The "House" Flashlight

[Chrontius]

I'm surprised to see so many Mags; most flashaholics advise against them in favor of something more sophisticated, yet at least 80% of the responses thus far have been Mag..

I have a half-dozen rechargeable duty-class lights or so. One's down for a new battery and o-ring. In addition to them, I also have a ROP 2D and a Xenon Torrent sitting next to them (which would be rechargeable if I could still buy Eneloops at Circuit City). The Elektrolumens FT-3C fits the definition of "house light" better, but I'm too skittish to leave alkalines in it for more than a week at a time. There's finally a Dolphin Mk.5 set up as a thrower, but that needs to be dug out from under the dirty laundry. Add to that the 2xAA lights that can be put into service quickly or immediately (if I'm not hurting for charged AAs) and I think I'm good, even if I don't have THE house light.

My mother has an Inova Xo3 kicking around somewhere, and a Brinkmann 2D Cree with a deep reflector and a LCD control panel.

My father has... I'm not sure what he reaches for, actually.

My grandparents are pretty well set, albeit with old incans for the most part; on the other side of the family, they have LED throwers and a ROP, however. :naughty:

 

[ypsifly]

Our emergency light is a Hi Gain - 500 4D with the fresnel lens. I put a Nite-ize led drop-in in place of the PR bulb. Its in the closet next to the front door.

Next to the back door there is a Life Gear 1xAA hanging by it's lanyard on the key chain rack. No particular reason that I chose that light for that task other than I had it in hand when the idea came to me. Does a great job of lighting up the yard yet its not too bright when my Fiance' needs it to unlock the garage.

 

[Numb]

We do have quite alot blackouts during the winter so we have several house flashlights. We have a mag 3D with a malkoff dropin at the front door and a couple of fenix tk20 in other rooms. There are always plenty of cheap AA: and D:s in our local store, I have to go 25km to buy CR123:s...

/N

 

[non]

The "house" light is a maglite rebel 4D with aspheric lense but I didn't blackout the reflector so it throws a round beam (looks like an eclipse).
I keep the Elzetta w/M60wf and Moddoo 6P with M61w on the desk and diffuser wands for each nearby. I have a minimag with crenulated bezel and sandwich shoppe drop in, in the bedroom.

 

[Cole07]

The "house" light is a maglite rebel 4D with aspheric lense but I didn't blackout the reflector so it throws a round beam (looks like an eclipse).
I keep the Elzetta w/M60wf and Moddoo 6P with M61w on the desk and diffuser wands for each nearby. I have a minimag with crenulated bezel and sandwich shoppe drop in, in the bedroom.

How did you get a Rebel 4D mag? Never heard of that before. You probably have an old lux3 LED.

 

[non]

You are correct, I just checked. I stand corrected.

 

[fyrstormer]

Man, if my parents had made that move I'd probably have just run away and joined the circus. It's bad enough we moved from L.I. to central Virginia.

I don't see any need for a "house light" anymore. Lights are small enough and powerful enough that having one for each person is more suitable. Granted, if you want long runtimes at full power, that's a different issue, but with LEDs the runtimes are long enough anyway that a 2xCR123 light will take care of pretty much any need you come across.

 

[Vortus]

Our general house light is a 2D mag/malkoff drop-in with a strike bezel and breaker tail. Powered by 10k nimhs, bright and runs for a long time. Have a couple old unmodified bigger ones, but just a little heavy for my wife.

 

[JohnnyLunar]

My "house light" is a Streamlight Polytac LED (130 lumens for 3 hours, 1 output). I keep it on my night stand 24/7. Here's my reasoning:

I like a single-output, forward clicky with momentary, bright spot with lots of spill, 2-cell light beside the bed at all times. I know it's there, since I do not remove it for other tasks. I don't have to worry about multiple outputs or a confusing UI when I'm half asleep, in a panic, charged with adrenaline, or handing it to the wife. It's polymer construction seems to be very solid and rugged, in case it takes a fall down the stairs, gets kicked across the room, or gets dropped on the cement patio.

And if I need a light with much longer runtime to get me through a power-outage, I can use the Polytac to get to my other multi-output lights. The Streamlight Polytac allows me to K.I.S.S. in emergency situations.

 

[L.E.D.]

Fenix TK40 on Duracell LSD NiMH's. Great. Just great. Outside the house light is the Stanley 35W HID spotlight (for now ).

 

[Incan]

i remember the house light we had one that served exactly the same purpose on all counts.. and I live way down in Mississippi. way down

 

[ishmael]

Malkoff wildcat 2x18650.

 

[rayman]

My house-light is a 2D Maglite modded with s SST-50.

rayman

 

[PhotonBoy]

I use an Elektrolumens Hyperblaster 2D angle-light with a 3W LED dropin as my "House" flashlight. I've got lots of other type of lights sprinkled around my home too, so I haven't a worry at all in that department.

 

[sgt253]

Great thread! My nightstand contains an ElektroLumens Tri-Star Phaser (led) with 4 Eneloops. Surefire E2E (incan) is in same nightstand. My collection is spread to various rooms so I can use these two to navigate to the heavy hitters!

Regards.

 

[LotusDarkrose]

I don't have a "house light" so to speak, but I do grab my SpiderFire P7 if I need to do a quick "what the heck was that noise?" check in the garage or backyard. I made it so there is very little spring on the driver end, and the clicky end has solid aluminum going from the switch contact to the battery, and secured the pill to the body with arctic silver, lol. Thing gets pretty hot just after a minute, but then again, it's meant for short runtimes.

Whenever I'm just walking around the house at night to run to the bathroom or grab something from the fridge, etc. I always grab my Quark Mini AA Warm. But I have a feeling when I get my M3C4 SST-50, it will be the real definition of my house light.

 

[shado]

I have two,

By the Front Door


By the Bed

 

[tandem]

I'm considering adding the Fenix LD40 4xAA light (2x2 side by side) (ships near the end of the month) to the "house light" collection and bet it would be the one reached for first by most here. I'd like it even better for that purpose if the impact resistant plastic component of the light were bright yellow and had a GITD coating.

 

[Oztorchfreak]

I think my Olight M30 Triton is a good house torch.

It has 700 lumens of output and fits in the pocket reasonably well.

It has three light levels plus strobe.

It has a great peripheral spill and throws by brute lumens as well.

It runs on 3 CR123s, 4 x CR123s, 2 x 18650s or 2 x 18500s.

Oops, I forgot that you originally wanted standard batteries as a priority.

The only thing extra that I would like on a house or standby torch would be that it sits in a cradle charging ready for quick response use.

If you are not continually charging a torch the worry is whether the batteries are going to be full for a quick response or emergency.

The Led Lenser P7R is a good example of a torch that sits in a charging cradle ready for quick response situations and is adjustable between flood and spot similar to my Led Lenser P14.

It also has a low mode for extended outages etc.

It uses a single 18650 Lion battery that can be swapped out for another one when needed.

I had a Big Jim lantern many years ago and it was heavy but reliable.

Then I had the Eveready Dolphin torch and still have that one near the front door as well.

The poor old Dolphin looks like a candle when compared to my high power torches.

Mind you, sitting at my front door on charge always is my Stanley 35W HID.

What a monster beam that has to see what is going on in the street.

Only 30 mins runtime, but it will scare anyone away in that first period during a quick response to noises outside the house.

This is a great nostalgia thread!! :candle:

 

[Narcosynthesis]

I guess the reason Mags are so popular as back door lights is probably just the sheer popularity and familiarity of them - pretty much everyone has handled one before, and can pick up one and go without a second thought.

Sure they aren't the most exciting lights compared to Surefire, Fenix, et al, but for the general population they are a winner.

As for my house lights, the ones my parents have always used are a couple of generic incan lights - one is an old rubber coated 2d cell thing, and the other one that is always kicking about is a car worklight type affair - a normal incan bulb, plus the option of a halogen strip worklight or amber flashing signal light. Those stay on top of the fridge next to the back door.