Best flashlight to travel deep in a cave for a week or so....

Does anyone else build Zombie kits? Or general survival kits? I do, but just for fun.

I was thinking of what kind of flashlight you would want in a cave or shelter for days weeks. I imagine it would have to be

• Water proof to prevent it from being ruined in a potentially damp environment.
• Rechargeable via hand shaking or wind up.

I see those kind of flashlights in the store, http://images1.vat19.com/covers/large/nightstar-shake-flashlight.jpg and they are all pretty inexpensive, and I have purchased two now and both have stopped working. The main problem seems to be that if you let the battery run dead before shaking it, then it has a hard if not impossible time to recharge. Anyone know of a flashlight with the qualifications that is of true quality, or are these flashlights still not taken with enough seriousness for a company to try to produce one with good quality?

Forget about those shake or wind up lights, especially in a hostile environment like a cave, their nothing but a gimmick, everyone that I've seen was either junk or one step above it. Are you specifically looking for a light to use in a cave or shelter for an extended period of time, or is this just a hypothetical question of yours?

My answer for you will vary depending one what the individuals budget is, however, a good CR123 or AA based light with a couple of spare batteries will go a long way. For example one of 4sevens quark AA's and a couple of spare batteries in your pocket will give you light for a very long time, and would make you realize what a gimmick the windup and crank lights are. I mean, I guess their ok for general task's around the house and such, but for someone looking for serious light in a serious type of scenario or environment, avoid them if you can. If you're looking for a light, give us some idea of what you want to spend.

A serious caving/mountaineering headlamp (Petzl etc.) with a generous reserve of quality batteries may be the solution. Old-school speleologist would probably recommend you a carbide lamp. There aren't any shake or crank lights made so reliable to trust your life in a cave.

Cheers,

Tam

Honestly what I was looking to see if there was any high quality flashlights like the one I talked about out there. But it seems your experience has backed up my research in that they just don't make them.

Here would be the next question then. I want something that will last as long as possible. I got my Maglite(4D) custom 140lumen led to last 10 days of usable light. I was told that it last so long because the led was unregulated so I would get less light as there was less juice in the battery. For lastability I would say that unregulated is the way to go.

Would carrying a back 20 lumen led last for a month or what? I have a flashlight that gets down to 3lumens and that is reading light in a pitch dark room. Should I just start testing on my Maglite?

I suppose a very good question is figuring out how to read batteries....Like what is a D battery compared to a AA in what last longer. Is there percentage ratio, are D batteries less efficient but just used because they can put out energy faster or something.

I'd say a good LED headlamp that runs off an 18650 like one of the new Sparks; the ST6-460NW is a pretty fine light from everything I've heard. On the lower levels it's got some pretty incredible run-times; I'd imagine you could get by with that and a pair of fully charged AW or Redilast 2900 Mah cells.

I'd also want to have a reliable hand-carry light to complement the headlamp. I found my Zebralight SC50w+ worked just fine for checking colors and reading surfaces over which I was crawling through lava tubes; without it i wouldn't have been able to do as good a job finding a route through the caves that saved me some considerable head, knee, and elbow pain when crawling through narrow spaces when caving.

In any future caving expediditions, especially ones that would be more serious and longer duration, I'd definitely go with 18650 based lights as much as possible, and carry along a battery organizer that lets me keep track of what is depeleted and what isn't.

Too many questions, and I'm sure at least some of them have been already answered. Try a "CPF only" search (box in the upper left of the page) with keywords such as caving, headlamp, runtime, reliability, backup etc.

As B0wz3r said, it is also important to have a complementary light (which may also serve as a backup) apart from your main light.

Cheers,

Tab

Zebralight H51 would do pretty good.
0.2 lumens for 16 days on a single AA.
Pack a couple spares.

No matter if you are travelling or surviving a zombie outbreak etc. the easiest battery to find is probably an AA.

I've had my eye on Zebralight H51(w). I keep thinking if I've had that light when I was a kid or when I did some hiking Anyway it has ultra low mode for battery life and amazing max output from just one AA.

I'm going to have to agree with ebow on the Quark. A Quark AA2 on moonlight will last you 30 days continuous, back that up with a few spare lithiums/nimh and you will be good for a year of light (on and off use) underground. You'll probably starve before you run out of light. There have been runtime tests on CPF with the moonlight actually reaching ~40ish days continuous. The moonlight mode is quite bright in the dark, I find it blinding up close when I wake up in the middle of the night. The Armytek Predator would last you supposedly 100 days continuous on it's really dim firefly mode, I'm sure that's adequate enough.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot ... the smallest backup light would be this: take one of those key chain lights running a white led from 2 x 2016 coin cells and replace them with 1 x 2032. I tested with a crappy battery and it gave me usable light with constant brightness for about 2 days and diminishing output for I don't how long.

Usually those lights are not water resistant so keep them in a sealed bag or something. Also would be good to have a small screwdriver if you need to fix the light or dry out after accidental submerge. A Viktorinox cork-screw-attached screw driver is very small to carry. It should be fun fiddling with the small screws in the darkness

This is also the cheapest way to achieve very long runtime.

as far as durability, I think this flashlight has some real world experience....almost 5 years worth.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?174643-AAA-Survives-5-yrs-Lost-in-a-Cave

I would be looking for a real diving light.

nap. :candle:

its very easy:
EVERYTHING - even when so big (for stored energy) to be no longer pocketable - that uses batteries is crap in that situation and ONLY FOR EMERGENCY TO CRAWL OUT OF THE CAVE!

the only real light to be used is a carbide lamp:
* carbide is easy to carry with You, more than needed.
* only needs water as 2nd source - which in best case is available in the cave.

that is the reason why carbide lamps are still built, revised, sold for serious caveing.
(and the very nice area light they give, unmatched by anything else)


PS: for me - I am very strict on that topic, agreed - someone into caveing should / must be environmentally interrested. That INCLUDES not making unnecessary waste and that means no millions of uselessly used up batteries. That is the same poop, than throwing away unused carbide.

yellow said:

its very easy:
EVERYTHING - even when so big (for stored energy) to be no longer pocketable - that uses batteries is crap in that situation and ONLY FOR EMERGENCY TO CRAWL OUT OF THE CAVE!

the only real light to be used is a carbide lamp:

Click to expand...

Carbon does not fall under Zombie category for sure, can't be used in a bomb shelter because it uses fire and therefor uses up valuable oxygen. and it does not seem like you could run effectively with it, nor stash it in your pocket on the way out.

I like those Zebra lights.Has anyone checked out the ZebraLight SC50+ Flashlight AA 193Lm has run time of 22days at 0.3lm were the SC51w is 16days at 0.18. Though I was just scanning through flashlights, could be defective or something, it is on sale for $15 less. It occured to me that I must have the ability to turn it on at low.

Lightingman said:

Has anyone checked out the ZebraLight SC50+ Flashlight AA 193Lm has run time of 22days at 0.3lm were the SC51w is 16days at 0.18. Though I was just scanning through flashlights, could be defective or something, it is on sale for $15 less. It occured to me that I must have the ability to turn it on at low.

Click to expand...

The SC50+ is just the older edition of the SC50 line. The SC51 has replaced the older one which is why the older one is on sale. Scoop it up; great light....especially on a rechargeable Li-ion 14500. To me the new one is worth the extra money though simply because it runs on an eneloop so well, and uses the XPG LED....I just like it better (a little more floody.)

I would like to suggest that if you are out for several weeks in the wild and/or a cave that you will want a headlamp with a backup like a quark that takes the same batteries. You just need both of your hands free. Marshall had some new videos on Spark headlamps that looked pretty good in a number of battery sizes. I have a Petzel that I use and a zebra light sc51with headband as backup. (yes two different battery sizes but did not understand the issue until after I bought the petzel).

I think that if you are going to be out in those conditions you need to have both hands free.
+1 on the petzel with a backup that uses the same batteries. Btw just saw videos on the Spark headlamp series that looked pretty impressive.

Lightingman said:

Does anyone else build Zombie kits? Or general survival kits? I do, but just for fun.

I was thinking of what kind of flashlight you would want in a cave or shelter for days weeks. I imagine it would have to be


[*]Water proof to prevent it from being ruined in a potentially damp environment.
[*]Rechargeable via hand shaking or wind up.


I see those kind of flashlights in the store, http://images1.vat19.com/covers/large/nightstar-shake-flashlight.jpg and they are all pretty inexpensive, and I have purchased two now and both have stopped working. The main problem seems to be that if you let the battery run dead before shaking it, then it has a hard if not impossible time to recharge. Anyone know of a flashlight with the qualifications that is of true quality, or are these flashlights still not taken with enough seriousness for a company to try to produce one with good quality?

Click to expand...

I think that if you are going to be out in those conditions you need to have both hands free.
+1 on the petzel with a backup that uses the same batteries. Btw just saw videos on the Spark headlamp series that looked pretty impressive

EnduringEagle said:

+1 on the petzel with a backup....

Click to expand...

I love that you gave yourself a "+1" for your suggested setup. I've wanted to do that many times myself.

I know the frequent answer on here is 'HDS', didn't Henry design his lights with caving in mind? I would have thought the HDS along with a decent headlamp (sharing the same type of cell) would be the ideal solution. I understand that Carbide lamps are preferred by some for camping but everything has its drawbacks, including naked flame and the requirement to keep the carbide dry.

Andrew