Anybody knows about the Costco LED 145Lu Cree LED Flashlight?

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e9999

e9999

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since i recently discovered that there are people here with scary expertise and interest in flashlights and I followed a bit the discussion on the extra powerful lights available out there, I wanted to ask about the 145 Lumens Cree LED light I saw in an ad. It's a Leatherman Monarch 500 with 6 (!) AAA. It is supposed to be available in the stores. Have not seen one yet and could not find anything much online.

Anybody knows about this thing? Good quality, good light intensity and pattern etc? Good buy?
 
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I remember seeing a costco ad for it, couldn't find it last time I was at costco a few days ago.
 
not at mine either
 
Ask the stock room person to see when they are in. The local Costco ordered 500+ lights that were supposed to be in on Monday. I haven't had time to stop by yet.
 
The Leatherman Monarch is available at the PDX airport area Costco, it says it is 145 lumen, and is a Cree LED, it is packaged so you can turn it on and view it's light output at the store. It is pretty bright, but can't tell much in the brightly lit store. My wife was with me, and after buying 2 flashlights (Rayovac and Task Force Crees) in the last couple weeks, she put the foot down on buying another. She thinks I'm crazy. But it would be nice to have a smaller form factor light like the 3@ AAA-cell Leatherman, with the same output as my 2@ C-cell, and 3@ C-cell Crees.
 
they finally made it to my Costco, $30.
It's bright all right but hard to tell if it's unusually so.
Any expert opinion on whether it's a must buy or not?


added: wow! read some of the threads on this light in the candlepowerforums... These guys are more into lights than we are into cruisers... :)
general consensus seems to be that it's a decent light and good buy but has some technical issues
 
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last night on NBC Nightly News.......they talked about LED was gonna replace most all lightinig, even some towns are changing out street lighting to LED, huge savings in just 4 years.

so the news is out ;)
 
not at my Costco either.....save ya a trip to WA :D

calamaridog said:
I can't find this light. Tried two different Costco's. I'll try one more before giving up.
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They only had two small cases of them at the PDX costco, a few weeks ago (I hinted heavily so hope to see one in my stocking), but when I was there about a week later, I couldn't find any.
 
I think that technology is over the head of the general public so not obvious that they will sell well.

I was at the Costco playing with the light, checking for blue tint. This younger guy comes over, looks at them, and comments on the price for only a *1* LED light. Says his headlight has *5* LEDs and was cheaper... :rolleyes:



[to summarize some of the tech discussions on the light, a couple of significant drawbacks seem to be that the focusing feature is worthless as in big hole in the center if you widen the beam, and the running time is only something like an hour or 2 with alkaline AAAs. Still a good light if you need brief bursts of powerful light, for burglars, bears etc, I guess... :D ]
 
e9999 said:
[to summarize some of the tech discussions on the light, a couple of significant drawbacks seem to be that the focusing feature is worthless as in big hole in the center if you widen the beam, and the running time is only something like an hour or 2 with alkaline AAAs. Still a good light if you need brief bursts of powerful light, for burglars, bears etc, I guess... :D ]
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I would be very happy with 1-2 hours of quality light on only a couple of triple-A batteries. A small, powerful flashlight light like that, is not meant to be a 8 hour work light...
 
well, Santa did somehow figure out I had looked at that light in the store and talked about it at home... :D He's way smart too cuz when I went to my Costco a few days ago they were out already...

it is bright indeed! Can't quite compare to other LEDs but sure way brighter than even my big Maglites.
What I like a lot is that the tight spot setting is nicely round and pretty small too. But as mentioned, when you open up the focus there is a big dark hole in the middle.
Feels very sturdy, quite heavy. Nice to have.
 
Santa brought me one too! I believe it is the same led emitter as the rayovac and taskforce, it is a cree LED. It uses a reflector instead of a collimator (sp?) lens. It is not quite as bright as the C-cell cree LEDs I have, but pretty close. I haven't put new batteries in yet, so the original batteries could be a factor in the brightness. It is best to just leave the beam focused, as widening the beam just dims the output. It is heavy, and better machined than the aforementioned lights, and also has a very nice molded codura case. I think they only had these in stock for a few days.

I think it is a "special" deal for leatherman, as their factory/headquarters is right next to my costco, and when I stopped at the factory store last week, they didn't have any of these lights.
 
how far does the light project? LED lights don't seem to have the projection that my krypton maglight, the exception is one I've seen that has a projector type lens, like on a HID light
 
along said:
how far does the light project? LED lights don't seem to have the projection that my krypton maglight, the exception is one I've seen that has a projector type lens, like on a HID light
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I would guess that you would have a very visible beam for 200'+. I know i can make out any detail I want to at 115', beyond that I have light pollution from neighbors/streetlights, etc, so can't say for sure how far out it is effective. From the comparison pics on the flashlight forums, this light will outperform a krypton maglight pretty easily. If you haven't seen a Luxeon 3 watt or a Cree LED, you don't know what you are missing, other LEDs or those "9 LED" or "15 LED" type lights are garbage in comparison.
 
I did try out the light outside. In the dark, I could illuminate and see clearly a house something like 200 yds away. Wasn't like bright daylight, obviously, but I could have seen easily somebody walking there I think.

From memory I think this one is much brighter than my big 3D Maglite. And the white light makes it look brighter certainly. I'll do a test.

I also did note that there is a fairly bright halo around the central spot, so the lack of flood capability is not as bad as I feared.

I still would like to figure out how good these "3W" LED replacement inserts for Maglites are.
 
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