LED Flashlights

Copyright By Bill Crane 2006

In the wake of the New Orleans flooding disaster, I have been thinking quite a bit about emergency preparedness. A critical piece of equipment in the event of an emergency is a flashlight, preferably several of them. LED Flashlights impress the heck out of me. They give off good light. Small ones can run for 10 hours on one AA battery, bigger ones can run up to 12 DAYS on one set of batteries! I have not seen any other type of light that can approach these numbers. LEDs have a lifetime of 100,000 hours; you will probably lose it before an LED dies. I have literally bought dozens of LED Flashlights. Here are my thoughts on them from smallest to largest.

On the small end of the scale are the keychain LEDs. I bought my first one, went into the completely dark garage and was BLOWN away with the amount of light they put out. My first one was a Photon Nova. Subsequently, I bought a dozen simple, economical squeeze lights, which I put on my lower use key chains and gave to my family and friends. I wanted everyone to have this simple level of security. Imagine being in stairwell or basement during a power outage and being the person that can get yourself and those around you out safely with a light, just an inch long and weighting an ounce or two.

Here is my advice on key chain lights. Buy one of the Photon Nova lights for yourself. I will admit they are expensive, about $19. But the battery seems to last forever, I have used mine for several years. Normally you will use it simply by squeezing the button, but it does a have tiny switch to hold it on if you need both hands free.

The second part of my advice is to buy ten of the Economical key chain lights and give them friends and family. These cost about $2.49 each. They are a little bigger than the Photon.

One of my favorites are the Super Bright Luxeon 1 Watt LED that is ten times brighter than Standard LEDs and still has a run time of up to 30 hours on one set of batteries.

Another favorite is the LED Flash and Flood Flashlight. This light has 16 LEDs and one Krypton bulb. The LEDs should basically last forever, you will probably have to replace the Krypton Bulb. But, the focused bright flashlight is probably worth it. Even if you lose the Krypton Bulb, you will have the 16 LEDs.

A third favorite is the LED, pen, stylus and laser pointer. Having the laser pointer might be handy for a presentation, but would probably be put to better use playing with your cat.

I recently say a LED flashlight with a stun gun built in. This might be a perfect light for a car in a high crime area.

The Sentina wall light is the LED version of the flashlight, night light, and emergency light. In a dark room, the top light is triggered by any nearby movement, and will stay brightly lit for 1 minute, to light your way safely at night. It's also a conventional night light - it will turn on at dusk, and shut off at dawn. In an emergency, it will also automatically turn on if the power goes out, and stay on for up to 8 hours. Unplug it and it can be used as a take along flashlight:

In a true emergency, you may find the batteries that have been in your flashlight for the last five years are dead. This is a time that you want a flashlight that does not need batteries. There are two types that fit in the category, shake lights and crank lights.

The shake light charges by simply moving a magnet through a coil of wire while you shake it. This produces energy and it is stored in a capacitor for use. If this is more than you want to hear, let it suffice to say, you shake it for a minute or so and you get about 15 to 30 minutes of light.

The other style of human powered lights is a crank light. In this case you flip open the handle and crank it for a minute and you get up to an hour of light.

There are two possible drawbacks with the shake light, known as the Forever Flashlight. One is the switch can be activated by accident while under a car seat. This is not a big deal because you can just shake it for a minute and have light, that is the point of the light. The second drawback is it is larger than the crank light.

The cranklight, called the Illuminator and Illuminator II, gives you the choice between using one LED or three. The switch probably will not be accidentally activated. The possible drawback is the teeth on the crank are probably plastic and eventually may wear out. The Illuminator II adds an AM/FM Radio to the Package.

Of these three lights I prefer the Illuminator II. I choose it for size, radio and switch.

If you work in poor light, hunt or like to backpack, you should own this type of light. They come with elastic straps to hold them on your head, helmet, or over a cap. If you want both hands free and good light, buy one of these. I carry one in my Camelback all the time. I have no intention of ever getting stuck on a dark trail without a light. I like the Super Bright Luxeon model. Back when I was spelunking I would have loved to have had something that lasted for 30 hours.

For those of you that like day packing and car camping, check out the LED lanterns. These Look quite similar to the Coleman gas light, but they last longer, don't need smelly fuel and are QUIET, none of that #%@$ hissing while you are camping in a beautiful quiet place. They can go for 12 days on a low setting and 40 hours on the brightest setting. These are a must buy for car camping.

I just ran across this one while I was writing this report. This conversion kit converts your Mini Maglite to a LED light and adds a push button on off switch to the end. Pretty Cool!