"best" survival light ?

[Stanley]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

To sum up, off the top of my head I think the following lights would fit your mentioned criteria above:
1) CMG Infinity (non Ultra) w L91 cell
2) Eternalight w L91 cells
3) Heliotek HTE1 w L91 cells

Reason I mentioned these is because Lithiums will store for ages under extreme conditions w/o leakage and minimal discharge, and should you run out of juice, you can just pop in any normal AAs that you can scrounge from your other devices, ie clock, pager, etc..

Else if you consider 123 cells to be not that hard to find, then all of the above and earlier posts apply...

 

[3rd_shift]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

Eternalight, plus solar rechargeable AA charger(s) with a few sets of AA nimhs. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

 

[paulr]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

Achoo, I think the Shakelight is your best bet for those requirements. But it's not really that practical. Best is to use a battery powered light, store it with no batteries inside, and have several spare batteries along with it. Also, have a spare light or two. Lights can fail just as batteries can.

It's best to rethink the requirements. Your light should be part of a larger emergency kit and you should make a point of checking on it every so often, say once a year on New Year's Day or tax day or your birthday. (I try to make sure my computer backups are in order within a few days of every New Years Day). If you put a light somewhere and then don't check on it for several years, you probably won't remember where it is when you need it anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

Where are you going to put this kit? In your home? Your car? Your plane? Something you carry all the time? If it's in your home, then you're not concerned about something to pull out if you're suddenly stuck in a cave, for example.

Btw, check out this light:

http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/micra1.htm

I have one and it feels just about indestructable.

Really though, you could do worse than to just tuck away a few of the $1.00 LED Countycomm lights once they're available again. They have good shelf life, reasonable runtime, and about the same brightness as the other 1x5mm led lights we've discussed.

 

[PeLu]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

I've seen several 'mechanical' lights were the mechanics will last shorter than an according lithium cell.
That means that some of this small generators of the size of a D cell will not give more than 50Wh over their whole life.
If you consoider one of the shake lights, you could also take a light with a Li-Thionyl D cell and an appropriate dim LED (I don't know if such a light is available from stock, but I know a few of them homemade).

And: All the SwissLights I know perfom nicely since years.

 

[Frangible]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

Don't buy any of those shakelights... they all use bulbs. A bulb is good for about 40 hours, then dies.

Get something like a CMG/Gerber Ultra or Arc AA. ~20 hours off one battery, and AA batteries are extremely common.

Either with several batteries are smaller and more reliable than any of the shakelights, which you *will* need replacement bulbs for.

If you're really hardcore, go buy a Brunton solar power thing and hook it up to a battery charger.

Of course, you could also get a night vision scope. A good gen 2 or 3 scope will get 40+ hours off of one battey.

But, if you only need 3 lumens or so, I don't think you can go wrong with a AA light and a box of 40 Costco batteries. That's 820 hours of battery life at max brightness with the CMG Infinity.

To put things in perspective, in 820 hours, you'd have to shake your little shakelight 3280 times, and replace the bulb 21 times.

 

[paulr]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

I've never seen an incandescent shakelight. Maybe you're thinking of the crank lights and squeeze lights, both of which are mostly (but not all) incandescent. The Nightstars are quite durable and have magnetic brakes at both ends of the tube. The moving slug normally never touches the end stops, so should never wear from impact. There may be a tiny bit of sliding friction but the slug is mostly just moving freely in the tube.

That said, I agree with everyone who says battery powered lights make more sense. If you can check your car's tire pressure a few times a year, you can check your flashlight batteries too.

 

[gadget_lover]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

I just saw the title to this thread and the following thought popped into my head:



The best survival light is an Surefire X200 attached to a semi-auto shotgun.



/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


Daniel

 

[Reno]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

I guess it depends on what you're trying to survive, ehh?

I actually have an insight M3 mounted to my Benelli M3, but I'll be upgrading to the X200 soon. I guess that's my 'survival' light, FWIW (although if you see the business end of THAT light, even for a fraction of a second, survival isn't the order of the day).

Even after all these considerations, I still vote for the Swisslight. It weighs practically nothing, so carrying two or three would be no problem (redundancy=good). No kinetic recharging, hell, no moving parts(!). The light has been in circulation for a couple years, without any real problems, so your emergency can be up to 24 months long...

Sounds like a clear winner to me.

 

[Gransee]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

Good posts, interesting thread. I think the best survival light is in this order:

1. The one you have with you.

You may buy a fancy light that is specifically designed for survival use, but because it is either too big, too dim or just plain too weird, it is not with you when the emergency occurs. Survival situations that you see coming from a long way off and have time to move equipement, etc in to place are not survival situations, that is called camping. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

You need a light that when the lights go out on the 40th floor and the stairwells are dark and slippery (read the 9/11 report), you remember you have a small flashlight ready to go in your pocket and this helps get out the building faster. A split second can seperate you from two entirely different fates.

2. The one that works.

If it is has fragile plastic parts, leaks, the batteries are dead, etc, you don't have a flashlight, you have post-civilization keepsake to amuse you while you sit and ponder your fate.

Super brightness, extra features, nice colors, etc. Those are all trim if you manage to have a light during an emergency that works.

--

You may benefit by staging some equipment for emergencies (bio shelter, bugout bag, etc), but that system should be secondary to the one you have with you at all times (your brain and a few other essential items). And you have to be practical, if you have so much gear that you don't carry it with you, then it is as if it does not exist. And you spent time and money on nothing.

Be safe.

Peter

 

[Wingerr]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

Regarding the Swisslight, I wouldn't rely on it as a sole light source because of its discharge characteristics. When it gets discharged, there's just no warning that it's getting low, and will just wink out entirely, which could leave you in the dark.
If you keep it well charged and don't push it too far, it works fine, but you'd be better off with something that has a more gradual turn off characteristic if you have a critical need for light.
Despite the issue, I like the light; just have to keep the charge up on it, and it's not a problem.
When I get the chance, I'm going to do a run time test on mine to see just how long it'll run; I don't think there's any prior posts on it yet, probably due to the 10 minute auto shutoff feature. I'll just time it with my stopwatch to see what the auto off interval is, and just count the cycles it'll put out before no longer turning on.

 

[sotto]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

I reason this way: I want a small light that will run on a common battery, that will be rechargeable from my car battery (or other large longlasting DC source), that is basically indestructible and waterproof, and that has a lanyard loop. A AA LED light like the Infinity Tasklight, a MAHA (or other) NIMH charger with a cigarette lighter cord, and a whole bunch of hi-cap NIMH cells are in my truck as a last ditch lighting source.

 

[haley1]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

As others have said, whatever you have with you. For planning ahead; UK 4 AA LED+Incan, Infinity, Lithium AA's, rechargable AA's, Solar charger, and a Pelican case to keep it all in. Or a couple of big waterproof bags, Spec Ops come to mind.

 

[Wingerr]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

Since it doesn't seem like there was any previous data available on the Swiss Light run time, I did a run time test on my Swiss Light III, and it ran for 2.8 hrs total before winking out-
This was based on 14 on cycles, allowing it to time out and shut off automatically each time, and was on full intensity.
The lower settings would give longer run times.
As long as you stay well within this run time between charges, it works reliably.

 

[daloosh]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

That's an impressive runtime, actually. However, the fact that you don't know the charge and have no warning of the end of cycle coming make it rather unsuitable in my view. If I put lithiums in my eternalight, I'm pretty confident that when I pull it out in 18 months, it will work. With the Swisslight, I have to maintain it constantly, which you could get into the habit of doing, but in general sounds like a pain.

daloosh

 

[cy]

Re: \"best\" survival light ?

I was going to post the best survival light is the one you have with you. But Peter beat me to it.

My EDC Li14430 w/ARC AAA-P for a backup. arc is always attached to spyderco knife, perfect brightness for hanging off a tent loop.