Decent Single AA or AAA for $30 or Less

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J

JJH

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
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42
The title says it all---what are my choices. A smooth beam & long runtime are important. One batt. only please.
Thanks in advance-
JJ
 
That's a mighty big question, with a whole lot of answers. It depends on what you want to use it for. Details please.
 
If you're prepared to spend a few minutes cleaning gunk and re-lubing threads, can't go wrong with a JetBeam C-LE 1xAA. Good machining, high quality looks and features for $2x.00 shipped from Emilion's site. Super smooth beam with the orange peel reflector. Don't have a link to a runtime graph, but would imagine many hours on the lower settings.

For best battery life I would imagine people would recommend saving another 20 and going with Fenix's L1D CE.
 
Marduke said:
That's a mighty big question, with a whole lot of answers. It depends on what you want to use it for. Details please.
Click to expand...
This one is for my wife to carry in her purse & she's about to take a trip to China---Thanks
 
swxb12 said:
If you're prepared to spend a few minutes cleaning gunk and re-lubing threads, can't go wrong with a JetBeam C-LE 1xAA. Good machining, high quality looks and features for $2x.00 shipped from Emilion's site. Super smooth beam with the orange peel reflector. Don't have a link to a runtime graph, but would imagine many hours on the lower settings.

For best battery life I would imagine people would recommend saving another 20 and going with Fenix's L1D CE.
Click to expand...
I guess you mean spending another 20-
Where do I find Emilion's site?
Oh, and 1 more thing - I 'd really like a low level for reading and a higher output on same light---
 
Thanks for some great suggestions on AA lights.
Now, what about AAA?
Anyone familiar with the Arc? How bright is it? Enough to read by in the dark?
 
JJH said:
I guess you mean spending another 20-
Where do I find Emilion's site?
Oh, and 1 more thing - I 'd really like a low level for reading and a higher output on same light---
Click to expand...

I also can highly recommend the Jetbeam C-LE.

The brightest mode on the C-LE is very bright, and the lowest setting is great for reading, and this low setting also has one of the best runtimes available (more than 24 hours on a single AA battery)

The MTE DX light listed by LukeA is also very bright, but lacks a low-low setting with a nice long run time for reading (the lowest setting on the DX light is still 40% and will only run a couple hours).

The C-LE actually has a full 5 modes - Medium, Low, High, Strobe, and SOS, but don't worry it's not complicated, you just turn on the light, and then turn it off and back on within 2 seconds to go to the next mode.

The light memorizes the last mode, so once you get it in the mode you like, it will turn on in that mode by default.

Here is the link directly to the Jetbeam C-LE at Emilions.

http://emilionworkshop.com/oscommer...d=254&osCsid=0b223fe6da7a9be96d610a4d6ac3e01f

The Jetbeam is currently priced at 20.00 at Emilions, but that's the Candle Power Forum [CPF] discounted price. This is the reason the prior poster listed the price as 2x.00 (because if you don't ask for the discount, it's 26.00)

To get the lower price you have to set up a login on the Emilions site (which takes about 2 minutes), then ask them to upgrade your account on their site for the CPF discount by emailing them with your CPF ID (obviously NOT your CPF password, just your "JJH" ID), then they will upgrade your account at their site so you will see the 20.00 price on the C-LE.

Emilions takes PayPal so you don't have to worry about your credit card information. (even if you don't have a PayPal account, you can do your credit card purchase through PayPal and then ONLY the PayPal folks will have your credit card information).

The Jetbeam C-LE is my favorite light, I have ordered several of them from Emilions and they have all arrived in perfect condition, within about 5 days.

As someone else already suggested, when you get your C-LE, be sure to clean the threads and put a little oil or grease on the them and it will work MUCH more smoothly (I used a general purpose Teflon grease).

If your previous experience has been with department store lights you won't believe how well made this thing looks, and how bright it is on the high setting.
 
Yep, another vote for the Jetbeam C-LE, I just don't see how your wife couldn't like it. I've had it in my pocket everyday for the last 3 months or so, and the finish still looks like new. The runtime will be far superior to most 1xAAA lights, and it has a very simple, and reliable user interface.

And, because it's a twisty, it's also about the smallest 1xAA available . Since this is for your wife's purse, just attach a small lanyard (which I believe comes with the light), and you're all set. Just pop in an Energizer e2 lithium primary battery before she leaves and she should be good to go.

Of course, as any good CPFer will tell you, it's always good to have a 'spare' light, so I'd make sure she has one of those super-small .50 cent keychain lights attached to her purse too.

Just as an alternative, I think the Lumapower LM301 is a good 1xAA value too, but I find the Jetbeam's 3 levels more versatile and ultimately more useful.
 
+ 1 on the Jetbeam CL-E v1.2
The older versions had problems with the threading and PWM but it seems to be all fixed in then newer CL-E. Comparison(28 hours on Low)
 
JJH said:
Oh, and 1 more thing - I 'd really like a low level for reading and a higher output on same light---
Click to expand...

The C-LE (v1.2) is very good all-around light. You can compare it to other more expensive ones in my comparison review here:
Multi-level 1AA Review

I'm in the process of testing a number of additional lights (Rex 2.1, Luma 301, and the 5-stage lights from DX/Kai). First impressions are that the Rex 2.1 is an outstanding light, the Luma 301 is good all-around light, and the 5-stage lights are super-bright but with horrible runtimes on alkalines, no real low modes, and often shoddy construction.

Personally, I'd stick with the C-LE ... bet buy in your price range. If you are willing to go for a little more, the Rexlight 2.1 is very impressive (also has the lowest low mode I've seen - runs for over 2 days straight on alkaline!). Here's my Rex 2.1 comparison review to the old Rex 2.0

:thumbsup:
 
I am looking for an inexpensive single AA light too but I am looking for one that has the best throw. So far, I have selected all of my AA lights for smooth wide beams so now I need a light to complement them.
 
Ron Schroeder said:
I am looking for an inexpensive single AA light too but I am looking for one that has the best throw.
Click to expand...
Best throw of my lights is clearly the Fenix L1D-CE, but I imagine that's outside the inexpensive range you mean. The deeper reflector 5-stage lights from Kai/DX have more throw than the MTE versions (same output, though - seems to be the same circuit), but I find the build quality of the MTE versions far superior. But all of those lights are still well below the throw of the Fenix.
 
selfbuilt said:
I'm in the process of testing a number of additional lights (Rex 2.1, Luma 301, and the 5-stage lights from DX/Kai). First impressions are that the Rex 2.1 is an outstanding light, the Luma 301 is good all-around light, and the 5-stage lights are super-bright but with horrible runtimes on alkalines, no real low modes, and often shoddy construction.
Click to expand...

There is some good news regarding some of the $15 5-mode lights sold by KaiDomain (maybe DX as well, don't know) - the circuit in the 14500 version has been updated, it now draws somewhere around 900ma/300ma/120ma, so it's now at least a halfway logical setup of the 3 main modes. I don't have any of them but at least they're realizing how dumb the original circuit design was and improving on it. Having said that, while they're probably a decent light at this point, I also have a CLE 1.2 and for the most part I've been very happy with it. The threads needed a lot of attention and Nyogel to be as smooth as I'd like. I've applied lube, worked the threads, cleaned, re-lubed, about 10 times to get to where it's now pretty good. One thing I liked about the new Hyperion CE-R was the beacon mode it had where it flashed very briefly once every 4 seconds, I could see that being handy and the battery would probably last months in that mode.

Anyway, the CLE isn't perfect but it's a great light in its price range, tough to beat.
 
JJH said:
Thanks for some great suggestions on AA lights.
Now, what about AAA?
Anyone familiar with the Arc? How bright is it? Enough to read by in the dark?
Click to expand...

The ARC AAA is a nicely made little light, but it's a damn shame to waste all that quality machineing on a crappy little Nichia 5mm LED you could get in a 5 dollar light at Target.

My old friend from Texas would have said it was "All Hat", meaning nice to look at, but not much on performance.

You can get similar performance from the Fenix E0 or E1 lights for half the cost, but they also use the Nichia LED, and I am not really that jazzed about them now that better LED's are available. The Nichia tend to throw uneven blue/purple tinted patterns YUCK :sick2:

If your budget is enough to consider the ARC you can get a Fenix L0D-CE for LESS money (just over 40 dollars shipped with the CPF discount at the FenixStore). The L0D-CE has 10 times the output of the ARC on high, and still has a low mode with both more output and more run time (and none of the funky purple you sometimes get with the nichia lights).

If you happen to decide on the Jetbeam C-LE for your AA light, a nice side benefit of the L0D-CE is that it is also a twisty light, and has exactly the same 5 mode sequence as the C-LE Jetbeam light.

So these two lights are kind of brothers-from-a-different-mother! (nice to have exactly the same UI when switching back and forth) :)

If you are really willing to spend 50 bucks and are jazzed by the beautiful HAIII knurled looks of the ARC, but want a nicer whiter flood and adjustable output, consider the Jet-1 AAA from Jetbeam it has a beautiful HAIII finish every bit as pretty as the ARC, but is multi mode like the C-LE with a high efficiency SSC LED. The JET-1 AAA does not have the throw, total output, or runtimes of the Fenix L0D-CE, but it's a lot more output than the ARC with a whiter more even flood.

Personally, I would take what you SAVE on the Jetbeam C-LE and buy a Fenix L0D-CE, then you have two lights with great output and runtimes, and a consistent UI, and the cost will average out to just over 30 dollars each, which is pretty close to your cost target.
 
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