Survival flash light. Fenex Tk40 for bug out gear?

I am looking for a flash light that will run for 150+ hours on regular easy to get batteries. Not interested in lithium since they are hard to get in an emergencey situation. I want it to be as light as possible. The fenex caught my eye since it has a 630 lumen max out put, runs 150 hours on the low setting, and is water proof plus the signaling modes.

Are there any flash lights that exceed this proformance while running for long periods of time? I dont want to go below the 150 hour option as I will only be able to carry one set of spare batteries.

Out of curiosity, what are the best longest lasting batteries for this light and lights such as mag lights?

Fenix only claims 130 hrs. on low.
Copied this from their site. "Turbo Mode: 630 lumens (2hrs)-> Low: 13 lumens (130hrs) -> Mid: 93 lumens (20hrs) -> High:277 lumens (6.8hrs)".

A TK40 for survival! LOL.

The original Stanley Tripod light claimed 200 hours with a full complement of 9 AA cells, but even on high it was pretty pathetic light from very pathetic 5 mm LEDs. (In mine I swapped them for a single Cree and it's not too bad now.)

The problem with TK40 for survival light is that it's too big and consumes too many batteries ... 8 for full output (4 x AA for emergencies). Personally, I would stick with two lights, both are one-cell lights. One would be multi-mode with a decent high (100 lumens+) with a very low low (1 lumen or less) and another light that a single-mode low-output light (e.g., Fenix E01, Peak Matterhorn, Peak Eiger, Arc AAA).

The Fenix TA 20 & 21 both have a high of 225 lumens and claim to run 170 hours at 4 lumens. These are big lights but smaller than the TK40.

ZRXBILL said:

Fenix only claims 130 hrs. on low.
Copied this from their site.

Click to expand...

The manufacturer's site is http://www.fenixlight.com/viewnproduct.asp?id=41

Turbo (630 Lumens, 2Hrs) ->Low (13 Lumens, 150Hrs) ->Mid (93 Lumens, 20Hrs)->High (277 Lumens, 6.8Hrs)

ZRXBILL said:

The Fenix TA 20 & 21 both have a high of 225 lumens and claim to run 170 hours at 4 lumens. These are big lights but smaller than the TK40.

Click to expand...

... not interested in lithium ...

TK40 lasts 150 hours on 8xAA.

You can go further with the LD10:

General Mode: 9 lumens (34hrs) -> 47 lumens (6hrs) -> 94 lumens (2.2hrs) -> SOS
Turbo Mode: 120 lumens (1.5hrs) -> Strobe

From:
http://www.4sevens.com/product_info....roducts_id=466

On low with 1xAA, you get 34 hours x 8AA = 272 hours total runtime.

Personally i think the TK40 is way too big to be used as a survival light, if you would look at this review on the Nitecore D10, you can see that at 1% output it gets 45 hours off a 2000 mAh eneloop, if you're using primaries you may get more or you may not, i'm no expert on this but someone here will chime in i'm sure.

So, carry one huge light using 8 cells (for 130-150hrs of output) or carry one tiny light and 7 spare cells (for 8x45=360 hrs of out put)

Sorry for the double post, my internet crapped out for a second when I sent the first one and I thought it did not go through.

TK40 lasts 150 hours on 8xAA.

You can go further with the LD10:

General Mode: 9 lumens (34hrs) -> 47 lumens (6hrs) -> 94 lumens (2.2hrs) -> SOS
Turbo Mode: 120 lumens (1.5hrs) -> Strobe

From:
http://www.4sevens.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_65&products_id=466

On low with 1xAA, you get 34 hours x 8AA = 272 hours total runtime.

alfred10 said:

Not interested in lithium since they are hard to get in an emergencey situation.

Click to expand...

What if you only get 3xAA in an emergency, then your TK40 is useless.

Go get a single cell light.

i also agree that i do not want a flashlight in my bob or any emergency that needs 8 batteries to run (ok 4 with lower output in tk40)

16 batteries to run it down twice? nope. i rather carry those 16 or 14 as sparebatteries to my 1 cell and 2 cell lights.

i cant be bothered to watch and check the voltage of 8 batteries so that they are roughly of same charge and voltage.. and defiantely not gonna spend time for that in E-situation!

yeah you should check the state of each of batteries in multicell light before putting them in and using them.

so my max is in 2 cells. and preferably of same battery config.

spares are lithium primary batteries (aa or cr123) yeah lithium AA is a must in my mind in emergency kit.. over 10 year true shelf life.. no leaking. works in hot and cold unlike alkalines.

the ones in the light might be rechargables. (if there is periodical checkups made of the charge.)

dedicated low output light is smart. and other may be the "big gun" that may run on "special" battery too. mce running 2 cr123s weigh less and gives almost same output.. heck have 2 spares to make sure same output times. you only have 2 small batteries now used.. 4 more and you are still in same amount of cells as you would have in one load of tk40 but with longer runtime.. and then you could still bring another 8 with you for xtended time. and still weigh less than the 16AAs. i think AA weighs 25 grams and cr123 16g.

and in emergency. have one light of every common cell type.. AAA AA cr123. would be smart to have light that can use 2 or more battery type. (mine are quark, romisen n3 work with cr123s and AA)

and then stock 20 of spare batteries in your house/ car or bob. should give you enough time to find more. (and in emergency the 1st batteries to fly out of the shelves are AA AAA D and C cells. cr123 might still be there.)

but simple 2D or 3D maglite with led drop in is not a bad idea for long runtime big light that uses "normal" cells.

rambling again.. and not makin sense.. well not very well anyways.. its past 3am.. thats my exuse. hah.

NonSenCe said:

...and in emergency the 1st batteries to fly out of the shelves are AA AAA D and C cells. cr123 might still be there...

Click to expand...

This might be the very best advice of this entire thread!



I personally would go with CR123's. I'd be willing to bet that you can easily find CR123 primary cells in most of the United States. In an emergency, people will definitely be buying (possibly stealing) AA, AAA, C, and D cells. I bet the CR123's won't even get touched, LOL. I'd say if you know of some retailers around you that sell them, stock up by ordering from the internet, and then buy from your local retails in a pinch.

Coming back to your original questions, I'd chose a light that uses fewer cells (preferably one; two at the most) and then keep more additional cells with you. For example, while the TK40 supposedly runs for 150 hours, it is doing so with 8 AA's!! In contrast, a SureFire LX2 runs for 50 hours on low on 2x CR123's. So 8x CR123's would give you 200 hours of lower output. This will ultimately give you greater flexibility.

-Robert

Definitely go with a 1xAA light since scavenged cells will most likely not be matched.

The Quark 1xAA can go ~240 hours per cell, 8 cells would be ~80 days of continuous power.

When I saw the new Fenix TK40 I had the itch to buy one also. It definitely has a cool factor. I buy my lights as users and for my emergency kit. I have not had an instance where I have been wanting for more. I also thought about how much gear I have and the size and weight of it all. Given that I am trying to simplify and lighten my kit I would vote for a one or two cell AA. Buy a bulk pack of AA's and rotate it with fresh batteries or buy recargables and a good solar charger should the grid go down.

Here is a breakdown of what I have.

I have for emergency use:
For backups I have other four AA LED lights that are dive lights. They are in my kits as my back-up for my back-up. Given that they are dive lights I have no doubt that they will be good to go should the need arise.

As a side note you will notice that I have all my lights on the AA power source. I have all my electronics converted to a single power type (AA). This way I can swap batteries between devices. I carry less. The batteries are probably most proliffic battery type around the world (or at least those parts I have been to). The wide availability of the batteries should make scrounging "easier". Plus LED lights will produce usable light up until the battery is totally empty.

(I forgot to add) I also keep a small battery tester in my kit: EC-741 BATTERY TESTER, BATTERY TESTER FOR AA, AAA, 9V, CRV3 AND 2CR5 NIMH, NICD, LITHIUM, ALKALINE OR STANDARD BATTERIES

My chargers are:

What is the best single cell light? Maybe I will get the fennex for my carry light and have a single cell in my pack for long term use on one batteries. I am looking for the longest running, most durable, than brightest I can get without taking the first 2 factors out. Should I stick with one that takes AA's or does a different battery size give me more options?

Deff. now see that I also need a single cell but not sure which runs longest...

For an emergency light I'd definitely stick with single cell lights as everyone has said. The quarks are good because of the moon mode, you get very long runtimes. Plus you can buy just the body so you have a AA and a CR123 light, depending on what's left in the store. A Fenix E01 is a cheap, tough, little AAA light that's good to just throw in there with pretty decent runtime as well. You may also want to consider one of these Pak-Lites as well. Runs forever off of a 9V which may be more available than AA's AAA's in an emergency

alfred10 said:

I am looking for the longest running, most durable, than brightest I can get without taking the first 2 factors out. Should I stick with one that takes AA's or does a different battery size give me more options?

Click to expand...

I think your best bet is to get a good multi-mode light that has the option of different battery configurations. Fenix and the 4Sevens Quark lights are good examples. You could start out with something like the Quark AA, get the 2xAA and 1xCR123 battery tubes and you have the option of using 1xAA, 2xAA or 1xCR123 depending on what batteries are currently available to you. You will get lots of runtime with the Quark's moon mode even with just 1xAA. With 2xAA or 1xCR123 you will get even longer runtime and more output.

The Quark lights have a really low output mode which will run for a very long time, so they could be a good choice.

:welcome:

I am new to lithium AA's. How much longer will lithium AA's power a flashlight than a regular AA? What is the longest running single cell AA flash light I can get?