I need a new kind of flashlight for emergencies

We're in an area that is prone to hurricanes and our area can't handle a lot of water. When we get a lot of rain or flooding, our lights go out. I'm looking for a flashlight that can last eight days or more.

I wanted something with LEDs and could switch from a miser light (one led) to high lumens (many LEDs). I'm not looking to spend a lot of money but I am open to any and all suggestions. I would like something that uses lantern batteries because I believe they would last the longest. The other batteries we have in abundance are double A bateries. I'm not really looking for something that charges because I believe the battery may go bad from charging before we have that kind of emergency.

If you have any suggestions, please post them here in the forums.

Thank you very very much.

My solution to your problem is to have many flashlights and *many* batteries as back-up. Some lights are very dim, some very bright. Choose the one for the occasion.

I agree. Batteries are more important than flashlights in these circumstances! 8 days (or rather nights) is not an issue for a lot of decent lights, but you'll only get a handful of lumens in most cases. Personally I'd run a couple of lights at a fairly low/ medium output to give enough light to feel comfortable, and have a backup with lots of power if you need to check something out.

If you do just want one flashlight to cover all needs, there are a ton of lights which give a low 5-10 lumens plus a high of over 100 lumens. Fenix do some nice quality lights and their E range is reasonably priced, but 4Sevens are also worth a look.

And some candles! Although the Health and Safety police might frown, there is nothing to beat a candle flame for a nice warm glow during a power cut. Just don't place them near anything flammable and keep them out of the way of kids and pets. Common sense stuff really...

Do you have any flashlights that might fit the job? I have plenty of pen flashlights that hold two double A batteries. I have a lantern with LEDs and four AA and some mag lights that hold two AA batteries (7 Lumens) but I'm just not happy with them.

I suggest just getting a generator, possibly one that can charge a big 12v deep cycle battery. Then you can get a 12v battery charger and charge any batteries that need charging. Plus the generator can be used to power other emergency items.

qwertyydude said:

I suggest just getting a generator, possibly one that can charge a big 12v deep cycle battery. Then you can get a 12v battery charger and charge any batteries that need charging. Plus the generator can be used to power other emergency items.

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My neighbor showed me a generator from Harbor Freight but it flickered the lights in his house so I assume it wasn't regulated power so I'm unsure about charging batteries with it.

I don't know where to look or what to buy as far as a 12v deep cycle battery but I suppose I have to google it and figure it out.

What I wanted to do was build my own flashlight by using commonly found energizer 6 volt lantern flashlights by hacking it and someone in a microcontroller forum suggested that I come here.

What are some half decent flashlights I could use while I work on this project?

qwertyydude said:

I suggest just getting a generator, possibly one that can charge a big 12v deep cycle battery. Then you can get a 12v battery charger and charge any batteries that need charging. Plus the generator can be used to power other emergency items.

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I second that, I keep a bunch of batteries around for emergencies, I have quite a few rechargeables but I have a bunch of alkalines in a container because during winter, sometimes in California the power can be out at my house for a week or more! Don't know about the apartment I am moving in too which is in central Florida, but I know my family out there has gone days without power as well!

My suggestion is to get a Surefire G2 and a p60 LED dropin with multiple settings. Then get a pack of cr123a batteries and a (waterproof) spares carrier. CR123A batteries have a ten year shelf life, store safely, and in an emergency, they will be one of the few battery types left on shelves. All that should cost you about $100 bucks. (maybe a little expensive for your price range, but this is probably the best value and reliability you can get)

I agree with keeping lots of spare batteries on hand, but for a long duration light look at a Safe-Light. Fairly inexpensive and has very long runtimes. I would recommend the Handyman model instead of the Survival model. The Survival model has a feature that keeps the light on in "glow" mode so you can't turn it all the way off. The idea is you will be able to find the flashlight in the dark because of the glow. They say the battery lasts two years but if you don't use the flashlight say, for a year, you have theorytically used up half of your battery life. The Handyman has the glow feature, but can also be shut off completely. I keep mine in my go-bag, so I always know where it is and don't need the glow mode.

My suggestion is to get a Surefire G2 and a p60 LED dropin with multiple settings. Then get a pack of cr123a batteries and a spares carrier. CR123A batteries have a ten year shelf life, store safely, and in an emergency, they will be one of the few batteries left on shelves.
Double post, please remove

Pick up some headlamps. Your choice. Petzl Tikka 2 or Tikkina, Princeton Tec EOS or Quad, Black Diamond Spot or Storm, and so on. All are water proof or water resistant and run for hours. Typical headlamps are rated in the dozens of hours of runtime, not minutes.

Why not get a single AA light. Something like the quark AA will last 2 days off an AA battery on low. 4 (lumens). You can even go to moonlight mode and it would last for 10 days, off one battery. No I know that at times you will want it brighter, but it also won't be on 24 sevens, so you will still get a lot of use. Also, I bet a lot of houses have tons of AA batteries around the house. Remote controls, wireless keyboards and mice, etc. I have 10 aa batteries in use in my room. Without power, I don't need any of those devices, so I could take the batteries out, and use them for more important task in a power outage. Those batteries alone (even though none of them are fully charged would get me through 8 days. Its no excuse not to have a lot of AA batteries ready to go, but its a nice plan C.

I would consider a Zebralight SC80 that uses both AA & CR123 batteries. Buy spare batteries as suggested, but if you run out you can use AA batteries. I also agree you should have several lights.

I would suggest first come up with price range for lights and batteries as said 123a cells have 10 yr shelf life but AA have a cost advantage and about 5 yr life One advantage to AA for emergency lamps is your emergency weather radio's' am/fm radio hand held CB ect most likely take AA and not 123a cells, I am not pushing AA over 123a just something to think about.
As far as a lights come up with a price range and cell type/types this will narrow down the suggestions made.

Quark 2AA and an 8 pack or two of lithiums will give you light for ages.

As a general rule, I spend at least 3x on batteries (dedicated to light, not other electronics) as you do on the actual light.

ie.

$100 light
$300 of batteries

will last you the life of the batteries, and in a prolonged emergency they'll be worth their weight in gold. AAs and D cells have excellent barter value.

If a natural-disaster type SHTF occurred here, I would whip out the SF 9P + Malkoff M61LL. That light cost approx $120 for me and I've spent approx $350 on batteries for said light (and others, but its the go-to light in a natural disaster where batteries wont be available).

It won't last 8 days (192 hours) constant on, however it will give around 24 hours of useful light (incl. 16 on high). Assuming 2-3 hours of non-emergency use in the evening, that's about 8 days between battery changes. And with the stockpile of batteries I'm sitting on, I'm not too worried about it!

This is assuming I'm not performing a SAR role, where a brighter light and more batteries would be used.

Of course, I do have a light that can last a week of constant on ... The HDS Rotary. However, for my around the house uses, 0.22 lumens is too dim for doing much. In my opinion, I'd rather have 5-15 lumens and a shorter runtime, than 0.22 and over a week of runtime.

The Malkoff M61LL is around 60 lumens for 16 hours + approx 8 hours of declining lumens.

As a general note, alkalines produce significantly longer runtimes than lithiums. This is balanced by the usual weaknesses of alkalines though.

I myself would suggest several E01's for when you just need a few lumens. You can take some 0000 steel wool to the LED, and diffuse the beam, so it's not as harsh, which is useful for reading, or doing closeup work, but you lose the throw it has. They average about 10 hours regulated, and 11+ hours of diminishing light.

~Brian

Quiksilver said:

As a general rule, I spend at least 3x on batteries (dedicated to light, not other electronics) as you do on the actual light.
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As a general note, alkalines produce significantly longer runtimes than lithiums. This is balanced by the usual weaknesses of alkaline though.

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I love that general rule. I have a bunch of batteries myself and run enloop batteries for my day/day use but have about 30 Lithium AA batteries L91 batteries for those times that I have no mains power (very rare) The 10-15 year shelf life I think is a great trade for higher initial costs but they also wont leak!

I am under the impression its the other way around, the L91 Lithium AA primaries have a longer run time than Alkaline AA.

I really like the Energiser E2 ithium AA's but also have a bunch of the Duracell Lithium. Alkaline have been turned into a dirty word in my home. In 10 years time if I havent used them all I can always stick them in a remote control so I wont waste them.

As for flashlights. You have come to the right place. My likes are the Zebra light H51 headlamp (you may feel ridiculous at first but you will have both hands free) and the Jetbeam PA40. PA40 - This will be my Xmas present to myself and both will cover (In my opinion) all that I want them for. Both run on AA's and as many have said they are plenty around. Chuckt you have now entered a zone where everyone has their own opinion and there likes and dislikes. I do have to say thought the general vibe of this forum is that everyone will give you a hand.

You will have to keep us informed on your lighting project as well. Many will be interested. Maybe start up a new thread when you've finished.

pblanch said:

I am under the impression its the other way around, the L91 Lithium AA primaries have a longer run time than Alkaline AA.

I really like the Energiser E2 ithium AA's but also have a bunch of the Duracell Lithium.

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Under normal draw, the lithium AA/AAA's will last longer. Under very low draw (Quark moonlight), the alkalines perform better for some reason. IIRC, I read that on the Quark moonlight runtime thread where someone was testing the runtime of a Quark AA on a Lithium Thionyl Chloride battery, and ended up doing tests on a lithium and alkaline AA as well, finding out that the alkaline lasted longer in moonlight than the lithium did.

bstrickler said:

Under normal draw, the lithium AA/AAA's will last longer. Under very low draw (Quark moonlight), the alkalines perform better for some reason. IIRC, I read that on the Quark moonlight runtime thread where someone was testing the runtime of a Quark AA on a Lithium Thionyl Chloride battery, and ended up doing tests on a lithium and alkaline AA as well, finding out that the alkaline lasted longer in moonlight than the lithium did.

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Lithium cells are optimized for high-drain short-duration uses such as camera flash. From my experience they produce a very consistent high-output for approximately 10% of the duration of an alkaline. A good alkaline cell will produce inconsistent (not noticeable) lower output for a significantly longer duration.

That being said, I've had alkalines kill my Fenix LD20, and of course they only last a few years while lithiums last 10+ years.

I encourage you to do a runtime test with a Lithium AA and a good Alkaline AA.

Draw your own conclusion.