Mini-Mag Kypton Bulbs?

Hello, I am a newbie here and I have been lurking for quite some time. You guys are awesome and really nice too....I frequent a lot of other forums and you guys have to be some of the nicest.

Anyhow, I want to upgrade my Mini-Mag with cheapest mods possible. Was thinking with starting out with Radio Shack Kypton Bulbs and putting a Kroll tailcap switch. That seems to be the cheapest way so far. What do you guys or gals have to say?

Also, how much brighter are the krypton bulbs compared to the reg.mini-mag bulbs?

Thank's

I own a handfull of mini-mags full size mags, surefire g2 and and inova pocket light.

Stock Mini-Mag bulbs are krypton, as far as I know. The Radio Shack ones aren't any brighter and are slightly misshapen. You can get a Brinkmann bulb that's quite a bit brighter than the stock one. Of course, an LED upgrade is even better.

WOW, I guess you can tell that I am a newbie! OH Well...

Welcome to CPF

The Brinkmann Nextstar are the brightest bulbs.

The cheapest upgrade is the 2aa Brinkmann bulb. That increases brightness and lowers runtime.

I wouldn't bother with the Kroll switch. In fact I'd advise against it. If you want a pushbutton flashlight, buy a pushbutton light. The Mag twist bezel works fine though. Having the Kroll and the twist on the same light gets confusing, and the Kroll is also rather unreliable.

The LED upgrades are very nice, but expensive. In my view there are enough LED lights now that the Mag upgrades aren't really cost effective any more. If you want an LED light these days, there's lots of excellent ones to choose from and you'll get a light designed for LED's and without the compromises of being built around a Mag.

I get it and believe me being on this fourm has already gotten me to visit the flashlight isles a lot more. However, I really like the mini-mag and it has gotten me out of some situations before. So, I want to upgrade at least one of them.

How much is runtime with Brinkman Nextstar in a mini-mag?

Also, Does not the new streamlight luxeon have a kroll swith on it?

Thanks guys

Yes, the Streamlight does. It's a metal threaded Kroll type. Could always get a Terralux for 24$

Terralux is a Luxeon conversion for the mini mag, check my thread a few pages back on the LED forum

Are the Krpton Bulbs at Radio Shack the same as the Mini-Mag bulbs? Are they worth purchasing. I heard that the Radio Shack bulbs are brighter.

I don't have a Streamlight Junior and haven't examined one, but some reviewers think that its switch is Kroll-like but not an actual Kroll. Anyway, the main problem with the Kroll on the Mag is that you have to leave the bezel switch "on" in order to use the Kroll and vice versa. So if you turn on the light with the Kroll and turn it off by twisting the head, the Kroll won't turn it back on, etc. To turn on the light, both switches need to be closed at the same time. The Streamlight avoids that confusion by having just one switch.

The Brinkmann bulb is about 2x brighter than the stock minimag bulb, and runs for about half as long. So on two AA's it runs for maybe 3 hours instead of 6 hours.

If you want a very bright AA-powered light, get a Princeton Tec PT40 (four AA's, about $15) or Surge (eight AA's, $20 or so). Of course they are not as compact as the Minimag. The PT Rage (four AAA's, about $10) is roughly the size of the Minimag and a lot brighter, but runtime is only about one hour.

Minimags come with Krypton bulbs? The Radio Shack bulbs are an improvement over the original bulb.

Minimags come with vacuum bulbs. Thats why they blacken over a short period of time and burn out. Krypton, Xenon, and Halogen bulbs don't blacken in my experience and last longer. Standard vacuum bulbs get dimmer when they blacken and burn out very fast. Any krypton or xenon bulbs can improve a minimag.

Today i noticed at Lowe's that the mag c's and d's had krypton bulbs labled on thier packages but the mini-mags did not.....

That is the reason I asked....Thank's peeps