Costco Squeeze LED Light

[Kirk]

Hello!
Just wondering if anybody has bought one of the bright yellow plastic LED "battery-less" squeeze lights I saw at Costco this weekend? Supposedly, you squeeze the handle for up to 3 minutes to get up to 18 minutes of light. It has a switch for On-Off so the charge isn't "wasted". Somebody had turned one on before I got there and it was decently bright; about like my Arc AAA. Way brighter than my cheap "shakelight" clone. No telling how long it was on. The name on the light is GEI and it's made in China. I looked at the LED and it appears to be an 8 or 10mm, not your regular 5mm. If nobody has tried one I might get one next time I'm there. I think it was $7.97. I like this style of charging better than the shake light; less "obvious" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif. I have seen these in Lancaster and Bakersfield, CA.
Kirk

 

[Penguin]

I saw one at the City of Industry Costco, I played around with it a bit.. I assumed it was a 5mm with a lens to project the beam. The switch seemed kinda flimsy.

 

[LowBat]

I saw it in the Oxnard Costco last week and knew it would soon be talked about here. There wasn't a display to play with so I can't add much. It looks like a plastic toy banana which isn't something I'm willing to put in my pants pocket. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

From a practical standpoint it might be good to give to children who fidget a lot and are prone to lose things. At $8 a pop I wouldn't care much if it was dropped, broken, drowned, or simply neglected. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

 

[geepondy]

Where in Costco do they keep their lights or are they spread around? They all used to be near the batteries which was just shy of the automotive section but at my local Costco I can't even find the 1W Luxeons, never mind topic discussed here.

 

[Kirk]

geepondy,
My local Costco keeps the lights in with the tools, automotive stuff, and light bulbs. So, should I take a loan out /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif and get one of these? For testing purposes only, you understand. Then I could carry it around, LowBat, and when somebody asks me "Is that a banana in your pants....", I could answer, YES!
Kirk

 

[LowBat]

[ QUOTE ]
Kirk said:
Then I could carry it around, LowBat, and when somebody asks me "Is that a banana in your pants....", I could answer, YES!
Kirk

[/ QUOTE ]

Just don't tell them you squeeze that banana in your pants to keep it charged. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

 

[shabbasuraj]

pics please

 

[Sigman]

I don't know if I want to see them? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Oh ok..if someone has one, pics or a link would be nice?

 

[BruiseLee]

I just saw this item at the Glendale, CA Costco where the huge train wreck was just recently.

I don't have a picture of it, but it really looks like a bright yellow plastic garden hose spray head; you know the "pistol grip style". The only difference being the front of the grip has a "squeeze cocking like mechanism" like a Heckler & Koch P7 pistol.

I did play arould with one a bit, though it was hard to really evaluate the thing in its plastic shipping case.

It's very light weight, and the charging mechanism seemed easy to work. It did seem to generate a decent amount of light for not a lot of effort. The on-off button seemed to work well, too. After just a few squeezes, it already had enough juice stored up to turn on and off. I believe the box said 30 seconds of squeezing would produce 3 minutes of light.

It either has a much bigger than 5mm led on it - I think it's about 7mm or .30-.32 caliber - or a 5mm with a lens in front of it, which I agree is more likely.

I would have picked one up, but I already have a Baygen FreePlay flashlight from C. Crane Company. But, this thing sure is a lot smaller, lighter, and cheaper!

Bruise

 

[kitelights]

How about an item number?

 

[SIG]

The item number is #849902.

The light is brighter than I expected it to be! It it proves to be reasonably durable, then this is a great emergency light (long term storage) when batteries may not be available. I'm debating if I should buy more. My local store did not have many in stock.

 

[Yukon_Jack]

Suitability for really long term storage will depend on how it stores its energy. If it is using a rechargable cell, the cell will eventually go bad whether its used or not. This is the number one drawback common to many so called long term survival light/radios/etc.

 

[Kirk]

Okay guys, I went and shot my $8 at Costco and this is what I got. http://www.msnusers.com/CostcoSqueezeLED . It does have a 10mm LED and a convex (bullseye) lens to focus the light. Without the lens, the light is just a flood. There is a switch near the head which is pretty convenient. The package says squeezing for "30 seconds = 3 minutes of light, 1 minute = 7 minutes, and 3 minutes = 18 minutes. The package is wrong. I didn't squeeze the handle right out of the package and got well over 30 minutes of slowly dimming light! Not too shabby. The case is hard plastic; you can't dig your fingernail into it, but it has a silicone rubber-like feel to make it grippier. It's easy to squeeze and makes a gear noise similar to those Russian "survival" squeeze lights you see advertised. The beam is useful without a lot of spill, sort of like the Palight. The beam is similar in brightness, but about twice the diameter. Since the charge seems to last a while, I wonder if this light uses a capacitor instead of a battery? I haven't taken it apart and the LED/reflector assembly appears to of one piece that has been soldered in. All in all, not a bad light. It is way more useful than the other "pump" lights I've seen just because it shines even after you stop squeezing. And it is brighter than my mini "shakelight" and the light lasts way longer. It is not waterproof, but is probably splash-resistant.
Kirk

 

[LowBat]

Thanks for the review Kirk. I did a search on GEI INC. and found their web page.

http://www.gei-inc.com/

It doesn't add a lot of info, other then they are a San Dimas, CA. based company, and the 10mm LED model (LKL-10) is one of three models made. They need to add Costco to their list of vendors.

 

[Yukon_Jack]

Just checked both Costco in Anchorage Alaska. Not here yet. If anyone finds out what type of engergy storage system it uses, I'd be most interested. If it doesn't use a battery, this could be a nifty store and forget light.

I've got a bunch of these old style incad pump lights and they leave a lot to be desired /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif What is amazing is that I bought them 25 years ago and they are stil selling them basically unchanged (somebody must like them).

 

[Sigman]

Hey Yukon...PM sent!

 

[LowBat]

I'll try to email GEI and ask the type of energy storage system. I suspect a battery as these things are holding a charge when first opened.

 

[Yukon_Jack]

Many thanks LowBat. If you do make contact, it would be nice to know if whatever rechargable battery they are using can easily be replaced and available. When I was considering a wind up Baygen (spl?) radio/light (new version) I contacted them and found out the rechargable battery was not replaceable by the consumer and they wouldn't sell me spares. This really turned me off so I ended up with their original radio that only works off the wind up spring. At my age, I realize that some of this stuff gets stored for many years and its the pits when you find out your supposedly long term survival equipment is dependent on a rechargable battery that is too old to function. Again, thanks.

 

[Kirk]

A little update. I squeezed the light for about a minute yesterday morning and turned it on at 10:15 a.m. It was still glowing enough to read by (if you held it about 6 inches from the page) at 5:30 p.m. I am impressed! This would be a great glovebox light if it can withstand the heat of summer. Somebody else will have to buy one to take it apart as I can just see a bunch of springs and gears launching themselves if I do it. I held it up to a bright light and there is not a lot inside, just the generator part and a dark "blob" up near the head. I assume this blob is the battery or capacitor?
Kirk

 

[blinkycat]

Just got one of these and proceeded to open it up. Remove screws, unscrew bezel, pull off reflector and pry open. Watch the grip since mine popped out and sent a long spring flying across the room!

Inside there's four tiny rechargeable batteries shrink wrapped together - presumably connected in series. Each is the size of about half an N cell. There's a small electric motor hooked up to a plastic gear train driven by the grip.
A 10mm LED is soldered to a small PC board with a diode and resistor.

The light is definitely brighter than my photon freedom partially because of the tight focus and partially because the overall LED output seems slightly greater.

Haven't been able to test their recharge time claims since all of the many units at the store were already charged up (at the factory?). I left one one for twenty minutes and it was still going strong. I'm going to let mine run down to empty and then see how much pumping is needed for a few minutes of light.