LED Flashlights - Who Makes The Best One

[NSXSOON]

There seem to be so many of these on the market today that I'm having a hard time determining what to buy. I need something that will have the power/light output of a typical 2 or 3 D cell incandecent flashlight. I like to invest in good quality tools and want to buy the best quality without going over the top on pricing eg. Snappy.

What do you guys have or would like to own.

 

[GearHead_1]

Sure Fire are pricey but certainly worth a look.

 

[Luckydevil]

If you already have a Mag Lite, Terralux makes some nice LED conversion kits for them. I've been meaning to get one, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Kit for the Mini: http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=674&link_str=178&partno=TLE5
Kit for the 3 cell C or D: http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=1706&link_str=178&partno=TLEDB3


There are cheaper (about 1/2 price) LED conversion kits made by Ram, but you cannot focus the light with that kit.

 

[danski0224]

Inova

 

[sizzler90]

I have a couple of differant kinds of LED flashlights. My advise is to get something that takes regular batteries (AA,AAA,C,D). I have couple that use the litium battries and they get pretty pricy.

 

[markl]

I have a Pelican M6, a really nice light, I love it, but as Sizzler90 said the lithium batteries get a little spendy.

 

[...dave]

Do you have any specific purpose in mind? Work light, emergency light for home, for car, something to carry all the time, does it need to be capable of doubling as a weapon, would it be used regularly or a couple times a year... ? Lots of options.

Personally, i like http://www.elektrolumens.com/ 3p for an all-purpose light... not cheap, but not as ridiculous as some, bright, nicely finished, and it should last.

...dave

 

[Fast Orange]

I've got a Streamlight Twin Task that is my favorite of all that I own.It uses standard batteries and has 3 lighting levels- 3 LED,6LED and a super bright Xenon lamp. The LED levels are to provide lighting with long battery life,the Xenon provides maximum brightness but drastically shortened battery life.
I also have a Streamlight Scorpion-it's a mini-mag sized light with a xenon bulb-excellent brightness and range,but run time is only about an hour and the batteries cost about $15 a set-the cost of the batteries makes this an emergency use only light.Had I known it's appetite for pricy batteries,I would never have bought it.

George

 

[mylesc]

New guy here Great site by the way. For one of the best flashlight bangs for the buck, check out Streamlight's Propolymer Luxeon series of lights. They come in 4AA or 3C battery configurations. I have the 4AA Propolymer and it has very good throw and brightness. The output is regulated so you have constant brightness for approximately 4 hours.

More info here: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/streamlight_propolyluxeon.htm

Also, if you can wait Mag is coming out with 3 Watt Luxeon LED lights later this year and they'll still have the focusable reflector.

 

[REFLEXX]

I'm leaning more and more toward getting some type of shaker flashlight. Certainly not the same output, but I'm sooo sick of having dead batteries when I use the light every time!!!

http://www.foreverflashlights.com/

http://www.faradayflashlight.com/

http://www.appliedinnotech.com/nightstar_rs.php

the trick is finding out which one is telling the truth. They all say "we're the best"

Found a "comparison" at http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/buying_power_flashlights.html

 

[shanekennedy]

build-your-own instructions

http://www.getto-for-ypsi-school-board.com/flashlight.pdf

 

[Stuey]

What's your price range?

You really cannot go wrong with a Surefire G2-Led at ~$65.

 

[The Rusty Gear]

What's your price range?

You really cannot go wrong with a Surefire G2-Led at ~$65.

I can definately second that. I have the G2 and love it!

Any light with a CREE LED in it should be good - avoid flashlights that use 9 LED's etc for light.

For serious discussion checkout the candlepower forums dedicated to lights!

 

[zuspiel]

I'd also check out Fenix. I have one on my keychain and one in my tool cart and really like them. Variable brightness (low to "I'll burn your eyes out!" )

 

[Da Bull]

Look at my old thread, some good stuff here!

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20007

 

[ProGun3400]

I have/had a few Streamlights, Surefires and still use them. I p/u this Craftsman last week for work and must say, I'm quite impressed with it. AAA batteries to boot:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_03493685000P?keyword=flashlight

 

[HandyManny]

Personally I'm very impressed with Maglites new LED 3watt modules. They are a vast improvement over the older krypton bulbs and a huge improvement over 1watt LED knock-offs like those from Nit-ize.

You can either buy the D cell lights new with the LED already installed or upgrade your existing maglite flashlight. A 2 D cell with the factory LED will yield you 22 hours of run time from fresh batteries. A 3 D cell about 36 hour.

Their new redesigned LED AA Mini-maglite offers more light and better quality of light than the older mini mag ever did. In fact that thing will give better light than most older standards bulb 2 D cell flashlights used to. It will also give you about 3.5 hours of continuous use before the batteries die out. The price is pretty reasonable for what you get too.

With Mags new LEDs, no more ooooh bright light for the first two minutes then slow fade for the rest of the battery life like you'd get with the older bulbs. Now you get continuous bright light up until the battery dies. Much better energy management.

 

[mkdive]

X10000 on the above surefire. Yes they can be $$$, but the quality is second to none. I have 8 Surefire lights. And I am happy with each. I will buy more, as more new models come out over the years. You won't be dissapointed!

 

[-B-]

You can get a vast variety of lights that only take on 123 cell and blow away any mag light out put even with an LED conversion. The smallest Surefire E1L puts out a quite a bit of light and has a pocket clip, the E1B has three modes and a clip. Inova also has similar lights but they usually do not have a clip. I picked up one of these last month and am quite impressed with it's light very whit and bright. http://liotec.com/store/Urnabeam.htm

the best advice i can give you is visit a few local LEO supply stores and a gun show or two get you mits on the light and see them live.

 

[HandyManny]

You can get a vast variety of lights that only take on 123 cell and blow away any mag light out put even with an LED conversion. The smallest Surefire E1L puts out a quite a bit of light and has a pocket clip, the E1B has three modes and a clip. Inova also has similar lights but they usually do not have a clip. I picked up one of these last month and am quite impressed with it's light very whit and bright. http://liotec.com/store/Urnabeam.htm

the best advice i can give you is visit a few local LEO supply stores and a gun show or two get you mits on the light and see them live.

Maybe so, as far as brightness is concerned, but the new LED mags are a vast improvement over the older type bulbs. Also how much run time do you get with surefires using 123 lithium cells? My surefire dies a lot faster than my mags. Surefires also cost me more to operate per year. Not going to try to say that Mags are better than Surefires, but there are just some things you have to take into consideration. I use my 3watt LED mini-maglite a lot and it has provided more light than I've ever needed under many applications, it never failed to do it's job, nor does it drive me into backrupcy. The size is right too.

 

[Defender Chassis]

WOW, talk about resurecting an old thread. This thing was 3 years old until today.

 

[HandyManny]

Considering that Maglite didn't release a factory LED on the market until August or September of 2006 and this thread started in March of 2006 I think the new Mags deserve another look, that's all.

 

[Stuey]

whoops. I totally didn't catch the year. I saw that it was March, wondered why I hadn't seen the post sooner, and answered anyways.

 

[Bolster]

My strategy is to follow the talk at www.candlepowerforums.com ... they will quickly lead you to the best bang-for-buck lights out there.

 

[nissan_crawler]

bumped a flashlight thread with a flashlight website in sig, with no other posts?

SPAMMER! reported

Besides, the streamlight stinger rocks. rechargeable, too.

 

[Senorpablo]

Personally I'm very impressed with Maglites new LED 3watt modules. They are a vast improvement over the older krypton bulbs and a huge improvement over 1watt LED knock-offs like those from Nit-ize.

You can either buy the D cell lights new with the LED already installed or upgrade your existing maglite flashlight. A 2 D cell with the factory LED will yield you 22 hours of run time from fresh batteries. A 3 D cell about 36 hour.

Their new redesigned LED AA Mini-maglite offers more light and better quality of light than the older mini mag ever did. In fact that thing will give better light than most older standards bulb 2 D cell flashlights used to. It will also give you about 3.5 hours of continuous use before the batteries die out. The price is pretty reasonable for what you get too.

With Mags new LEDs, no more ooooh bright light for the first two minutes then slow fade for the rest of the battery life like you'd get with the older bulbs. Now you get continuous bright light up until the battery dies. Much better energy management.

LED Maglites are awful! LED lights require a very special design for the reflector, which is completely different than traditional bulbs. The light from an LED emits from a tiny microchip maybe 1/8"th sqaure and practically flat, in stark contrast to a traditional light "bulb." The quality of an LED flashlights output is determined primarily by the reflector engineering.

Maglite has stumbled into the LED game totally half-assed by trying to stuff an LED module into their classic light design years into the LED revolution.

You can get a light from China(including shipping) for $12 which is a far better performing and engineered product, which is also much smaller.

Unfortunately, Maglite--a once great and innovative US company--has gotten so comfortable with their decades long market dominance, that they've slipped into mediocrity and are poised for demise unless they wake up very soon. American steel and auto companies have all led the way in this very sad downward spiral due to dominance and arrogance.

 

[carsounds_dan]

LED Lenser, if the army boys are using them they can't be bad.
I've got a little magnetic disc light from kamasa about 10cm across. one of those I saw down the factors and had to have, like £3 or something and ****** fantastic when you under a dash and need a floodlight for it.

 

[HandyManny]

LED Maglites are awful! LED lights require a very special design for the reflector, which is completely different than traditional bulbs. The light from an LED emits from a tiny microchip maybe 1/8"th sqaure and practically flat, in stark contrast to a traditional light "bulb." The quality of an LED flashlights output is determined primarily by the reflector engineering.

Maglite has stumbled into the LED game totally half-assed by trying to stuff an LED module into their classic light design years into the LED revolution.

You can get a light from China(including shipping) for $12 which is a far better performing and engineered product, which is also much smaller.

Unfortunately, Maglite--a once great and innovative US company--has gotten so comfortable with their decades long market dominance, that they've slipped into mediocrity and are poised for demise unless they wake up very soon. American steel and auto companies have all led the way in this very sad downward spiral due to dominance and arrogance.

Have you tired the new redesigned AA 3watt Mini-maglite? I'm not talking about the aftermarket LEDs for the original mini-maglite. The new one. It's reflector and head was redesigned. It's a better light than the original mini-mag.

I agree they could have produced a newly designed D cell LED light, but I think they did pretty good with what they have. Sure you can say that Maglite stubbled into the LED game half-assed. Not going to totally disagree. But before owning that statement think about this important factor- I think Mag knows that there are a whole lot of their older D cell flashlights still in use around the globe, many of them upto 30 years old, and wanted to provide an LED that can be retro-fitted instead of having their customers have to buy a whole new flashlight just to get an LED. Maybe Maglite is thinking a bit more about the wallets of their customers, instead of doing what Surefire does and charge you $70 to $200 bucks for a new flashlight everytime they introduce a new product, then have you fork over $100 buck a year just to keep them in operation.

I use my old 2 D cell maglite a whole lot and it's almost 20 years old. I retro-fitted it with the new 3 watt LED from Mag and think it's a real vast improvement over the older incandescent bulbs. True it's not prefect and a new designed would be better. But for what it is and the cost, it's a damn good flashlight that isn't forcing me into bankrupcy. With it's new LED module installed, it provides much more light than I've ever needed in the darkest situation and runs on 2 D cells for upto 22 hours. That's pretty darn good I think. I just can't justify buying a brand new Surefire everytime they come out with a new model. Some people do. I just can't justify it. To each his own I suppose.

 

[Stuey]

bumped a flashlight thread with a flashlight website in sig, with no other posts?

SPAMMER! reported

Besides, the streamlight stinger rocks. rechargeable, too.

I didn't catch that either. But now it looked like I bumped the three year old thread! Oh noes!

 

[xroad]

Maybe Maglite is thinking a bit more about the wallets of their customers, instead of doing what Surefire does and charge you $70 to $200 bucks for a new flashlight everytime they introduce a new product, then have you fork over $100 buck a year just to keep them in operation.

I do not buy that at all. It is the nature of marketing to position themselve to obtain maximum profit. Myabe ... MAYBE, Surefire went too far to the other extreme. We don't know. You only know that your pocket hurts. Maybe they are doing great with at marketing strategy and might even kill off Maglite. That's neither here nor there. I just find it very hard to believe they were thinking about the customer first, or second, or third ... The big question asked there most likely be "what is the highest price should we set for the product without ******* off the customers or loosing them to Surefire (or whoever their direct competitors are)?"

 

[-B-]

I use an e1e ( non LED) Shurefire every day to inspect CF parts and frames I have only 4 batteries for year for three years now. $17-20 for 12 SF 123 batteries. LED's use far less energy to produce light I would estimate at the out side I will use 3 batteries a year. So for an average a 123 cell LED will cost far less to run a year than any C or D cell light.

 

[dede2897234]

I own a Streamlight 90541 Survivor 3-watt Luxeon LED flashlight. It has an amazingly bright, wide beam for a flashlight powered by 4 AA batteries. A rechargeable battery pack can be ordered for this flashlight. Streamlight designed the flashlight for firefighter use. As a result, the plastic housing is super strong. I purchased it late last year locally from Fox International for $50. This flashlight can also be purchased from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LF1KKS/?tag=atomicindus08-20.

 

[MarkH]

Flashlights just like other tools. The one that is right depends on how you use it.

Sits around the house, emergency. Many options. I use a number of the cheap made in the USA. Actually cheaper than most imports.

Routine use but not heavy duty. That is a series of Maglights. The price and performance fits the bill. The C-D cells have been so much more convenient for this purpose.

Used daily for critical jobs. That gets into can it be recharged, how is it dropped. This goes up the price scale and at $100 a light can be pricey but for the use a bargain.

So the question is how are you going to use it.

 

[bmxr4life87]

fenix flashlights cant be beat as far as durability and price. I spent $30 for a Coast LED-LENSER V6 from the mac guy and it cant be beat for a work light it takes 3 AAA batteries and its bright as all hell ive dropped it so man times the edges are getting round but it still keeps on shining!

 

[MattPersman]

I use a Sunlite Slim day in and day out, uses 3 AAA batteries, is 100 lumens, fits in normal work shirt pocket, Snap on truck sells it and is lifetime warranty. the best $45 dollars I have spent on a flashlight.

I also have the same flashlight in the UV version for checking AC dye (leak testing)

you can also order them right from them http://powerledlighting.com/ they are constantly coming up with new stuff

 

[Garage_Mahal]

Honestly, I've borrowed every LED and fluorescent flashlight I could every get my hands on to see if they are an improvement. I've never found a single one that put more usable light on a work task than a properly applied incandescent. I remain unmoved.

 

[ImportTuner]

Honestly, I've borrowed every LED and fluorescent flashlight I could every get my hands on to see if they are an improvement. I've never found a single one that put more usable light on a work task than a properly applied incandescent. I remain unmoved.

Probably true about usable light but a fluorescent or LED light won't burn you ..

 

[nissan_crawler]

Honestly, I've borrowed every LED and fluorescent flashlight I could every get my hands on to see if they are an improvement. I've never found a single one that put more usable light on a work task than a properly applied incandescent. I remain unmoved.

An incandescent that would put out enough light to beat the stinger would burst into flames.

It'll light up airport signs 1500' away.

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

I have A dorcy 220 lumen flashlight rechargeable, its a great light i get 2 hours per charge but the light is a bit on the blue side real strong beam got it sears for $50, Lowes and HD sell a light that i use daily Coast LED lenser gets about 100 hours on 3 aaa batteries 80 lumen, they almost always sell them out, i have been using rechargeable Duracell's and i only have to charge about once a week depending on how much i use the light, which is alot. I also have a Streamlight Twintask 3aaa has a built in red laser, 5 led, and xeon bulb.

I would have gotten a Surefire, for the quality and the craftsmanship, but running the light would eventually cost more than the flashlight i would still like to get one.....

 

[Danglerb]

Best flashlight thing seems nuts to me unless you are in some profession that uses powerful flashlights. My $8 NexGen is a short 3x AA in a less than D cell sized holder single LED. Its not as bright as most of the newer LED flashlights, but its maybe 3 years old. For automotive work, I think its fine, tight beam that makes it great when you are inspecting or looking for a dropped screw.

If I was shopping for something now, Fenix has some very nice models at reasonable prices. I just can't see spending more than about $35 for a flashlight. Also I buy top grade AA rechargeables, and prefer not to adopt a new size, or use the reduced capacity of a AAA.