Does anyone have a Forever Flashlight? Good?

I just received an email for a Forever Flashlight deal. Marked down 30$ plus free shipping. That makes it under $20. My only question is it worth it? Batteries not included, because they are never needed. Long lasting LED. Sounds like a good emergency light. Please help with info as my wallet may soon be a little thinner.

I hope it is ok to post this link to the light. If not I can delete it. I want to be on the right side of the policy.

http://www.hotproductoutlet.com/products/flashlight/flashlight3.htm?cid=iJZ19cGR44oS3PINO43TN

I bought mine at Fry's at their everyday price of $19.99 and took it camping last weekend. I think it represents a reasonably fair value at that price. It does take a good 30-60 seconds of shaking to get a decent amount of light. The light is usable for an emergency situation but not much more. It claims that 30 seconds gets you 5 minutes of light and that is only partially true. I'd say about 1.5 minutes of usable light and the rest of the time it's on but not really usable. As an experiment I shook it for 2 minutes and the LED actually stayed lit for over an hour but at a very low level. Still pretty amazing, though. Must be some pretty good capacitor in there.
f1jim

It's a pretty big sized light for the output of maybe a Photon, and for a limited time. I don't think it's very good, but it's a great idea.

No, it's not worth it.

The "email" you mention is spam. Buying from a spammer encourages them to regard their trash as legitimate.

Even if the product wasn't a spammer's product, it wouldn't be worth it. It's too dim, and requires too much manual effort in order to generate too little light. For some, the extreme magnetic field around it is also a significant concern.
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It's a cheesy imitation of the Shakelight (www.shakelight.com). The Shakelight itself is not IMO all that practical a light, but at least it's well designed and constructed, if that's the kind of light you want.

I have a Nightstar shake light. You shake it with a "spanking the monkey" motion, and it gives maybe a few good seconds of useful light with around a minute of shaking. You could probably get a fuse changed in the basement with it, and it seems well-made enough. Dropping one or knocking it over probably won't bust it. If you're travelling to an area where batteries just aren't available in any form, you will probably want to have one of these where you can get to it. Otherwise, carry around something that uses batteries, like an Arc-AAA, CMG Infinity, or other light of your choise.

The Nightstar (at least in its current incarnation) runs a lot more than several seconds on a shaking. Something may be wrong with yours. With 15 seconds of shaking it's usefully bright for at least a minute or two. It's quite a useable light, just on the large and expensive side given that it's a single LED. It's more practical to just use a normal flashlight and keep some spare fresh batteries around.

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The LED Museum said:
I have a Nightstar shake light. You shake it with a "spanking the monkey" motion, and it gives maybe a few good seconds of useful light with around a minute of shaking.

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/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif You never cease to amaze me with your vivid descriptions /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I read you review of The LED Club, is it safe to assume that Loo Loo has not sent you any freebies as thanks?

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FlashlightOCD said:
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif You never cease to amaze me with your vivid descriptions /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I read you review of The LED Club, is it safe to assume that Loo Loo has not sent you any freebies as thanks?

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That's too funny...but it's true. When you're charging up one of these shake lights, do it with the curtains or door closed, or somebody might think you're doing something other than shaking a flashlight. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

And you're perfectly safe to assume that Loo Loo hasn't sent me any lights to review - especially if they read my review of The LED Club flashlight. I bought a blue LED one off ebay not long ago; I'm not sure if I ought to give it its own page, or just add it to the white LED flashlight page already occupied by the "tampon string" flashlight or "flushlight" as I call it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

For the amount of effort you put into it, the forever light just isnt worth it...I tested one over at fryes and it isnt very bright..Your best bet is to buy yourself a coleman freeplay sentinel. That thing is a sturdy flashlight and it generates some serious juice with a crank gen. Only bad thing about it is that it uses a bulb and not an LED. A couple of the guys here modded it to accept quite a few LED's which turned out quite nice. I tested it with a 1 watt luxeon star and it was nice and bright. I just havent come up with an elegant way of making it permanent. When I have more time I will finish it.

I've whined about this light in the past. Shaking the light isn't a very efficent way to convert energy into photons... unless you happen to be hyperactive or have a really bad case of Parkinson's. And then there's the matter of size. In this case there's too much of it!

Sounds like I will just delete the spam and be thankful for CPF.

Thanks for everyones input it is invaluable.

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FlashlightOCD said:
You never cease to amaze me with your vivid descriptions

I read you review of The LED Club, is it safe to assume that Loo Loo has not sent you any freebies as thanks?

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HI
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Regarding the LED CLUB metal lights
i actually love them, they are pretty cheap
but rugged and you must have gotten a bad one off
or something, i've ordered many of the blank ones (4 led variety) in blue white green red and now orange
not bad and with free batteries which i usually just throw out and put alkalines, lithiums are too much as you probally know well i sold some to police who's only complain was no handgrip and a cheap lanyward but for $7 a pop not bad at all

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Nuff said...

I think the Nightstar is a great emergency light. I'd recommend it highly for hurricane kits, basements, etc. Don't have to worry about batteries dying or corroding, watertight, tough. It actually gives sufficient light for about 20 minutes on a 30 second charge. I didn't believe it until I tried it, but yes, 20 minutes in practical use. Here's why: in complete darkness as the LED dims from the charge being depleted from use, your night adaptation improves making the light seem about the same brightness over that period of time. When you charge it up again it seems very bright to your now night-adaped eyes.

The forever lights are a cheap knockoff of the Nightstar. They work. That's about all I can say about them...

All due respect most sincerely meant, but Craig isn't the LED God.

There are some products where I totaly disagree with his review/analysis.

And this is one of them: I love my NightStar.
As to the Forever Lights: cheap imitations of the real thing.

There are always people who disagree with one's opinion, be it spoken, or typed and saved to a web site. I neither place blame here or take it, because blame isn't the issue here. If somebody loves the NightStar and somebody else hates it, so be it. And SidewindR likes those Loo Loo "flushlights" that I gave such a crappy review of. Great for modding or for giving away. Not many people would **** and moan at the $7 pricetag, including a set of batteries. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Now I just need to find a clock with a second hand on it so I know exactly how much shaking of the NightStar produces light you can truly use. Then I'll put up my NightStar review page.
That said, I still agree with Quickbeam in that this is a great light to put in your disaster kit, and not have to worry about batteries or bulbs - ever!

Craig;

Prior to your going into the hospital, I used to check your site every moring before I checked the daily headlines.

I've bought a lot of lights based on your reviews, and have yet to be disappointed.

But when I disagree, it's usually in a big way.

To me, the NightStar has a big "Science Toy" value that balances out it's lack of brightness. I've a number of lights I can throw in the bathtub, but this is the only light that automatically points north when I do so.

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Quickbeam said:
I think the Nightstar is a great emergency light. I'd recommend it highly for hurricane kits, basements, etc. Don't have to worry about batteries dying or corroding, watertight, tough. It actually gives sufficient light for about 20 minutes on a 30 second charge. I didn't believe it until I tried it, but yes, 20 minutes in practical use. Here's why: in complete darkness as the LED dims from the charge being depleted from use, your night adaptation improves making the light seem about the same brightness over that period of time. When you charge it up again it seems very bright to your now night-adaped eyes.

The forever lights are a cheap knockoff of the Nightstar. They work. That's about all I can say about them...

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Ditto - especially the part about the 20 minutes - this is probally the only light I own which demonstrateably performs BETTER than advertised. That being said, I do not recommend it for EDC or placing beside any critical electronic devices.

I just shook mine for 1 minute, and got about 30 seconds of "usable" light out of it. By "usable", you could probably flip a breaker or change a fuse in the basement with it. At this point, staring into the business end of the flashlight was easy; you could see the die and the bond wire of the LED quite easily, and not hurt your eyes.
I'd recommend the light for a disaster kit or for when you couldn't get any batteries at all, but it's definitely something you don't want to EDC.