Good value general light

I did a little search for this and got tired at looking at old threads.

The question I have is... I would like to know what are the current good value hand helds for around the house use. I'd like to buy a few of them and leave them around place (basement, garage, car, etc.) for when I need them. I have some nice pocket carries and headlamp type lights I love... but really want to buy about 3 or 4 lower cost, but good quality and good value lights to use as need rises.

Thanks.

What's your per-light budget?

The lights I have sitting around the house are Pelican M8 8020's which are a little outdated but still excellent lights and run forever. They are perfect for keeping around the house because they are bright yellow and fairly hard to misplace. I got them for criminally cheap on sale somewhere...

We just have the Dorcy 9-LED lights that take 3xAAA cells (model 41-4240) that we keep around the house for power outages, etc.

A lot of CPFers would turn their nose up at them, but for $5 a shot they do what they were designed to do.

A couple Mags would be nice. :thumbsup: Twin-pack 3D/2AA at Costco are an always-available good deal, but occasionally there would be a sale on individual lights at Home Depot, Lowe's, or Target.

I might sound weird, but for garage, basement or attic I think a headlamp would be best.

Chances are, you're going in there to get something and might need your hands free - either to move stuff or fend off critters.

Although, for big critters you might want a 4D Mag...

How about some cheap dealextreme lights that can run on lithium primaries?

i would suggest some cheapo single AA lights running off lithium primaries as well, since youll be using them around the house. dealextreme.com has plenty of them. ive heard good things about romisen, akoray, and tank007. i even own an ultrafire, and honestly for its cost, its a really good light.
shiningbeam.com has some very nice budget lights as well. good service and faster shipping, since they are base in the states.

i use non-rechargeable energizer lithiums in my AA lights because there is no leaking, they can be stored for over 10 years, and has much longer runtimes.

smfranke said:

I might sound weird, but for garage, basement or attic I think a headlamp would be best.

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I agree with smfranke.Having at least one headlamp around is a good idea.

My feeling is don't just buy three or four of the same light. Use this opportunity to try a few different ones. There are lots of decent reasonably priced choices. And I agree about having a headlamp in the mix.

Geoff

Flying Turtle said:

My feeling is don't just buy three or four of the same light. Use this opportunity to try a few different ones. There are lots of decent reasonably priced choices. And I agree about having a headlamp in the mix.

Geoff

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+1

get some of these,

tie a brick or something large (keys) to them, as they are easily lost.

but overall, for the money cannot be beat as a general purpose light

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/240639

I have found ITP lights to be a great value.The ITPC7 uses a common AA battery and is neither too bulky or too tiny.

This light has fully variable output from 6 lumins to 120 and is easy to set at any Level you wish.It also remembers the last chosen setting.Im betting you would enjoy one of these :thumbsup:. Here is a link that contains a video

Have fun with your pick which ever it may be .
http://www.techtoolsupply.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ITP-C7

Thanks for the replies. I've got some nice headlamps (Petzl and Princeton), keep one in my car and one near tools... great for when I crawl around behind home theater electronics or computers. Have couple small Fenix's which I love. But both are more expensive than I want to buy and just put somewhere 'just in case'.

My price point is somewhere around $20 and under per light... maybe buy 2 or 3 (2 at $20, 3 at $10) .... the ITP A3 EOS lights look very interesting. I think I will look more into them.

I primarily wrote this note because technology is changing so quickly, its hard to know what the value light of this month is. The EOS has me thinking 'hmmmm'.

Thanks again!

Check out the ultrafire c3 with extension tube at deal extreme sku 4452. For $13.55 can;t go wrong and runs on aa's. Pretty bright for the price too. Way better then my 3d xenon mag.

In the $20 range it's tough to beat the line of lights from Romisen. I have been leery of places like Kaidomain and Deal Extreme because they take too long to ship. Deal Extreme has been reported by CPF members to sell fake merchandise (Sanyo Eneloop batteries and MTE flashlights) too. Romisen lights are available from Shining Beam, which has a better reputation here on CPF:

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-By-Manufacturer-cln-Romisen/Categories

Romisen lights are nice for general use.

Locoboy5150 said:

In the $20 range it's tough to beat the line of lights from Romisen. I have been leery of places like Kaidomain and Deal Extreme because they take too long to ship. Deal Extreme has been reported by CPF members to sell fake merchandise (Sanyo Eneloop batteries and MTE flashlights) too. Romisen lights are available from Shining Beam, which has a better reputation here on CPF:

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-By-Manufacturer-cln-Romisen/Categories

Romisen lights are nice for general use.

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+1 no issues with any of the lights that i have gotten from shiningbeam, shipping is very fast and customer service is excellent. FYI, i ordered the Romisen RC N3 II Q5 and the RC N3 single mode warm white and both are great. I like the length of the 2xAA and also the flexibility of using it in 1xCR123 mode, RCR123s can fit as well for guilt free lumens.

I recommend using either lithium primaries or if the lights are going to be sitting around more often than not, get low self discharge eneloops and just check the voltage or top up the cells every few months or so. (alkalines LEAK!!)

oh, don't forget to use "CPFuser" when checking out for a discount.

My price point is somewhere around $20 and under per light... maybe buy 2 or 3 (2 at $20, 3 at $10)

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As a newbie, I've been doing a lot of reading here myself. And some buying.....

One of the best deals on a general all around light I've found is the Nuwai TM115X. Body size is pretty standard for 2 X CR123a batteries, with a bulbous head to hold the spot to food optic. By no means is it the latest led, but you can find it with a deep discount because of that.

It has a side switch that controls the two levels of output and it feels good in the hand, kind of chunky (but still small enough for my wife's tiny hands). To my untrained eye the beam is equivalent or better than a 2-3 cell maglite. The big head helps it sit on a shelf without tipping over and easy to find in a drawer in the dark. It comes with two good quality (panasonic) lithium batteries so you can put in the garage and forget about it for 10 years.

According to this review they a reasonably rugged and waterproof and to my eye the fit and finish is of good quality. They apparently originally sold for $30-50 (you can still find them for that price in some stores). CPF Authorized dealer Battery Junction has them discounted for under $10 so you can get three shipped for about $37 with the CPF discount code: cpf2009.

good luck,
Joe

I really like the Gerber Trio for a simple around the house light. Sigman was selling them and even though his thread has been dead for a while, it was not indicated that he was sold out of the Trios. If you can pick up two of those for $20 total that's a real deal in my book. You might PM him to make sure he has them still.

Link to his sales thread:
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=193033

Thanks again for the additional replies. I think I may pick up a few different lights to play with now that I have a number of low cost options.

Question... I've got a number CR123 battery lights and had stocked up on cr123s.... just curious, what are the goto places to find good value cr123's nowadays? Years ago I had used batterystation.com. (popped into my head while writing, I'll probably do a search on this question)

Thanks

I usually buy my CR123's from Lighthound, but I have bought batteries from 4sevens and Batterystation as well.