Two gens of the LED Maglite Solitaire?

[TwiceFuzed]

I pulled a mostly depleted nimh battery out of my headlamp tonight, it had a resting voltage of 1.24 volts. I thought I would run it dead in my solitaire to see what the voltage of the battery is when the light shuts off. The light ran for 38 minutes before it dimmed slightly then shutoff a few seconds later. I immediately removed the battery from the light and checked the voltage. 1.01 volts and recovering quickly.

I don't have a way to check the voltage of the battery under a load in the light, but I suspect the light shuts off at around 0.8 to 0.9 volts. Perfect for nimh batteries, this is also ideal if you are trying to cycle your batteries to refresh them. I don't think this light depletes the cell as deep as some chargers with the discharge function are capable of doing (at a lower discharge rate). I think this LED and driver are rated to pull about 350 ma. At a higher current, the cell will pull down to the cutoff voltage quicker than a cell discharged at a lower current. You could put a 'dead' cell out of this light into a low current draw device and squeeze a little more power out of it before it would be completely depleted. I don't know if it continues to draw power after the light shuts off. If it does, that would be less than ideal if you accidentally left it on for an extended period of time...
But you're talking about a $10 flashlight and rechargeable batteries that cost $1.50 each, it's not something to lose too much sleep over. I just thought I'd post my observations and thoughts for anybody that's interested.

 

[Dicaeopolis]

I got mine out after reading this. It is silver colored. I have had it for years and it still works fine. The hot spot does vary when I twist the head. I used to have it on my keychain. Every so often it would turn on accidentally, so now if I carry it, I put it in a pocket by itself usually. Good light for the price.

 

[xxo]

I got mine out after reading this. It is silver colored. I have had it for years and it still works fine. The hot spot does vary when I twist the head. I used to have it on my keychain. Every so often it would turn on accidentally, so now if I carry it, I put it in a pocket by itself usually. Good light for the price.

Had that happen a few times until I got in the habit of making sure the head and tail were snugged down each time I put it back in my pocket.

 

[Burgess]

I'm wondering --

WHY is Walmart selling these 47 Lumen LED
Mag Solitaires on CLEARANCE for $ 7 ? ? ?

I can certainly understand why they have
the incandescent 2AA Mini-Mags on clearance.

But these LED Solitaires are NICE !

Are they gonna' be REPLACED
with something New ? ? ?


I'm puzzled . . . .
:thinking:

 

[bykfixer]

My local WalMart now has the 47 version for $7 as well. Last time they were like $9.83 or something...

I bought another silver one.
Now that store does not carry LED minimags at all. Only incan (for $5). I've also noticed the total wall area for flashlights has been greatly reduced like they are getting away from flashlights in general. No more Ozark Trails, or Life Gear... no Duracell and they only had one type of Rayovac.

Used to be I could spend an hour looking at all the choices.

My local Home Depot and Lowes are doing the same thing.

But I noticed the 47 lumen I bought last night is like the 37 I mentioned above beam-wise. On/off with not a lot of difference in the beam focus. I like the ability to twist a half turn for a good beam but I do kinda miss that old laser beam like spot from the older versions. (Even though it took several twists to get there)

Like other Maglites, the 47 seems a lot brighter than the numbers suggest.

 

[GasganoFJ60]

Ive been thinking they're clearing out older inventory for the new year? Im able to frequent multiple Walmarts in the surrounding 4 counties and just about all are out of the $5 incans(I did clear our one location...my bad) and most are almost out of the $7 Solitaires(Ive cleared out a few as well).
That being said, when looking at the cheaper lights, they dont seem to move.

 

[xxo]

I'm wondering --

WHY is Walmart selling these 47 Lumen LED
Mag Solitaires on CLEARANCE for $ 7 ? ? ?

I can certainly understand why they have
the incandescent 2AA Mini-Mags on clearance.

But these LED Solitaires are NICE !

Are they gonna' be REPLACED
with something New ? ? ?


I'm puzzled . . . .
:thinking:

Unfortunately it seems Walmart, Target Home Depot and Lowes have all cut back on their selection of Mags, often in favor of their own Chinese made store brands. I think the local Target also recently closed out the LED Solitaire, too bad it is a great light!

 

[bykfixer]

Speculating on the "why clearance" thing here;

I wonder if the stores had entered into contracts to buy X of the lights and pay as they sold... and when they weren't moving yet payment to Maglite was still due... perhaps the clearance is to drum up cash to pay Maglite.

Example TarMart corp agreed to buy 12,000 bic lighters over 12 months. At $1 apiece. Agreeing to pay bic $1000 per month. Bic sent the 12000 lighters and is expecting their $1000 a month.
Now TarMart could easily reach into the coffers of cash and pull out that little money. But that cash is drawing interest at say 2.1%. So they'll keep the cash coffers bringing in the interest and clear out all the non selling bic lighters and create shelf space for cheaper lighters that may sell better.

 

[Burgess]

Today, I went to another Walmart,
and snapped up their final 4 Solitaire LED's

$ 7 a piece

 

[bykfixer]

Hopefully the available space will be filled with the "warm" version soon.
I'll be all over that one for Christmas gifts for this year.

ZBattery has warm ones in stock. Saying 3-4 weeks on minimags and XL50's.

 

[Burgess]

Ah !

THAT would be WONDERFUL !



:thumbsup:
_

 

[TwiceFuzed]

I looked at Walmart tonight, they had the solitaire marked down to $7, but they were sold out.

 

[GasganoFJ60]

I looked at Walmart tonight, they had the solitaire marked down to $7, but they were sold out.

Every local WalMart is sold our of the $7 LED Solitaires and $5 Mini Incans.
Glad I stocked up when I did, wish I got more.

 

[Burgess]

^ ^ ^ My feelings, also !


And I'm told (by Walmart)
they will * NOT * be getting any MORE of them !

* Clearance *


:-(

 

[TwiceFuzed]

I randomly received a $5 coupon in my email from eBay, it expires tomorrow so I got on eBay and found a new 37 lumen solitaire for $10.90 with free shipping. I added it to my cart and applied the coupon, it's on its way for $5.90. It was the last 37 lumen solitaire available from that shipper. You can't beat that.

 

[TwiceFuzed]

I randomly received a $5 coupon in my email from eBay, it expires tomorrow so I got on eBay and found a new 37 lumen solitaire for $10.90 with free shipping. I added it to my cart and applied the coupon, it's on its way for $5.90. It was the last 37 lumen solitaire available from that shipper. You can't beat that.

Got my light in the mail today, I got a 47 lumen instead of the advertised 37 lumen... I figured that would happen. Oh well, for $5.90 I'm not too terribly disappointed.

 

[etc]

I do not have the package it came in so how does one tell which version you have?

It's a neat emergency light to be kept in the vehicle. Runs nicely on Lithiums.

 

[xxo]

I do not have the package it came in so how does one tell which version you have?

It's a neat emergency light to be kept in the vehicle. Runs nicely on Lithiums.

What is the serial number?

 

[etc]

I got several of the 47 lumens at Home Depot for $10 each. Really sweet lights but drain batteries pretty fast. Eneloops would probably work the best.

It works really well with Energizer Lithiums as well, but yeah, surprisingly, the AAA Eneloop works very well as well. I didn't think it would due to its lower initial voltage but it seems brighter for longer than on an Alkaline. Which is really not a surprise of course.
I finally found a purpose for my stash of AAA Eneloops that had sat unused.

That light works poorly on incandescents and is a terrible battery vampire.
For that, I use the Coleman Max 3xAAA that fires up on 3xAAA that are close to being depleted, at 1.2x volts while the solitaire is dead as a doorknob on that voltage.

 

[etc]

What is the serial number?

I just wrapped the body and the bezel in some tape to prevent it from being scratched.