Do you have a brinkmann MM clone?

About 3 years ago I bought a Brinkmann 2aa LED flashlight from Microcenter for about $25. I'll send a picture if needed. It looks like a Minimag and operates like one (the tailcaps are even interchangeable) the obvious difference is an oversized head. It appears to have some sort of a 5mm led with a plastic optic lens. The head will only turn so far and then stop so I haven't been able to remove the head. I should have taken it back when I bought it because I never liked the way it makes contact, I could never figure out if it was defective or if thats the silly way they designed it. I can turn it off by turning it a couple of turns left or right, so I never knew which way to turn it to make it come on. That was my first LED light purchase. Does anyone out there have this light? Now that being said the main reason I'm submitting this post is because I replaced the batteries and after about a week of sitting on the shelf they leaked and I was able to remove the bottom battery but the top one is stuck! They barely had enough clearance to begin with and now I fear it has expanded. Any helpful hints on removing this stuck cell from this cursed light would be appreciated. The only thing I can think of right now is tapping into it with a drill and I'm sure that might not be the best solution.

Re: Help! AA battery stuck in Brinkmann

if you can put a small hole in the battery, use a long corkscrew to try and pull it out.

also a little WD-40 might loosen it a bit.

regards.

John.

Re: Help! AA battery stuck in Brinkmann

I got the battery out after much tapping. But the question still harks does anyone else have this light? Is it regulated? I'm about to do visual runtime test on it. BTW Brinkmann's customer support through email sucks.

Re: Help! AA battery stuck in Brinkmann

Thanks John! I'm gonna coat the tube with some Noalox this time.

Re: Help! AA battery stuck in Brinkmann

I also have a Brinkmann that has similar twist-switch problems. I sent it back to them but they didn't do anything and said the switch was fine !? You twist and it doesn't go on, as you twist towards "off" it flashes, twist toward "on" and it comes on - sometimes. Mine is a MM clone incan. The only reason I keep it [it's upgraded with a TerraLux TL-5] is because the body is purple, my favorite color, and I have no other host for the TL-5.

You could try putting some SuperGlue on a dowel or rod just slightly smaller than the battery and let that set [a minute or two] then tilt the tube and put a small amount of mineral oil or Liquid Wrench down the tube to help lubricate the battery in the tube. You probably will have to drill. If you have a back out bit [looks like the drill bit equivalent of a piece of licorice] that may work. Just drill as small a hole as necessary to accept the front part of the back out bit as the battery casing is the best thing for that bit to grab onto. The guts of the battery is paste-like and may not provide enough grab. Use oil to lubricate the battery in the tube. You need a reversable drill for the bit to work.

If you don't love the beam or runtime on this light it may be better just to toss this one and get an Innova X-1 at Target for $20. Probably the same amount of light in a smaller package.

Re: Help! AA battery stuck in Brinkmann

LED Thrift thanks for the advice. The light you have sounds alot like the one I have. Its just like a minimag but with a large head. They also made this into a $12. keychain light, which actually operated the same way now that I think about it. On is in the middle and you can turn it off by twisting it left or right of the on position. I haven't tried many keychain lights before but I remember I really liked the output on that one it was a single aaa or single aa I can't remember. I let my 4 year old play with it for about an hour and he made it disappear lol!

I just powered it back up and man I hope it has an awesome runtime because the output on this light is embarrassing. Granted that this light is a few years old but man why would I want to lug around that hunk of metal for such lame output?

I went back to a Minimag incan. Since then I have had a Dorcy super 1 watt, Cyclops CR123x2, my favorite an LT2 (with CR123 adapter on the way), and a Minimag 3AA LED. I guess I'll just hang onto the Brinkmann so I can have one more for the collection - or maybe try my hand at modding, but so far I don't seem to have much of a knack for that since I can't remove the head. lol

3hrs and this light is still going strong. I guess I have at least one good thing to say about it.

Its been a while since I modded my Brinkmann with the TerraLux TLE-5 [incorrect TL-5 in previous post]. It is a fantastic upgrade. They may have dropped the price due to competition from the new MM Led. I got it for ~$12 on sale [can't remember where]. I also got a TerraLux Luxeon upgrade, and while it has a different tint and may be a bit brighter, the TLE-5 just seems to work better to me, and has better runtime. It is about as bright as the incan and has much better runtime. Look at the FLR reviews.

I saw a thread about LED upgrades to MMs recently, but did not look at the thread.