Utility Light

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I find them crappy ,poor light and battery.
There are better lights and battery combos .
Cree diodes have been out for years , but just trickling into North America .

DealExtreme: $9.92 SIPIK SK68 Cree Q3-WC 120-Lumen Convex Lens LED Flashlight - Black (1*AA/1*14500)

I have over 20 lights from here. Some are great, It depends what your looking for.
Starters buy this : DealExtreme: $18.99 JFT 803 Flood-to-Throw Zooming Focusable Cree Q3-WC 3-Mode 120-Lumen LED Flashlight (1*18650)

All inclusive , to start.

VT
 
I agree with the cree. After getting one I will never buy another led that isnt a cree.
 
My "utility" lights are now Mag-Lite's 3AA LED flashlights. Unscrew the reflector off of them and they trow a nice 180 degree field of light. Great for auto work, or walking down a trail at night. They also run for well over a day on one set of batteries. When they start to dim, the batteries have had all they can output extracted from them.

I'm not to worried if an LED is Cree or not, just that it is one of the truly high output ones. Cree does seam to lead the pack with theirs. At one point I had to laugh as one of their competitors was claiming the brightest LED. Yeah it output 10% more than Cree's brightest, but it needed 3 Watts. The Cree LED only used 1 Watt.:cool: Much better for battery powered stuff like street lights. Yeah, Cree makes street lights using arrays of their LEDs. They also can be bought solar/battery powered. They are just as bright as a common sodium vapor street lights, but output the full spectrum, and have less than 1/10th of the lifetime cost.
 
Bogo said:
My "utility" lights are now Mag-Lite's 3AA LED flashlights. Unscrew the reflector off of them and they trow a nice 180 degree field of light. Great for auto work, or walking down a trail at night. They also run for well over a day on one set of batteries. When they start to dim, the batteries have had all they can output extracted from them.

I'm not to worried if an LED is Cree or not, just that it is one of the truly high output ones. Cree does seam to lead the pack with theirs. At one point I had to laugh as one of their competitors was claiming the brightest LED. Yeah it output 10% more than Cree's brightest, but it needed 3 Watts. The Cree LED only used 1 Watt.:cool: Much better for battery powered stuff like street lights. Yeah, Cree makes street lights using arrays of their LEDs. They also can be bought solar/battery powered. They are just as bright as a common sodium vapor street lights, but output the full spectrum, and have less than 1/10th of the lifetime cost.
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MAG's all the way. I'd like lay my hands on one of the old 5-cell police ones, it doubles as a light and a billy-club.
 
Combat Chuck said:
MAG's all the way. I'd like lay my hands on one of the old 5-cell police ones, it doubles as a light and a billy-club.
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Amazon has them. I always kept a 4 D-cell Mag-Lite in each of my vehicles. The 4D cell ones are usually the largest that bulbs are commonly available for. They still make 6 D cell ones, and used to make a 7 D cell one. Product Line > Mag Instrument, Inc. - Manufacturer of the Maglite® Flashlight. You can also get up to a 4 D cell LED one.
 
Bogo said:
Amazon has them. I always kept a 4 D-cell Mag-Lite in each of my vehicles. The 4D cell ones are usually the largest that bulbs are commonly available for. They still make 6 D cell ones, and used to make a 7 D cell one. Product Line > Mag Instrument, Inc. - Manufacturer of the Maglite® Flashlight. You can also get up to a 4 D cell LED one.
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Cool, thanks for the info.
The story I've been told is that when my uncle worked for the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department, he carried a 5-cell Mag, with a 4-cell bulb, and a round of lead in the far end of the handle, instead of his nightstick.
I think doing that myself would be great for warding off medium-sized animals, like the pack of feral dogs that invaded my last outing.
 
I found a $10 direct plug-in LED replacement for the bulb in my Mag-Lite. Now I don't worry about dropping the darn thing so much, it's blazing bright, and the batteries should last a lot longer. It's a great upgrade if you haven't come across one yet.
 
greentruck said:
I found a $10 direct plug-in LED replacement for the bulb in my Mag-Lite. Now I don't worry about dropping the darn thing so much, it's blazing bright, and the batteries should last a lot longer. It's a great upgrade if you haven't come across one yet.
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I've had three different brands of LED replacement bulbs for my big Mag-Lites. All died before they used up the first set of batteries. I don't think they get enough cooling.
 
Bogo said:
I've had three different brands of LED replacement bulbs for my big Mag-Lites. All died before they used up the first set of batteries. I don't think they get enough cooling.
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BoGo,
Time to go with the Cree and SEE !!!

I have just ordered another bunch . I give many away for ~~~~~~~~What I do in my Trade.

Posted above ^^ I'm steering you to vision ...

VT
 
Bogo said:
I've had three different brands of LED replacement bulbs for my big Mag-Lites. All died before they used up the first set of batteries. I don't think they get enough cooling.
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I got a replacement LED for my mag light too and it sucks. After limited use (sure one bout was when my son was frog hunting and a 7 year old can be hard on a light) the bulb/light has to be tilted at a specific angle then hit on the side to work. Crap quality. I am going back to a normal bulb and keep a spare or two in the back of it. At least I know those will work longer than the LED bulbs did.

Edit: wife tortured me with a 5 hour pain fest at Target yesterday. Good news, on sale, was a 120 Lumen head lamp for 5 bucks. The package was ripped so it was on sale. Tested it first before I bought it and it worked great. I walked around with a stupid head lamp on chasing my son around the store to keep entertained while the wife looked at 2 exact same items for over an hour to finally go with the one I picked when she started the wasted hour before.. Shessh
 
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