The Ultimate $1.66 ALUMINUM 9LED "Introduction to LED flashlight"

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Feb 14, 2006
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At this price, I'm going to buy a bunch to use for promotional give away. At this price, you can lend it to someone and let him keep it.

Sold in a pack of 3 at Home Depot for $5.00. Includes a full set of Eveready carbon zinc batteries. Runs on 3 AAA.

9LED parallel direct drive.

LEDs are generic 5mm. Body is a single piece construction anodized aluminum. The head looks like it can be removed, but if you look inside the barrel, you can see that it's a single piece. Each light comes with a decent quality lanyard pre-attached. At this price, it's not out of question to buy them as a lanyard donor. Quality feels just as good as Task Force brand lights. It has a reverse-clicky with a very good tactile feedback.

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Auto white balance don't covey the tint too well. It's slightly purple, but a lot closer white than Nichia 5mm LEDs I have. It gives off a very nice, even floody beam.

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Limited Lifetime warranty that means something. As with a lot of seasonable items, I don't expect to find these at Home Depot a year form now, so I wouldn't put up much hope for a replacement with exact item, however the warranty is backed by replacement with an item of equal/greater value.

Even though the product is manufactured in China, unlike other products marketed through foreign dealers or under foreign brands, there's very little doubt about the financial solvency of the warranty provider. The warranty is backed by The Home Depot, a company that's been around since 1978.

If it breaks down on you 3-4 years from now, chances are, based on duration in business, you can be pretty certain that The Home Depot will be still around. You can't say the same about others offering lifetime warranty but have only been in business for a few years.

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e2x2e

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Dec 19, 2007
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462
Carbon zinc batteries! I didn't know they still made those. The price is right though. Oh yea and if you ever use that warranty, let us know. It'd probably cost you more than $1.66 in gas just to get to Home Depot to have it replaced lol.
 
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Carbon zinc batteries! I didn't know they still made those. The price is right though. Oh yea and if you ever use that warranty, let us know. It'd probably cost you more than $1.66 in gas just to get to Home Depot to have it replaced lol.

They didn't have to include them. The average joe consumer would appreciate being able to use it out of the package in my opinion.
 

Alero

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Oct 19, 2007
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Dallas, TX
They have a 12LED husky that has very nice machining quality for $5 too. And my personal favorite is the Garrity with 9 LEDs in the red, black, or yellow plastic housing. But honestly I HATE the 3xAAA holders. They seem to drain batteries pretty fast for an LED and they usually rattle around and make the kight flicker under heavy use.

But....it's hard to beat $166! These make pretty decent headlights for my kid's bikes and ride-ons and for my scooter. Just gotta use rechargeables or, even better, an AW protected 18500 battery.
 
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But....it's hard to beat $166! These make pretty decent headlights for my kid's bikes and ride-ons and for my scooter. Just gotta use rechargeables or, even better, an AW protected 18500 battery.

I wouldn't do anything harder than NiMHs. The LEDs are direct drive, so put the low impedance of Li-Ion an 4+ volt of fresh LiIon and you get :poof:
 

Alero

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They are running 4.5v from 3 alkalines in series so 4.2v max shouldn't be an issue. At least, it's worked so far for me. :)

So you think the low imprdence is going to make a single Lithium push harder than 3 alkalines? I never really thought about it. :thinking:
 

Lynx_Arc

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Oct 1, 2004
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Tulsa,OK
if you run direct drive lights like those off nimh you can drive the LEDs in excess of 40ma each I have fried leds in a light like that till I added a resistor in the tailcap dropping it down to 20ma/led
 
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They are running 4.5v from 3 alkalines in series so 4.2v max shouldn't be an issue. At least, it's worked so far for me. :)

So you think the low imprdence is going to make a single Lithium push harder than 3 alkalines? I never really thought about it. :thinking:

Absolutely. Alkaline batteries are really only 4.5v out of the package. Under load, they often drop to 1.2v or less. They hold more energy than NiMH, but can only be harnessed when discharged VERY slowly, such as in a wall clock.

High impedance means sag and some cheap products are designed to exploit this property of alkaline cells to limit current.
 

Photog

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Jun 13, 2006
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Checked my local Home Depot with no luck. I'll check some others around the area. You can't beat that price!
Bob
 

04orgZx6r

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I highly doubt the price was a mistake considering that this is the second time , that I know of, that these have been for sale for $5. For the price these flashlights are pretty good, I would probably buy them again, but I would have been disapointed if I would have paid any more for them. They are very thin, two of mine had a flickering problem when I got them, and the positive click is crappy. But for the money these would make some great emergency lights.
 

streetmaster

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Binghamton, NY
I highly doubt the price was a mistake considering that this is the second time , that I know of, that these have been for sale for $5. For the price these flashlights are pretty good, I would probably buy them again, but I would have been disappointed if I would have paid any more for them. They are very thin, two of mine had a flickering problem when I got them, and the positive click is crappy. But for the money these would make some great emergency lights.
Hey, I'm just telling you what the guy said. Maybe he wasn't referring to the price. When I asked him for the 3-pack of LED flashlights he started laughing and said "no, we don't have any more, that was a big boo-boo". Whatever that means, I assumed he was talking about the price. I don't know, he didn't make it very clear. What sucks is the fact that I probably spent more than $5 in gas to go there, only to come home empty handed. Yeah I know, I should have called first, whatever.:mecry:
 
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