Urgent flashlights for LEO

hello everyone,

received a call from the police procurement department.
They are urgently looking for 1200 x 1AAA flashlights
to be delivered by 26 March.

They are looking for maglite solitaire or equivalent.
I am considering putting up ARC AAA.
The catchy criteria is value-for-money. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I will be thankful to any other worthy recommendations.
thanks!

id say for value for money id go with dorcy aaa led

hi raggie

yes. I am looking at dorcy as well. thanks.
the users may be less happy though.

hi all

add. I guess I left out other important issues like
reliability, run time etc. *head spinning*

again

Seems like the purchaser has the mag as the benchmark.
would need something that beats in either performance, looks
or price.

go with the ARC....the mag is awful...unusable in my opinion....the ARC will cost more but well worth it.

anything you get will be better than a mag solitaire!

really though, i'd suggest the arc aaa. the dorcy seems to be ok, and is quite cheap, but no comparison to the arc aaa.

especially for an leo, where quality and reliability really matters.

this late in the game, i'm not sure if arc would be able to supply that number though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
if i were you i'd call or email them as soon as possible just to see if it's even a possiblity.

personally, i think the arc aaa is the only choice...

You really do not have to try very hard to beat the Solitaire as it is a weak performer at best.It is a good looking little light but that is about all it is.
The hardest part about your quest is the deadline part.All ARCs are on hold at this time and could not be ready by your needed time.Arc is just as attractive as the Solitaire however much more costly.The Dorcy is by far an excellent value for the performance of this light.They can also be hard to find and in the time you have you may be out of luck on these also.They do not look as nice as the ARC or Solitaire however have a tail switch and momentary on feature.
If it is for patrol use the LED is much better than the Solitaire bulb as far as reliability goes.
I think you may also try the Ultra-G however this will not work if you must have a AAA size light....good luck

maybe cmg sonic but its dont got my fav beam mine was pretty blue

I think the CMG Sonic would be a good alternate. Not as nice/robust as the Arc but far better than the Dorcy. I don't think the Dorcy's hold up well to abuse.

I would say the CMG Sonic at less than half the price of an Arc AAA. I will have to buy one soon (getting a Pelican M6 and UCL's first.)

I read past threads comparing the two. I have my Arc AAA and its a top notch light.

So if $24.95 (probably cheaper in bulk) and if Peter can handle it, 1200 units, I would say Arc AAA.

Any idea what they are for? The Solitaire is not very good if you want focused light in a hurry. It takes a while to get the focus right, so I suppose it is for short range low level illumination. If so, I am inclined to go with the CMG Sonic for price reasons. But 1200 of them by 26th March .....!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Why does a police department want 1200 1AAA lights? It certainly can't be for police officer use. Officers carry bigger lights. Are they for some kind of public safety thing (i.e. give away keychain lights to guests at the policeman's ball)? If that's the case, the best bet is coin cell lights rather than 1aaa. Those are available as low as $1.00 each, probably even lower in quantity that large. See www.countycomm.com for a source of them.

I don't think Peter can deliver 1200 Arc AAA's in that timeframe, and anyway Arc's are pretty expensive. Dorcy's are the best deal but they're a much larger light. That leaves the CMG Sonic which you can probably get for under $10 in that large quantity (some dealers sell them for $12 in single units). They're not as nice as the Arc but are basically similar.

Any one-cell AAA or AA LED light necessarily contains complex electronics to step up the voltage to run the LED, so that's going to drive the cost up no matter what you do.

hi all

Thanks for those wonderful words.
Yes. things are going way too fast.*pants*
I am going to give ARC a morning call definitely.
meanwhile, i better gather all other eligible lights
and do a comparative study with the officer.
keep them coming!!

hi again

I would like to confirm.
1) the mag is not using LED? can I conclude it is the least bright out of the rest?
2) what is the current MSRP(mag)? $11?

Thanks! bows

okay

seen the technical breakdown of mag.
they call it a lamp. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

how do you think they'd feel about upping it to a 1XAA light?
i think it'd be much easier to sell them on something like the Infinity Ultra.. $11.99 each from Texas Tactical Supply.. or $18 each for the HA3 version from County Comm. i'm unsure if County Comm could fill the order tho.

I've seen the Mag from dealers for as low as $7. You can probably get it for even less in qty 1200. It's not that bad a light, but it gets flaky after a while, and LED's completely spank it in terms of battery runtime and reliability.

Hi Paul

Nice. the problem is I am in foreign land now
and I am contesting against a local mag distributor. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
unless, someone here can offer me
the same price. I am hoping to beat them on the quality.
terribly tall order.

Why AAA? Isn't the AA battery a little more common?