What Is The Longest You Have Ever Used An LED Flashlight?

JAS

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For example, have you ever lost power at home due to a storm and had to use an LED flashlight until power was restored? Or, have you ever been at a car accident and had to direct traffic for hours at a time? I have been quite fortunate in that usually our power is restored within a few hours of an outage. I have had to direct traffic at accidents and special events, but I don't think it was ever more than an hour. We have used LED flashlights camping for some fairly long run times, but never for hours and hours.
 

ishmael

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Dec 14, 2008
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When hurricanes come by I have used both LED lanterns and flashlights in tailstand from a couple of days to several weeks. They do of course get breaks when we sleep but when a storm dithers around I may run one up to 48 hours continuously until I know the major winds and flood danger have passed.
 

Serial Chiller

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I once used my iTP C8 for several hours when I was trying to find water in a dark forest. Had to change the batteries twice. That was probably the longest time I ever used a flashlight, since we don't have power failures here in Germany.
 

That guy

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lightwriter has me beat, I just use mine till I find what I'm looking for!!
 

Flying Turtle

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A few times when the wife was out of town I've had imaginary power outages (at least for light) and only used flashlights and lanterns. Kind of fun.

Geoff
 

Gregozedobe

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Canberra, Australia
I've used my H501 for 4-5 hours at a time while washing and detailing my car or van. Had to change the batteries several times (but now I'm running eneloops they definitely last a bit longer).
 

JWRitchie76

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Jo Daviess Co, IL
Twice this winter I've gone through a fresh set of batteries in my MD2/M61W while out troubleshooting railroad signal equipment. I absolutely love that light for work. It is simple, easy to use, bright and perfect!
 

flatline

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I've had a handful of occasions where I used a light for 3 or 4 hours at a time. I've been lucky so far that I've never had to change batteries during use.

--flatline
 

Sub_Umbra

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la bonne vie en Amérique
The longest we ever had to use battery powered lights was one day short of six weeks after Katrina. We also went two weeks since then. After Katrina I had some 1D lights built just for blackouts by EL. When the power goes out just slip a cell in the one in the bathroom, turn it on and tail stand it.

Our 1D lights will burn continuously for a week on one cell.
 

TEEJ

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Mostly, I use them for work. That can mean 12-16 hrs/day in some cases, but, more typically, intermittently during that stretch. I did emergency/disaster response as well, and similar shifts are common, except that daylight tends to occur every 12 hrs or so, negating a lot of the need when outdoors at least.
 

Lightwriter

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Oct 10, 2011
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I'm curious about battery longevity. I have a 2C Maglite with the MagLED upgrade. What would last longer in continuous use, 2 AA lithiums in C adapters, or 2 regular C alkalines?
 

AnAppleSnail

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South Hill, VA
I was on a long camping trip that essentially involved sleeping and exploring underground (near complete darkness) for a weekend. Without light, you don't travel except feeling you way due to fall hazards.

Another time I was on a long hike that stretched out and out until my Quark started dimming. Suddenly I remembered that I hadn't charged the batteries. The light dropped from High to Medium, then I programmed it to Low. Once I got back into the woods on the way home it dropped to Moonlight mode. There was no moon that night. Moonlight mode had dropped to a more-than-usually-dim level by the time I got out- but I did.
 

LDGator

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Longest use of an LED flashlght was in an ice storm in the winter of 2010. Power was out for almost a week. My LRI Photon Proton Pro was always in my hand or pocket along with an extra AA alkaline. I only changed batteries twice as I always used lowest output for the task at hand. One major draw back with it was NO tail standing. Used an extra rubber cane tip to make up for this deficiency.Commonly available battery size (AA or AAA), tail standing, and a secondary low output setting (firefly) are minimum features I now require when purchasing any EDC or disaster kit LED flashlght.
 

enomosiki

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Longest single use time...

Approximately 40 to 50 minutes, I believe, at a motorcycle accident scene. A minivan made a left turn while trying to beat an oncoming motorcycle, resulting in a collision in which the motorcycle collided with the right fender of the van. The motorcyclist was ejected, landed on the windshield and rolled down the hood and landed directly in front of the van. He had internal bleeding and was going into shock. Nasty stuff.

First the police arrived, and then the EMT and fire crew. The response team made a mistake of erecting the light tower BEHIND the van, so it wasn't illuminating the collision and the injured motorcyclist at all. I had my Scorpion V2 with turbo head, with fresh batteries and everything, so I illuminated the area from about 20 meters away for the next 40-50 minutes while they took the the guy away on a stretcher and tried to clean up the mess, which included gasoline leak that they were able to located and neutralize because of the illumination from my light. With illumination from only the light tower, which was at a really, really, really bad angle, they wouldn't have found out about that until after they towed the vehicle away.

I figure that they never moved the tower around because I had my light pointed at the scene the entire time. It turned quite a bit of eyes, too, because I found that people were staring at me at times.
 

Fast LT1

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Jan 22, 2010
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5 hours with a Streamlight stinger DS LED, we were getting S.A.R. Tech certified with the dogs at night and it was raining, so i had to walk around in a forest until the dogs found me.
 

eh4

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I've hung a CMG Infinity with red led from the ceiling for days during power outages, and for weeks at a buddy's house who'd had his electricity turned off.
The red light was great for knowing where everything was, drinking beer and long conversations. Worked fine for playing cards, no good at all for looking at whether some questionable pizza was still edible or not, live or dead it all just looks red. ;-)
 

Cataract

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Every 3 months I use my PD20 and Quark 123 tactical intermittently for 2 whole workdays.

Longest runtime in a row would be the week Carrot had the 500 lumen+ challenge and the power went out one night. I had my TK45, then TK40 on turbo until the output dropped all evening. The funny part is the power went out the second my steak was ready and I had a bottle of wine. My appartment was brighter than normal and I forgot to close the blinds. After doing the dishes I played PSP until bedtime. I must have looked like an a**aholic showoff to the whole neighborhood (most of them didn't even have candles)
 
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