Better bulbs for Maglites?

[JB]

I have a 3D Maglite with the standard bulb.

I want to replace it with a brighter bulb. I've seen Mag's Magnum Star bulbs (are these Xenon?) and on this forum learned about the Carley Xenon Star and the Radio Shack XPR bulbs.

Question:

1. Any other bulbs I missed out?
2. Which of these bulbs is the way to go? Compare in terms of brightness, longevity and overall quality.
3. Where can I buy from?

On a related note is replacement bulbs for my 2AA Mini Mag. The only one I read about is the Brinkmann Nexstar. Any others? Also, which vendor carries this?

Thanks.

 

[ET]

Forgot those plain Mag replacement bulbs. Too dull. I can tell you a bit about the Carley lamps. Carley makes 3 types of lamp replacements for Mags, all of which produce a smoother beam than the standard Mag bulbs. There's the Krypton Star for alkaline batteries. Don't know much about those but I think they're "uninteresting." Then there's the Xenon Star for alkaline batteries. From what I hear, those are supposed to be pretty damn good. And then there's the Krypton Star Rechargeable for rechargeable batteries like NiCads. That's the one I use. It's the 1.7 amp one which is very bright. But along with brightness, comes heat, lots of it. It's supposed to actually damage the Mag reflector over time. Mine looks ok so far but I've only been using it for under a year. Drain time is short too. My NiCads are a bit on the old side and I'd estimate burn time to be under half an hour. I bought mine from Tim Flanagan. Don't remember his email but I'm sure you'll find it in one of the other postings out there.

Don't know what the Radio Shack XPR is. However, I do also use a Radio Shack HPR 50 Halogen Lamp sometimes. The labelling reads "5.2 volts, 0.88 amps for 4-cell flashlights and 6-volt lanterns." I like this lamp also. It seems whiter than my Carley Krypton Star Rechargeable and almost just as bright. It definitely runs a bit cooler as well. On top of that, I believe run time should be theoretically longer. Haven't actually timed it though. Only down side is that the beam quality isn't as nice as the Carley's.

Sorry I can't really help you out on your other questions. But I'm sure there'll be others to help you out.

 

[JB]

ET,

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>However, I do also use a Radio Shack HPR 50 Halogen Lamp sometimes. The labelling reads "5.2 volts, 0.88 amps for 4-cell flashlights and 6-volt lanterns." I like this lamp also. It seems whiter than my Carley Krypton Star Rechargeable and almost just as bright. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

From the specs at the Energizer site, the HPR50 should give out roughly 86 lumens.

The Carley Krypton Star for rechargeables @ 1.7A has 12.0 spherical candlepower or 150.8 lumens.

From the numbers alone the Carley should be much brighter than the HPR50. So it's interesting that you observed that the HPR50 is "almost just as bright".

Say, how much runtime are you getting for the Carley bulb? And what rechargeable batteries are you using?

 

[ET]

Hi JB,

I used my video camera to try to capture some stills of the two flashlights beside each other. Now keep in mind, this is a video camera, not a digital camera so the quality isn't as good and when I look at the still compared to what I see in real life, it looks different. The difference isn't that much in reality. The camera plays tricks for some reason.

As for the batteries I'm using...the Mag with the Carley in it (left pic) uses these Radio Shack NiCads which I posted on my Photopoint album. The Mag with the Radio Shack HPR 50 (right pic) uses these GE NiCads. Both sets were purchased around the same time and both are at their same drain point as well. I know my comparison is a little inaccurate but unless you want to loan me a digital camera and 8 identical NiCads charged to their max, this'll have to do. I will get access to a digital camera in a few months so maybe then I'll post some better comparisons. In the meantime, I hope this helps.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1424744&a=12380686

 

[snakebite]

i know why you dont get any runtime.
those batts in your picture are only 1.2 ah.
they have a sub c cell inside.
they are ok for radios and such but with the high amperage bulbs you are discharging in excess of 1c!get the high capacity nicd cells. note that the nimh cells at rs are only 2.2 ah and the high capacity nicd are 5.0ah!

 

[JB]

ET,

Thanks very much for the picture. Mmm, the beam quality of the Carley is nicer IMHO and it looks much brighter (but I'll bear in mind what you said).

kc8adu,

So you recommend getting the Radio Shack hi-cap NiCads? Any idea how much they are?

 

[kb0rrg]

Do I understand this right? The rechargeable bulb with nicads is actualy brighter than an alkaline bulb (xenon star) with alkanine batteries?

 

[snakebite]

by all means get the 5 ah nicads.
the reason the nicd bulb is brighter is the higher amperage.alkalines have higher internal resistance so they cannot sustain
the high current.

 

[Velcro]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JB:
I have a 3D Maglite with the standard bulb.

I want to replace it with a brighter bulb. I've seen Mag's Magnum Star bulbs (are these Xenon?) and on this forum learned about the Carley Xenon Star and the Radio Shack XPR bulbs.

Question:

1. Any other bulbs I missed out?
2. Which of these bulbs is the way to go? Compare in terms of brightness, longevity and overall quality.
3. Where can I buy from?

Thanks.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

A while ago I bought the Magnum Star lamp for my 3D Mag and it really sucks. The standard White Star lamp is even better then the Magnum Star. I also recall a post from someone else on this forum who didn't like the Magnum Star lamp as well.

The Magnum Star lamp is krypton by the way.

Greetings,
Velcro

 

[JB]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Do I understand this right? The rechargeable bulb with nicads is actualy brighter than an alkaline bulb (xenon star) with alkanine batteries? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

From the specs at Carley's site it would seem so. The rechargeable bulbs draw more current.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The Magnum Star lamp is krypton by the way.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sheesh... I always thought it was Xenon or something special, different from the normal bulb. Oh well, I'll stick with the Carleys.

 

[JB]

One more thing, where can I get the Carley bulbs from?

I know I can get the Brinkmann bulbs from their website direct.

 

[ET]

Apparently, the problem with buying direct from Carley is that they specify a minimum order amount. Something like $50. But for us little guys, you can go to Tim Flanagan. I bought mine from him. I think this is his email address: [email protected]

 

[JB]

Thanks ET.