Single D cell emergency LED light

As a disclaimer: I hate CountyComm. Every time I visit, I find something new to spend my money on.

Tonight, it's the Maratac Strobe TLL (Temporary Landing Light)
LED Strobe with 3 Modes ( High Contstant On / Low Constant On / Stobe )

Using a single Duracell D Cell battery we got the following results:

• Low mode, 40 lumens output for upto 500 hours
  
• High mode, 150 lumens output for upto 100 Hours
• Stobe mode, 150 Lumens output for upto 225 Hours ( 70 Beats Per Minute )

Introductory Price $44.50

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Any thoughts? I'm not quite ready to drop $45 on this, but I really do like it as a long-running single D-cell light for emergency situations.

I'm rather skeptic about the output/runtime specs off 1 D cell and for the price you can get a 3 or 4AA based lantern or a 3D rayovac for 1/2 to 2/3rds the price with runtimes and output that are similar more or less.

i have the rayovac 3AA and its only 35 hours max on low(as advertized, not from experience). that is nothing compared to the 500 hours this one states. i would get it just to try out.

ryukin2000 said:

i have the rayovac 3AA and its only 35 hours max on low(as advertized, not from experience). that is nothing compared to the 500 hours this one states. i would get it just to try out.

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I still don't see you having much output after 100 hours on this light as my 1D energizer LED lanterns are only rated for 200 hours starting at an output of less than 15 lumens I would guess. This would equate the light is about 8 times more efficient which I don't believe. 3AA isn't near the output of 1D at low energy output levels it would be closer to 4-5 AA batteries.

I suspect the driver isn't regulated, and those times are for the cell to completely drain, with the emitter dimming steadily all the while.

This light looks pretty cool to me, regardless if it "only" gets 200 hrs runtime on low. A single D well built lantern sounds awesome. Wonder what the current draw is. That would tell a lot towards runtimes.

Runtime seems ENORMOUSLY exaggerated. A tyical alkaline D-cell has about 20Wh of capacity (and that is only under low drain!). Even with the best leds in the world, that makes the 150lm runtime more like 15 hours instead of 100!

I was in walmart yesterday, and they had a rayovac 1D 9 lumin flashlight for $2.00 battery included.
Its almost impossible to pass something like that up. Except that they had a 2 AA 12 lumin flashlight for $1.50. Also batteries included.

Poppy said:

I was in walmart yesterday, and they had a rayovac 1D 9 lumin flashlight for $2.00 battery included.
Its almost impossible to pass something like that up. Except that they had a 2 AA 12 lumin flashlight for $1.50. Also batteries included.

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I have one of the rayovac 2AA LED lights.... it uses a pr base bulb led dropin you can put in other lights but YMMV and the niceness of the beam.

Lynx_Arc said:

I have one of the rayovac 2AA LED lights.... it uses a pr base bulb led dropin you can put in other lights but YMMV and the niceness of the beam.

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I don't know what YMMV means. The quality of the beam is terrible in the 2 aa version. Just for giggles, I connected it to a fully charged 18650 and it shone a little brighter, and didn't burn out in 30 seconds. I suspect that they are using the same drop in for the 1D light, and due to the lower voltage of 1D vs 2 AA's that would explain the difference in lumins, 12 for the AA's and 9 lumins for the 1-D.

Poppy said:

I don't know what YMMV means. The quality of the beam is terrible in the 2 aa version. Just for giggles, I connected it to a fully charged 18650 and it shone a little brighter, and didn't burn out in 30 seconds. I suspect that they are using the same drop in for the 1D light, and due to the lower voltage of 1D vs 2 AA's that would explain the difference in lumins, 12 for the AA's and 9 lumins for the 1-D.

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YMMV Your Mileage May Vary. I wish I could yank the optic lens out of my 2AA light I tried it in another light and decided I like the energizer 1D drop ins better in it even though it costs about 90 cents more after taxes. I may get another one and replace the LED in it with a better one or even a cree P4 emitter I have laying around.

Shame this doesn't come with a Red and or Amber dome. Would make a good road side emergency light. I am tempted to pick one up but the $45 is a killer for me, unless someone gets one and reports back that they are awesome.

Ordered one tonight.

StarHalo, don't make them face off against a Pak-Lite... that's not fair.
I love Pak-Lites, if they were 5$ I'd get one for everyone that I know.

eh4 said:

StarHalo, don't make them face off against a Pak-Lite... that's not fair.

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It's ten bucks cheaper than the CountyComm strobe, and uses a battery with far less capacity..

But it doesn't have strobe... lol

Pak-Lites is the single most impressive light to me that I've become acquainted with thanks to the members of CPF. I'm all about tint and CRI, and Pak-Lite is not about that at all, though the efficient cool white 5mm leds do a serviceable job of letting you see what you are looking at. The little 7 gram Pak-Lites gives insane run times of very usable light from near dead 9 volt batteries that need replacing from smoke detectors. I only wish that they cost as little as they look like they should, honestly they look like they should come as Cracker Jacks prizes... Still they are my overall favorite light factoring cost, weight, quality, efficiency and usability.

FYI: Wayne from Elektrolumens is currently working on a couple of single D sized light ... one of them is supposed to be a very long-running emergency light! Don't have any specs yet, but he's only just mentioned it in a thread on another forum.

Personally I think expensive 1D lanterns are a bad idea, inexpensive 1D lanterns are fine as you can worry a lot less about the alkaline battery that leaked in it as it drained it to nothing vs a $45 lantern damaged by a $1 D cell or having to invest in another $40 worth of charger and nimh D cells or AA to D parallel adapters to use it... doesn't make good sense to me.

Maybe. But it's cool!

d337944 said:

FYI: Wayne from Elektrolumens is currently working on a couple of single D sized light ... one of them is supposed to be a very long-running emergency light! Don't have any specs yet, but he's only just mentioned it in a thread on another forum.

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We bought two 1xD lights post-Katrina from Wayne built on some left over Blaster Jr bodies he had lying around. I had already been interested in one for a couple years when the thread came up.

They have SSC P-4 LEDs and the one driven by a single micropuck will tail stand and light our bathroom 24/7 for a week before it dims. It will also take a D cell from a spent set from a M/\G 3D that is so dead that the filament won't even glow and when inserted into the 1D EL it will give off hours and hours of useful, white light.

Since Katrina we've had a two week blackout and most recently, a five day outage as a result of hurricane Isaac. We paid $65 each for the lights and it was money well spent. They have proven themselves to be great pieces of kit.

Of course, the SSC P-4 is probably a couple generations behind the curve of LED development nowadays. I'd like to see what Wayne is turning out today...

FWIW yesterday I did something I don't often do -- I changed the battery in a Pak-Lite. The battery I used was in a box of pulled body mic batteries labeled as testing out at 20% charge from a ZTS tester. The coppertop was labeled from a show we ran in 2001... Worked like a champ. I love me some Pak-Lites...