Ultra or Super Capacitor Flashlights, any good ones exist?

lumpy70

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 2, 2015
Messages
2
Hi there, long time flashlight hoarder, new member.

I have a 5 year old '5.11 Tactical Light for Life' Ultra Capacitor flashlight (http://www.policemag.com/channel/te...or-life-uc3-400-flashlight-now-available.aspx) which still works quite well. Apparently though, they are discontinued.

A Google serach for 'Capacitor Flashlight' basically gets me homemade versions. The only other one I know of out there is the Ikea hand-crank one (http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/30190857/).

What I'm looking for is reliability and long term storage. In the event of a short term outage or long term emergency, in my opinion having charged batteries or scrambling to find them can be a challenge in a pinch. I'm not looking for extended run time as these can be recharged very quickly, for instance the 5.11 Tactical light can charge in 90 seconds from any car battery.

When I camp or go hiking, I bring plenty of batteries and my favorite flashlights (2-4 of them, as my wife rolls her eyes). If I'm in a position where I no longer have access to a 12V power source, like all the car batteries are dead after the zombie apocalypse, then I have other problems.

I'm not looking for a debate over alkaline vs lithium vs rechargeable vs capacitor, just looking for ideas on this type of light. 5 years ago when I bought the 5.11 tactical one, I got very excited as I believed the technology was finally changing, now...not so much.

So...suggestions?

Thanks,
Craig.
 

NoNotAgain

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
2,364
Location
Blue Ridge Mountains, VA
Had an inexpensive capacitor crank light. For the first couple of weeks it worked ok. After that the capacitors constantly leaked down making it useless.

From the postings I've seen here, 5.11 doesn't get very good reviews.

The other name I've heard the lights called is dynamo flashlights.
 

lumpy70

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 2, 2015
Messages
2
Ya, I've had various dynamo flashlights before, they all seem to die.

My 5.11 hasn't had day to day rugged use, but still works well.
 
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