Mod for battery life on Brinkmann LED/Halogen spotlight?

Guys,

I've got a Brinkmann spotlight with a 35W 6V H3 bulb in it. It also has an LED when you don't need as much light. I bought it from Wal Mart so it may sound familiar. It is rechargeable and I don't think they are NiMh batteries.

Anyways, the run time on this thing is only about 15 minutes (not even) when using the 35W H3. I thought about putting in a less demanding bulb but it seems the 35W 6V H3 is as low as H3s go.

Any suggestions? I want to do this on the cheap if you know what I mean.

I'd like to actually just throw in a Mag bulb but I'm not sure how to adapt it to an H3 plug.

i thought they are supposed to last like 12 hours on a full charge on halogen mode? i just picked one up and have to say, its quite an impressive little light for the money. ill be testing it out in some upcoming urban explorations

if its a 12V gell cell, you could replace it with a set of 12 ni-mhy batts and appropriate charger.
if it was an 7Amp gell cell you would get about the same runtime with some C nimhys, and almost 2x runtime with D sized.
it would not be CHEAP, but when we change gell cells for ni-mhy its a much better lighter setup.

Can you open it up and see what size 6 volt battery is in there ? I'm going to guess it is at least a 3 amp 6 volt SLA battery. Even if it is only a 3 amp battery, you still should get about 30 minutes of runtime. I own a similar light called the Vector Tough Brite model VEC144. It has a 3 amp SLA battery, and is using a 15 watt H3 bulb. So there is a smaller lamp option if you can find one. Try calling Vector at 866-584-5556 and see if they can sell you a 15 watt H3 bulb, or maybe they can tell you who handles them.
Here is a link to the Vector VEC144,
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200309853_200309853

larryk said:

Can you open it up and see what size 6 volt battery is in there ?

Click to expand...

oops, 6volts, good thing somone is paying attention.
so adjust my post to say Lead Acid Gell Cells suck, and are easily replaced with ni-cd or ni-mhy packs.