Looking for the World's Toughesst Small LED

[GADGETOMETRY]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

I agree with Vortex KC-1. I had bought 3 and got them for $55 ea delivered. Almost the same size as an ARC LS. And almost twice as bright from about 1 meter away from all my other LS's. The light has a much better throw.

 

[paulr]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

The Infinity Ultra is a nice light but too big for a keychain. If someone is clear about requirements, it's best to give answers that actually fill them, or at least come close.

Peak has a 1AAA stainless steel light at $39.95:

http://peakledsolutions.com/aaa_1LEDSS.html

it's true that it hasn't been around for so long, but there are (counting variations) a fair number of them in circulation by now, and no reported failures. Arcs did fail from time to time.

All these lights are pretty hard to kill.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

Infinity Ultra is a bit big for the keychain, but is an awefully nice light!

I think I'd go for the ARC AAA offered above if I didn't already have one!

 

[Atomlite]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

Definately Infinity Ultra if it is to be added to survival kit and not to be used as EDC keychain light!

 

[IsaacHayes]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

This got me thinking. If I had an infinity still, and didn't mind scuffing it, I'd sure like to do a stress test.

I'd first fill my pneumatic potato cannon to 150 psi, put it in a sabot, and fire away at a concrete wall. Would be a fun test!!
Mind you this "spud gun" doesn't use hair spray (weak), but compressed air. And the larger the barrel, the more surface area the projectile has for the air to press on. Thus the use of a sabot. This thing is very powerfull. Sometimes just the force of sudden air pressure pushing against the potato, will cause it to shatter in the barrel and come out in peices!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

 

[Tetsubo]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

[ QUOTE ]
Flying Turtle said:
I think the light that comes closest to your requirements is one of the Peak Matterhorns, either 1 or 3 LED models. It's my impression, probably wrong, that the brass one would offer greater crush resistance than the aluminum. The toughest would be the stainless steel, but that will be more than $40.

Geoff

[/ QUOTE ]

This one I had considered. Not to mention it's brass...

 

[Tetsubo]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

[ QUOTE ]
flashlite said:
The Gerber Infinity Ultra. It's a little big for a keychain light for my tastes but it may be just what you're looking for. I haven't tried the new style Infinity yet but the old style is tough as nails. The Ultra-G (government version) is even better but I believe they've recently become pretty scarce.

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't taken a look at the Gerber version yet. But she killed the older version...

 

[Tetsubo]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

[ QUOTE ]
stockae92 said:
i bang my ultra G on things all the times and its still working like a champ

but if you want keychain size, you might want to stick to something using AAA battery

maybe sonic/sonic G??

[/ QUOTE ]

She killed a Sonic as well...

This is why I bought us titanium wedding bands...

 

[Tetsubo]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

The Vortex and the stainless steel Peak both look good. I'll see about fitting them into our budget. Might get one of each and test them a bit. I'm going to need two for the survival kits. I just hope one of them survives my wife... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thank you all for your input and suggestions.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

[ QUOTE ]
Tetsubo said: I haven't taken a look at the Gerber version yet. But she killed the older version...

[/ QUOTE ]

Gotta ask....
how did she kill the Ultra?

 

[PeLu]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

I would go for the SwissLight, it should have a very long lifetime (in regards of shelf life), is pretty small and tough.
As I wrote in other threads, I would never ever consider an ArcAAA as an emergency light. These are just too unrelyable. We had several of them failing for different reasons (when used as backup lights and also in survival kits). Something you would not like in such a situation. They are much better to carry around for EDC (and you have much more possibility to enjoy their nice finish then .-)

 

[paulr]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

I got the Peak 1AAA lug-end a couple days ago and have been doing a runtime test. No way to tell this early about its long-term reliability, but I can tell you it has insane runtime. It's been on nonstop for 55 hours except for about a 6 hour break in the middle and it's still running (rather dim now but definitely enough to walk around with after getting used to the dark) on a normal cheap Varta alkaline AAA cell.

There's a dedicated survival light called the Tek-tite Trek Lithium that uses an AA-sized 3.6 volt computer battery, direct driving a Nichia led for 200+ hours of runtime and 20 year shelf life. It's supposedly waterproof to 1000 feet. Tremendously tough ABS plastic light, seems very hard to kill, no electronics to fail except the LED itself.

There's also the 1AA incandescent model which has no electronics at all, and basically nothing that can break except the bulb, so with some spare bulbs you're set for anything.

 

[DBrier]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

She has killed a Sonic and the Infinity? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
You have to tell us how.

 

[Tetsubo]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

[ QUOTE ]
DBrier said:
She has killed a Sonic and the Infinity? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
You have to tell us how.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wish I knew... if I could figure it out I might be able to stop it. She just carries the poor things around either in her pocket or her map case (purse). For some reason they just stop working.

I'm a big believer in the old saying, "Take care of your tools and your tools will take care of you."

She is a nice person, really. She just kills flashlights...

 

[Tetsubo]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
I got the Peak 1AAA lug-end a couple days ago and have been doing a runtime test. No way to tell this early about its long-term reliability, but I can tell you it has insane runtime. It's been on nonstop for 55 hours except for about a 6 hour break in the middle and it's still running (rather dim now but definitely enough to walk around with after getting used to the dark) on a normal cheap Varta alkaline AAA cell.

There's a dedicated survival light called the Tek-tite Trek Lithium that uses an AA-sized 3.6 volt computer battery, direct driving a Nichia led for 200+ hours of runtime and 20 year shelf life. It's supposedly waterproof to 1000 feet. Tremendously tough ABS plastic light, seems very hard to kill, no electronics to fail except the LED itself.

There's also the 1AA incandescent model which has no electronics at all, and basically nothing that can break except the bulb, so with some spare bulbs you're set for anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Trek Lithium sounds interesting. *sigh* So many cool LED's, so little time...

 

[flashlite]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

[ QUOTE ]
Tetsubo said:
[ QUOTE ]
DBrier said:
She has killed a Sonic and the Infinity? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
You have to tell us how.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wish I knew... if I could figure it out I might be able to stop it. She just carries the poor things around either in her pocket or her map case (purse). For some reason they just stop working.

[/ QUOTE ]

It might be more hassle than it's worth but I'd send them back to Gerber. They have lifetime warranties that Gerber should honor even if they were made by CMG.

I should just mention that the really old version of the CMG Infinity didn't use epoxy to protect some very thin wires in the electronics. These wires would sometimes become dislodged when the light was dropped. All the newer Infinity's now use epoxy to protect the wires. Unless you would just happen to get a lemon, these things are bullet proof. Just keep the + contact clean.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

[ QUOTE ]
flashlite said:
[ QUOTE ]
Tetsubo said:I wish I knew... if I could figure it out I might be able to stop it. She just carries the poor things around either in her pocket or her map case (purse). For some reason they just stop working.

[/ QUOTE ]
It might be more hassle than it's worth but I'd send them back to Gerber. They have lifetime warranties that Gerber should honor even if they were made by CMG.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good advice.

Can't speak about the Sonic -

But I have heard - some Infinities/Ultras can fail when screwed down too tight which pushes too hard on the circuit board.

Or sometimes the electrical contact between the head and circuit board fails - some have solved this by "crimping" the head to make better contact.

 

[HarryN]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

I wonder what she does for a living ? I assume the flashlight is an active part of her work life ? Does she happen to go through cell phones in a similar way ?

 

[Dandrop]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

Wow, killing an Infinty Ultra and Sonic is a pretty tough thing to do. Somebody should hire her as a flashlight tester! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[scudinc]

Re: Looking for the World\'s Toughesst Small LED

I've killed an Ultra. Not in day-to-day use, though.