My old one finally gave up the ghost after better than a decade of good service. It seems that it is also out of production or no longer imported. Can anybody recommend a good one? I don’t want to spend more than $35 tops and, for that much, it would have to be a really extra cool one.
I got a Lightstorm CL1 flashlight. It doesn’t use rechargeable batteries – it uses a supoercapacitor, which won’t give you problems if it drains completely. So you can leave this sitting as long as you want in your glove compartment or in your junk drawer, and it’ll work when you pull it out. The only headache is that you have to crank it quite a bit to start.
I converted my hand-crank rechargeable battery flashlights to supercapacitors, but this the only one I knowe that you can buy that way.
http://www.crankflashlights.com/reviews/lightstorm-cl1.html
My only complaint – besides the initial charge-up – is that the plastic crank handle broke off on mine, so I replaced it with a metal one. (But all hand-crank flashlights I’ve seen have such plastic handles, so it’s a universal problem)
It’s considerably less than $35. One of those sites above calls it “possibly the best hand-crank flashlight on the market”
I don’t want this to seem like a hijack, but I’m sort of curious about the reason that someone would want a crank-type flashlight. Would you care to share? I’ve used a few, but never been very satisfied with the illumination level or the run time. The $35 you mention would buy a very nice standard flashlight and a heck of a lot of batteries.
I understand that it will “always be available” for operation, but the usefulness seems to be limited, especially if the rechargeable batteries have a lifespan of only a few years anyway.
Just curious. And I hope you get some additional recommendations.
I have six or seven good battery-driven lights around here. However, it is nice to have a crank light for when things get stupid. When The Clown comes, he comes in the dark.
OK. Fair enough.
I keep one of these in each car because although I’m at the very bottom of tornado alley and we don’t get many, we get enough that you don’t want to be without easy access to weather info, especially if the power goes out.
Enjoy,
Steven
The Clown. All the rest are avatars, shadows, and decoys. I will not miss my chance to end him because I cannot see him.
Harbor Freight has one with 3 LEDs and a radio for 12 bucks. Has some good reviews.
Dennis
No one *needs *a hand crank flashlight.
We use ours during power failures. It has a light, radio (we never use), a 12 volt outlet, and a USB port. We mostly use it to keep our phones charged. Ours was around $40. Here it is.
We like it so much, we bought 6 (got a deal) and gave them out to family last xmas.
I read that as fleshlight, and chuckled.
Thank you. I do understand that. But I’ve received three or four crank-type flashlights (probably in the $20-$30 range) as gifts and I’ve never found them to be useful. The aforementioned combination unit that also has solar cells might be useful, but I’ve found that simple crank-type flashlights are impractical for actual, real world use. I’m happy that people use them and find them to be practical, but I can get a very nice, high-output LED flashlight and over 100 (disposable) batteries for about $35.
Again, this is strictly my experience. I live in a hurricane-prone area myself and had to depend on flashlights for days at a time. The crank-type just didn’t cut it.
It depends on what you’re looking for. A battery-driven flashlight works if you remember to regularly replace the batteries. Batteries age faster in hot environments (like the glove compartment). A hand-crank will work anywhere, anytime (especially the supercapacitor types – rechargeable batteries still need to be recharged on a regular basis; you literally can stash the SC type crank flashlight in your drawer, storage case, or glove box and forget about it until needed).
The drawback with hand-cranks is that you have to crank it up for a while before use. Other than that, they’re great.
I’m still scratching my head a bit, since I’m one of those strange people who changes batteries regularly (smoke detectors, flashlights, emergency radios, etc.) and keeps spares around. I guess I figured that everyone does. Most of my LED flashlights will operate for over three years with the same batteries and occasional use.
I used this type for over a decade (check around for pricing):
Pro’s:
flashlight
lantern with a quick-release hanger loop
hand-crank
usb input
high and low brightness
durable
cheap as dirt
Cons:
dedicated usb rather than standard usb or standard mini-usb
durable but not indestructible
water-resistant but not waterproof
cannot replace the rechargeable batteries
not collapsable so somewhat bulky
The same company makes this shake light that uses a capacitor. Any experience with it?
Are the crank chargers any better than they used to be? I have a Grundig hand-crank AM/FM/Shortwave radio with flashlight. It uses a cordless phone battery, and can take AA batteries. The crank charges the cordless phone battery, but it takes 2-3 minutes of cranking to power the radio for 10 seconds. The flashlight drains it almost immediately no matter how long you crank. The crank is pretty much worthless, because you have to crank constantly to actually use it. The battery in it was fully charged when new, but has never been charged since. I guestimated it would take several days of constant cranking to fully charge it again.
This has been my experience. It’s really neat that you can crank it up and make it work, but my flashlights only run usefully for about 5 minutes on several minutes of cranking. I calculated once that 3 hours of run time would take about 48 minutes of cranking.
But I’m happy for people who have the need for one and find one that works for them.
It’s an overcast night, you’re in a tent in the middle of nowhere, and you need to take a dump. If you stagger about in the dark without stars for illumination, you will trip, fall, and shit yourself.
You could paddle and portage a week down-river and then out along the ocean’s coast until you come to the closest town, but by that time you have shit yourself.
Paddling and portaging back up-river would be worse, for it would take you a couple of weeks to make it back to the closest road, and then you would have to wait half a day to a day for someone to come along and drive you a couple of hours to the closest town, but by that time you will have shit yourself.
If you stay in the tent and use the cooking pot, your tent mate will kick whatever shit is left in you right out of you, and leave your beaten but still breathing body there the next morning while she paddles off, with you now abandoned in the middle of nowhere while the little black flies and the much larger horse flies feed on what’s left of your soul in Dante’s seventh circle of hell just because you didn’t want to shit yourself.
So if you are going to be in the middle of nowhere, just you, your paddling partner, a canoe and gear, you might find it handy to have a small combo-flaslight/lantern for reading before bed, or for fishing about in your gear in the tent at night, or for pooping at night outside the tent rather than having to shit yourself.
Spare non-rechargeable batteries add to the bulk and weight. Solar recharging panels/sheets are an embuggerance if you are trying to recharge while paddling and portaging, but if there is going to be enough time between dinner and bedtime to recharge, then bring them along to recharge your hand-crank lantern/flashlight. Candle-lanterns can, through accidental handling, burn you and your gear, which will cause you to shit yourself.
So you have a choice: pack along a hand-crank lantern/flashlight with optional solar recharging or . . . shit yourself.
Good to hear that it wasn’t just me.