Economics of a Key chain light

I purchased a KL from Evilmart on sale a bout a year ago for $3 plus change. The batteries ran out so I decided to replace them since the light looks OK. The light needs 2 batteries and to my horror they cost over $5 each. So what is going on here? Either the lights are too cheap or the batteries are over priced? I guess I just have to buy a new light, what a terrible waste of a piece of plastic and a perfectly good light. Can I stick the LED into something ? What do you guys usually do?

What's a KL--"keychain light"?

Can you tell us what battery size it takes?

Often a battery can be purchased online for 20 to 30 percent of the local retail price. For example, the popular (on CPF) 123A cells sell in camera stores and drugstores for $5 or $6 each. Online, they're as cheap as $1 when bought in lots of 10 or 20, $1.50 individually.

But you raise a good point: When giving away a keyring light, think "AAA" or "AA" if you intend to give the recipient a light that can be used cheaply for a long time.

you can get them on ebay in bulk for cheap. the batts that is.

Welcome to CPF Knifemaster. :wave:

I make sure to buy an expensive key light, then it's an easy decision whether to replace the batteries or buy a new one. Really, a light like an Arc or Peak will last a long time and if you use rechargable batteries, you don't have to worry about changing them very often.

You bring up a good point about our disposable economies. The example of your key light isn't as outragous as buying a new computer printer each time it runs out of ink because it's cheaper than the replacement cartriges, but it's an example of the same sad waste. I hope we come up with a solution before our trash bill becomes so high that we can't afford to throw anything away. Hmmm, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing after all....

What kind of batteries were inside?

I took apart the Photon II knockoff that I received free from lighthound to put the batteries in my real PII, who's batteries were severely depleted. The real PII had Energizers ($5-6 for a new pair), but the knockoff had unknown brand batteries with a bunch of asian characters (sorry, don't know what language) on them. I doubt they're $5-6 for a pair of those.

Of course, when I put the Energizers back in the clone, I wasn't able to get the light back together because the screws stripped out the soft plastic. Oh well, at least I got some free batteries.

Amondotech sells a good selection of coin and button cell batteries for 25¢ each. $6 shipping, flat rate. They also sell the Photon Freedom Micro keychain light for $20 (I just got one, it's great), but include 10 free batteries with it (Freedom Micro uses 2x CR2016).

The biggest problem with Asian-made things like batteries etc... is the US market retail packaging literally probably costs more than the manufacture, bulk packaging and shipping combined.

Emilion has button cells for pretty cheap... He is in Asia so it might be best to order a couple lights or laser pointers or something like that to help offset the shipping cost.

Prices can be found here.

The light uses two 3V lithium batteries ( no name). I don't want to buy batteries for it even on line since the shipping is going to be more than the batteries. This is my whole point the light is good but it's not worth feeding it batteries, for $7 I can get an Inova microlight which is better than the Photon. The only conclusion I can come to is that batteries are way too overpriced in the stores.

Those batteries are almost certainly CR2016's. They're about 10 cents each in quantity. The keychain lights are about 40 cents each including the batteries if you buy 100 of them from (e.g.) Emilion's. If you just want one or two of them, KevinL, Lighthound, and others sell them for $1 to $1.25 each.

I like my Photons better than my Inova Microlight. And if you're about to buy stuff online you might as well throw in a few coin cells anyway. I don't keychain lights that use button cells are meant to be in any way primary lights. They're good when you need a little light for short periods of time, but given the costs of button cells at retail, an Arc AAA or similar is obviously a better choice.

I wish Costco sold huge packages of CR2016s...

It's amazing to me how much markup there can be in batteries. Just look at what a CR123 costs in the local store, even a discount store like WalMart. You can buy them lots of places on the internet for under $2 each, easily down to $1 each if you look around. They can be $5 to $6 each in stores. This alone keeps me from recommending the best lights to people I know.

There are lots of little things that I need to buy that would be way too expensive when you add in shipping. I wait until I need to order other items so the shipping is covered by something else that I need.

My boss was paying $3.00 a piece for LR44's in the camera department, individually packaged. In the group buy for glow sticks, we got them for $0.07 each in flats of 50.

Just goes to show the mark up, and what you should shoot for if you shop around.

For cheap Button cell batteries in small quantities I have had good luck with http://www.batterybob.com . The deals that include free shipping are the best.

Mr_Light said:

For cheap Button cell batteries in small quantities I have had good luck with http://www.batterybob.com . The deals that include free shipping are the best.

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Looks like batterybob has a special sale going on for spaceship batteries. I think I'll order a half dozen or so.

Emil's selling 20 paks for $3 + shipping
http://emilionworkshop.com/oscommer...d=238&osCsid=3d5706bea75705ff4131bd374c4f63fe
KevinL sells them in 10 paks
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=85309

In a pinch, when I can't wait for a bulk deal online, I actualy buy cheap generic coin-cell lights solely for the batteries, then I just junk the light, and strip out the LED and throw it in my "project box" for the day when baby diapers and poverty aren't nipping at my heels so badly, and I can think about messing with some mods.

The batteries for the "blipper" for our car wore out, and with babies and diaper bags, it was too much hassle to go into Target or Wallyworld, so we just looked for some at Walgreens while picking up medicine.

They had coin-cell keychain lights for $1.99 at the impulse buy rack by the register, which was $3 less than the batteries alone in the blister pack.

Talk about rip-offs: my Saab dealer wanted $19.95 to replace the battery of the remote control door lock. So I found:

10 CR2032 Li-ions for $.30/ea including shipping. Hard to beat this guy's price. Ships from California.

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-CR2032-Lithium-Button-Batteries_W0QQitemZ5059596315QQcategoryZ98625QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

Keep in mind that the way these lights usually get used, the batteries last quite a long time. I've EDC'd a Photon II for the past year or so and it's still going strong on its original batteries. Yes, if you add up the cost of batteries, an Arc AAA (etc.) might be cheaper in the long run, but that means decades, not months. There are many reasons to buy an Arc, but long-term battery economy should be pretty low on the list.

Knifemaster said:

The light uses two 3V lithium batteries ( no name). I don't want to buy batteries for it even on line since the shipping is going to be more than the batteries. This is my whole point the light is good but it's not worth feeding it batteries, for $7 I can get an Inova microlight which is better than the Photon. The only conclusion I can come to is that batteries are way too overpriced in the stores.

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Flashaholics buy cells in bulk.
Email me your address and I'll send you a set of cells.
kitelights(at)comcast(dot)net