LED Flashlight

[niel]

ok guys, i'm in need of a good led flashlight and i'm beside myself trying to figure out which one. some background here in that my first one was a maglight that i couldn't get the batteries out of it. contacted them as it was under warranty and all they said was send it to them so they will get them out and send it back. wonderful pr and service huh? i decided no more maglights even though i love the ability of focusing. confessing i did buy 2 cheapo maglights as i had to have something, but putting in nimh batteries doesn't work out very well as the lights are dimmer and die off rapidly.

next one to try was a coast hp7. it was powerful with 360 lumens and a very nice focus. i didn't even get to try putting in nimh batteries when i lightly bumped my tool box with it while looking for a few tools. using the light was easier than dragging the box to a better lit area. the bump caused the light to go off. i tapped it lightly a few more times and it went on again. as time went on it was apparent that it would go on and off at will and i took it back. i could get an older $2 flashlight to do that and need to hit it to work and at the time they charged $40 for this light at home depot. now it is down to $25 and i decided to look if it may have just been my light or is there a problem with all of them. i found many similar complaints so that company i won't deal with either.

next to try is the taclight or atomic light and so on as it goes by many names. not high quality, but has a focus and takes 3 aaa batteries in a holder the size of a 18650 li-ion so i gathered it can use those batteries too. it somewhat sufficed while i was draining the supplied alkaline aaa batteries and finally put in the nimh aaa batteries. with a full charge on them the light started dimming within minutes. this won't due. it's good as long as i keep a supply of alkalines around, but i want rechargeables and more light than this pos puts out even with alkalines.

now it looks like i have to bite the bullet and get a quality flashlight and most are li-ion 18650 types so that's a new battery and charger in addition to the light. i'm in a quandary as to what to get. i don't want to spend $100 and there are few with the focus option so i may need to go without that. i was looking at nitecore and they seem good, but what do i want? these btw do have a regulation circuit in them to keep the light consistent and without the focus i figure going to 960 or 1000 lumens for the long throw and using the lower output settings to use normally.

now i've been reading and burning myself out wondering what to go with so maybe i figured i'd run it past you guys to see if you can help me make up my mind. after that i have to figure out from where and at what price.

[ClassicCrazy]

You won't go wrong with a Streamlight . I used them for years at work and they are solid. Cops use them too. And the company stands behind their product.
Two models I have both use standard AA and AAA batteries.
This stylus pro is small and bright -- easy to clip in shirt pocket .
http://www.brightguy.com/Streamlight/Streamlight+Stylus+PRO

This one is more the size of AA maglight - maybe a little bit longer.
http://www.brightguy.com/Streamlight/Streamlight+Jr+LED+Flashlight

Here is new model that looks good - two light levels
http://www.brightguy.com/Streamlight/Streamlight+ProTac+2AA+LED+Flashlight+88033

On any of the new flashlight does not hurt to put a little bit of silicone grease on the threads and o-rings.
Both of these have the pushbutton on the end  - I like them there.
I have used NiMH rechargeable batteries with the AA light no problem. I think the AAA one too.

But there are lots of other Streamlight and other manufacturer flashlighs on Brightguys website.
I have also bought cheapy flashlights from DX and ebay . They work too - some are better than others in build quality .

I haven't tried using lithium batteries in a flashlight yet - haven't needed to. But when I do I will use lithium cells out of an old laptop battery pack. Those have high quality cells in them and usually quite a few or all the cells are still good - maybe the bms goes bad in the packs. Thing is you have to be careful or don't use two lithium cells in a flashlight unless you get the good protected cells - because they can catch on fire or blow up in those flashlights in the cells are unbalanced and put together - so I would stick with one lithium battery flashlights -- lot of energy in one cell anyway compared to NiMH .

Here is photo comparison of my two flashlights .


Larry 

[ClassicCrazy]

Here is a cheapy set - batteries , chargers  two flashlights.
Says the have  sold 12,000 of them !
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Sets-8000-Lumens-5-Modes-CREE-XML-T6-LED-Flashlight-18650-Battery-Charger-USA-/262440195338?hash=item3d1aa7950a:g:6dMAAOSwr2RYKXSP

Might be able to get them for less if you wait a month to get shipped from China. But there are clones of clones of these cheap things.

Larry

[niel]

i had a streamlight years ago, but it was the older halogen type. i managed to drop it and break it. nice light, but too expensive.

the other end of the spectrum is that cheapo and that is also similar to that taclight i've got and, yup, there's tons like it. i think i need to go somewhere in between with this.

[niel]

take a look at this one and tell me what you think.

http://flashlight.nitecore.com/product/p12

btw, my taclight did not come with rechargeables or a charger and cost $20 due to being an "as seen on tv" item being sold in a brick and mortar store.

[Westbranch]

Niel check out the 3 packs of flashlights at Costco, about $20 up here, Snap-on brand can focus the beam... don't know the lumens or ? but works on a bear over a 200 yards away in a tree

[ClassicCrazy]

take a look at this one and tell me what you think.

http://flashlight.nitecore.com/product/p12

btw, my taclight did not come with rechargeables or a charger and cost $20 due to being an "as seen on tv" item being sold in a brick and mortar store.

With all the choices out there I would probably call those Bright Guys and ask them for advice. 
I haven't been on it for years but used to go on CandlePower forums where all the flashaholics hung out . Let see it is still there .
yeah it is still there - look up your potential flashlights and see what they say on there
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?45-LED-Flashlights

Larry

[niel]

i tried looking around on there before and it's a needle in a haystack. here we can general speak without going through hundreds of threads.

i picked that one at random and all seem similar within that company. add to the fact that there's quite a few companies out there, it makes me wonder just what differentiates them all? that particular example i gave would run about $60 give or take and then the charger $15-$20 and finally the li-ion battery or batteries which vary widely in price and capacity. most likely i could get away with one battery barring a long outage, but that's where differing power levels are great. as i figured it's about $100 give or take. i'm sure there are many others that could fall into this price range and capabilities. differences are apt to be small, but are there any that stand out a bit farther?

i don't belong to costco, but are those aaa, aa, or li-ion? if aaa or aa then odds are they will drop off fast with nimh types due to no voltage regulation in them just like my cheap lights do. those cheapos are pretty much all like that as they want you to feed them with the higher voltage alkalines. this is why i concede the need for something better. it just needs kicked around before i decide.

[mike90045]

flea bay - search for " led flashlight 14500 "

results
    3 Sets-Tactical-Police-6000LM-CREE-XM-L-LED-Flashlight-Torch-Battery-Charger-US   $16

These are single AA lights, many of the brands that pop up, will run with AA or Li 14500
many come with battery and charger.
The fit into the watch pocket on jeans, and I prefer the 3 mode models Bright, Dim, Flashing, and I usually am happy with Dim, unless I want to light up the hillside.  More than a few minutes on Bright, and they start heating up pretty good from the LED.
I had one batch that did not work with plain AA batteries, so look for that feature in the description.

For the price, you can't beat them

And NEVER look into the beam with your eye, it will not be good.

[niel]

mike,
that is cheap. are they really 6000 lumens as that would drain a battery in no time flat? does it have different output levels as i didn't see that said? anything else you can add about them and thanks for this added info and extra option for flashlights?

cdn-vt,
can you clarify what you said?

[mike90045]

Most of these are not really 6,000 or 5,000 lumens.   
But they are insanely bright, and nearly all are 3 modes, some are 5 modes.   
They will drain a alkaline AA pretty quick, but with the lithium battery,  you get a pretty good run on the dim setting.
I use them for walking around the ranch at night, on dim (still dang bright) or daytimes, checking water levels on the battery bank.  I recharge about 1x a month

The best part is most will work with a plain AA battery if you don't have a charged Li battery.   And a single AA is about equal to 3 AAA.  I hate messing with a AAA holder and then putting the holder in the flashlight.

[niel]

they must be pumping the lights up a bit to make sales as nobody really needs 5000 lumens that aren't already on cars, trucks, and planes. it's a flashlight after all. i can say the one i had at 360 lumens was blinding if it caught your eye and many that i had looked at online already were in and around 3x that being at or near 1000 lumens. i don't think i'll need such bright lighting as in the thousands of lumens and the lights don't operate for long in that range anyway 1stly due to heating and 2ndly due to battery drain.

interesting that a single aa will still power it. how long did it last for you like that? i'm sure the brightness went way down on it that way. what brightness level did you use with the aa?

if you meant an aa is roughly equal in power to the 3 aaa batteries then i would agree, but the voltage being 1/3 from an aa will drop the brightness while 3 aaa's won't.

[ClassicCrazy]

The quality comes down to the machining of the tubes, the quality of the on off buttons, and the electronics that step up or regulate the voltage. Some of that cheap stuff just fails where the good stuff won't .  I have cheapy lights and if you compare them to the good lights - you quickly see the difference. The other part of that story is you can get a whole bunch of cheapy lights for price  of a good one.

The capacity a lot of vendors  claim on inexpensive lithium cells is really blown out of proportion. Better make sure you get some good ones if you get a good flashlight to go along with them.

Larry

[niel]

now that's the $64,000 question. which ones are the good batteries? in fact, which are the good flashlights?

take this one for example, how do you know it's good?
https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Flashlight-Water-Resistant-Rechargeable-Pocket-Sized/dp/B01KH2JP5G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485030055&sr=8-1&keywords=Anker+LC90+LED+Flashlight

[ClassicCrazy]

now that's the $64,000 question. which ones are the good batteries? in fact, which are the good flashlights?

take this one for example, how do you know it's good?
https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Flashlight-Water-Resistant-Rechargeable-Pocket-Sized/dp/B01KH2JP5G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485030055&sr=8-1&keywords=Anker+LC90+LED+Flashlight

With 375 reviews I think you could be pretty sure  it is worth $24
and it comes with a battery and 18 month warraty - looks good to me.
You will have to go on Candlepower forums and read the battery section there- sure they have their favorites identified.
Larry