Seeking recomendations: 1-3w flood long battery life

xoham

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Hello,

I am looking for a 1-3w led light with very long battery life that can take rechargeables. I will be using this for my evening walks and I prefer a flood beam for that purpose.

Could any of you recommend one to me?

Thanks.

Let's say up to $150. I expect to use it alot.

Summary:
- 1-3w LED
- long battery life (7-8 hours+)
- can take rechargeables (looking for recommendations on batteries too)
- flood or reasonable spill beam for walking at night
- ~$150 though I could go more
 
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TigerhawkT3

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The last time I walked my dog at night, I used a Dorcy 41-1008 and Nite-Ize. It's a 4D focusable spot/floodlight with a PR base socket, and the Nite-Ize gives it enough brightness and an incredible runtime. If you want something brighter, try a Diamond DB-3W for $20 or an EverLED for $40, in the 1008 or the 1012, which uses 4AA. I would recommend the EverLED, since it's a lot brighter than the Nite-Ize, and is rated for 1-6 cells, unlike the DB-3W.
 

Planterz

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There is a slight condradiction between a Lux I or III and flood beams, at least without using optics or diffusion lenses. Usually when people want a flood they stick with clustered/arrayed LED lights. They don't throw very far, but they give a nice, even flood. The problem with clustered LED lights is that the majority tend to be low quality and not worthwhile. The cheap ones seem to simply cram as many LEDs as they can into a given space, use minimal (if any) circuitry to provide regulation, and don't have good runtime. The common 3xAAA ones are the worst.

There are still good ones of course. The LRI Photon Proton is a nice 1AA one with supprising brightness. Better still it's dimmable so you can use a lower amount of light to conserve batteries. Runs well on NiMH rechargables.

The Inova X5 is a classic flashlight. Pretty inovative at the time too. Before then LED lights weren't much to speak of, but Inova put 5 in the head and powered it with CR123A batteries, which was somewhat unheard of in a flashlight apart from high-intensity xenon flashlights like Surefires. An updated version is available (brighter LEDs), and you can pick them up at Target. Unfortunately rechargables aren't an easy option. Reportedly you can use a 14760 li-ion cell (17670 is too fat), but you might have to add a spacer magnet to make contact, and you'll definitely want to wrap the cell in tape or paper or something to prevent it from rattling. Reduced output compared to using 2xCR123As, and I don't know how runtime is. Runtime with CR123As though is very long for such a flashlight, about 6 hours of peak brightness. Inovas are also practically indestructable.

One interesting option is the Oval Light, a light designed specifically for walking. 4 LEDs (or a 1W Luxeon) project foreward, and 2 project down to your feet. Flashlightreviews did a review and gave it 4 stars, which is good. Not the brightest light though. The 1W version is supposedly twice as bright, but I don't know if it's a flood beam or not.

For Lux I and Lux III options there's not many floody lights made by regular companies. However, there's a couple 5W lights that fall into the "flood" catagory. The tradeoff of course is that such a powerful light isn't going to have long runtime. There's the Surefire L4 and L2, and both can be had for under $150 (from lighthound or OpticsHQ, go to the Dealers forum and look at the Specials page), leaving money you can use to buy a rechargable battery kit. The L4 can use a 17670 and the L2 can use a 14760 lithium ion cell. However, neither light is the best choice to use at full blast for more than a few minutes. They get hot quick. Therefore I'd suggest the L2 for its low mode. Low on the L2 is rather enough to walk around at night and lasts a long time on the batteries. Plus you've got the high level (an impressively bright wall of light) when you need it. The Nuwai 301X-5 reportedly works well on Pila 168S/600S/17670 cells, albeit at a dimmer output than with 2xCR123As, but should still put out enough light for a nightime walk, with 2 hours or so of runtime.

The final option(s) you have is to take an existing light that doesn't have a flood beam and give it a flood beam. There's a few ways to do this, depending on the light you want. If the light has a plastic lens, you could lightly sand it with some high grit sandpaper which will diffuse the beam into a flood. If the lens is easily replacable, you might be able to get a LDF (light diffusion film) lens from flashlightlens which also works great. Or, just put some Scotch tape over the lens. The final option would be to get a flashlight that a Surefire Beamshaper fits over. A Surefire E2L with a F04 Beamshaper works nicely (plus you can pop it off and have throw if you wish). The E2L works great with 17670 rechargables.

Along those same lines, there's quite a lot of options for modifying/upgrading a plain old Minimag (many of which are far better than the Maglite's own MagLED lights), and very easy to do (most are simple drop-ins). Look here for a rundown of them. Plus LDF lenses are made for Minimags so you can flood them up even more if you need to (a 3 or 4 cluster drop-in is probably floody enough, but with a 1W drop-in you might want an LDF).
 
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Newuser01

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WHY no-one mention the propoly yet? I mean not the lux version but the other, will take rechargeable and have a long long run time. Good floody beam and life time warranty plul low low price....

What do you think for about 25 bucks ???

Regards.
 

europium

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The nice thing about CPF when you ask for light recommendations is that, if you wait awhile, you will get a variety of very tempting recommendations each of which may be useful for even more than your intended purpose.

Rather than something like the [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Gelb Design "Oval "[/font] which costs $40, I would recommend the smaller, lighter, cheaper reflectored Inova X1, if you want a nice flood light.

But while flood lights are great for close-up work, for what you are asking for, a walking light, I think you are going to want not a pure flood but a light with good spill and still some useful throw. I personally use the (4W version of the)
CPF LE Multi-Level Light (the 3W version is reviewed here) which has a large enough spill for me to be able to see where my feet are going when I am pointing the light forward to see what's ahead. This light has proved useful both in city neighborhoods with high ambient light and on a park trail with almost no ambient light. You can use the light on high for nearly two hours and you can adjust the brightness of the light easily if you need more runtime or if you want to avoid blinding others walking toward you.

You can get protected 18650 rechargeable li-ion batteries that work great with this light and, if you use it often, will save money in the long run. I got my batteries from AW here: AW's LiIon Batteries Sales Thread.

The only problem I had with the light is that the screw holding the spring in place in the tailcap came loose. I tightened the screw and the problem was solved.

The light along with batteries and charger should come in under $150.

And, yes, I use my CPF LE 4W a lot!
 
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Brighteyez

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I don't think you need to spend $150 to get a durable light for that purpose, there are several on the market now that are quite affordable that will do what you need.

The Streamlight Propolymer series in either 7 LED or the Luxeon version are suitable, the Luxeon version has a spot with usuable spill for walking, and the 7LED version projects a nice flood that will project usable light for 30-40 feet.

For a smaller light, the new MiniMag LEDs in either 2AA or 3AA has a very nice flood coupled with a fairly bright hotspot for a light of it's size.

All are available for about $25, and you can use common NiMH rechargeable AA batteries with all of them.

Not sure about your requirements for 'long battery life' though. You can expect 4-5+ hours on a charge with the Streamlights at full power; runtime estimates on the MiniMag LEDs are still streaming in, as it is a fairly new product that has only been on the shelves for a couple of weeks.


xoham said:
Hello,

I am looking for a 1-3w led light with very long battery life that can take rechargeables. I will be using this for my evening walks and I prefer a flood beam for that purpose.

Could any of you recommend one to me?

Thanks.

Let's say up to $150. I expect to use it alot.
 

xoham

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I added battery life specifics. 7-8 hours+.

Great recommendations so far.
 

Lee1959

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It has been mentioned and the Inova X5 is pretty hard to beat in my opinion for this task, no its not a 1 - 3 watt, and some think of it as old technology, but its rugged build quality, its built like a tank, very nice amount of light, price, and battery life makes it a very good choice. Plus if your dog steals it and runs off and buries it, or you sit it down and it gets ran over by an Abrahms it is easily replaceable in almost any city, or one close by. This is especially handy if you happen to be out of town when it occurs.
 

etc

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MagLIte LED 2D or 3D or 4D will give you everything you want

Great spot to flood
Long life, at least 8 hours
3W



Elektrolumens also has interesting lights but they would fail your flood criteria.
 
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PlayboyJoeShmoe

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Not EXACTLY etc....

The 2,3 and 4 will hole at flood just like an incandescent.

It is the 2AA and 3AA that will spot to flood with no hole.

The big M*gleds will do the runtime easy! The AA lights come up a bit short of 7-8 hours, but I saw where the 2AA on NimH will do 5ish....

The 4AA 7LED and 3C 10LED Streamlights will do the time and the flood.
 

LEDninja

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etc said:
MagLIte LED 2D or 3D or 4D will give you everything you want

Great spot to flood
Long life, at least 8 hours
3W
PlayboyJoeShmoe said:
Not EXACTLY etc....

The 2,3 and 4 will hole at flood just like an incandescent.

It is the 2AA and 3AA that will spot to flood with no hole.

The big M*gleds will do the runtime easy! The AA lights come up a bit short of 7-8 hours, but I saw where the 2AA on NimH will do 5ish....
I have Press n Seal under the lens of my MagLED 2C. I can focus to a pretty wide flood with no donut hole. The instructions on my drop-in clearly state NO RCHARGEABLE BATTERIES.


etc said:
Elektrolumens also has interesting lights but they would fail your flood criteria.
Elektrolumens' My Little Friend has a very wide hotspot smoothly transitioning to a very useful sidespill. Almost a flood. That is with the standard 10 degree optic. He's got 45 degree optics. Bummer runtime though - 20-30 min on high, 1 hr on low.
A Tri-blaster 3x3W 3C, 45 degree optic, resistored to the MLF low output level (or wiring up just one LED), 6000 MAH NiMH batteries should meet all the requirements.
Since Wayne is building the lights as the orders come in, it should be no problem for him to make the changes to a custom one.
http://elektrolumens.com/Tri-Blaster-4C/Tri-Blaster-4C.html
Contact him at [email protected]
 

xoham

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What is a M*gled or M@gled? The wiki turned up no results for either term.
 

xoham

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TigerhawkT3 said:
That's a MagLED. You can get C or D Mags with the MagLED module pre-installed, or you can buy the module separately to install in a Mag you already own.

Where could I buy them preinstalled?

Thanks.
 

TigerhawkT3

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That's a MagLED. You can get C or D Mags with the MagLED module pre-installed, or you can buy the module separately to install in a Mag you already own.
 

xoham

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Weird, my quoted reply appeared before yours.

Where could one buy the mag with the led module preinstalled?

Thanks.
 

PlayboyJoeShmoe

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Wallyworld has 2D and 3D complete lights and 2,3 and 4 cell Drop Ins.

Some if not most Home Depot have 4D complete and Drop Ins.

I would imagine brightguy.com has complete M*gleds, but I'm too lazy and :broke: to check!
 
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