Where to buy Maglite 3D LED upgrade bulb?

Just found an old maglite 3D flashlight I forgot about. I had upgraded the others to the new 3W LED when they came out a couple years ago. I don't see them for sale at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Academy, etc. Anyone know of a brick and mortar chain that still sells them in the southeast US?

Thanks!

I haven't seen Maglite LED upgrades in brick-and-mortar stores for a while. If you search amazon.com, though, you'll see they still carry lots of different upgrades (Nite Ize, Terralux, even the official MagLite dropins).

--flatline

There are better choices now...

Search for the budget showerhead thread for example.

$25 to turn that Mag into a terrific flood using 9 AA Duracells and 3 of the #1 AA to D adapters...

don't buy it, idk why they call it upgrade, it is more like downgrade, you will loose output, they are garbage if you ask me, i spend almost $100 on few of them, i considered them all crap, the only reason i still keep them, is that i spend $100 on them, let them sit in a box, they are only good if you don't care about brightness but runtime only,
now if you care about brightness, than you need fusion36leds drop in,(good flooder, not much throw, about $25, or tle300 great thrower, 3 modes, about $80, or sst 50 drop in sold on this board, 800lm (but not if you use alkaline cells) 3 modes, around $100.
or you could do conversion, there are literally dozens of conversion you can do, but they aren't drop ins, you need some skills to assemble those.

alpg88 said:

don't buy it, idk why they call it upgrade, it is more like downgrade, you will loose output, they are garbage if you ask me, i spend almost $100 on few of them, i considered them all crap, the only reason i still keep them, is that i spend $100 on them, let them sit in a box, they are only good if you don't care about brightness but runtime only,
now if you care about brightness, than you need fusion36leds drop in,(good flooder, not much throw, about $25, or tle300 great thrower, 3 modes, about $80, or sst 50 drop in sold on this board, 800lm (but not if you use alkaline cells) 3 modes, around $100.
or you could do conversion, there are literally dozens of conversion you can do, but they aren't drop ins, you need some skills to assemble those.

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I happen to like the dim Nite Ize dropin. It supposedly gets 160 hours of runtime out of 4D cells, so I can loan my maglite to a neighbor during an emergency and never have to worry about them running out of juice. I don't care that it's no brighter than the standard bulb. I have other lights for that if I need more lumens.

--flatline

eBay is good

Mag Industries must have stopped marketing these - looking over the web all I see is the odd one available on ebay.

ETA: called Mag Industries up, and indeed they have stopped selling the LED upgrade units.

A good alternative to the MagLED module would be the Nite Ize 1-Watt PR flange bulb. Make sure to get the 1-Watt one with the smaller globe instead of the half-Watt large globe version. Big Waffles tested the 1-Watt bulb replacement and it compares favorably to the MagLED 3-cell bulb. The MagLED is brighter initially but will drop in output quickly as the module heats up. After a few minutes the Nite Ize 1-Watt bulb is brighter and will remain so for longer than the MagLED module. The only reason to get the MagLED module is if you want to mod it with a modern LED. I've put a Cree XP-G R4 soldered to an 8mm board onto a 2-cell MagLED module and it makes about 150 lumens at turn on compared to about 40 lumens for an unmodified version of the same bulb.

I know its not exactly what you said you were looking for but I'd definitely check out the Malkoff drop-in for the 3D Mags. I picked up one of the nite-ize(sp?) but wasn't happy with it, so I got a Terralux. Not too bad but still not quite what I was looking for. Then I sprang for the Malkoff and I was amazed!! They're a little pricey but well worth it IMO. They're also sold out ATM, but they're well worth the wait, or you could keep an eye out on CPF marketplace and see if one pops up. A little patience and you'll have, what is IMO, the best drop-in for the Mags.

A link to the $25 Fusion 36 showerhead...what *I* have found to be the best *affordable* M*g mod.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/277748

Elmer Fudd said:

Just found an old maglite 3D flashlight I forgot about. I had upgraded the others to the new 3W LED when they came out a couple years ago. I don't see them for sale at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Academy, etc. Anyone know of a brick and mortar chain that still sells them in the southeast US?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Yea know sometimes they have the new Rebel LED Mag 3D for something like 11 bucks on sale at Lowes etc. Even when not on sale these aren't too expensive. Maybe just get new one and forget the upgrade as the new Mags are better than the older LED ones, upgrade included.

Woods Walker said:

Yea know sometimes they have the new Rebel LED Mag 3D for something like 11 bucks on sale at Lowes etc. Even when not on sale these aren't too expensive. Maybe just get new one and forget the upgrade as the new Mags are better than the older LED ones, upgrade included.

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While I agree with you on the first part, I don't agree with the second part. I have a 2D Rebel Mag and an older 2D MagLite that I put the MagLED module in. The Rebel draws 1660mA at the tail for 110 OTF lumens while my MagLED draws around 850mA at the tail for 40 OTF. Change the LED for something modern, like a Seoul SSC P4 U-bin and that same module will put out about the same amount of light as that Rebel does at slightly more than half the amp draw. Change the LED for an XP-G R4 and it's putting out 150 OTF lumens at the same 850mA. I haven't done the same measurements on my 3D Mags, yet, but I don't have a 3D Rebel Mag to compare to.

This may not be popular, but here goes . . . . . .
I had 9 or 10 Mags around the house, shop, office, etc. Spent a lot of money over the years on Mags, and they served me well - no complaints.

But, for me, it was time to move on. Mags are dinosaurs. End of story. Perhaps you should save your money and move into the present, and the future as well.

With all due respect, of course . . . . .:thumbsup:

PCC said:

While I agree with you on the first part, I don't agree with the second part. I have a 2D Rebel Mag and an older 2D MagLite that I put the MagLED module in. The Rebel draws 1660mA at the tail for 110 OTF lumens while my MagLED draws around 850mA at the tail for 40 OTF. Change the LED for something modern, like a Seoul SSC P4 U-bin and that same module will put out about the same amount of light as that Rebel does at slightly more than half the amp draw. Change the LED for an XP-G R4 and it's putting out 150 OTF lumens at the same 850mA. I haven't done the same measurements on my 3D Mags, yet, but I don't have a 3D Rebel Mag to compare to.

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where did you get the numbers????

rebel draws 1660ma???? hard to believe, i got to measure mine, when i get home. i would not think mag r&d would make a light meant for alkaline cells draw 1660ma
also 1660ma 110otf lm????? dude, hotwire will give you more at that draw. why bother with led??

850ma for 40lm??? are you kidding? stock maglite bulb makes 2x as many lm with that draw. again why bother with leds

also xp-g 150lm at 850ma, well magnumstar bulb makes as much at similar draw. once more, why bother with led???

btw my magled bulb that came with 4d magled (first gen lux 3) led draws about 350ma at the tail.

according to your numbers leds are horribly inefficient. worst than incandescent.

If you want to stay incan, (ROP) mod, not much skill required and it'll cost around $80 since you already own the maglite. 1100 emitter lumens.
Peaces required are a metal reflector, new glass and an adapter so you can run 6 AA instead of 3 d cells

Oh and a 3854 Pelican bulb, that's why it's called Roar Of the Pelican

PCC said:

While I agree with you on the first part, I don't agree with the second part. I have a 2D Rebel Mag and an older 2D MagLite that I put the MagLED module in. The Rebel draws 1660mA at the tail for 110 OTF lumens while my MagLED draws around 850mA at the tail for 40 OTF. Change the LED for something modern, like a Seoul SSC P4 U-bin and that same module will put out about the same amount of light as that Rebel does at slightly more than half the amp draw. Change the LED for an XP-G R4 and it's putting out 150 OTF lumens at the same 850mA. I haven't done the same measurements on my 3D Mags, yet, but I don't have a 3D Rebel Mag to compare to.

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I think the Rebel 3D tested far better than the 2D and someplace on CPF there is info about that topic. The view was to get the 3D and avoid the 2D. I have the Rebel 3D but don't own the 2D.

alpg88 said:

rebel draws 1660ma???? hard to believe, i got to measure mine, when i get home.

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I'm getting 0.655A on my Luxeon Rebel 3D with alkalines.

Robin24k said:

I'm getting 0.655A on my Luxeon Rebel 3D with alkalines.

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thanks, my point exactly, even if we take into accout that 2d is a bit brighter\draws more, still 1660ma is way off charts

Woods Walker said:

I think the Rebel 3D tested far better than the 2D and someplace on CPF there is info about that topic. The view was to get the 3D and avoid the 2D. I have the Rebel 3D but don't own the 2D.

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2D is actually a bit brighter than 3D, but has a lot less runtime