Need Recommendation

Hello, first post. My wife and I have just gotten a new black lab puppy and we need a flashlight for walks. Our house is about a block from a park where we take him for his duties at night. The only light I have now is a CCrane CC Trek Light. Not even throw, spread or luminous for walking through a park in the open or trails in the dark.

Since we'll need to use this light a couple times a day in the winter battery life should be decent. I'd not like to buy batteries all the time. Would you recommend LED, enough throw, spread? Rechargeable flashlight or possibly rechargeable batteries? Or just a straight regular flashlight with disposables? Thanks in advance.

Hello Duane,

Welcome to CPF.

I am a TigerLight fan, so I will start it off with recommending the TigerLight. It is a rechargeable that gets about 65 minutes of light on a charge. For more information on the TigerLight, just do a search on it and you will be busy reading for a while.

You can also use rechargeable batteries in a number of lights and that would be my recommendation.

There are a whole slew of lights suitable for dog walking and I am sure several people will offer recommendations.

In true flashaholic form, I would recommend that you buy one of each and try them out...

Tom

Rechargeable flashlights are nice and convenient, though they do cost more than using a regular light and rechargeable batteries. If you want a rechargeable light, a Streamlight Polystinger is nice and compact while still pretty bright, and is very popular with police. About $70 (www.brightguy.com) with the overnight charger or $15 or so extra for the 2.5 hour charger. I'd get the fast charger for more flexibility. The regular Stinger is the same as the Polystinger but made of metal instead of polymer, which you might prefer even though it's heavier. It costs a few bucks more, not a big difference.

If you want a real monster light, www.tigerlight.net is currently having a special, you get their FBOP (8") light with a spare battery pack for $119.95 including shipping (the spare pack is normally $50). They also have a model with a built-in pepper spray if you want a self defense device. The Tigerlight is popular here because it's about the brightest flashlight you can get short of some that are over 2x as expensive.

In really cold weather you may have no choice but to use lithium batteries. The 3x123 Vitalgear/Surefire KL1 combo is a good value:

http://www.tadgear.com/x-treme%20gear/flashlights%20main/vitalgear_fbaa.htm

It's a bit larger than a 2AA Minimag, nowhere near as bright as the rechargeables I mentioned, but should be 3x-4x as bright as your 2-LED CC Trek light while still remaining pretty economical to run. It should run about 8 hours on three CR123's which are $1 each from CPF sponsor www.batterystation.com . So $3 in batteries should get you a week or two of frostbitten dog walking. In better weather, you can use a pair of AA rechargeables in that light.

Finally if you want to get fancier, Pila makes some lights powered by lithium ion rechargeables. These get expensive though.

Hello, and thanks for you quick responses. The Streamlight Polystinger looks nice. What about the Ultrastinger? It looks like the same run time, alot brighter and not that much more.

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duane said:
Hello, and thanks for you quick responses. The Streamlight Polystinger looks nice. What about the Ultrastinger? It looks like the same run time, alot brighter and not that much more.

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I've had both the Ultrastinger and the Tigerlight. I still own the Tigerlight and not the Ultrastinger. The reasons for me:

Tigerlight is shorter (but fatter)
Tigerlight is brighter putting out much more surround light were the Ultrastinger puts out very little surround light when set on tight focus.
Tigerlight lasts longer on a charge and uses NiMH cells instead of Ni-Cad.
Tigerlight lens can be replaced with a "UCL" glass lens or poly lens. The Ultrastinger lens needs to be returned for lens replacement.

If you want to go smaller then I would suggest the Streamlight pollystinger, stinger or stinger XT (has rear push button). I do like the Ultrastinger, I just like the Tigerlight better. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Here are some beamshots, hopefully they help:

Duane, the Ultrastinger is also a nice light, but something like 4 inches longer than the Polystinger, plus it has a much larger head (wider reflector). You can stick the Polystinger in your pocket (at least your jacket pocket) and you really can't do that with the Ultrastinger. I'd say get the Ultrastinger only if you think you'll need long-distance illumination. Really, the Polystinger is almost certainly enough. It will be several times brighter than the typical 2D household flashlights that most non-flashaholics are used to.

Duane,
I'd have to agree with paulr when he recommends either the ordinary metal or polystingers. The basic Stinger models are IMHO, often overlooked because of the more powerful lights which are now available. The ability to pocket a light is a real plus point for any dog walker as you will often have to put the light somewhere when you have to attend to Fido. I also think (although others may disagree) that the Ulta is not as rugged as it's smaller siblings.

The issue of using a rechargeable in cold weather is a mute point due to several factors. Whilst it is well known that battery performance from either NiMH or Ni-cads is much reduced in severe cold weather the reality is that in most situations the light will have resided in the heated confines of your home/office etc prior to use. It will then usually be caried in a warm gloved/ungloved hand. In either case performance drop will only be very minimal. If you are taking the dog for a walk in such cold weather as to significantly effect NiMH or Ni-cads that much I would suggest that the cold would be too much for the dog?
Whatever you get eventually, may I respectfully suggest that you attach a flashing LED of some sort to the dog's collar. This will provide a very useful way of keeping track of Fido when he does go further than he ought on a dark night.

All the best in your quest for a suitable light.

Doug /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The CC Trek wasn't really intended as a general purpose LED light. Its strong point is as an emergency light. There are plenty of LED lights that are far superior to it.

How about a TT 3C or at least a TT 2L? That way you get both LED and Incan for flood and throw... On top of that the lithium batts in the 2L would be a plus for the cold weather as well...

You may want to consider a headlamp as well, as I'm sure you'd probably have your hands full with your dog as it is...

Happy hunting! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks all for the recommendations. I've ended up going with the Polystinger. Since it shouldn't be here until probably next week I may go to sears and pick up a mag something to hold me through. Are there any good hacks for the mags that I could perform after my polystinger gets here?

If you mean you're getting a Minimag, you can get an LED sandwich for it (I recommend the BB400). If a bigger Mag, the simplest things you can do with it are bulb upgrades.

CPF'ers tend to not like Mags except as mod hosts. The Mag company has also behaved badly, threatening bogus litigation against some of the flashlight makers (Arc) who hang out here. So a lot of us refuse to buy Mag products.

IMO there's not much point to buying the bigger Mag lights unless you want to use them as clubs. Otherwise get a good sturdy plastic light instead. A 3D Kohler Brightstar industrial light costs about $5 and weighs a fraction of what the Mag weighs and is just as servicable.

You'll like the Polystinger. Just slap it in the charger whenever you're not using it, and it will always be fully charged and ready to go.

Paul, thanks for the heads up on the mag situation. I'm a big proponent of companies that support user communities. Any company that acts litigious or utter the words DCMA not only get my boycott but also bad word of mouth. I wish more people were aware and voted with their pocketbooks.

Mag, you are now on my list of companies to avoid and even spread the word to ban. Don't these idiots understand that they are only hurting the bottom line they are proclaiming to preserve?

I like the regular stinger for the rechargeablility, and the fact that it fits nice in the hand with just enough to use as a club if necessary.