EverLED ?

I have 3 MagLight 3C flashlights at home and was considering buying EverLED's for them. Now, since this will be a somewhat expensive endeavor, I wanted to clear it thru all you geniuses first. Are they really as good as they sound?
I assume they work with C Cells also?
Is there anything else I should know?
Thanks y'all!
Lenny

I've got 3 of them, I think. They're pretty cool, IMO. .

The Everleds will work with any configuration of lights taht takes 1-6 cells (from AAA to AA to C to D, ie max of 9V). The latest version of Everleds is supposed to be able to provide better throw, because of the type of Luxeon Star used in it. The newer ones also have Polarity protection, which protects the Everled from getting that 'magic smoke' should the contacts on the light be reversed.

Apart from that, you should also know that.... I do not have an Everled yet... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Am dying to get one ASAP, but still scrounging up some $$ for it. Hopefully I'll be able to get one before Christmas. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif

If everleds were 10.00 each I would bite but once they get over 20.00 I would rather just put the money towards a luxeon light like the uk4AA eled etc instead of *patching* an incan for led use.

Yes everled's are very nice. However as many have noted here that EL's are nortoriously expensive. Especialy for us living here in Canada. 60+$ for a EL Bulb.. I don't think so.

I did hear of an inovation for polarity inversion problems.

Some one is placing a mini speaker (one's found on computer modems) into such large El like bulbs which sound off if the polarity is inverted.

Honeslty I have mixed opinions on this idea granted it may provide an 'Idiot proof' indicator, however is it realy necessary if the bulb already has inversion protection.

I'l leave this idea upto others and let history decide.

Lastly. By now I beleive that EL's shoud have dropped in price. I realize it takes some time to catch on and prices to drop. However sufficient time has passed for at lease some apreciable drop in prices of EL's.

Enjoy

Yes, they are steep at $40 US. But they really do transform a MagLite. I bought one for the 2D Mag we had, and it is now one of two around-the-house lights that everyone grabs when they need a flashlight.

I did an informal run-time test, on fresh alkalines. After 24 hours straight, it was still putting out usable light.

I bought the EL when I was looking for a power-outage light to have handy for the wife. It fulfills that function just right. Along with the SL 3C-XP she won as a door prize, she's all set for usable light if the power pukes and I have to be away; which is likely.

I just wish SL had made that XP to take D cells...

Everyone's right about one thing. . . the EverLEDs are pricey. But I've been very satisfied with mine; I've got several white ones in 2 or 3D maglites (supposedly their peak brightness in in the 3 cell, IIRC), and a red one in a 2D Mag. The red one really rocks. . . it's very bright for a red light. I guess I'm used to those old military angle flashlights or the Mags with red filters that sucked up most of the actual light and left you with a smidgen of red to "navigate" with. But with a UCL from Flashlightlens.com and the red EverLED, it's surprisingly bright. The white ones blow away any stock Mag bulbs, too. I recommend them, as you should recover the cost in batteries if you're a heavy user, and they last much longer than incans.

when everleds or a quality clone reach the 10.00 price tag a lot of old incans will but taken out of storage and put to use again, until then I wont bother taking an old 5-10.00 light and try to make it a 45-50.00 light without giving it a new coat of paint.

EverLed is the best Luxeon LED drop-in I have ever seen. I have three of them and I am very satisfied.
I had the best result in 2C and 2D Maglites; even if the peak brightness is obtained with 3 cells, the major difference in brightness between the stock bulb and the EverLed is in 2 Cell lights.
I agree that 40+ $ is too much, and for that money you can buy a full blown light, but I don't think this to be a fair comparison; the EverLed is versatile, it works everywhere, due to the active circuitry and the thermal management. The passive LPR-2 and LPR-3 from Tektite sells for less than 25 $.

Anthony

Stoopid noob question, are these luxeon, and how bright are they compared to say a two or three D cell mag, and more important
does it out throw the incan? My mom has a 2D mag she loves, and three dog's she spend's day and night walking, and she run's through batt's pretty quick, and I have had to put in a couple of lamp's. So for safety maybe this would be good for her use. VDG

EDIT: sorry is lux, missed the post above. rest of post applies...

price is always fair in comparisons...everleds because of their price are only suitable for upgrading *loved* flashlights to LED function because you can buy other lights for a lot cheaper with the same LEDs in them.
I see the tektite bulbs as the same... you can buy luxeon lights for about the same or cheaper and get more than a bulb. These are for people that are in love with a flashlight not for those wanting to use luxeons and until the price drops to about 1/2 to at most 2/3 the price of a whole flashlight using them their sales will remain stagnant.

I suspect if mag ever comes out with an LED version of their light(s) these led *bulb* makers may cringe as loss of customers.

Northernflame I agree with you about the drop in price. Haven't luxeons dropped in price considerably since they started selling everled bulbs? Anyone have an idea in the drop of luxeon cost over the time everled's have been offered?

Price is not that big a deal to some of us. Yes, I want the most bang for my buck, but when I'm buying something that I have to depend on in a crunch, quality takes precedence over economy.

I agree that it would be absurd to buy an EL and an incan flashlight to put it in. The whole idea of the EL is to upgrade an existing light. I had the MagLite. It was gift from my mother, who was worried about how my household would fare if Y2K went to hell, bless her heart. If she only knew what was stockpiled...

Anyway, do you know of an extant $40 LED flashlight that is as sturdily built as a MagLite and has as good a pure white beam as the EL drop-in? If so, please advise, as my neighbor was so enthralled with my 2D Mag/EL he said he was going to order an EL and a Mag to go with it... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

All he's ever known are Wal-Mart/Ray-O-Vac plastic cheapies. If there is a comparable offering, price and performance wise, I'm sure he'd like the option.

Just out of curiousity, has anyone ever run an Everled in a Mag2C 3x123 setup? Will it actually survive 9V? As bad as it is to pay that much, it would hurt even more to poof it.

Steve_C unless you are just stuck on that particular light/format there are many other luxeon based lights out there. a lot of them are AA based and a few C cell based lights. As far as sturdy goes the UKE4AA is pretty sturdy and waterproof I believe to certain extent. I also have seen some pelican products that use 3C cells out there but there are not a lot of D cell luxeon based aluminum lights out there. I myself find C and AA cell lights more comfortable to use than D cell lights.

davidra 3x123 equates to about a 10v setup to start and the everled is rated to 6 cells which equates to 9v. My guess is you probably would be best just using 2C cells instead.

i would luv to have an EverLED for this little 2AA headlamp i've got here, but like Lynx, i would rather put the money towards a new light than just a drop in.

you can buy a brand new Underwater Kinetics 4AA for half the price of an EverLED, and you'd probly use it more.

or $10 more and you could buy a Nuwai Quantum 3.

ppl often sell Minimags with a drop-in, kroll, and UCL lens in BST for that price, or less.

etc etc

$40 for this:

seems overpriced to me. but i'm cheap!

I wonder if anyone has taken the eled module for an UK4AA and used it to mod a light? could be a cheaper way to convert a 4cell light than an everled.

[ QUOTE ]
voodoogreg said:
Stoopid noob question, are these luxeon, and how bright are they compared to say a two or three D cell mag, and more important
does it out throw the incan? My mom has a 2D mag she loves, and three dog's she spend's day and night walking, and she run's through batt's pretty quick, and I have had to put in a couple of lamp's. So for safety maybe this would be good for her use. VDG

EDIT: sorry is lux, missed the post above. rest of post applies...

[/ QUOTE ]

Voodoogreg,
Sounds like your mum's a heavy user... get her one of these, and forget about replacing bulbs... forever I think! Oh and while you're there, forget about the batteries for a while too... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Throw should be as good if not better than the stock bulb, and as Ray_of_Light mentioned in his post above yours, its most obvious when using with the 2D Mag.

Yeah, from my understanding, it's going to be brighter on anything below 4.5v. Go above that and you're only getting runtime. .

I dunno, they're kinda expensive, but so was my SF A2. If it does what I need it to do, I'm willing to spend money.

My work light is a 2D Maglite, and I didn't have a lot of the options that I would if it were just any light. The Everled made a world of difference there. I've got an Everled in my 4D Maglite in my car, and while I'd like an InReTec dropin for it, I'm sticking with my Everled for now. Sure, for the same money I could get a lot of different lights, but I like it the way it is. .

I'm not stuck, Lynx... I have what I need. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I was asking about alternatives for the legion of non-aware friends and acquaintances who ask for ideas.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Upon reflection, I think it will just be easier to supply them with BrightGuy's URL and tell them to get after it... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

If you want to make people aware of things show em a catalog or website for sure and let em go... umm wow!.. either they will say...... I'm lost HELP or pick one out for me, or I like this one is it any good?

Most people I know just buy the cheapest light that works.
I have no other flashaholics in my family but I have a friend that did buy two dorcies AAAs.. heh heh..