Flashlights

[Rick Potter]

I am a flashlight junkie. I have them in every car, and all over the house. My favorites are the small 'tactical' aluminum ones with LED's and three AAA batteries. The one thing I do not like about them is that the AAA batteries really don't have that much life in use. I also have a MagLight LED, with three D batteries, and it works great, but is too big for a lot of uses.

Today, at Costco, I bought a Duracell LED flashlight that takes two included D cells. Price was $12.95. It has a 4 watt LED, aluminum body, and is about the same size as a normal two D flashlight. It blows away the MagLight for distance and brightness, and I can stick it in my pocket.

I give this one a 5 star rating.

Rick Potter

[Jay Maiers]

I am a flashlight junkie. I have them in every car, and all over the house. My favorites are the small 'tactical' aluminum ones with LED's and three AAA batteries. The one thing I do not like about them is that the AAA batteries really don't have that much life in use. I also have a MagLight LED, with three D batteries, and it works great, but is too big for a lot of uses.

Today, at Costco, I bought a Duracell LED flashlight that takes two included D cells. Price was $12.95. It has a 4 watt LED, aluminum body, and is about the same size as a normal two D flashlight. It blows away the MagLight for distance and brightness, and I can stick it in my pocket.

I give this one a 5 star rating.

Rick Potter

1) How about durability? Does it look and feel like it will take a beating?
2) What kind of pockets do you have that allow you to tote a 2D light???

I've got a bunch of the 3AAA lights as well, but I really don't like them. I've had way too many switch failures. While they're fine for general household use, I've added a few better quality lights for our cars, etc.

My EDC light is a AAA by Fenix. Slightly larger than the battery, it's sealed well, durable, and has three power settings (max output is somewhere around 70 lumens). The price tag is a bit steep for most folks, but it's well worth the money if you want or need a good multitask light.

My Borg special light bought the farm last year. I've been looking for a new general use boomer, maybe the Duracell will be it!

[Greg Portland]

I like 2-cell C123 lights with Cree LEDs. IMO a good compromise between portability and output.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

My wife paid big bucks for a Proto 3 AAA cell LED. I carried it in my work tool bag. It was okay.

Then I found a 2 C cell 13 LED aluminum light that is as good a flashlight as I have ever had. It's easy on batteries and it works great for my aging eyes. Nice and bright!

[John Pratt]

For durability and great light output, I don't think there is any other name than Surefire. There are incredibly tough. In the military we beat the crap out of them and they keep on working. Two biggest drawbacks are the cost and the fact that they don't use standard batteries. I will take my smaller Surefires against my old 4 D-cell Maglite any day for both size and light output.

[John Lohmann]

For a simple light, I like the fenix ld10. It takes a single AA battery, small & bright. You can use rechargeable batteries or find AA everywhere. Haven't tried all the others except for Mag. This is far better than a mag 2-AA led.

[Brian Elfert]

The Maglight D cell LED flashlight is simply the same as their normal flashlight with a bulb change. No changes to the reflector or lens to optimize things for an LED. The Maglight D cell LED flashlight is universally panned. The AA Maglight LED flashlight actually has redesigned optics for LED.

[Greg Portland]

For durability and great light output, I don't think there is any other name than Surefire.I have a Surefire and it's a great product. However, there are many "premium" flashlight makers out there today that sell civilian and military options (Jetbeam, etc.). Check out candlepowerforums.com if you want to go down that rabbit hole. Surefire uses the C123 batteries which can be bought in bulk off of Amazon. IMO those batteries last much longer so the costs end up being the same.


my old 4 D-cell MagliteThere are some folks who sell aftermarket upgrade kits for Maglite bodies (battery holder, reflector, glass, & LEDs). Basically you get an incredible light that looks like a cheap Maglite.

[John Coloccia]

I have tons of flashlights all around too. The one I use most, though, is a nice headstrap mounted one. I initially bought it for fixing and setting up machines in my shop. I got tired of holding a flashlight in my mouth. Since, I've used is for a LOT of other things...simple things like trudging out to my wood pile to get fire wood.

[Eric DeSilva]

+1 on the little headstrap guys. I carried one in my climbing kit for years, since I had a partner that had a tendency to create situations where we were rapping out in the dark, but it never dawned on me it might be handy elsewhere--until I had to change a tire at night on the way back from a climbing trip. Now I've got a Petzl Tikka in each of my cars, one in the garage, and one in my electrical toolbag.

[Peter Pedisich]

I use my headstrap LED for oil changes, works great!

[Lee Ludden]

Flashlights are one of the things I spend money on when I am not spending it on tools. I'll agree with John L above about the Fenix LD10. I gave one to my Dad a few years ago for Christmas, now he considers it as necessary as a pocket knife. My wife carries one with her travel kit and another in her car, and I keep one with my backpack. The Fenix E01 (1 AAA battery) is a very handy light also. It is not much bigger than a AA battery, but puts out pretty good light and can run 20 hours on a single AAA battery. They are inexpensive and available in a variety of colors - I think I have one with every set of keys and quite a few zipper pulls.

I have upgraded several of my 3-4 D cell MAG lights with the LED drop in from Malkoff Devices. Not cheap but it sure is bright and lasts a long time. I have a couple of the Durcell Daylight LED flashlights on order (the kind that run off of 2 D batteries). If they work well, they will be used as the basic 'handy' flashlight on my in-law's farm.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

201999I really like the little three penlite cell LED lights... but I carry one of these in my truck. I'm a veterinarian, and when you find yourself out in the middle of a dark field at 2 am treated a horse that's down.. you soon learn that the clients rarely have more than a dim flashlight whose batteries should have been replaced long ago... this railroad inspectors light works well and comes with a bit of history since the company has been in business since 1889 making lights for railroads.. Google "Star Railroad Lights"
They now have an LED version.. which I may have to purchase...

[Dave Gaul]

I like the 21 LED one from LV.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=62111&cat=1,43456,43349

[Kevin Gregoire]

i like the mini LED ones with 3 AAA batts. i have a sack with a few dozen in that i got for free at Harbor Freight.
you cant beat any flashlight with LED's cause they are the light of the future!

[John Shuk]

I'm a huge fan of using underwater flashlights for everything. I'm a diver so dual purpose for me but performance, reliability and light output is very good with dive lights.
Pelican products and Princeton Tec are my favorites. I still use the same King Pelican that I bought for diving in March 1995 and it has lots of underwater time under it's belt yet performs flawlessly. The Pelican promise: You break it, we replace it... forever.™
http://www.princetontec.com/?q=product-overview-page-use-scuba
http://www.pelicanproducts.us/c.Pelican.Flashlights.html?gclid=CKO3tpbZpqoCFQFN4 AodfAxOVg

[Jay Maiers]

I'm a huge fan of using underwater flashlights for everything. I'm a diver so dual purpose for me but performance, reliability and light output is very good with dive lights.
Pelican products and Princeton Tec are my favorites. I still use the same King Pelican that I bought for diving in March 1995 and it has lots of underwater time under it's belt yet performs flawlessly. The Pelican promise: You break it, we replace it... forever.™
http://www.princetontec.com/?q=product-overview-page-use-scuba
http://www.pelicanproducts.us/c.Pelican.Flashlights.html?gclid=CKO3tpbZpqoCFQFN4 AodfAxOVg

Hello John! Nice to know there are some divers here.

I've got one or two of those Pelican lights hiding in the dive closet. Bright, and great for OW diving. We had to switch to can lights when we started diving caverns and caves. That was a huge expense, but well worth the cost.

My wife and I need to upgrade our back up lights. I've been looking at the Intova line for quite a while; maybe it's finally time to try one.
http://caveadventurers.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9_18

Sigh. If I could take Surefire lights diving, I'd be set!

[Myk Rian]

I have a single LED Rayovac light that will light up the woods behind our house from 150 feet away. Uses 2 aa cells.

[Ryan Mooney]

perhaps not really practical but DAAAANG is it bright: google ElektroLumens FireSword-V - they have some other smaller (and yikes! larger!?!!) LED lights as well. Based on my experience the 1k lumen lights would be plenty for any sane use. The downside is that they use special Li-Ion batteries which require a special charger and take ~5 hours to fully charge (takes 4 batteries, regular charger charges 2 - ok so get two chargers I guess). The "low power" (1k lumen) setting makes the backyard like daylight, haven't needed the 3k lumen setting.

@bill I wish the led ones had a stand like that...