Flashlight recommendations?

[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!!!!

 

[gsganzer]

I ended up buying a Brinkman 3-D cell light from Academy. It was around 30 bucks. Nice and substantial and throws some good light. I needed a light that's big enough so my kids don't lose the dang thing.

Someone mentioned the Ultrafire lights. I love them and have one in every glovebox and toolbox! These are hands down one of the best pocket flashlights you can find for about $10/ea. I also have a couple with a green bulb and use it for shooting hogs at night. With the CR123 batteries, they don't seem to self-discharge or leak.