Best 3xAAA Luxeon LED Flashlight?

Hi, I am looking for a 3xAAA Luxeon LED Flashlight for my "collection". But i can't really find anyone with at least 3watt LED. The only one that I like is this LED-LENSER® V² it dough "only" uses a 1watt Luxeon LED. I am concerned that it may not be as powerful as the 3watt led, that i am getting used to (and a 3xAAA flashlight should be even brighter then my other 1xAA and 2xAA 3watt Luxeon LED).

Is it the LED-LENSER® V² more powerful compared to my Nuwai X-3 2xAA 3watt Luxeon LED, or my L1T 1xAA (up to 3,7v) 3watt Luxeon LED???

I like the Sams Club Elements. Great price for two, very bright and the body is very solid. It's one of my coolest looking lights! I have noticed that some of my 1 watters are brighter than my 3 watters.

There is a Coast (LED Lenser) brand focusable 3AAA sold at Lowes that I believe is a 3 watter. A few folks here seem to like it. Sorry, can't give you a model name or number. I've looked at it in the store. Seems nice. The problem for me was the $49 price.

Geoff

Hello whc and welcome to CPF

I can't recommend "Cost/Led Lenser" lights, take a search about them

A far better buy for the bucks are the "Dorcy's".

Best regards

_____
Tom

Flying Turtle said:

There is a Coast (LED Lenser) brand focusable 3AAA sold at Lowes that I believe is a 3 watter. A few folks here seem to like it. Sorry, can't give you a model name or number. I've looked at it in the store. Seems nice. The problem for me was the $49 price.

Geoff

Click to expand...

Is it this one you are thinking of? LED-LENSER® Hokus Fokus


Does it have an 3watt Luxeon LED (nothing about the LED is written on the website)

According to Flashlight Review the LED-LENSER® V² has the following output (lux)

Throw
980 (31.30)

Overall Output
3420 (34.20)

Isn't that quite good from a 1watt LED??? That is with up to 100 hours battery life..

Long John said:

Hello whc and welcome to CPF

I can't recommend "Cost/Led Lenser" lights, take a search about them

A far better buy for the bucks are the "Dorcy's".

Best regards

_____
Tom

Click to expand...

I have searched the forum, really not much about the LED-Lenser. Is it bad quality or???

Don't really like the "Dorcy's" design. My flashlights need to have either a twist/push or just push button in the tail of the flashlight. I really like the design of the LED-LENSER® V², so some thing similar to that ...

[font=&quot]See some nice pictures of the LED-LENSER® V² here: http://www.superlygter.dk/lygter/LED-Lenser/7736.htm
In my opinion, it looks really nice [/font][font=&quot]:naughty:[/font][font=&quot]...[/font]

whc, the LL-lights I hold in hands (more than a few) were crap.

I own a few and friends of mine too. From 3 lights, after about 1 year rare use, is working still 1 light (but how long furthermore?). For a LuxI they are bright, yes, but how long?

The reason is: no driver, no resistor, nearly no heatsink and DD. I measured at the end of the tube about 580mA with fresh cells, far too much for this building quality. After about 10 minutes (interrupted use) the batts starts to dimish the output. So the claimed 100hours is not true. The switches are crap and the light is not waterproofed.

My advice, nearly all other lights are better. If you will spend about 50$ go with a Fenix, Jetbeam, Huntlight, Lumapower......, for less Dorcy.

Best regards

_____
Tom

fishx65 said:

I like the Sams Club Elements. Great price for two, very bright and the body is very solid. It's one of my coolest looking lights! I have noticed that some of my 1 watters are brighter than my 3 watters.

Click to expand...

The Sam's Club Elements are direct drive, and I've seen the same results - both of my 1w Elements are brighter than my 3w Huntlight ft-02x.

BlackDecker said:

The Sam's Club Elements are direct drive, and I've seen the same results - both of my 1w Elements are brighter than my 3w Huntlight ft-02x.

Click to expand...

Hello BD

I don't know SCE-lights but brightness is not all. It's good to have when the overall building quality and performance is right.

But if a LuxI is brighter than a LuxIII, in 99% of the cases it's to the debit of the lifetime and reliability of the Led/light, since we are speaking about "cheap" mass production lights and not about Premium S-bin Leds in custom builds.

I would ever prefer the less bright LuxIII Huntlight over a brighter LuxI light.

Best regards

____
Tom

Long John said:

whc, the LL-lights I hold in hands (more than a few) were crap.

I own a few and friends of mine too. From 3 lights, after about 1 year rare use, is working still 1 light (but how long furthermore?). For a LuxI they are bright, yes, but how long?

The reason is: no driver, no resistor, nearly no heatsink and DD. I measured at the end of the tube about 580mA with fresh cells, far too much for this building quality. After about 10 minutes (interrupted use) the batts starts to dimish the output. So the claimed 100hours is not true. The switches are crap and the light is not waterproofed.

My advice, nearly all other lights are better. If you will spend about 50$ go with a Fenix, Jetbeam, Huntlight, Lumapower......, for less Dorcy.

Best regards

_____
Tom

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for the warning, I think that I will search for an other brand then, the quality just sounds too bad. I am done buying poor flashlights, I have a bunch lying around …

Fenix and Jetbeam looks wary similar, L1T and JET-1 is it the same brand or have they just bean looking over each others shoulders???

Think I will drop the "dream" of getting a power light that uses 3xAAA. Maybe it is time to invest in a CR123A flashlight, now that you can buy rechargeable CR123A batteries, it is maybe the better choice for now. Some thing like the Fenix PID CE output power, but with design more like the LED-Lensar or Fenix L1T. Is there some thing like that worth spending money on???

Just about any 3AAA flashlight is direct driven and if you use Alkaline batteries with them, you'll notice dimming (at various rates depending on the flashlight) as the batteries are drained. That is also why NiMH rechargeables work best in these configurations as the have a flatter discharge curve. With that being said, I think one of the best 3AAA flashlights you can buy right now is the Blimp sold at FiftUnit:
http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/products.5th/sku.851.html

It claims to be a 7 Watt performer, but I like many here say, you shouldn't let yourself fall into the numbers game. The bottom line though, is that it's better than your average 3W 3AAA in terms of performance.

Here's a good thread with info about it:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/143573&highlight=blimp

Depending on where you live, it may take some time to get to you as Fifth Unit is located in Hong Kong. I live in California and when I order lights from them, it usually takes a little more than a week to get to me. They also have good prices for other lights.

Another 3W 3AAA I like is a Brinkmann, which can be bought at Target here in the States for $30. The Dorcys are usually pretty good, but I've never tried their 3W model because I prefer these kinds of lights with a tailcap button. 3AAA configurations tend not to be popular among serious Flashaholics because of battery performance issues and usage of a battery carrier. I don't mind them though...

ace0001a said:

Just about any 3AAA flashlight is direct driven and if you use Alkaline batteries with them, you'll notice dimming (at various rates depending on the flashlight) as the batteries are drained. That is also why NiMH rechargeables work best in these configurations as the have a flatter discharge curve. With that being said, I think one of the best 3AAA flashlights you can buy right now is the Blimp sold at FiftUnit:
http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/products.5th/sku.851.html

It claims to be a 7 Watt performer, but I like many here say, you shouldn't let yourself fall into the numbers game. The bottom line though, is that it's better than your average 3W 3AAA in terms of performance.

Here's a good thread with info about it:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/143573&highlight=blimp

Click to expand...

[font=&quot]
Thanks, looks pretty nice, defiantly one I will consider buying ...[/font]

Here's the thread I remember reading about the Hocus Focus (yes, that was the one).
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=141977

Geoff

ace0001a said:

Another 3W 3AAA I like is a Brinkmann, which can be bought at Target here in the States for $30. The Dorcys are usually pretty good, but I've never tried their 3W model because I prefer these kinds of lights with a tailcap button. 3AAA configurations tend not to be popular among serious Flashaholics because of battery performance issues and usage of a battery carrier. I don't mind them though...

Click to expand...

+1 on the Brinkmann. I load mine with NiMH's too.
The Brinkmann and the Dorcy 3W are pretty close in brightness.

Flying Turtle said:

Here's the thread I remember reading about the Hocus Focus (yes, that was the one).
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=141977

Geoff

Click to expand...

Just ordered the Hocus Focus, after reading the review, I think it is just what I am looking fore. Costs about the same as a Fenix P1D CE, I hope that I will get as much output power and quality as the Fenix ...