09:30 – No kit sales for December so far, although I do have three kits ordered yesterday boxed up and ready to ship. Those are credited to November.
I just ordered another five of these flashlights for $3.44 each, including shipping. I’ve compared these Ultrafires side-by-side with similar Fenix and Streamlight models, and I can see absolutely no reason to pay 10 to 20 times as much for a Fenix or Streamlight. If you do that, you’re paying for the name. The Ultrafires appear to be just as well built, including the switches. The Ultrafires are, if anything, brighter than the name brands. They use standard AA alkalines, NiMH rechargeables, or 14500 lithiums. I’ve never bothered to use lithiums, because standard cheap AAs from Costco provide 1 to 1.5 hours of continuous light–much longer used intermittently–and are more than bright enough.
I bought one of these two or three years ago and have carried and used it ever since, with zero problems. It even went into the washing machine once, with no apparent damage. A year ago, I ordered a couple more and gave one of them to Barbara to carry in her purse. Six months ago, I ordered four more, two for each of our car emergency kits.
I’d suggest people buy a bunch of them as stocking stuffers, but it’s probably too late for that. The $3.44 price is for product shipped directly from China or Hong Kong, which probably won’t arrive until after the 25th. You can order them via Amazon Prime, but you’ll have to pay two or three times as much.
Good tip.
Someone in the comments has a question, though:
“What taking so long with my order.?”
“A: The Pacific Ocean”
Six weeks seems to indicate one of them old-timey Hong Kong junks…
Overcast here and our couple of inches of snow from a few days ago has disappeared, except up in the woods. Continuing with the multitude of house chores…
Hi Have the Ultrafire C3 3W Mini UV Torch
Its a nice bit of kit handy for general “security ink ” type work also for looking for scorpions (they glow under uv) saved a few stings in SA the other month
My biggest complaint with many flashlights is where if they get bumped they go off and you have to shake them or smack the side of them to get them to come back on. The sheer number of flashlights on the market like that is astounding. I would say 80% of flashlights sold have that problem.
Perhaps Mr. Ray The Flashlight King ™ can weigh in on the Ultrafire.
Jeff Bezos is a racist shit-head!
How could he use robots and eliminate all those jobs for incoming crimmigrant pseudo-citizens.
I’m thinking about smashing my Kindle Voyage in protest!
Finally some good news: Fartinacan threatens to tear the country apart over Ferguson.
And Obummer is having a summit on Ferguson. With Sharpless. Could he pick a less effective leader of the Black community?
Again, where’s Jackwagon?
Perhaps Mr. Ray The Flashlight King ™ can weigh in on the Ultrafire.
Those lights use rejected CREE (maybe) LED’s. The color is off, the performance is off. My guess is that they are not real CREE LED’s but some cheap knockoff. We all know how well the Chinese respect intellectual property and copyrights.
The presence of a magnifying lens is a giveaway to a cheap light using low performance LED’s. The lens is used to concentrate the light output to give the impression of more light being available. You get a concentrated central spot but limited spill. Not good for general illumination in the woods at night. Fenix and Surefire all have flat lenses.
There is no variable light output. You get one mode, ON. With the Fenix lights you get multiple levels of output, generally four. This allows you to select the mode that is most appropriate for the use. You don’t need full output when you are only looking at an object a couple of feet away. The strobe and SOS functions of the Fenix and other such lights is a dubious feature in my opinion, multiple output levels is a valuable feature.
I would also wager that under rough use these lights will suffer from what Chad complains about. The Fenix and other such brands will not suffer from these issues.
Where I in a situation where very reliable light source is required I would be using Surefire first, Fenix second. I would not rely on the cheap Chinese lights. For general use around the house the Chinese lights are probably OK.
CR-123 cells have exceptional shelf life, well beyond Alkaline. CR-123 cells also will maintain a constant output over their life. You can get Lithium AA cells which I would recommend over Alkaline for any “prepping” light. I don’t know if the Chinese lights will run properly on the lower voltage of the Lithium cells whereas Fenix lights will operate.
But if you are spending thousands on storing up food and supplies for a disaster situation, why cheap out on the lights? Saving a few dollars that may bite you in the ass later is just not wise. I would think you would want something that you know is reliable and robust.
For knock around the house, toss when they fail, crappy light quality, the Chinese lights are probably OK.
Well, as I said, I’ve been using one of these lights pretty heavily for a couple or three years now, and I’ve had none of the problems you describe.
And it’s not just a “few dollars”. It’s 10 or 20 times the price. I just checked Amazon, and I see that the brand-name equivalents of these single-AA lights are anything from $35 to $70+. Believe me, I’d rather spend the same money on 10 or 20 of these than one of the Fenix/Streamlight/Surefire models. Also, you can buy similar models with different outputs for just a couple bucks more.
As far as focusing, these inexpensive lights can focus from a very broad floodlight pattern to a very narrow intense pattern simply by sliding the barrel. At tightest focus, the LED structure is actually visible when you project the beam at a wall.
If you gave me the choice between one of these UltraFire lights versus one of the name-brand lights, I might take the name-brand light just on general principles. But I’d probably sell it on eBay and use the proceeds to buy a bunch of the UltraFires.
Yeah, it’s easy to spend thousands on prepping, but most people have to make resource allocation decisions. And there are a whole lot of other places that it’d make more sense to use that money differential.
I endorse Mr. Ray’s position on them lights, and for example, lights on a home defense or tactical firearm in my view ought to be Surefire and that’s what I have.
Ditto in the vehicles.
For the usual mundane stuff in the house, the cheap crap is OK. But waiting six bloody weeks for them?? I don’t think so.
“And there are a whole lot of other places that it’d make more sense to use that money differential.”
Light is one of the fundamentals of being prepared, along with heat, water and food. If ya cain’t see what yer doing…
I already have tactical clamps for our shotguns. One of the things on my to-do list is to put one of these UltraFires on a gun and run some heavy loads through it to see if the recoil damages the flashlight. Obviously, I won’t have sufficient data points to achieve statistical significance, but I will point out that I have had an expensive name-brand flashlight fail after being dropped from waist level onto asphalt paving. I have also tested one of these Ultrafires by dropping it seven feet onto a concrete surface a dozen or so times. In terms of g-force, that’s a pretty significant jolt. The light showed only minor cosmetic damage, and continues to work just fine. Perhaps you or Ray could repeat that experiment with your name-brand lights and let me know what happens.
Light is one of the fundamentals of being prepared, along with heat, water and food. If ya cain’t see what yer doing…
Yes. My family thinks that I am weird because I keep Coleman Rugged LED lanterns all around the house:
http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Personal-Size-Rugged-LED-Lantern/dp/B001TS4TC2/
And I love the Fenix E21 flashlights. I have two of them in all vehicles and several in the house. Two AA batteries last in them for about 3 to 4 hours (I walk two miles with one every night). I have given many of them away for Christmas presents also. But they sure have zoomed up in price lately from $30 to $50:
http://www.amazon.com/Fenix-E21-Flashlight-Battery-E21R4BK-B/dp/B00C5WJ44E/
I have dropped the Fenix E21 flashlights many, many times in my endless journeys around the neighborhood. And they are also waterproof to several feet as I used one in the pool several feet down fixing a threaded nipple for my creepy crawly.
“Perhaps you or Ray could repeat that experiment with your name-brand lights and let me know what happens.”
Speaking for myself, if you send me a dozen or so Surefires or we can get Surefire to do so, I’ll test them out accordingly. Sadly, though, we only have a gravel driveway. I’d do it in the street but don’t wanna annoy the neighbors.
“My family thinks that I am weird…”
Mine has thought that about me for over half a century.
“And they are also waterproof to several feet…”
This is good to know, living on a very large lake as we do, and also canoeing and kayaking in the wommuh weathuh.
I’m not sure about the UltraFires’ water resistance. IIRC, they’re rated for 2 meter immersion, but I may be making that up. As I mentioned, I did accidentally run one through the washing machine with a load of clothes and it lit up when I pulled it out.
And there are a whole lot of other places that it’d make more sense to use that money differential.
There are a few places you don’t swap quality for money. One is toilet paper. Two is lights on which you depend for survival. Compare the beams of the name brand lights to the Chinese stuff. Marked difference. Run time is probably much better with the name brand, especially when you can select multiple light levels.
I have never had a Fenix or Surefire light exhibit a problem. I have had problems with cheap lights so I avoid the cheap lights in situations where there are no second chances. Survival situation may be one of those situations. If the situation is dire enough that you need to expend some of those thousand rounds of ammunition, having a light cop out on you is not something you should desire.
Buy the cheap lights to use around the house, chase neighborhood kids, look in dark corners of the cupboards, but don’t skimp on the light where your life may depend on the product. I would rather have a product that has been extensively tested by the manufacturer rather than something cobbled together as cheaply as possible. I think you need at least one decent, quality light.
As I said, I already have one. Two or three, actually. Including the Kel-lite that came with my High Standard 10B shotgun. That one served with the tunnel rats in Viet Nam. But I won’t be buying any more of them.
“That one served with the tunnel rats in Viet Nam.”
Almost always skinny little buggers not much larger than the VC they went in after; what a waste of manpower, though, I always thought; pour in a drum of gasoline and toss in a couple of grenades and Bob’s yer uncle. A couple of EOD guys I knew use to wire up the entrances/exit holes nicely when we found them. When Charlie pops up…BANG!
Typical “Big Gummint” response to Ferguson: Obummer to ask for $263 million to fix police with training and cameras. More money, more money. Those cameras will probably fail. A lot. I guess giving the popo all that mil-spec hardware wasn’t such a good idea. They also want to “look at” the militarization of the popo.
Is that a quarter-billion just for Ferguson or the whole country’s police departments? I’m too lazy to look it up right now. If only Ferguson, do the math and figure how many trillions for ALL the Murkan departments. If not only Ferguson, it will take more than just money to fix the cops nationwide; from what I’ve seen, read and heard, recruitment and training actively suck rocks.
The State’s answer to ANY problem is ALWAYS more money and more power for them. The State expands infinitely.
But what to do, what to do…try anarcho-capitalism or just plain old anarchy and see how long it is until some individuals form into groups and them and the groups start exercising statist power over the others. It’s like the elephant’s trunk under the tent; how long can you keep stomping on it and chasing it back and forth?
Hell, even in these small rural northern New England towns with our mythical Norman Rockwell town meetings descended from the frigging Vikings there is always somebody who hankers to control somebody else and will exercise whatever methods and tricks he or she can finagle.
Those cameras will probably fail.
I have read that the TSA’s cameras frequently “fail” when there is a claim of improper behavior by a TSA employee. I suspect that there will be a lot of fortuitous camera failures.
Rick in Portland
Gee, is that like all those failed/crashed hard drives at the IRS and other Fed agencies in recent times? Must be some kind of hardware virus sweeping through Fed machines exclusively. I’d look closely into the North Koreans and Slovakians….
Those cameras will probably fail. A lot.
Indeed. As others have stated I have no faith that any evidence that is contrary to the police version will not be available because of a failed camera, failed storage media, officer forgot to activate, etc. All manner of excuses. That is of course unless the video supports the officer’s version. Then the video will be crystal clear with the ability to read the license plate number reflected off the rear view mirror of a motorcycle parked 4 blocks away. At least according to the CSI shows I have seen.
I’d look closely into the North Koreans and Slovakians….
Check their supplier. I suspect it’s Acme.
“…the video will be crystal clear with the ability to read the license plate number reflected off the rear view mirror of a motorcycle parked 4 blocks away.”
Not only that, but the new cutting-edge, high-tech law enforcement video gear will pick up the fingerprints and DNA from that plate as well. Current lab development efforts focus on securing instant internet access to a local court and judge for automatic guilty verdict and sentencing.
” I suspect it’s Acme.”
Given the level of incompetence and idiocy, that’s a very good bet.
re the cheapie flashlights: I bought ten earlier this year when RBT recommended them. Gave them to family members to put in purses and backpacks, and they work admirably for the intended purpose and expected use.
The expected use includes losing them. As expected, my wife uses her flashlight fairly often, and also loses it fairly often. I’m much less annoyed about losing a $3.44 flashlight than I would be about losing a $20 flashlight.
We have other flashlights, bigger, better quality, and much more expensive, for more rugged use and for emergencies. The cheapies are for day-to-day casual use.
re piggiecams, the only thing that will work will to be to have a presumption of wrongdoing if the cop’s camera mysteriously fails. In theory, that’s not an impossible step. In theory, there’s something like that now, regarding seized documents or cellphones or whatever, in which if the non-cop says the material would show he’s innocent of what he’s charged with or would show wrongdoing by a cop, and the material is mysteriously lost or damaged while in police custody, the court will presume that the material did in fact show what the non-cop says it did. In practice, that rule is not followed punctiliously.
One other thing to consider on the cheap lights. The specifications indicate 7 watts. That is impossible. That would require a current draw of 5 amperes from the battery. There is no possible way for a single AA alkaline battery to provide 5 amperes of power. Internal resistance will keep that from happening. Even a single CR-123 battery would be straining to be provide 5 amperes for any more than a few seconds with generating significant heat.
Even if the battery could push 5 amperes dissipating that much power from the LED requires some sophisticated heat sinking technology. Such technology will not be found on a $4.00 light. The result of not removing the heat is the destruction of the LED die or significant reduction in output.
High end lights have temperature sensors that monitor the LED temperature and will scale back the power to avoid destroying the LED. This goes well beyond the simple inclusion of a boost circuit with no intelligence. You can’t just hook an LED and a resistor to a LED an expect long term functioning.
Of course a valid counter to that is the lights are cheap and can simply be tossed when they fail. However do you really want a light that has all the earmarks of failure for your emergency light? Run those lights for the life of a lithium cell and see the results. Running for a few seconds or a few minutes is probably OK. Run the light for an hour and the results may be not so great. An alkaline cell will drop it’s output power as the cell heats up and internal resistance climbs That may protect the light but will also dim the output. In a survival situation the ability to run a light for several hours would be most valuable.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call Mr. Ray the Flashlight King.
We have cheapies for round da house and I gots Surefire on the tactical stuff and in the vehicles.
This is my current model. Have three of them including a pink one for daughter’s nightstand. Waterproof and floats too. Seem tough.
http://www.amazon.com/Dorcy-41-2510-Waterproof-Flashlight-Carabineer/dp/B0039PV1QK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417479740&sr=8-2&keywords=flashlights
For a good work light try one of these. Very bright with swivel clip and magnet holder. Used plenty and have yet to change the batteries over three years.
http://www.amazon.com/Nebo-5897-NEBO-Larry-Light-Magnetic/dp/B008YFU0YY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1417480267&sr=8-3&keywords=larry+flashlights
Now Obummer wants to use an Executive order to rein in popo use of mil-spec equipment. Give it to them, take it away. Whatevs. More regs on the books.
Obola won the election to be prez. He should be able to do anything he wants to do, after all, elections mean things.
Damn, some of y’all got yer wittle avatar pics up now. Cool.
I gotta figure out how to do that. Somebody told us but I forgot. (I’m old and slipping fast…)
Watched the Jets kick the Dolphins around in the first half, but the latter finally got their chit together enough to win with a field goal in the end. All in all, a pretty sloppy game tonight.
Mrs. OFD reports from Philly that some of the dorks in her class were fiddling with their cell phones and laptops during said class; she told them to turn off all their electronic devices and now she sez she’s the bitch. I say, fuck ’em. Don’t make me fly down there and kick ass. These ignorant swine have gummint orgs paying a couple grand each for them to attend these things and get certified as instructors and sometimes it’s quite clear that they’d be better off in a tire-changing shop or running the register at Burger King. When they can even speak English. How they get in is a mystery, except, wait, yeah, gummint offices send them.
“…elections mean things…” Huh??
That musta been a typo; ERECTIONS mean things.
As long as we’re discussing prepping supplies, there are some interesting items here:
https://www.dailysteals.com/collection/1348/Prepare-Yourself
Stun guns, pepper spray, tactical vests, ….
As for flashlights, “Mr Flashlight” … how about this one? https://www.dailysteals.com/p/37913/LEDion-1000-Lumen-Cree-XML-T6-Tactical-Flashlight-with-Adjustable-Focus-Ring–Water-Resistant-Construction–2-Rechargeable-Batteries–Digital-Battery-Charger-and-Anti-Roll-Design?__r=1 for $20…?
“The days of Norman Rockwell are gone and this is what I fear is unfolding as the Domestic War Cycle turns up. We are more likely than not going to see widespread violence targeted against the police after 2015.75. Once the economy turns down, the frustration against government will rise up like the 1960s. This time, it will not just be a black issue. The militarization of the police has no boundary of race, creed, or gender.”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/12/no_author/this-is-what-happens-when-you-call-the-cops/
Damn, some of y’all got yer wittle avatar pics up now. Cool.
OFD, go to Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) and sign up.
During the sign-up process click on the Help button on the top Navbar, then the link for how do I sign up. You will be given instructions for signing up with WordPress.
Once you have registered with both sites, you will be able to assign avatars to different email accounts for use in different places.
You can change your avatar for any of your registered email addresses at any time and Gravatar will automagically update to the new avatar for all your older posts.
Gravatar is recognized by WordPress, Disqus and several other sites (there’s a partial list at the bottom of the Gravatar home page).
I have images for use here and at Disqus, plus some spares I am not currently using. You might have noticed that I had 2 different avatars here before I settled on the “America For Sale” one I am using currently.
That musta been a typo; ERECTIONS mean things.
At my age I will have to bow to your experience Mr. OFD.
As for flashlights, “Mr Flashlight” … how about this one?
Nice light. I think it would make a good survival light. But the specs should be taken with some suspicion. There is no way that light is truly 1,000 lumens. They may have measured at the LED surface instead of at the lens where it really counts. I may buy one as one can never have too many lights. And I won’t lose them in some river.
I am not a fan of rechargeable batteries for lights. Unless the batteries are kept charged they will slowly deplete their charge over time, such time becoming longer with newer battery technology. I would rather have a light where I can store batteries with long shelf lives. Once one set runs down, swap in another. With rechargeable you have to have a charger and power. Unless you have a spare set of batteries that is charged you wait until until the charge cycle completes.
I have a 24″ monitor and I can’t discern 99% of avatars — especially Facebook and those tiny, tiny things on Firefox tabs. So I never mess with them. Having seen some pretty ugly stuff during my career in the media, with people who became instantly recognizable, I want to be like the female DJ at KSTP in St. Paul when I lived there, who did not use her real name and only allowed the station to use publicity photos showing her back at the control board. What I witnessed during my long TV career cured me of ever wanting to be identifiable. Having a bodyguard is just too expensive.
I am not a fan of rechargeable batteries for lights.
Me too. Or is that me either? Or me neither? I’m not sure that east Texan distinguishes between any of these. It seems that those rechargeable batteries always fail about the third time that I use them.
I am looking forward to the ultra capacitor batteries. I just do not want to be around when they go to ground and discharge all at once. A kwhr does not seem like much until it happens in your pocket.
Either is a one or the other. Neither is not one nor the other.
Oh, now I’ve gone and introduced or and nor! Since we’re talking about batteries, consider “either or” as positive and “neither nor” as a negative.
All my flashlights use AAs. I decided to standardize on that a long time ago, because most of my other stuff uses them. Works for me. I have used various NiMh cells for about ten years, including some low self discharge types. All except the cheapies that came with products have been long-lived. Actually, they almost never die, but their capacity slowly decreases.
Recently, I bought some Eneloop AA cells. Their capacity is lower than regular cells, but they claim to be able to sustain 2100 charge-discharge cycles. This brand seems to be highly recommended by people who use and abuse cells a lot.
I first started using nickel-cadmium cells decades ago in electronic flash units. They were the only small cells that could put out enough current, not counting (then) wet lead-acid batteries.
Lately, I have had excellent service from lithium rechargeable cells. They are getting more affordable, too.
Batteries are improving, but have a long way to go. Ultracapacitors may take some of the pressure off.
I bought some Eneloop AA cells. Their capacity is lower than regular cells, but they claim to be able to sustain 2100 charge-discharge cycles.
I use Enelope exclusively in my portable strobe units. I find their capacity to match any of the other rechargeables on the market, if not better. They have high current capacity which works well with the demands of an electronic flash. They also have a very low discharge rate, supposedly lower than many other rechargeable cells.
I have several AA lights, some two cell, some single cell. Those are my everyday use lights and I run lithium AA cells in those lights because I want the relatively level output until almost depleted. Lithium cells are also not as prone to leaks as alkaline cells.
I have also have several CR-123 lights, some single cell, some double cell. Those lights are what get placed in strategic locations for emergency use. The CR-123 cells have a very long shelf life, current draw is superb, basically in the dozens of amperes if shorted due to low internal resistance. CR-123 cells are expensive, almost $2.00 each as I only buy from Surefire. Their batteries are well protected internally and well made as I don’t want a lithium battery running wild.
Batteries do vex me this week, Daughter said the upstairs thermostat wasn’t working. No display. Me thinks batteries. Take off the cover and find one of the three AA has leaked. Worse they are mounted over the circuit board and have leaked down over it. Well try anyway and use a little vinegar to clean it up and insert three new ones. Turns out the thing works but still no display. The heat runs for awhile and shuts off but we really have no idea where we are at. Screw it, order a new one for $21 off Amazon. Be here in two days. Has a backlite display so it should be an improvement. Rayovac alkies. Probably three years in there.
On TG MIL’s tv starts acting up shutting off on it’s own. SIL big Seahawks fan and getting pissed. Sometimes won’t come on. Take the original control which is normally not used. Leaky Duracell AA in that. No real damage clean it up and replace. Decide 15 year old high end Sony 32″ Trinitron is a goner. Ladies going shopping on Friday and get a good bargain Westinghouse 40″ at Target for like $250. Have tvs really become cheap now? (I’ve had a 50″ WH for two years and it’s really surprised me how good it is.) Notice most consumer electronics now come with batteries included. Two off brand AAA for remote.
Decided it really needed a HD box as the old one analog only picture was lousy. Four o’clock Friday and a quick trip to Templeton to get a replacement. (Every thing in SLO county is 30-40 miles away). No one at Charter Cable office except two reps just hanging around. Something to say for small towns. In Bakersfield it would have easily been 30 minutes in line at Brighthouse. New large number remote. Two off brand AAA included too.
Big problem was getting rid of that Sony. Damn thing must have been over a hundred pounds. Only other male present was my 7 year old nephew. At 63 I’m not doing 100# lifts anymore. My niece(34 and healthy) and I managed to get it down to a dolly and out to the driveway. Barely managed to get it up to the tailgate on the SUV. Called the disposal place in Paso Robles (another 30 mi trip) and she had to go because there was only one guy and he would/could not unload it alone. They managed there too. Well all is well at MIL’s now.
Got home and my FireTV stick was here. Two batteries included. Branded Amazon but I’m sure they’re cheap foreign made too. Works great and a fantastic picture. Used to be I could not get decent wifi in my living room and the only device that would work well was the Wii so we used that for Netflix and Amazon Prime down there. I’ve since added a TP-Link router in WDS extend mode in the kitchen and have decent wifi at that end of the house. The Wii is not HD however so the FireTV looks really good.
So once again NetFlix would not stream worth crap last night. Amazon works fine so it shouldn’t be my network. No one else was home so it was just me. I’m thinking it’s becoming congested at the ISP peering point. This has become a common tactic of ISPs to extort money from NF. It mostly occurs during prime time.
“This has become a common tactic of ISPs to extort money from NF. It mostly occurs during prime time.”
I wish I had the straight scoop on this business with the ISPs throttling bandwidth and playing games with congestion points. Prime time slowdowns here, too, much like the bad old days of AO-Hell when kids got home from skool and adults home from work all at the same time, logging on. I know there are at least two other Comcast wireless customers in this immediate ‘hood…
Well DSLreports.com is one of those sites I read regularly. Lots of good stuff about telcos, cable companies, ISPs and content providers. Worth checking out. They’ve had several articles about the NF issues with peering points. ISPs just won’t upgrade unless they get money. Level 3 studied the issues around it and noted the source was the ISPs.
Thanks, Mr. dkreck; I’ll check that out. I’m guessing Fairpoint has a pretty lousy rep by now in there.
I asked about rechargeable batteries and chargers back in 2005 on the old HardwareGuys.com message board. Is Thomas Distributing still the going recommendation for online battery needs and is Maha still the best name out there in chargers?
Batteries Plus is building a lot of storefronts here in The Great State of Texas. They are building a good rep here. Not sure about their presence outside Texas.
http://www.batteriesplus.com/
I switched to Ray-O-Vac after a comparison study somewhere showed they outlasted both Eveready and Duracell. Have had quite a number of Eveready’s leak; so far, never a Ray-O-Vac.
One thing I have done is switch batteries in everything on 1 Jan whether it is needed it or not. At Xmas, the inventory flies out of stores, so buying around that time usually gets sales and fresh stock. My leaks always happen in things that I have forgotten about, or devices that use batteries I was not aware of. Fortunately, my thermostat (Honeywell) is designed so the batteries are on the side in a removable case. If they leaked, the case is surrounded and not over anything like circuit boards.
Other source of leaking batteries are friends and family who get leaks and want me to clean them up.
Every video device we use at work now has at least one battery in it — if only to hold settings and clock time, all of our microphones use button batteries, so that is a lot of batteries to change.
Also check out batteryjunction.com. They occasionally have good sales for People with Patience ™.
Although Maha is good, there are now others that look good. My two Mahas are still working fine.
Haven’t seen the Thomas site in a while.
Ray, I like single cell flashlights: no matching of individual cells. Using AAs does limit the light output compared to better cells, but many of the newer lights are very useful. I also have lights that use two AAs, and even one that uses four. Agree about the ability to have lower light levels. My Sunwayman D40A has a surprisingly useful 1 lumen “firefly” level, and four more up to a top level mode that can only run for about a minute, after which it drops to about half that. That “turbo” mode is claimed to be 980 lumens, and is actually believeable. I don’t have instruments, but I compared it to an 800 lumen 60 watt incandescent bulb in a reflector clamp light. Shined both up to a white ceiling, and they lit up a room about the same except for color temperature. Impressive. Throw is good, too. There is a hill across the street, and I can illuminate it almost as well as some of my much bigger “searchlights.” All that in a compact package.
I just ordered an Olight ST25, which claims 550 lumens from two AAs. Will hold opinions til I get it, but several reviews are very positive. I like the 6″ long form factor for its other uses, but those 3.5″ single AA lights fit a pocket really nicely.
There are lots of much better lights on the market, mostly at higher prices, but some lower. It would be nice to go to a store and try out a few dozen, but I don’t know of such stores. We live in interesting times!
Man oh man, the education one can get in lights here! Astounding! I was patently clueless!
Yeah, that was a little snarky, but seriously, I appreciate it a lot; light is one of the elementals for any serious prepping, along with heat and wottuh. And food. And the complete greatest hits of Barry Manilow.
A bit off-topic: I find it somehow strange that all the other battery sizes seem to be falling into disuse. AA is a nice size for something that needs to be small. If small is less important, you used to see C or D cells. Recently, when I’ve seen devices that wanted to offer more life, they put 4 AAs next to each other, where I once would have expected to see a single D-cell. That’s a waste of space: I just looked up the specs for one random battery type, and the D-cell would offer around 60% more capacity.
Granted, in some cases, it may be about the voltage. But I don’t remember the last time I saw a new device that took C or D cells – everything is AA.
As with so many things I’ve had good luck by batteries from Amazon. Of course the best deals usually involve buying in quantities of 20 or more. AA, AAA and coin sizes seem to be the trend. About the only thing I still have that uses D are a couple of camping lanterns. One is florescent and one led both in the traditional camp lantern size and each require 8 D cells and last forever. Good for in tent but I prefer a propane for outdoors as they are much brighter but you do have to screw with mantles. Both battery ones are good at home for power outages (which are rare here).
The Ultrafires are, if anything, brighter than the name brands.
Brighter is not a feature, it is probably a problem. Brighter means stressing the (cheap) electronics more. Brighter means more heat, heat that may shorten the life of the electronics. When otherwise comparable expensive lights are not as bright it is probably because they are better engineered.
Not saying the cheap lights aren’t worth the money (and maybe more), that is a different issue.
Maybe so. In this, as in so much else, it’s difficult to separate the reality from the marketing hype. I’ve looked at both the cheap lights and the expensive ones. I’m not a process engineer, but my guess is that the expensive ones may cost maybe a buck more to manufacture, if that. (The expensive ones I’ve looked at were also made in China.)
I don’t have the time or the budget to do any real testing on things like recoil resistance, failure rates, and so on, and certainly not sufficient to give statistically significant results for any of these things. But my strong impression is that the expensive brands are little to no better in quality than the cheap ones. I’d guess the cheap ones probably cost $1 to $1.25 in actual materials and labor, with next to nothing spent on QC. The brand names might actually cost twice that, call it $2.50 each in materials and labor. I don’t think that justifies a 10X to 20X differential in price.
I’ve looked at both the cheap lights and the expensive ones.
Have you actually owned and used one of the expensive lights vs the cheap ones? You will find a difference in quality, durability and light quality.
In the expensive lights you will find light color that is not some weird blue or cat piss green. You will find an even beam with a nice even spill. You will find a light gives consistent output over the life of the battery using regulation circuits that monitor the LED and prevent harm. You will find cases that are thicker and made of a more expensive alloy. You will find better heat dissipation from the LED. You will find threads that will not gall up from continued use of twisting.
Are those features worth the extra dollars? For a knock around, toss in the bottom of the tool box, don’t care if you lose the light the cheap lights are OK. I have several that I have lost over time (just not in a river). I have had some cheap lights that I tossed because they just quit working.
If I wanted a light that I was going to depend on in a survival situation I would have one of the quality and more expensive lights. Certainly not the $2,820.00 Surefire ARC2-8C, but something along the lines of the Fenix LD41 which uses AA cells, provides 150 hours of illumination on low, 680 lumens on max for over an hour for a cost of $76.95. Relative to the cost of the rest of the survival equipment such a price for a decent and reliable light is a no-brainer.
For the same money, I’d rather have 20 of the cheap lights than one $75 light. Truth be told, I’d rather have two of the cheap ones. There’s an old saying among preppers: “two is one, and one is none.”
Quantity is its own quality, as the Wehrmacht found out going up against the Red Army, as Custer found out going up against the Indians, as Quintilius Varus found out going up against Arminius and his Germanic horde in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and so on.