Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

Nomad

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Can't get out of the desert! ARGH!
Hey folks. I'm unable to find the lamps for this thing. I looked it over and it seems like it would work fine if only I can find a lamp for it. What are my options? Incandescant and/or LED? It's a 6 cell, so that's 3 in series by 2 parallel I do believe. I have nimh AAs and alkalines on hand. What can I do?
 

Cydonia

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I had that flashlight... I still have the bulb too. It's not worth sending it to you though! Hook up an LED with resistor perhaps?

Anyway, it was a neat flashlight, but I had some problems with it. Energizer had a 6AAA and a 6AA model. I had the 6AA.

Problem #1 were the dual plastic screw on caps - too soft a plastic, the threads failed! (threads on the caps themselves I mean) Aluminum edge of tube was dented from a drop, couldn't thread in end cap properly - I tried to bend the edge back out, but ruined the aluminum threads.

Problem #2 was the fragile reflector head. Upon the first drop the reflector shell seperated from the black plastic head and rattled around loose! It went back in ok but the whole feel of the head was one of fragile plastic junk. The bi pin bulb socket was composed of fragile white plastic parts, really annoying. (I wish they had used a PR base bulb instead.)

Problem #3 The rubber strips glued down the side of the aluminum body were so weakly held in place I peeled them off! Looked better without the side "bumpers" anyway.

I took the thing apart and tossed it out eventually. Sorry Energizer, you had a great thing going but blew it with trying to be too cheap. the following could have made this light awesome - but doubled the cost of course:
  • Aluminum end caps for the battery tubes
  • Knurled aluminum body, not glued on rubber strips
  • Aluminum flashlight head and threads on tube body (not all plastic!)
  • Use a standard PR base bulb!
  • Oh yeah, get a better switch...
bulb.jpg
 

Cydonia

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

Forgot to add, you are right, it is 2 sets of 3 batteries in parallel. What was neat about this light was it worked on just 3AA batteries too! Half as bright, but it worked. Awesome concept really... Time someone reworked this design idea again I say.
 

carbine15

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I have the 6AA and 8AA versions of this light and still find them useful as car lights. Good for delivering light plus a beating if necessary. Spare bulbs for these are not possible as any bi-pin bulb that will work delivers more than enough watts to melt the plastic head. Interesting note, the AA versions battery tube fits perfectly a cr123 battery in diameter. The Series / parallel design has been reworked in lights such as the PT surge which will also run on 4AA at "half" brightness / runtime.
 

Cydonia

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

carbine15 said:
I have the 6AA and 8AA versions of this light and still find them useful as car lights. Good for delivering light plus a beating if necessary. Spare bulbs for these are not possible as any bi-pin bulb that will work delivers more than enough watts to melt the plastic head. Interesting note, the AA versions battery tube fits perfectly a cr123 battery in diameter. The Series / parallel design has been reworked in lights such as the PT surge which will also run on 4AA at "half" brightness / runtime.

What?! 8AA version! How many versions did Energizer make? Interesting!
 

Flash_Gordon

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

Cydonia said:
What?! 8AA version! How many versions did Energizer make? Interesting!

They made 4xAAA, 4xAA, 6xAA & 8xAA.

Neat lights which won some industrial design awards when they came out.

Keep them stock if possible. They will never be worth much, but they are unique.

You should be able to use the following Welch-Allyn bulbs:

(WA #01284) for the DB4AA and DB4AAA 2.8 volts, .59 amps, 21.6 lumens.

(WA #01286) for the DB 6AA 4.2 volts, .7 amps, 52.78 lumens.

(WA#01288) for the DB8AA 5.5 Volts, .7 amps, 79.17 lumens

Mark
 

willrx

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

I have the 8AA also and really like it. Try the WA bulbs and let us know.
 

mdocod

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

I have a 6AA version myself...

hey: to the owners of AA version... You HAVE to try something...

go yank the lousy battery carriers out

now do a little experimenting and see what fit in there instead.

you'll find that CR123s fit quite nicely down that tube.

Now if only we could get some decent heads, tailcaps, and switches made for that perfect aluminum body. can you say double barrel M6!?!?!??1?
 

willrx

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

I'm for it!
 

Cydonia

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

mdocod said:
I have a 6AA version myself...
hey: to the owners of AA version... You HAVE to try something...
go yank the lousy battery carriers out now do a little experimenting and see what fit in there instead. you'll find that CR123s fit quite nicely down that tube.
Now if only we could get some decent heads, tailcaps, and switches made for that perfect aluminum body. can you say double barrel M6!?!?!??1?

I forgot all about those strange battery carrier tubes. Did they really need them in the design? Guess so... ugh...one more strike against this flashlight in my book!
 

mdocod

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

not sure if it would fit or not, I think a lot of A size cells are closer to 17mm, where CR123s are closer to 16mm.. the 16mm CR123s fit, my AW 17670s don't.... hmm
 

mdocod

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Re: Ok, no bulbs available. What are my options for a 3x2 cell Energizer double barrel?

that's interesting, a 4xAA in red, didn't know there were so many variations of this light made... your red and silver one look to have a nicer version of the tailcap... my 6AA version has tailcaps like your blue one, PITA versions imo, hard to start the threads, and the threads wear out real bad.
 
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