Battery life questions

Ihave an Inova X5, a Surefire E2d, and a minimag with the night eyes LED conversion. the surefire is great, but the battery life is horrendous. The X5 is a lot better but Im looking for maybe something better.

I need a general purpose light that keeps up a good amount of light with use. It diesnt have to be spectacular, it just needs to be enough. thats what i was looking for in the maglight LED conversion, but i was sorely disapointed.

My dads runs great. Its brighter than the original bulb, and the batteries last longer. Mine was purchased at the same time, and put into a maglight that was also purchased at the same time. My light is only about 1/2 the output of my dads. maybe i got a bad one i dont know.

#1) Is there any pocket light for $100 or less that can maintain 20 lumens for 8 hours?

#2) battery type. Standard disposable AAs are like 1,000mAh or so. will switching to rechargable 2,500mAh batteries significantly increase my battery life? Is it reasonable to assume that a battery with %250 more capacity will last at lest twice as long, or is that just wishful thinking?

Welcome to CPF.

Fenix L2D-CE comes to mind [~$55]. Bright, with very good runtime. Now also can be had with a Rebel LED. Uses 2 AAs. I'm sure there are quite a few others.

Many lights will work better and/or longer with NiMH rechargable AAs, but not all. This may be due to their slightly lower voltage [1.2v vs. 1.5v]

thanks! I was just poking around the Fenix site and saw the P2D. I feel my funds departing as we speak.

mr.trooper said:

I need a general purpose light that keeps up a good amount of light with use. It diesnt have to be spectacular, it just needs to be enough. thats what i was looking for in the maglight LED conversion, but i was sorely disapointed.

My dads runs great. Its brighter than the original bulb, and the batteries last longer. Mine was purchased at the same time, and put into a maglight that was also purchased at the same time. My light is only about 1/2 the output of my dads. maybe i got a bad one i dont know.

#2) battery type. Standard disposable AAs are like 1,000mAh or so. will switching to rechargable 2,500mAh batteries significantly increase my battery life? Is it reasonable to assume that a battery with %250 more capacity will last at lest twice as long, or is that just wishful thinking?

Click to expand...

NiteIze makes two MiniMag upgrades, do you both have the same? there is a dim, flood 3-LED one, and a 1-LED 1-watt Luxeon upgrade which is much brighter.

Also, an alkaline AA is around 2850 mAh, but a NiMH will hold up better under high current draw in the more demanding flashlights, and usually lead to better runtimes.

mr.trooper said:

My light is only about 1/2 the output of my dads. maybe i got a bad one i dont know.

#1) Is there any pocket light for $100 or less that can maintain 20 lumens for 8 hours?

#2) will switching to rechargable 2,500mAh batteries significantly increase my battery life?

Click to expand...

Try swapping your drop ins and see if the problem follows the drop in or the light. If it's the drop in, send it back to the mfg. and request a replacement.

Generally, I think Fenix has the best run times at the best prices.

battery life ? look here:

http://lights.chevrofreak.com/runtimes/Fenix L2D CE/Fenix L2D CE - max.png

NA8 said:

Try swapping your drop ins and see if the problem follows the drop in or the light. If it's the drop in, send it back to the mfg. and request a replacement.

Generally, I think Fenix has the best run times at the best prices.

battery life ? look here:

http://lights.chevrofreak.com/runtimes/Fenix L2D CE/Fenix L2D CE - max.png

Click to expand...

Yea i tried that and it looks like the bulb itself is defective. here is a picture i took. mine is the one on the right with the wimpy blueish lights. What even worse is that only two of the LEDs of the left light are left. one of them burnt out!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/mrtrooper/100_0887.jpg

mr.trooper said:

Yea i tried that and it looks like the bulb itself is defective. here is a picture i took. mine is the one on the right with the wimpy blueish lights. What even worse is that only two of the LEDs of the left light are left. one of them burnt out!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/mrtrooper/100_0887.jpg

Click to expand...

Send that picture to NiteIze with an explanation and they will send you a replacement.