Somehow I think I hit gold today at Home Depot

Hey everyone,
Been a while since I posted but today's get was pretty cool .
I always look in the flashlight section to see whats up and there I see
the husky 3 watt cree 145 lumen tactical light for 5.50 each!
So I bought 6 for 35.00 !
Granted.........the inner workings are less than Heavy duty but the outer casing with clip is pretty nice.
Dang.........super bright as well.
Kenny S>

Thanks for the info. Will go check it out first thing tomorrow.

I will definately go scope this out tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up!

Sharrack said:

Hey everyone,
Been a while since I posted but today's get was pretty cool .
I always look in the flashlight section to see whats up and there I see
the husky 3 watt cree 145 lumen tactical light for 5.50 each!

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That's a great price for a basic light, but I'm just not a fan of the lights that use a battery holder instead of simply lining up the cells in the body of the light.
:thinking:

I have lights with 3AAA carriers and lights using AAs without them that are the same brightness. Guess which ones I use most often? the AA variety so I don't have to mess with the carriers and 3AAAs facing different directions. IMO a 3AAA simple high power LED light is worth about $5, you should post this in the marketplace in good deals for those that need a cheap glovebox light or giveaways.

I disagree Lynx.........you are biased in your thinking about flashlights and what you expect from them.
I understand that, but 5.50 for that light ???
Come on.........where on this blue marble are you going to find anything close to that light for 5.50?
There is so much utter junk out there ..........blister packs of junk lights for 10 bucks and led anythings that simply dont throw a dang worth of light.
So , it's performance could be better but even a Mcdonalds combo meal is more than 5 bucks! ha ha !

LOL...3AAA + Direct drive = gold?... I don't think so. But for $5 I think you did good. The nice thing about these lights is that they can be modded to accept an 18650. Its about a Q2 flux BIN, so it can handle the 18650 current with non-IMR cells, although its thermal path is almost non-existant. The 18650 alleviates its biggest deficiency.

I would have snagged one too at that price. The XR-E is about a Q3 or Q2. Mounted on a ~10mm heatsink and held in place with screws. If nothing else its a B/M source for an XRE.

kramer5150 said:

LOL...3AAA + Direct drive = gold?... I don't think so. But for $5 I think you did good. The nice thing about these lights is that they can be modded to accept an 18650. Its about a Q2 flux BIN, so it can handle the 18650 current with non-IMR cells, although its thermal path is almost non-existant. The 18650 alleviates its biggest deficiency.

I would have snagged one too at that price. The XR-E is about a Q3 or Q2. Mounted on a ~10mm heatsink and held in place with screws. If nothing else its a B/M source for an XRE.

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Are you sure it's direct drive? the bigger 2D version is regulated. I wouldn't be surprised if this one was as well. Waiting for someone to test

Review here:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/235828

droeun said:

Are you sure it's direct drive? the bigger 2D version is regulated. I wouldn't be surprised if this one was as well. Waiting for someone to test

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positive. Every cheap (under ~$25) B/M available 3AAA light I know is direct drive. And some expensive ones are too (Lenser for example).
I bought this light as a DIY host, and immediately ran into troubles and aborted. The pill is entirely aluminum, cant solder onto it at all.

kramer5150 said:

Its about a Q2 flux BIN, so it can handle the 18650 current with non-IMR cells, although its thermal path is almost non-existant.

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The flux binning of the LED has absolutely nothing to do with whether it can handle direct drive from an 18650.

MorePower said:

The flux binning of the LED has absolutely nothing to do with whether it can handle direct drive from an 18650.

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In theory yes. However, have read others' had problems with the higher flux BINs over heating. Could have been the result of poor thermal design, and not the flux BIN. So obviously theres more to this than just the emitter BIN.

I personally have not tried though.

Big YMMV. Most stores havent had these for awhile, so I wouldnt drive around looking for them.

Home Depot is having their "Second Black Friday" sale today/this weekend, so if there's something you've been wanting there, now's the time.

Went to home depot and they don't carry that model anymore. But i snag a 10 pack 6 led 3xAAA brinkmann light for $9.50. That's $1 buck each so I hit the gold too. I'm not going to have a problem looking for a light anymore coz i will gonna scatter it around the house. :twothumbs

3xAAA direct drive lights are not gold. . . . maybe fool's gold, but definitely not gold.

But the price is right!

some of the better 3AAA lights have linear regulators on them, essentially a smart resistor that limits current but it is better than a regular resistor or none at all which requires not using nimh or lithium on lights with weaker output LEDs (5mm, 0.5watt) that would fry if fed too much current.

Interesting find. It's amusing that home depot sells a "tactical" light.

Sharrack said:

I disagree Lynx.........you are biased in your thinking about flashlights and what you expect from them.
I understand that, but 5.50 for that light ???
Come on.........where on this blue marble are you going to find anything close to that light for 5.50?
There is so much utter junk out there ..........blister packs of junk lights for 10 bucks and led anythings that simply dont throw a dang worth of light.
So , it's performance could be better but even a Mcdonalds combo meal is more than 5 bucks! ha ha !

Click to expand...

ebay, dealextreme, kd, etc have lights about like that for $4-$10 everyday. I picked up 3 lights similar to that years back in a target clearance for $5 each. They are not bad lights but these days they are entry level high power led lights that suffer from poor runtime coupled at dwindling performance with sometimes the most inflated lumen output ratings on the planet if you are not using lithium or rechargeables . I have a light similar to those in my car I rarely use and that is why it is there because the heavily used lights are not 3AAA format those are backup lights. Most people have moved on from the 3AAA bandwagon preferring it only for small pocket lights and use AA and larger cells for general purpose.

Need runtime hours...

I bought 4 Husky 3 watt cree for $14 a few months ago. I would buy more at $6 in southeast florida but can't find any more, lol

I could really use the

runtime= ?


on this light. The lumens are great. It is the brightest thing after the 2 D 4 watt monster made by Husky for under $20 on clearance.