Anyone tried one of these???

http://www.brookstone.com/shop/prod...arch_type=search&search_words=led&prodtemp=t1

Emergency flashlight is also a radio and a weather alert system. Rugged flashlight has five bright LEDs. Radio has AM/FM, weather and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) bands with audible alerts. Glows in the dark so it's always easy to find. Hand crank or outlet charging, digital time, date and temperature, compass and more. Uses one lithium battery (included).

Found it on Brookstones website. Looks interesting.

Curtis

From my experience they seem very appealing at first glance, I if you have one you've got it all. The converse is also true, you lose it you've lost everything.

If they break, there goes your light, radio etc etc. or let's say you daughter wants to borrow the light it to go to sleep in her room, she's scared....so how are you going to listen for the tornado alert in the other room?

They are like Swiss Army Knives or Leathermen, they are very handy to have, in a pinch they might work, but never work as well as dedicated tools for the job. I've got 3 or 4 SAK's and an equal number of Leathermans But I also have a full set of screwdrivers, pliers, cutters etc.

What makes that product unique is the radio, not the flashlight. In an emergency , the radio is what's important, you will have another flashlight (or 10). When your batteries run out in that unit, you're done. I bought a Grundig radio. It has a built-in crank dynamo for unlimited runtime, and can accept batteries also. It has a bright light in the front too. It features those radio frequencies, plus a micro-tunable shortwave receiver for worldwide reception. A hell of a product for about the same price. I highly recommend the Grundig. Velcro a good lithium flashlight to it and keep it in your shelter area.

Bernie

FirstDsent said:

I bought a Grundig radio. It has a built-in crank dynamo for unlimited runtime, and can accept batteries also. It has a bright light in the front too. It features those radio frequencies, plus a micro-tunable shortwave receiver for worldwide reception. A hell of a product for about the same price. I highly recommend the Grundig. Velcro a good lithium flashlight to it and keep it in your shelter area.

Bernie

Click to expand...

Note: Those are on clearance at Target


Although it does have an LED light on the front, it's more akward than a regular flashlight, due to its shape.


It was one of these two, I don't remember which, but I think it was the 2nd one (the FR300)

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=2-2/qid=1144067488/ref=sr_2_2/601-7974554-4284108?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B0002AHRWW

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=2-3/qid=1144067488/ref=sr_2_3/601-7974554-4284108?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B0006G0II2

Thanks for the feedback. I will check my local Target and see if they have the Grundig you mention.

Curtis

I saw the first Grundig (Fr200BL) that I linked to above, at Target today.
It wasn't much of a clearance. It was marked down to like $33, originally $40.

Don't remember if any of the Target stores I went to in the past had the FR300 or not.
I do remember seeing them at Worst Buy though, but at regular price. :thumbsdow

One xmas, I gave away a dozen of those Grundig FR-200 handcrank dynamo radios to my family. I kept one for myself. The 2 things I didn't like about them was that they had some weird incandescent bulb instead of LED, and they used a cordless phone type ni-cad battery pack instead of capacitors. LED would of been better, no bulb to burn out. And capacitors would have longer shelf life than batteries.
I've seen later models, more recently where the light bulb was replaced with LED. In fact I've just checked Amazon, and it lists the new FR-200 with a white LED.

I happend to have an MJLED lying around that I was never happy with in my mini-m*g. So one night, while I was feeling adventurous, I gutted the incandescent bulb from the FR-200 and shoved the MJLED in its place. The pins fit perfectly. When I finally went to turn on the light, I was blown away by how bright it got. Before that moment, I was pretty sure I had a dud MJLED. But all it really needed was current--that the dynamo and ni-cad battery pack was better at supplying, than the mini-m*g with alkalines.