Too many of the same class of light?

I'm in a dilemma, sort of. I have been EDCing a black 2 AA Mini-Maglite off and on for about 20 years now and it has served me *very* well through the years. I've been upgrading it over the past year and it now has a Terralux TLE-5EX LED drop in bulb, Terralux TCS-1 tailcap clicky switch, and a glass lens. It's a great light and I love it.

This past Christmas my brother gave me the one flashlight that I was dying for, a Fenix LD20. I was looking to retire my beloved Mini-Maglite and use the LD20 as my new EDC light.

A strange thing happened however.

For the first few days after Christmas I was EDCing the LD20 in its Fenix belt holster and everything was working just fine. Then the batteries (Duraloops) went dead on me when I was using it outside and I was stuck without a flashlight or at least a working one. When I got back home I saw my good old Mini-Maglite sitting there on my desk in its holster with two fully charged Duraloop batteries inside. I said "what the heck" and I strapped it to my belt, as I had been doing for the previous 20 years until the LD20 arrived.

It felt pretty good!

So now, as strange as it may sound, every day now I'm carrying *TWO* of the same type of 2 AA powered flashlight on my belt. I use the LD20 as my primary light. My good old Mini-Maglite is my backup light for the previous situation or just as a spare battery holder to re-power my LD20 if necessary.

I suppose that I could have just used a spare battery holder or belt pouch to hold an extra pair of fully charged AA batteries, but I find that just using the Mini-Maglite for that purpose works just as well and it "feels" right. Does that sound crazy or what? Does anyone else out there carry more than one EDC light or even carry more than one of the same type of EDC light like what I'm doing? How many lights do you guys carry every day?

Seems kind of nuts I guess.

At any given moment I have at least 3 lights within reach. When I'm out and about and carrying either my laptop bag or my back pack I'm usually packing about 5!
One is none, Two is one..3 is key. 4 is so good, 5 must be better!:thumbsup:
Oh I also rotate the lot so I have to change what spare batteries Im carrying around too.
Feel better yet? lol

If you find the 2AA format works well for you, then it makes good common sense to stick with that. IMHO that makes more sense than to carry around a bunch of lights that all use different cell types. And it also makes perfectly good sense to carry a backup light of some sort. Clicky switches are very unpredictable, and can fail at any given moment.

to Locoboy5150 --


You may indeed be Loco, boy . . . .


but there's nothing strange about carrying a back-up Flashlight.

Seems like a wise course of action, to me.


Carry one on each side, for better balance.


Wouldn't want ya' to tip-over, or anything !



BTW, i myself EDC-carried a Mini-Maglite for more than 2 Decades.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/141266

Good Luck !

i carry atleast 3 flashlights on me always.

i also follow the rule of "one is none, two is one." in my mind backup is smart plan.

i dont carry spare batteries, i carry spare flashlight.. sometimes it is just a spare battery carrier shaped like a flashlight like your maglite.

normally i carry one "big" with longish runtime (lmini2 mostly, with 18650 li-ion)
and one AA light (quark tactical)
and either itp eos (AAA) or lately quark mini aa

if i go out carrying "lightweight" its 2 or 3 lights that can use AA battery.. i drop the lmini2 for nitecore d10 or quark aa.. and then most used has li-ion 14500 in it, the backup has nimh, and the last resort one has an lithium in it. (as i know all my lights can use any of those battery types)

i personally like single cell lights as i prefer not to worry about the state and charge of the individual cells. (in two cell light you should make sure both of the batteries are of same condition before putting them in)

and i that way i only need to find one battery to make a light work.

I often carry a 2AA light with a single AA light as backup. Even if all three cells are spent, you can often scrounge one AA cell somewhere - sometimes trying to scrounge two is pushing it.

I typically only have one light on my person but I usually have another light and spare batteries in my coat or backpack nearby. I prefer 2x123 lights so that's usually what I carry.

Locoboy5150 said:

How many lights do you guys carry every day?

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I'm trying to keep it on the functional side. always 1 light on me, and when I work then it's 2 lights - my work light and my EDC as backup, and some batteries.

whenever I read about people carrying more than two lights on CPF I can't really see a reasonable/functional motivation for doing so. someone posted a photo of their belt with something like 6 lights - that's over the top from functional point, but of course there is nothing "wrong" with it. just don't tell me you really need or are planning to use all these lights (note this is does not include people with x amount of lights "in their reach" - because if you have 1-2 EDC lights and 1 in your car glove box and one in the first aid kit and so on, then it's easy to hit 5-6 lights and I think they still serve their purpose!)

I tried the settle on a form, 1 or 2 xCR123A, 1 or 2 xAA.
I even reached a decision (so I thought) and sold my A/AA lights.

That didn't work out for obvious reasons, and I was then constantly juggling what light I had, what backup I had, what was in the bag, and what cells they all needed.

Simple answer?

If you have a selection of lights, 1xCR123A, 2xCR123A, 1xAA, 2xAA....

Get at least one of these.

That carried everywhere (plus multiple others stashed here there and everywhere) means I can always reload at least once any of my flashlights.

Finally, to the OP, about your question...

"Does anyone else out there carry more than one EDC light....."

Dude, seriously? Think about where you are and who you're asking!

I always at the very least have my Ra Clicky clipped in my front pocket, and my Quark MiNi123 on my keychain. The Quark on the keychain acts as a spare battery carrier(and a good one at that) for my Clicky. Lately I have also been carrying my Aeon as well, because I love it's small size and long runtimes.

If I am going to be outside for a decent amount of time at night, I will bring along my Surefire LX2 to give me more long range punch.

I work in a town centre, so probably don't need anything like this many, but here goes:
E01 on keys,
ITP A3 EOS on pocket (not noticeable in a suit)
D10 in jacket pocket.

In the bag is a Romisen RC-P3, with another in the desk. Bag & Desk both have 4 spare AAs and 1 AAA (fits nicely in one case).

When it Arrives I'll probably swap the D10 for an SC30w, and stash a couple of 123s somewhere.

I don't think you're alone in carrying a spare. You might want something a bit nicer than a minimag though. You obviously haven't got the bug properly yet!

Locoboy5150 said:

So now, as strange as it may sound, every day now I'm carrying *TWO*

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How many hands do you have?

I carry one 2AA magled. I'm never far(ther than I can walk in the dark) from my truck, where I have another 2aa magled, and one or more mag-d's, and spare cells. If I got farther than that from my truck, I'd probably carry a backup, unless you count the flip open your phone thing, in which case I already carry a backup.

I agree with you - in most cases having a backup light is better than just having a backup set of batteries.

Tac light + practical EDC.

Though for some reason I grabbed an Aviator on the way out the door today, too...

All flashlights are in the same class -- use one hand to hold and point somewhere. Carry a small headlamp like a Zebralight to complement your hand-held flashlight. Carrying to 2 flashlights does not give you any additional functionality.

davidt1 said:

Carrying to 2 flashlights does not give you any additional functionality.

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This is nowadays admittedly rare for me, but I have on a few occasions utilized dual lights with two hands.

At the time(s) I was frequently walking a pretty rural area at night, about 1.5 miles of that was via trail shortcuts between roads.

Despite my "bigger" light being a 6P/M60 and the smaller being a Romisen RC-N3 II there were times when something big would jump around in the brush and I instantly whipped out BOTH beams.

The area was serious coyote country, to the point of packs of them even roaming the residential streets, so any extra light in some situations was plenty welcome. No such thing as overkill out there...

Two of the same? Not for me. Just carry via holster a Malkoff MD3 body with a M60 drop-in and currently carry a NiteCore EZAA. Just incase the li-Ion's crap out. Which they haven't so far, keep on top of their state of charge. But when you're under a house...

was.lost.but.now.found said:

I agree with you - in most cases having a backup light is better than just having a backup set of batteries.

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agreed, similar to having 2 guns is better than 1 gun plus extra magazines. that way you have 2 sets of batteries and 2 lights.
what if you were in a situation where you lost, misplaced, or broke your light. those extra batteries would be useless then.

i carry 1 light most the time, and at work i carry 2 sometimes 3 lights.

the other week, during work, my olight just shut off. i immediately pulled out my quark to continue working.
when i had time, i checked out the olight. swapped the battery positions and it was fine. dont really know what happened there, but i am using cr123a without the battery magazine, so im thinking lost connection somewhere, because there is alittle slack. its only happened once.

Gads! Sorry to hear about the battery's going dead. I use a Fenix E01 I got from 4Sevens & I could not be more of a Happy Camper. When it goes dimmer I just put in a fresh Lithium AAA & I have a few days left to do that even. Probebly more than a few days but I am parinoid!

Locoboy5150 said:

Does anyone else out there carry more than one EDC light or even carry more than one of the same type of EDC light like what I'm doing? How many lights do you guys carry every day?

Seems kind of nuts I guess.

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WORSE: For work I carry two Quark AA neutrals : one tactical and one regular...