Flashlight recommendations?

[Industrial Toys]

I have an old Mag Lite 4 D cell in the compartment of my truck door. It's in a old long sock, so it doesn't rattle. It is there as a club, if need be. Iv'e used it in the past when I came accross a critically injured animal on the road. Now, that's a flashlight! I would like to change out that krypton bulb for LED.

I have some stupid LED flashlights that have a sequence. White, Red, Green, flashing red and Off, all by pressing a button repeatedly. How terribly annoying, and useless.

Variable brightness is much more usefull, for battery life and easier on the eyes.

 

[dmccarty]

A few years ago I installed these LED replacements into my old Maglites.

• 
  Terralux(TM) TLE-310M-EX MiniStar31M-EX LED Conversion Kit for 4-6 D Cell MagLite® - - Amazon.com
  TerraLUX TLE-6EXB MiniStar5 140 Lumens, Led Conversion Kit for 2-3 Cell C&D MagLites - Led Household Light Bulbs - Amazon.com
  TerraLUX TLE-6EX MiniStar5 140 Lumens Extreme LED Replacement Bulb for 4-6 C&D Cell MagLites - Led Household Light Bulbs - Amazon.com

Seems like you had to be careful on which bulbs/assembly to get depending on the age of the Maglite. I had a couple of Maglites that were from 1990ish and 1995ish that differ from newer Maglites. The bulbs/assembly worked but you had to get ones that matched the flashlite model.

Two of the links are just replacement LEDs that work well. The other, TLE-310, is a $70 replacement assembly that throws out a light that is unreal. The performance difference of the replacement LEDs compared to the original bulbs is, pun intended, night and day. The difference between the LEDs and the assembly replace is again night and day. The LED assembly throws out an amazing amount of light. I tested it on our private road, and we ran out of road before running out of light. The road curved hundreds of feet away from me and was well lit up. Guessing about 400-500 feet of the road was lit up. The LED replacement bulbs allow the batteries to last a very long time but with bright light. Much better than the old bulbs. The LED assembly has great run time with incredible light but the batteries will run out quicker compared to the LED replacements.

Later,
Dan

 

[ultrarunner]

I like Maglites... my problem has been when batteries leak and become near impossible to remove...

 

[Industrial Toys]

My four D cell light is from the mid 80s! One red, two D cell maglite model I bought for my Mom, I could not get open, no way, no how. Seems finely machined aluminium threads and leaking batteries do not go well together!

 

[gsganzer]

I like Maglites... my problem has been when batteries leak and become near impossible to remove...

That's the problem I had with my twintask streamlite. That's one of the good things about the CR123 batteries, although more expensive, they don't seem to leak or discharge as easily during non-use.

 

[ultrarunner]

I noticed in Europe the Duracell flashlight battery packaging boldly states "No Leak"

Can't recall seeing the same here.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Everready always had a policy of replacing or repairing damaged equipment from leakage. I had some batteries of theirs leak on some wood furniture. The people in Walkerton Ontario really tried to help, but in the end just gave me a yellow 2 D cell plastic flashlight. It just has a dim yellow light. I should find an LED bulb for that. The spot on the furniture is still there!

 

[tallyho8]

I've been reading about all these large heavy mag lights and these D batteries that cost over $1 each and last a couple of hours and I'm thinking how antiquated these all are.

I have several modern 1000 lumen led flashlights that I bought on Amazon when they were on sale for about $5 each. I put one in the glove compartment of every car and truck, on my tractor, in my barn, by my bed, in the closet, etc.'

These are way smaller than a 2 D cell mag lite, way lighter, way cheaper, way brighter and they last a lot longer without the battery going dead while laid up. Many police departments are using these now because they are so bright they can temporarily blind someone and are light and easy to carry. Most of them have high, low and strobe features.

They use one 18650 battery that is rechargeable. I have never seen a better flashlight battery. They are larger than AA batteries but smaller than C batteries. They last for years. I have only had them for 3 years now and they are all still just like new. I get the chargers for about $2.50 each and I found the 5000 mAh batteries on sale on Amazon for 10 for $15. Do not buy the cheap 2000 or 3000 mAh batteries.

Why spend $50 or $100 for a flashlight that isn't as good as these when you can get 10 of these with 5 chargers and 10 batteries for about $80?
Check out this one, 2000 lumens for $6.24 and free shipping. (Prices vary often) Order your charger and battery from other places on Amazon.
UltraFireｮ NEW 5 Modes CREE XM-L T6 LED Bright 2000 Lumens Adjustable Focus Flashlight Torch Lamp Torch (Set 1: Flashlight Only) - Basic Handheld Flashlights - Amazon.com

 

[Industrial Toys]

I keep saying, that I am holding off buying any substantial LED technology until it gets better and comes down in price.

When I bought that 4 cell mag lite in the 80s, I bought four Radio Shack D Nicads and a charger. The cells felt very light! I found out they just repackaged them with the equiv. of C cells inside! I was not impressed!

 

[ultrarunner]

The problem with the lightweight flashlights is they make lousy night sticks.

 

[4570Man]

The problem with the lightweight flashlights is they make lousy night sticks.

A 357 mag snub nose fills that slot nicely.,

 

[Grateful11]

We bought one of these last year, I think on Black Friday, and it will light up the trees on the back of a 3 acre square pasture, where the herd stays at night. Amazing that it only has 1 LED.

Stanley LEDLIS 10W Lithium Ion LED Rechargeable Spotlight

Amazon.com: Stanley LEDLIS 10W Lithium Ion LED Rechargeable Spotlight: Automotive

 

[ultrarunner]

A 357 mag snub nose fills that slot nicely.,

Except that would mean a stay at the local jail in Oakland CA...

 

[4570Man]

Except that would mean a stay at the local jail in Oakland CA...

What are you allowed to have in CA? I would say water, but there is a shortage of that too.

 

[Scooby074]

Lets say Im thankful for this thread!!!!!

I have a bunch of minimag leds, 2AA and 3AA, probably about 3 or 4 in various locations and toolpouches. Not a lot of lumens, but run a long time and make adequate light and are durable.

I also have a 3D MagLED, that has a very long run time and is built like a tank. Not a ton of lumen at 168 or so. I gave it a massive drop onto something hard and the actual LED chip fell off and made intermittent contact. A couple drops of CA glue later and it hasnet moved since. It usually lives in my truck door.

The reason I was thankful for this thread was that it made me go and check if mine was a 2 or 3D. In the process I discovered the one achilies heel of the Mags, Battery corrosion. These LEDs dont use much current at all, and as a result the batteries time expire before they are dead. THis particular MAGled was a free replacement from mag for my last one that died from battery corrosion. These particular older mags might not be the massive lumen throwers like some of the newer, smaller lights, but Mags warranty is second to none, even for battery corrosion issues. Problem for me is these heavy flashlights got to be sent back to mag for service and from here, last time, that was close to $40 IIRC. I caught this corrosion problem just in time, the last battery was starting to let go as seen in the pic.

https://goo.gl/photos/6Nixeer8QqENiYqa7


Side note, It appears that Mag is releasing some high lumen versions of the old flashlights (about time) For example a 625 lumen 3D Maglite® ML300L? 3-Cell D LED Flashlight - Full Size - Flashlights Wonder if they improved the focus on these new LEDs too???

I also have a couple Pelican Stealthlights in 4AA Xenon. They reside at work. They really throw a beam and are nice and light, but Im glad work buys the batteries! Id strongly consider one of the Stealthlights in LED. The specs say both pelicans should have less output than my big mag led, but in practice, it seems to me like the Stealthlite has just as much light as the Mag, it must come down to lens design being better on the Pelicans???

 

[ultrarunner]

Never remember battery corrosion being a problem until the last 10 years or so...

The only batteries I used at the time were Duracell in the big pack from Costco... I do notice the batteries seem to come from China now... don't know if that is relevant or not.

At work.. we have Maglites on the crash carts and they are checked monthly... found a few that worked fine and still had corrosion...

 

[Gunny]

Somewhat off topic, but I wonder why they don't have flashlights with capacitors instead of batteries anymore?

About 7 years ago I bought a "Flashlight for Life", it was right around $100 for the flashlight with 12 volt charger and the dealer threw in a 110 volt charger. Expensive yes, but I'd been having problems with the Streamlight batteries and it seemed that the batteries in my Maglights were always dead when I needed them, so I thought I'd give it a try. I've never had a problem with it and I don't mind waiting for a minute and a half if it needs to be recharged, but it usually sits in the charger so it's ready to go when I need it.

It's out in the truck right now, so I'm thinking it has 6 or 7 LEDs which put out a lot of light

Charges in 90 Seconds, 3 Power Modes Plus Standby, the capacitor is rated for over 50,000 recharges

90 second recharge when fully discharged

For some reason they discontinued it, but 5.11 still covers it under the lifetime warranty.

 

[dmccarty]

On my big Maglites, the ones that use 2, 3 or 4 D cells I don't think I have ever had any corrosion issues. I have some Maglites that are 20-25 years old and I have always used Duracell batteries. Now, the smaller AA Maglites I have had corrosion issues but I would have used a mix of batteries on those flash lights.

I have one Maglite that I bought around 1995 that was a NiCad rechargable. I did not use the flashlight much and I FINALLY had to replace the Nicad battery a few years ago. That was amazing. I did keep the light in the charger all of the time over the last few years but there were times where the battery drained. Unreal that that battery pack lasted that long.

I also have a smaller SureFire flashlight that uses CR123 batteries. No corrosion issues and I have only had to change the batteries a couple of times. Very bright light, even though it is not an LED, light weight and rugged.

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

Game Winner Rechargeable LED Spotlight | Academy

Our go to flashlight is a LED rechargeable spotlight that we keep next to the door, plugged in, ready to go. It's got tons of power and we're able to see across the pasture with when the dogs get excited about something. It's also good for shining through the window to see what's going on with the dogs when they start to bark at something, but we don't want to put on shoes and go check because so often they are just rough housing. My previous one cost about twice what this one did and it worked good, but the cat knocked it off the counter and busted it. I went with this one because of how heavy it was. My thinking was that for a battery to last and have plenty of power, it needs to be heavy. It's about two years old now and it works flawlessly!!!!