This isn’t just an issue of products not being “well-made” (although that is certainly an issue with low cost ‘commodity’ products) or repairable (again, an issue albeit not one to do with quality per se) but that many products today, even something as simple as a flashlight, are far more complex. A simple incandescent flashlight is literally just two or three battery cells, a pair of contacts, a simple two pole switch, and a parabolic reflector mount for the bulb, plus a housing to hold it all together; a powerful one like a 4-cell Maglite might output 150 lumens but most provided just enough light to see across the room, and the battery life with standard C or D alkaline cells would work for a couple of hours of continuous use.
A modern good quality LED light, even a single mode one, has a microchip controller to control the voltage, possibly an optical and/or thermal sensor, and a lockout switch (often both a side and tail switch). Good ones will provide many hours of use even on standard AA or AAA cells on low settings, and optionally high output for a shorter period of time, and be rated to withstand some degree of submersion in water. But the tradeoff for the longer duration, greater output, and environmental resistance is cost and complexity, and not being able to hack together some kind of field fix or globbing on some solder to ‘fix’ a weak connection.
Another “plug” for the B35AM chipset - the “technical” reasoning is that it is a high voltage chipset, so the driver ups the 3.7V of the battery to 6+V, thus halfing the amperage (= halfing the heat) … so basically you convert more of the battery’s energy into light and less into heating up an alu-tube …
plus it is the current leader in color rendition on the market … again - can be had for less than 30 bucks in a high quality flashlight… and will find its way into Fenix / Nightcore in 2026 or 27 (at twice or 3times the cost).
I am willing to spend more on bike lights. I want one in order to be able see the road when I am riding in a poorly lit area after dark, and I want other(s) in order to be seen. Even though sometimes it just seems like it give the crazies a target.
But flashlights? My use is if the power goes out. Street lighting is good enough around my parts after dark for any walking I might do. I’m not in back country. Several cheap ones are all I need.
Well, that may be fine for you fellas but personally I want a flashlight that doesn’t start flickering the first time an undead creature claws its way from the grave or an alien craft lands nearby, and I sure don’t want to get caught in the dark just when a Sasquatch makes an appearance that I could finally catch on video.
Yeah, that’s what I need; a flashlight that I labor for ten minutes to juice up for thirty seconds of inconsistent illumination, or that only works in daylight.
We are miles from any street lights. My barn and pastures are across the road, my neighbors are a ten minute walk. We have a generator that powers two rooms (kitchen being one) when the power goes off, which it does several times a year, sometimes for a few days.
A crank flashlight is interesting, but probably not practical. My most urgent flashlight need is when I hear a bad noise in the night – one of my animals screaming for help, for example. No time for cranking.
This is me. I don’t want a flashlight that I need to remember to charge. I don’t need strobes, or adjustable intensity, or wide or narrow beams.
I just need something that sits on the shelf by the door, that I can pick up when I’m taking the dog for a walk, click the button to run it On, and out I go.
The Home Depot model that I linked to is perfect for that. When the battery dies, I dispose of the old battery and buy a new one, pop it in, and bob’s your uncle.
I’ve had it for years and it works just fine, for my needs.
One thing I’d be worried about with a crank flashlight is that the internal battery would stop taking a charge if it’s not used regularly. Rechargeable batteries work well when they are charged and discharged regularly, but get flakey when they are left totally discharged for long periods. Is that something to worry about with crank flashlights?
So the solution to batteries sitting around discharged is to keep them charged. Who knew?
Seems pretty basic to me that any emergency light needs to be ready to go now, not 20 minutes from now. Or tomorrow after the solar panel has seen the sun for 12 hours.
Emergency equipment needs to be maintained somehow. As to lights, even if that’s buying a large package of e.g. C cells and replacing that package every 6 months, whether used or not.
Of course. But my point to @filmore was that whatever sort of lights you have, they need maintenance. The common approach of “Throw 'em in a drawer and forget 'em until the power goes out” is a plan to fail, not a plan to succeed.
His assumption was that you would be storing dead rechargeable batteries.
If you already have a bunch of cordless tools you use regularly, see if the company also makes a flashlight. Battery powered tools like Ryobi and Dewalt have flashlights that take the same batteries. One good thing about using a flashlight compatible with your tools is that you’re likely to have many compatible batteries lying around and be charging them regularly. And the battery is pretty hefty. If it can run a drill and a saw, it can run a flashlight for a long time.
Yep. I took my Ridgid 18V Torch Light to school last week when the power was out in my classroom. Lit the whole space well enough we could get stuff done. Didn’t seem to drain the battery much at all.
Just say no.
Every moving part is a potential failure point …lots of Plastic gears and all that to die on you at the worst possible time.
Also intrinsically “stupid " design. Black solar panel needs to sit in the Hot sun for hours to charge … And by doing so, kills the heat sensitive LiPo cell.
There is a problem with every solar-powered light or recharger battery pack I’ve bought. Admittedly I’ve only bought cheapos and not in the last 5 years.
Namely that one evening’s worth of light takes 3 or 4 very sunny days to recharge to the same level. A multi-day power failure would result in useless lights on night 2 unless you owned enough lights to only use 1/3rd or 1/4th of them on any given overnight. IOW: need 3, buy 12.
At that point, you would be better off just carry a few long-burning torches because they will take up fewer inventory slots and be more reliable, or better yet just take the time to learn a simple 1-point Light spell that any hedge wizard or shaman can teach you in an afternoon.
