stood, leaned, or laid to light a work area. The light is so effective that if I'm working on my car, I may be able to see better if I wait until dark and depend entirely on the Bright Bar.

Its yellow handle and 15" height make it easy to spot in a cluttered room. To carry, it feels about like a conventional light with 2 D cells. The evenness of the light make it desirable to spot a small item on the ground or a small animal 50 feet away. I have a sealed-beam light whose beam is pretty intense even 1000 feet away, but for most purposes I can see better with the Bright Bar.

I also have an Energizer LED head lamp, which cost about $10. Its switch sequences through a 70ma spotlight, a 35ma floodlight, and a red light. The floodlight makes a better work light and for my purposes is as bright as the spotlight. I would have designed it with the floodlight only and to use 3 AA cells instead of 3 AAA cells.

It's useful because it requires no hands and fresh cells could be popped in during a power failure. That reminds me, I should buy more AAA NiMH. They're pretty cheap these days.

Reply to
E Z Peaces

Think I got mine free with something, so no big deal, but I wouldn't pay for one...

Hmm, just tried, doesn't seem to be any different - but then it's still daylight here and the issue only really showed up in pitch black larger spaces compared to my other Mag.

Seems that the LED is a little module, so I might be able to just drop a

4.5V incandescent in there... (I don't like the blueish colour of the light anyway, as it seems to make shadows too strong at night)

Hmm, I'll take a look (assuming they hold the light with the bright end pointing downward, which I think would be more useful - hang it from a nail on the wall etc. while doing stuff)

If the 3-cell's anything to go by (my 2-cell's up in the 'shop and it's snowing and I'm lazy ;) then there should be space I think. I imagine they're the same base design.

Sentimental reasons - it was my grandfathers. Spent ages as a kid stripping it down, patching the holes in the tank and respraying it. Then I bust the glass and it took another few years before I stumbled across another basket-case donor in the same style. The wick came from the strap from some ancient cloth bag or other :-)

Yeah, I decided I loathed cordless power tools, plus I was looking for a nice little compact motor for some robotics project at the time, so killing the drill was a no-brainer. I had some spare round headlights from classic car shenanigans, and it took hardly any time to mate one up to the body of the drill. I was doing a whole pile of urban exploration stuff and the like at the time, so it came in handy - amazed I never bust the glass front on the headlight, though!

Nice thing about it was that it'd gradually dim when the battery was going flat; I had one of those 10,000 candle-power lamps and that'd go from bright to dead within only a few seconds - and it's often useful to have a bit more warning when your main light's about to crap out on you :-)

That works :-)

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules

Was that the link you planned? Shows a bear cub in a tree, and a yellow cat on the ground.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Hmm, just tried, doesn't seem to be any different - but then it's still daylight here and the issue only really showed up in pitch black larger spaces compared to my other Mag.

CY: That's odd. I really love my LED 3D mag.

Seems that the LED is a little module, so I might be able to just drop a

4.5V incandescent in there... (I don't like the blueish colour of the light anyway, as it seems to make shadows too strong at night)

CY: Yes, you should be able to use a three cell filament bulb. Should work fine. And yes, the filament bulbs are much more white.

Hmm, I'll take a look (assuming they hold the light with the bright end pointing downward, which I think would be more useful - hang it from a nail on the wall etc. while doing stuff)

CY: No, the belt holders all do lens up. You're back to the screw eye idea.

If the 3-cell's anything to go by (my 2-cell's up in the 'shop and it's snowing and I'm lazy ;) then there should be space I think. I imagine they're the same base design.

CY: I'm sure they are the same tail caps. Plenty of space.

Sentimental reasons - it was my grandfathers. Spent ages as a kid stripping it down, patching the holes in the tank and respraying it. Then I bust the glass and it took another few years before I stumbled across another basket-case donor in the same style. The wick came from the strap from some ancient cloth bag or other :-)

CY: I also have my father's old oil lamp. Glass base from a garage sale for 50 cents, and the globe from a hardware store. I had to replace the wick. Glad you are able to keep the lamp in the family. Traditions like that are priceless.

Yeah, I decided I loathed cordless power tools, plus I was looking for a nice little compact motor for some robotics project at the time, so killing the drill was a no-brainer. I had some spare round headlights from classic car shenanigans, and it took hardly any time to mate one up to the body of the drill. I was doing a whole pile of urban exploration stuff and the like at the time, so it came in handy - amazed I never bust the glass front on the headlight, though!

CY: That sounds totally useful. I can imagine using battery jumper pack and a hand held spot light to do much the same. But, yours has the home built edge.

Nice thing about it was that it'd gradually dim when the battery was going flat; I had one of those 10,000 candle-power lamps and that'd go from bright to dead within only a few seconds - and it's often useful to have a bit more warning when your main light's about to crap out on you :-)

CY: Warning is good. I met a power company guy who said he used to go into sub basements with one lamp, that having a filament bulb,a nd no spare light in his pocket. I don't have that kind of courage.

That works :-)

cheers

CY: Nice to meet a fellow flash light person.

Jules

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

My experience with hand-crank flashlights is that they tend to have three low-power LEDs.

The flashlight here is said to have "3 Mega Bright LED's providing over

100,000 hours of light". I still suspect 3 low power LEDs.

This flashlight appears to me to be good for an emergency flashlight, as in a light that works as long as your arms and hands are functional. The usual 3-LED hand-crank flashlights do not produce a lot of light, and I do not recommend them as primary lights for night hiking or as first choice for working on anything in the dark.

========================================

One more thing: Most low power white LEDs, at full power, are significantly faded at 10,000 operating hours, sometimes 4,000-6,000 operating hours. 100,000 hours is merely a widely-repeated number for life expectancy of LEDs, and it is actually true of most colored ones. White ones and a few others are different by having a phosphor that is faded by the extremely intense light at the surface of the LED chip.

Better high power white LEDs are claimed by their manufacturers to fade by no more than 30% in 50,000 hours, provided specific temperature limits for 50,000 hour life expectancy (which are cooler than maximum-allowable) are not exceeded. 50,000 hour life expectancy may require use of not exceeding a magnitude of current at which the LED's chaeracteristics are all "characterized", which may be less than the rated maximum.

========================================

As for an emergency flashlight - avoid rechargeable batteries here. If you want a good flashlight with rechargeable batteries and an "emergency flashlight", then you want at least two flashlights. Rechargeable batteries self-discharge faster than non-rechargeable batteries, and they age faster if they are constantly maintained at topped-off-full-charge (and also if they are allowed to over-discharge).

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

In , Frank wrote in part:

Watts are a unit of power consumption - and that can be either actual (either taken from the batteires or delivered to the LED, 2 different things) or the maximum that the LED is allowed to have dumped into it. (How much extra by driver circuitry or dropping resistors varies widely.)

Since this means there are already three different things that wattage can refer to, and efficiency of LEDs varies widely, wattage has only "fair" correlation to light output.

Candela is the intensity of the beam, and roughly means "beam candlepower". This refers to intensity of a beam in the distance, and decreasing area of the beam covered gets this to increase when lumens are unchaged.

Lumens may be what the LED is rated to produce, and in that case is often at some specific high amount of current, and also in that case is usually specified at some non-real-world level of cooling the LED, either cooling its heatsinkable surface to 25 degrees C (77 degrees F) or worse-still cooling the "junction" (within the LED's chip) to 25 degrees C (77 degrees F).

I do agree that LEDs tend to be better for flashlights than incandescent lamps. Modern LEDs are finally mostly more efficient than incandescents, many times by a substantial difference, and - unlike incandescents - they do not lose energy efficiency much (or at all) when power input is reduced.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

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I have the orange version just like it that I keep in my truck all the time. Bought it at Grainger's last year for about $20.

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

My experience with hand-crank flashlights is that they tend to have three low-power LEDs.

The flashlight here is said to have "3 Mega Bright LED's providing over

100,000 hours of light". I still suspect 3 low power LEDs.

CY: Twenty bucks, too. The cell charger is useful. I've seen crank flash lights in the 5 to 8 dollar range, and probably worth about that much.

This flashlight appears to me to be good for an emergency flashlight, as in a light that works as long as your arms and hands are functional. The usual 3-LED hand-crank flashlights do not produce a lot of light, and I do not recommend them as primary lights for night hiking or as first choice for working on anything in the dark.

CY: Too much noise. Crank up flash lights (might, maybe) be good for remote location where you only vacation once a year. If the internal nicads don't go bad on you.

========================================

One more thing: Most low power white LEDs, at full power, are significantly faded at 10,000 operating hours, sometimes

4,000-6,000 operating hours. 100,000 hours is merely a widely-repeated number for life expectancy of LEDs, and it is actually true of most colored ones. White ones and a few others are different by having a phosphor that is faded by the extremely intense light at the surface of the LED chip.

Better high power white LEDs are claimed by their manufacturers to fade by no more than 30% in 50,000 hours, provided specific temperature limits for 50,000 hour life expectancy (which are cooler than maximum-allowable) are not exceeded. 50,000 hour life expectancy may require use of not exceeding a magnitude of current at which the LED's chaeracteristics are all "characterized", which may be less than the rated maximum.

CY: More ad hype?

========================================

As for an emergency flashlight - avoid rechargeable batteries here. If you want a good flashlight with rechargeable batteries and an "emergency flashlight", then you want at least two flashlights. Rechargeable batteries self-discharge faster than non-rechargeable batteries, and they age faster if they are constantly maintained at topped-off-full-charge (and also if they are allowed to over-discharge).

CY: For emergency light, I'd want something with alkalines. And buy a new set of batteries each year, if they need it or not.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

The LED I've used have all been short range light. The Mag original LED bulbs are the one exception.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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