Peak Pacific AA vs Kilimanjaro

Hi,

I'm a newbie and I've been following the great posts here with much interest. Looking for a good single AA light and have seen good reviews on the Peak Pacific with AA body. But I notice that Peak also makes the Kilimanjaro with single AA at a slightly cheaper price, but have not seen any reviews on it. Any thoughts?

Welcome to CPF SMLLRisBTTR,

Since nobody has jumped in yet...
Going off memory here, but I think the Pacific puts out a little more light in a focused beam from a luxeon LED while the Kilimanjaro uses a cluster of 5mm LEDs that throw a broader floody beam - according to reviews on Flashlightreviews.com. Take a look at the reviews for more info.

Unfortunately, Flashlight Reviews does not have a review of the the Peak Kilimanjaro, only the Pacific.

According to the Peak website, the Kilimanjaro uses 1 LED. They have 2 models, a hi power at 34/37 CP and an Ultra power at 42/45 CP. Sounds like a lot of light for 8 hrs on a AA cell. But I wanted some independent thoughts on it, if possible. I know the Pacific gets good reviews.

Peak Kilimanjaro - possibly older version - reviewed on the LEDmuseum site. http://ledmuseum.thefire.us/peak4.htm
Peak still has the 7 LED version.

SMLLRisBTTR said:

Unfortunately, Flashlight Reviews does not have a review of the the Peak Kilimanjaro, only the Pacific.

According to the Peak website, the Kilimanjaro uses 1 LED. They have 2 models, a hi power at 34/37 CP and an Ultra power at 42/45 CP. Sounds like a lot of light for 8 hrs on a AA cell. But I wanted some independent thoughts on it, if possible. I know the Pacific gets good reviews.

Click to expand...

SMLLRisBTTR said:

...They have 2 models, a hi power at 34/37 CP and an Ultra power at 42/45 CP. Sounds like a lot of light for 8 hrs on a AA cell. ..

Click to expand...

Peak makes a very nice light with good build quality, which many are willing to pay for.

That said, the amounts of output you state are in fact not a lot of light for a 1AA light. There are many lights which put out a lot more light and for longer than that on one AA.

The 0.5 W Nuwai IAA clickie puts out about 60 cp for 6 hrs on an alky and 9+ hours on a lithium (which I think is what Peak uses for their testing). It's twisty twin probably comes close. These are both $12 lights at advancedmart.

The Fenix L1T puts out about 190 cp on LOW and runs about 6.5 hours (regulated) on one alkaline AA. It puts out about 600 cp on high and runs flat for 3 hours on one lithium AA. It costs $43.50 shipped from 4sevens.

There are a number of others in this performance range, including I think hotter models made by Peak. Physical build quality is an individual choice and Peak has many fans, but there are lots of other lights which do well on 1AA.

just my 2 cents..

I have used both the Pacific and the Kilminjaro and can agree with Blindasabat - they Pacific is a more tightly focused while the Kilmanjaro throws a wider, more even beam with not much of a hotspot (if any).

SMLLRisBTTR said:

According to the Peak website, the Kilimanjaro uses 1 LED. They have 2 models, a hi power at 34/37 CP and an Ultra power at 42/45 CP. Sounds like a lot of light for 8 hrs on a AA cell.

Click to expand...

To the best of my knowledge, there is no review of any current Kilimanjaro model on the net. However, for brightness (throw and overall output), the 1 LED Kilimanjaro should be about equal to the 1 LED Matterhorn (which uses the same 5 mm LED at the same current levels, but AAA cells). There is a Matterhorn 1 LED ultra review at flashlightreviews.com, so it may be possible to compare those numbers to the Pacific review there. The Kilimanjaro will of course offer longer runtime than the AAA Matterhorn, though. According to this thread and this additional post, usable runtime for the 1 LED ultra Kilimanjaro may even be as long as 20-40 hours.

On the other hand, the 1 LED Kilimanjaro models will definitely not offer "a lot of light" in comparison to the Pacific, but will be more useful for walking inside a building in the dark, close range reading, inside a tent, etc. The Pacific uses a high power Luxeon LED inside a reflector which will give you a focused hotspot with much more throw for illuminating something at a distance (230 CP according to Peak), still enough spill to light the way in front of you and probably about twice the overall output. Usable runtime will be somewhere between 5 and 12 hours depending on the type of battery used. So the Pacific is basically between those high power AA lights like the Fenix L1P or L1T (on high) which offer even more output for even shorter runtimes, and the 5 mm LED Kilimanjaro which offers lower output for much longer runtimes.

The 7 LED Kilimanjaro models have considerably more overall output than the 1 LED model at the cost of shorter runtime, but still do not give you as much throw for illuminating something at a distance as the Pacific can due to its reflector.

So it all depends what you want to use the light for.

Thanks everyone for all the good info. I'm still researching, so haven't made a final decision yet. I'm leaning more toward a "flood" type beam than a tight spot, at this point.

I have an old Kilimanjaro with 5 LED's and the AA battery tube with my Pacific. The Kilimanjaro beam is not really what I would call floody. The newer models may be OK but mine is quite blue. The Pacific is much brighter and whiter. The beam has a bright hot spot but the spill area is bright and better than the Kilimanjaro.

I think most people would be happier with the Pacific.