Lithiums in a minimag?

Would using lithiums in a mini mag damage or shorten the life of the bulb?

Yes.

If you want to use lithiums in a minimag, your best bet is an Inretech LED drop-in. They work great with the lithiums.

how long would the bulb in the minimag last on lithiums? would it be bright enough to sacrifice shorter bulb life?(bulbs for the minimag are cheap...)

If you want to make a minimag brighter, put in a Brinkmann 2aa bulb. It runs at higher battery drain but should be about 2x as bright.

bryguy42,
Welcome to CPF!
You can get Brinkman Nextstar bulbs here
http://www.thebrinkmanncorp.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=8&Product_ID=511&CATID=2
Also you can get a Acrylite lens to smooth out the lines in the beam, here
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB8&Number=317597&page=5&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

I just threw two lithiums in one of my minimags and I don't notice much difference from alkalines. I think I'll keep 'em in there just so I don't have to worry about battery leakage.

I use Lithium batteries in all of my hiking and storage AA powered lights. Never noticed a decrease in bulb or lamp life.

ditto here. my 2aa minimag has lithiums. looks just as dark.

Does anybody here know the URL for the Brinkmann Corp?

A while back they were selling a two-pack of the high performance AA bulbs for $5.-and with free shipping.

vcal,
Look at my previous post for the link to the Brinkman Nextstar 2AA bulbs.

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Hoghead said:
vcal,
Look at my previous post for the link to the Brinkman Nextstar 2AA bulbs.


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I already did...
The link you have there indicates the $5. price, but it says plus shipping.
(orders under $50.00 pay UPS regular ground shipping charges). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

vcal,
I just ordered these and the total for 4 bulbs was $9.90. I was not charged for shipping. I ordered on 12/09/03. They used to have free shipping, but I read they had changed their policy. This is the second time I have ordered since I read that they were charging for shipping but I got free shipping both times. I hope this helps.

thanks!!! think i'll keep lithiums in it with the nexstar bulb, since its not used much... nothing worse than alkaline "blobs" inside of seldom used flashlights...

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paulr said:
If you want to make a minimag brighter, put in a Brinkmann 2aa bulb. It runs at higher battery drain but should be about 2x as bright.

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Really? This is the first i had heard of that, i may have to give it a try. can anyone confirm that the Brinkman bulbs are really significantly brighter than a new Mini-mag bulb?

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AR15Fan said:[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:If you want to make a minimag brighter, put in a Brinkmann 2aa bulb. It runs at higher battery drain but should be about 2x as bright.

[/ QUOTE ]Really? This is the first i had heard of that, i may have to give it a try. can anyone confirm that the Brinkman bulbs are really significantly brighter than a new Mini-mag bulb?

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Yesterday I measured the lux unit output of one of my minmags with a new Krypton RadioShack $2.50 High-output lamp. It measured about 700 lux.

I then, after finding a Brinkmann 2-AA Nexstar light, took it's xenon bulb out and put it in the same minimag. The lux reading using the Brinkmann bulb shot up to a little over 1250.

-case pretty well closed. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

What was the lux of the mag before the ratshack bulb?

I have since found some runtime graphs. Looks like the stock minimag starts out at about 35 lumens and slowly drops off until the batteries die at about the 7 hr mark.

The Brinkman bulb starts out at about 49 lumens and drops rapidly, giving less than half the battery life.

If I may add my 2 cents worth, the MiniMag with the Brinkman Nextstar 2AA bulb is not only brighter but also much whiter. I put one of these together with an Acrylite lens and it was quite an improvement over the stock MiniMag.
Maybe I should be clear about this. I used a MiniMag, Acrylite Lens, Brinkman Nextstar 2AA bulb, L91 Lithium AA batteries. When I compared it to a stock MiniMag with alkaline batteries I thought about making some of these up, but when I compared it to a Sandwich...well there was no contest... the Sandwich(BB500R2H) was brighter with a larger, smoother & whiter beam.

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Eugene said:
What was the lux of the mag before the ratshack bulb?


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The stock one measured 490--it was a used bulb (maybe 1 hour), -but had not blackened yet.