LED Flashlight 3 5 7 or 8 watt

I bought 5 LED flashlights in the last year for me and my family and feel I may help someone in the market for an extremely small / extremely bright flashlight. These lights are rated by the manufacturers as 3 watt, 5 watt and 8 watt. These are not to be confused with single or multiple ordinary LED bulbs. (actually, not a bulb, but a light emitting diode). They use one LED bulb (or emitter), either Luxeon, made by Lumileds, a division of Phillips (an American company) or Lumleds, an Asian company, recently acquired by Phillips, as I understand it. Either way, they are both very bright. They were all manufactured in and shipped from China or Taiwan. I ordered from three different vendors and would recommend any of them. Just pay with Paypal and there should not be a problem.

3 watt LED

The 3 watt light is machined aluminum, and has an anodized coating, like paint only much harder. It is brighter than a two cell C or D battery flashlight, but is much smaller. It measures 1.1875 inch X 4.25 inch The 3 watt lights I have use 3 AAA batteries. The only complaint I have is that it is hard to keep the batteries in contact. The springs holding the batteries seem to not have enough tension, thus you have to stretch them occasionally to get a good contact point.

The 5 watt and 8 watt lights are almost identical with the 3 watt except they are 1.3125 inch X 5.5 inch, use 2 RCR123A LI-ION batteries and come with a charger. The 5 watt and the 8 watt LED lights are very dependable and are a joy to use.

8 WATT LED ON TOP, MAKITA ON BOTTOM
WHICH ONE WOULD YOU RATHER CARRY?

The 8 watt LED is about twice as bright as the 3 watt and 5 times as bright as my Makita 7.2 volt flashlight (which measures 2.5 inch X 10.5 inch). Measured with a light meter, the 8 watt puts out 35 foot candles while the Makita puts out 7 foot candles at the same distance. (about 12 feet). The 8 watt is awsome for it's size.

...read the full guide with pics here

One day we'll start talking about light in terms of something that makes sense... and stop the "WATT" foolishness! Watts are not a measure of light! I can build a light that'll consume eight watts and be less bright than another I can build that consumes one watt. Back when all light source was incandescent it made a little bit of sense. But no more!

/rant.

Sorry jimmayor. I mean nothing personal in regard to your guide here. Just an observation - and your subject line happened to catch my eye. The mfg's still talk about them in terms of Watts, so that's what we're stuck with.

I agree. The important specs are generallybattery life, throw, spill, output in lumens, etc...

CREEs are way brighter than the luxeons that your lights are probably using...
check out some of the other threads here about lights that use them. also www.fenixstore.com has some great lights too.
what do you mean by 35 foot candles? you mean how far you can see with it? my fenix lights up the trees in my backyard a couple hundred feet away... also not trying to offend anyone.

You might be better served(Output wise and price wise) with a Dealexteme light(go to the Cree, Seoul, Rebel section). Try this one to start(should be 60+ lumen out the front, which is similar to a 6D maglite).

Also explain that a Cree XR-E P4-R2 bin LED, along with the Seoul P4 U bin LED and the Luxeon Rebel 100 LED will all output more then double the output of a Luxeon "3 watt" or any watt LED for the same power. This is due to the newer LEDs being twice or more efficient.

Also 3 AAA batteries is one of the worst setups IMO for driving a high power LED. Most people will put alkaline batteries in them which will make them see bright at first, but plummet in output because the batteries can't take the draw.

Fenix Store is also a great place to start. The 2 AA L2D-CE Q5 will put many lights to shame. Should be over 150 lumen out the front on turbo(Low mode is similar in output to the minmag and lasts over two days of constant output, as in no dimming). Fenix Store also has a 8% off coupon for CPF users,"CPF8".

:welcome:

Philips = Dutch Corporation not US.

Luxeon III = 80 lumens @ 1000ma current (this is probably what is in your lights)

Cree XRE P4 bin = 80 lumens @ 350ma current or ~ 1/3 the current used by those lights so the same light with an XRE at the same brightness would run for nearly 3X longer. but you can operate the XRE @ 1000ma as well, and get around 200 emitter lumens.

If you want to see a CREE XRE in a flashlight with no wait, go to Lowes and get a Taskforce 2C 60x light or go to Costco and get the leatherman 3aaa light. either one should be way brighter than the luxeon III.

-ex

The watt value is power drawn from the batteries and NOT the power to the LED.

What I have noticed over the years as to the watt rating of Chinese LED luxeon lights:
1 watt - Lux1 350mA about 24 lumens
3 watt - Lux1 torch 350mA with a LuxIII emitter ~28 lumens
5 watt** - LuxIII ran at a true 700mA ~60 lumens
7 watt*** - LuxIII overdriven at 1000mA 75+ lumens
10 watt - K2 driven at 1500mA

**Because the 3 watt name has been used for 1 watt lights with 3 watt emitters, the makers of true 3 watt lights called them 5 watts.

***Everybody just uses a BIGGER WATT NUMBER to show their light is brighter than the competition's light with a SMALLER WATT NUMBER. So Golston called their light 7 watt to indicate it is twice as bright as a MXDL 3 watt even both torches use the LuxIII LED. (The Golston probably feeds 4 watts to the LED and the MXDL 1.25 watts)

The above is for Luxeon and K2 LEDs. About a year ago Cree came out with a new LED called 7090-XRE which is twice as bright for the same power input. Soeul came out with the SSC-P4 and Phillips Lumileds countered with the Rebel. So a 4 watt Cree is as bright as a 8 watt Luxeon. Your batteries will last 2X longer.
1 watt Cree - 300-350mA 50 to 80 lumens (usually 1AA)
3 watt Cree - 700 mA 167 lumens (usually 2AA or 1CR123A)
4 watt Cree - 1000 mA 200 lumens (usually 2CR123A)

If you go to the online stores such as DX Kai batteryjunction lighthound you will find categories for Cree, SSC, Rebel flashlights. The 1 to 10 watt Luxeon flashlights are considered old technology and is often in the 'other led' section together with the even older 5mm cluster torches.

You can get a
1AA/2AA Cree for $20.69 or
1xAA battery SSC for $14.50 or
1xAAA SSC for $18.99 shipped.
They are price comparable to the higher powered Luxeon torches:
8 watt $18+$12 shipping = $30