how many lumens is a standard Mini Maglite?

[Chrontius]

It's new Mag rating is 8 lumens on AAs, 7 on AAA cells.

 

[bluepilgrim]

One has to specify then how often new cells are swapped in. If done as soon as light output drops then a higher average voltage and current would be maintained with alkaline than nimh. You need to use a series of tables or graphs, and specify brightness along the way, to say something truly meaningful for this -- a simple statement such as 'nimh will shorten bulb life' won't do.

One can give an average value for most common practice, but the question is, if bulb life is shorter then how much shorter -- if 10%, say, that could be acceptable to the user.

But then, how often you turn it on and off is also a big factor since much of the damage to a bulb results from that thermal shock, and that might well outweigh any considerations of running voltage -- it seems to work that way for me with house bulbs: if I leave the light on all the time the bulb lasts much longer.

I'd say just find some bulbs on sale and stock up a few, and change them when they blow and don't worry about it too much. Getting them on sale is more cost effective then fiddling with battery voltage. Or use an LED drop-in. :shrug:

 

[Locoboy5150]

The statement of shortened life using NiMh also is used by LedLenser. Can the explanation be that NiMh batteries provide a higher average brightness for the same runtime? In this case it's a bit misleading to tell that you will lose lifetime of the bulb with NiMh without telling you will gain average brightness.

I think that LED Lenser doesn't recommend anything other than alkaline batteries in almost all their lights because most of their lights are not regulated. Thus, LED Lenser lets the alkaline batteries do their normal thing and regulate the current going to the LED via voltage sag. It's a cheap fix "solution" in my opinion and one of the main reasons why I have not considered buying any of those non-regulated lights from LED Lenser.

People have used non-alkaline batteries in their LED Lensers, but I don't know what that does long term to the lights.

 

[Monocrom]

One has to specify then how often new cells are swapped in. If done as soon as light output drops then a higher average voltage and current would be maintained with alkaline than nimh. You need to use a series of tables or graphs, and specify brightness along the way, to say something truly meaningful for this -- a simple statement such as 'nimh will shorten bulb life' won't do.

One can give an average value for most common practice, but the question is, if bulb life is shorter then how much shorter -- if 10%, say, that could be acceptable to the user.

But then, how often you turn it on and off is also a big factor since much of the damage to a bulb results from that thermal shock, and that might well outweigh any considerations of running voltage -- it seems to work that way for me with house bulbs: if I leave the light on all the time the bulb lasts much longer.

I'd say just find some bulbs on sale and stock up a few, and change them when they blow and don't worry about it too much. Getting them on sale is more cost effective then fiddling with battery voltage. Or use an LED drop-in. :shrug:

Honestly, if you have to go through all that, it's just easier to buy a coin-cell light. Or, a Streamlight Nano. Tiny, put it on your keys, wear it on your neck, just as bright as a 2AA Mini-Maglite, and costs a couple of bucks less.

 

[paulr]

I think the claim of 8 lumens from the minimag may be exagerrated, based on ceiling bounce tests I did a while back. 5 lumens at best is more realistic. But, the minimag is not really comparable to a typical 5 lumen LED light, because the minimag bulb's tiny filament combined with the minimag's fairly large, smooth reflector gives the minimag more ability to put a small spot of light on a distant target than a Nano-like led can do.

 

[apete2]

Get this and then you will have your 20 lumens on Nimh

http://www.amazon.com/dp/STREAMLIGH/?tag=cpf0b6-20

you just need to drill out the reflector a little

only works with AA lights, hits the lense on AAA minimags

 

[ericjohn]

I know this is an OLD thread BUT I have to add my two cents:

When I bought my first Mini Maglite in December 2005 (they were on sale because of the Red Cross and being in post-Katrina Louisiana.)

I opened up the packaging as soon as I drove home and loaded it with 2 2.5 amp Energizer NiMH AA's. The bi pin bulb was the Krypton version, but it shone much brighter than my Garrity 2 AA Xenon bi pin flashlight. This was possible because the filament in a Krypton bulb is thicker than in a Xenon bulb. It can handle more electricity and burn brighter. I used that same bulb on a regular basis until May of 2006. I would definitely say that is a decent life-span. If you tried doing this with the modern Xenon version, it would probably blow. For Christmas of 2007, one of the gifts I got was an Energizer phone charger that was powered by two Energizer Ultimate Lithiums. After they were used up in the phone charger, I tested them. My meter indicated a whopping 1.7 volts. I had another Krypton bi-pin in my Mini Maglite, and loaded those Lithium batteries in it just to see what would happen. It burned VERY white and VERY bright. I don't know how long the bulb lasted, because my bird-brain self gave it to charity. The output (just by eyeballing) was significantly better than the Xenon bi-pins (running on Alkalines) of today. Doing this "mod" with a Xenon bulb probably cause it to blow instantly; because of the thinner filament. I know this because in February of 2009, I had a S&W Xenon 2 AA flashlight. I (not knowing any better) loaded it Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries and the bulb instantly blew. Too bad the Krypton Mini Maglite bulbs are no longer available. If they were; driving them on AA Lithiums would make a brightness to be reckoned with.