Reviews of Stanley MaxLife LED flashlights?

Has anyone had a serious technical look at the Stanley MaxLife line of LED flashlights?

The 369 uses 3, 6 or 9 AA cells, same for the 369 Tripod version where the battery tubes flip out to become tripod legs. The MiniTripod uses three LR41 lithium cells.

Both 369 versions have 6 LEDs and three illumination levels via a 4 position switch. I looked at one at a hardware store and found that the output is varied by changing the number of LEDs being used.

Flashlight reviews.com reviewed the tripod version of this light.

I bought a couple of these (tripod AA) lights a few months ago when Target had them on clearance for like $12.49. Its a great idea, but both are very dim with alot of artifacts in the beam. I'd like to upgrade the LEDs with Nichia CS, but haven't yet checked to see if its do-able.

Doug [FLR]
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/stanley_max-t.htm

Craig [TLM]
http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/second/stanley1.htm

enjoy

I picked one up out of the clearance isle at WalMart for something like 15 bucks and I have to say I like it, It's not as bright as some lights, nor does it have as much throw as others. But what it does have was a damn reasonable price and a really handy tripod. And the burn time is to die for, I'm middle of running a test right now on 9 Rayovac Hybrids and its been going for 8 hours strong. For my meager use that's great. This is a nice general use handymans light that just may surplant my 3D mag as my usual light based on it's functionality and run time.

I bought the 369 at Walmart and a few weeks later, one of the LEDs became intermittent. I had been using it for handyman projects, and liked the tripod and nice flood of light it provided, but took it back based on the intermittent LED.

The tripod is a nice feature, but the 6 LEDs are a bit dim compared to more current designs. Overall very good build quality. Makes for a good directional lantern with long runtime when 9 cells are used.
GF bought me one as a gift, (she knows I like LED lights) and I later picked one up at Target during their $6.24 clearance. Great deal.
1st one stays stock as it was a gift and makes for a great long running emergency light.

The 2nd one is going to get 4 Lux-I emitters installed in place of the 6 5mm LEDs. 3 surrounding 1, with wide beam optic for center and narrow beam optics for the 3 outers. The lens will require replacing with a flat sheet of plastic or glass.
I think 9 NiMHs should keep them running for a few hours, and vastly improve it's use as a worklight.


Here's a few pics of the internals....
Looks like an awful lot of electronics just for supporting the momentary switch! Each of the battery legs are diode isolated according to the last picture. Each LED is switched by a transistor! Hmmm I wonder if it's regulated...given the voltage loss of the diode after the batteries?

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/WillNg/CandlePower/IMG_0989Custom.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/WillNg/CandlePower/IMG_0990Custom.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/WillNg/CandlePower/IMG_0992Custom.jpg

I read at stanley's website they have a 1.25W single LED "titanium" version. I have yet to see this model instores, but I would be interested in picking up one of those just to see how she lights. Mine's been running for 15 hours now on 9 Hybrids, I think this (or the titanium version) is a great emergency light. I mean with some low discharge batteries you can leave this thing and have a light that is going to last a couple nights at moments notice, and not have to worry about keeping the batteries topped off or dealing with the relatively low capacity of alks.

http://stanleytools.com/default.asp...;+369™+Titanium+Finish+Tripod+Flashlight