fisk-king
Flashlight Enthusiast
isn't that considered an oxymoron, the phrase "a good shake light" :thinking:
What's the Best "Shake" Flashlight
- Thread starter maddog
- Start date
Help Support Candle Power Flashlight Forum
Schuey2002
Enlightened
Care to share what brand of solar charger you are using?
KiwiMark
Flashlight Enthusiast
For a Bug Out Bag I would recommend a Zebralight H501w and a 4Sevens Quark 1 x AA light and 2 x 4-packs of AA Lithium batteries. With the 10+ year shelf life of the batteries and the moon mode of the Quark light and the low mode of the 501 you should be able to last quite a long time on batteries. If you also had some recently charged AA cells you could use then you would be fine for normal use for a few days and the Lithium AAs can be kept for a backup in case the need goes on for longer than you thought. Not only can a AA Lithium battery last a long time in a light with a low mode but the 4 pack gives 4 sets of batteries - single cell lights are great for only draining a single cell at a time!
I would not bother with shake light, squeeze lights or dynamo lights - just my opinion.
I would not bother with shake light, squeeze lights or dynamo lights - just my opinion.
Jash
Flashlight Enthusiast
Remember what a BOB is for. For most users this is a 72 hour emergency bag and doesn't need to (can't) last you weeks, so you don't need weeks worth of light.
What you do need is a super reliable light and enough power to make it shine all night, every night for 3-5 nights with reasonable output.
My BOB light is a Fenix TK20.
Why?
It will run at a very good ouput of 45 lumens for 11 hours and I've got 10 L91 lithiums to power it. More than enough light for 72 hours, which is all a BOB is supposed to be for.
If you ever do need your BOB it is likely there is a disaster of some magnitude and a little 10 lumen light isn't going to be very good for security. 10 lumens is not much good if you have to walk through an unlit disaster area at night. You need to be able to see much further than 10 lumens can reach. Fallen buildings, collapsed bridges, landslides, flooding etc.
With the TK20 I can pump it up to high in short bursts (to conserve power) and see anything from 100m away, well clear of any danger.
Could also be useful if you are one of the unhurt and can help in search and rescue of those trapped or injured (think earthquake).
Don't know if you EDC anything but that light is what will have your super low mode as it's the light you will ALWAYS have with you. Make sure it's battery compatible with your BOB light and rest easy knowing that if one light fails, you still have another to make use of those lithium primaries stored in your BOB.
What you do need is a super reliable light and enough power to make it shine all night, every night for 3-5 nights with reasonable output.
My BOB light is a Fenix TK20.
Why?
It will run at a very good ouput of 45 lumens for 11 hours and I've got 10 L91 lithiums to power it. More than enough light for 72 hours, which is all a BOB is supposed to be for.
If you ever do need your BOB it is likely there is a disaster of some magnitude and a little 10 lumen light isn't going to be very good for security. 10 lumens is not much good if you have to walk through an unlit disaster area at night. You need to be able to see much further than 10 lumens can reach. Fallen buildings, collapsed bridges, landslides, flooding etc.
With the TK20 I can pump it up to high in short bursts (to conserve power) and see anything from 100m away, well clear of any danger.
Could also be useful if you are one of the unhurt and can help in search and rescue of those trapped or injured (think earthquake).
Don't know if you EDC anything but that light is what will have your super low mode as it's the light you will ALWAYS have with you. Make sure it's battery compatible with your BOB light and rest easy knowing that if one light fails, you still have another to make use of those lithium primaries stored in your BOB.
ebow86
Flashlight Enthusiast
These "shake lights" IMHO, are nothing but a gimmick. If you look at several factors, how low quality most, if not all, of these shake lights are, and consider how long the runtimes are on current LED's I just don't see any reason to buy one. Just my 2 cents.
Buckles
Newly Enlightened
I had a Hummer shake light that i got at the Sharper Image store years ago. It was too bad. The light was completely waterproof, led, and had an aspheric lens. It wasnt very bright and the throw was terrible, but it was great for stuff around the house. It worked great for about 3 years and the i dropped it on concrete and the body cracked.
Hi, I have one of those Nightstar flashlights, I keep it in the car, but honestly, it's a pain to use. It works great for the first... mnute or so after you shake it, very well actually, but after a few minutes the term "night star" suits is perfectly. It starts to go down in brightness, although a quick shakes pumps it back up. Not sure if you have to stick with the shake light, but Freeplay http://www.freeplayenergy.com/
makes a wind light that I find really good. I bought one of the Sherpa X-rays, thought it was great, bought another, then bought the mini lamp, then bought two of their wind up weather radios lol. They are great products.
makes a wind light that I find really good. I bought one of the Sherpa X-rays, thought it was great, bought another, then bought the mini lamp, then bought two of their wind up weather radios lol. They are great products.
+1 on the FreePlay Sherpa. I've never had to use it and rely on it, but I play with it almost every night with my 3 year-old daughter, and it seems pretty solid. I got mine at Target a few years back, I think they still sell them.
I've got a dozen 14505 cells that I keep for emergencies.
They can't support any mode higher than moon-mode on my QAAw, but a single cell should last for (if I remember correctly from my calculations) 3+ months of continuous use. My LF5XT on its lowest setting can also use these cells.
I didn't have my H501w when I was playing with these cells, but when I get home, I should see if it works with these cells.
--flatline
They can't support any mode higher than moon-mode on my QAAw, but a single cell should last for (if I remember correctly from my calculations) 3+ months of continuous use. My LF5XT on its lowest setting can also use these cells.
I didn't have my H501w when I was playing with these cells, but when I get home, I should see if it works with these cells.
--flatline
Things have changed since the first shake lights came out.
1)LED light availability has skyrocketed.
2)LED emitter efficiency has doubled to quadrupled etc.
3)Charger technology has matured.
4)First nimh matured and capacity/cost matured, then we have LSD tech that has matured also.
5)Lithium primaries have become cost effective for use.
Add all these factors together and my observations are this:
Back when I started into LEDs you couldn't even buy a decent AA or AAA LED light for under $25 in the stores and could not buy the 5mm LEDs for under $3 each. All the lights used 5mm LEDs and quality/color varied widely as well as durability. Years went by and nimh cells cost $20 for a 4 pack of 1800mah, chargers cost perhaps $30-$50. Time passed and the luxeons came out got cheap and nimh cells went to 2300mah and above and chargers got into the $20-$30 range (smart chargers) and the 5mm lights were pushed down in cost with luxeons replacing them. Efficiency went up perhaps 20%. Crees came out in stuff with 2x efficiency, you could buy $20 cree lights using AAs in the stores and D cells too. LSD nimh cells came out and lithium primaries started dropping in price from $15 or so a pack to $10.
So here I am now:
I have a bunch of various LED lights mostly luxeons and 5mm LEDs and a cree or two in the mix. I have enough lights that if 5 of them broke I would be fine. I have enough LSD batteries that have enough charge on them to run lights for perhaps a week or three, then I have a bunch of lithium primaries beyond that good to 2020 something or more.
By the time I run out of batteries I would have carpal tunnel and gone insane from cranking and shaking like I have demented disco fever robot style if I were to do away with all I have amassed so far.
I would bet the majority of those here in the forum longer than 2 years have a similar supply of ammo for the battle of light vs dark in the outage limits.
1)LED light availability has skyrocketed.
2)LED emitter efficiency has doubled to quadrupled etc.
3)Charger technology has matured.
4)First nimh matured and capacity/cost matured, then we have LSD tech that has matured also.
5)Lithium primaries have become cost effective for use.
Add all these factors together and my observations are this:
Back when I started into LEDs you couldn't even buy a decent AA or AAA LED light for under $25 in the stores and could not buy the 5mm LEDs for under $3 each. All the lights used 5mm LEDs and quality/color varied widely as well as durability. Years went by and nimh cells cost $20 for a 4 pack of 1800mah, chargers cost perhaps $30-$50. Time passed and the luxeons came out got cheap and nimh cells went to 2300mah and above and chargers got into the $20-$30 range (smart chargers) and the 5mm lights were pushed down in cost with luxeons replacing them. Efficiency went up perhaps 20%. Crees came out in stuff with 2x efficiency, you could buy $20 cree lights using AAs in the stores and D cells too. LSD nimh cells came out and lithium primaries started dropping in price from $15 or so a pack to $10.
So here I am now:
I have a bunch of various LED lights mostly luxeons and 5mm LEDs and a cree or two in the mix. I have enough lights that if 5 of them broke I would be fine. I have enough LSD batteries that have enough charge on them to run lights for perhaps a week or three, then I have a bunch of lithium primaries beyond that good to 2020 something or more.
By the time I run out of batteries I would have carpal tunnel and gone insane from cranking and shaking like I have demented disco fever robot style if I were to do away with all I have amassed so far.
I would bet the majority of those here in the forum longer than 2 years have a similar supply of ammo for the battle of light vs dark in the outage limits.
Mr Bigglow
Enlightened
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2010
- Messages
- 406
I have two Freeplay Sherpa power-outage stations in the house, meaning 6 Sherpa units in total, and that's mostly why we got them: for the kids during backouts and other emergencies. For the kids... and the middleaged people in the neighbourhood who come and borrow flashlights during emergencies because they never got around to buying anything and are about to run out of birthday cake candles, etc. We've had one of the sets for years now and they are still perfectly fine but I DO worry about the internal batteries. So far the primary problem has been to keep them in the charging stations and not next door or under the porch. Being fanatical helps.
"but I DO worry about the internal batteries"
do what I did, take a screwdriver, undo the four screws holding it, slide out the cover, take off the top hood, then take a soldering iron, unsolder the connections to the batteries, and chuck the batteries. then get some eneloops, and resolder them to the wires. Just make sure the two side batteries are installed opposite, so the very top wire connecting the two side batteries, one end of hte wire should connect to a positive, and the other a negative. the middle battery doesn't really matter. once you soldered all the eneloops in, before you put the cover on, just turn on the light to see if you got everything connected right. then just screw back on the cover and you have new batteries in there!
I actually JUST finished doing this today, and so far so good hope this helps.
do what I did, take a screwdriver, undo the four screws holding it, slide out the cover, take off the top hood, then take a soldering iron, unsolder the connections to the batteries, and chuck the batteries. then get some eneloops, and resolder them to the wires. Just make sure the two side batteries are installed opposite, so the very top wire connecting the two side batteries, one end of hte wire should connect to a positive, and the other a negative. the middle battery doesn't really matter. once you soldered all the eneloops in, before you put the cover on, just turn on the light to see if you got everything connected right. then just screw back on the cover and you have new batteries in there!
I actually JUST finished doing this today, and so far so good
hope this helps.davidwestonh
Newly Enlightened
Please post video in the underground xtra points if you get it on redeye.
What's the Best "Shake" Flashlight?
I've got to agree. Years ago when they seemed the perfect solution to several problems I bought a couple. Very expensive, they were, and darned near worthless. Better than anything available before the year 1900, but that's not saying much. A couple of years back I was building long-run lights for relatives, and a newly married youngster refused his model, saying he wanted a "shake" light. On the one hand, I was chagrined he didn't want a good light, but on the other, I was delighted to find a home for one of my overpriced & dim shake lights. Last year a dollar-type store was selling squeeze lights for kids to use during Halloween. They featured a LED bulb backed up by a battery. So a few 'squeezes' and the thing would run several minutes with decent light output. I wish I'd bought more than I did. Given my luck with the durability of mechanical devices though, I'd lean towards a solar light if "reliable" was the biggest issue.
