I was given a flashlight buying mission

Sharpdogs

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Dec 18, 2005
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I received a call from family members staying with relatives over in Greece. Apparently they are having a number of power outages and have few to no flashlights. I was asked to pack up a bunch of flashlights and batteries to send over with my father in-law. A two pack of D cell batteries cost around 8 Euros. Here's the catch I only had one day to buy the lights and send them over with my father in-law. I made the decision to stick to one or two common types of batteries. The closest store to me was Target. I picked up a few 12 packs of AA's and a few 9 volts. The flashlight selection was bleak and the only lights I picked up were a cheap Rayovac light for 3 bucks and a single AA Rock River (for myself
grinser2.gif
). Luckily on the way home I stopped to go food shopping and found these in ACME for around $5 each.

http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=411012

Here's what is going over: 2 of the Dorcy Spot Lamps, 2-3 Gerber Ultra Infinity (I had some in stock, one is the old CMG model), cheapie Rayovac light, AA maglight with LED conversion, 2-3 old PAL Lights (I have a shipment of the new Super Brights coming in) and maybe my Coleman 4XAA lantern. Plus lots and lots of batteries. I wanted to pick up a Rock River latern but there were none in stock.

I wish had more time to go shopping and order some lights but this was the best I could do with such a limited time frame.
 

OldGreyGuy

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Apr 17, 2006
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Brisbane, Australia
Good work Sharpdogs, picking lights which use common battery types for folks in areas where the more exotic batteries are hard to find and expensive. I'm sure that they will be appreciated.
:)
 
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twentysixtwo

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Nov 23, 2004
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Michigan
Great selection, if I had time to mod a few I'd probably take a cheapo 2D flashlight and throw a MJLED PR or Nite Ize LED conversion in it. Not that bright for size but would run forever.

Here are a couple of 4D mod candidates.

http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=411015
http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=411016
http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=411019

D cells are bout 18 AH while AA's are only about 3AH.

I have an old garrity 4D lantern I plan to mod with a Luxeon or two to be used as an area light. What I'm strugglinng with is whether I want 1 1W for 72 hour runtime, or 4, for 18 hour runtime...
 
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LEDism

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Jul 19, 2006
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Later today I am supposed to meet with my mother so we can go to Target to get some emergency preparedness stuff. A few days ago the breaker box at her house caught fire and she was without power for 2 days (Thank God she was home when it happened, or she might have lost the house!).

I'm going to recommend the River Rock LED lantern and maybe some LED flashlights, among other things. Should be fun!
 

LEDism

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Jul 19, 2006
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Made the trip to Target yesterday with my mother. She has never heard of LED flashlights or CFL light fixture bulbs so I let her know the advantages of both. She ended up with a 1.5W 2C Rock River LED flashlight, the Rock River 4AA lantern, another 4AAA light with an opaque lantern section, and a Nite-Ize C and D size LED for the 3C aluminum Kel-Lite she had laying around.

I tested the Kel-Lite with the Nite-Ize drop-in and that has got to be the weakest LED I have ever seen.I took the head off the flashlight with the batteries in so I could clean up the reflector. When I went to put it back together the flashlight body was hot :eek: I dumped the batteries on the floor and made sure they were cool before putting the light back together. I guess something shorted out when the head was removed. I guess I learned the hard way not to take the head off without removing the batteries first. :oops:
 

ABTOMAT

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Unless something's seriously wrong with the batteries or switch you should be able to leave the batteries in all you want. I've probably overhauled 30 of the things and I've never seen that problem. Does it use a plastic slide swtich or a metal slide with a push button?
 

Brighteyez

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Apr 5, 2005
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San Jose, CA
Was this one of the Kel-Lites with the slide switch? If I recall (hey, even if you were young it would be tough to remember, but no one can be young and remember something from over 30 years ago :) ) the circuit will complete (as you found out) when the head is removed from the body.

LEDism said:
I tested the Kel-Lite with the Nite-Ize drop-in and that has got to be the weakest LED I have ever seen.I took the head off the flashlight with the batteries in so I could clean up the reflector. When I went to put it back together the flashlight body was hot :eek: I dumped the batteries on the floor and made sure they were cool before putting the light back together. I guess something shorted out when the head was removed. I guess I learned the hard way not to take the head off without removing the batteries first. :oops:
 

ABTOMAT

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If everything is in reasonably original shape there's no way for that to happen. With the head removed, the positive terminal on the first battery is a good 1/2" away from the negative switch contact. I suppose if the contact was badly bent it could happen. Another cause could be the insulation worn off the batteries. The sliding contact of the slide switch can scratch through the wrapping with a little use. It wasn't a great design.
 

LEDism

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I will do a thorough inspection of that light the next time I visit my mother. The batteries were new, but I'll check them just in case. Thanks for the helpful advice :)
 
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