Is 20 or more minutes too long?

A fellow CPF member recently said the following:

"Do people really use a light for the entire duration of the batteries in a single use? I use my light alot, I could not imagine a situation where the light would be on continuously for an hour, or even 20 minutes. "

As I said at the time I often run which ever flashlight I am using for 20 or 30 minutes(or longer) continously. I live in a secluded and dark area with no streetlights and few houses. Therefore both the dog and I prefer to see during our entire walk. I rarely use rechargeables but will use
either 123 or AA flashlights. Am I unusual in using it for such long periods of time? As far as the cost of batteries I say screw it. I am not rich but it is one of my few pleasures in life.

I do the runtime plots for the life of the battery(s) in a flashlight because that is the easiest way to do it!

It is true that most of the time the actual ON time is probably less than 20 minutes. But, there are the Texas t'storms that blow out main transformer sub-stations(no power for 6-12 hours)....the tornando that took out most of a sub-division(no power for about 24 hours)....S&R's for lost children (several hours looking into dark corners)...tropical storms that thake out power for days....etc.

A DimBeam should be fine for 20-30 minutes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

Seriously, you may want to consider rechagables for the guilt free lumens. I assume you're utilizing multi-levels and/or the right sized light for the job. And if you like LED lights I'd probably stick with 3W rather than 5W for the longer average life.

The only light I own that I ever really use for that long is my Ultra-G for reading at night when I'm traveling and their aren't any other lights around.

I usually use my lights for several hours at a time.

Sigbjoern

Step forward the Surefire U2...

Walking my dog, it stays on low beam, perfect for illuminating the path ahead, and lasts around 40 hours...(all on 2x123s) and for 90% of that time, I can flick the collar around and get some excellent high level light on a short term basis to see what's in the bushes etc...

P.S. There's never anything in the bushes.

Depends a lot on which light I have and for what purpose, but it is not uncommon for me to use it 30-60 minutes at a time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

I frequently go through a set of 3 CR123's on my SF L6 when I'm walking or hiking at night. Often this means 2 - 2.5 hours of continuous usage. For any other purpose, other than a storm, it's unusual for me to run one longer than about 10 minutes.

Check out the 2x123 Aleph. It has a very useable low beam that is just fine for night walking. If you need more light, just press the 2-stage switch and you have an intense 100 yard+ beam that lights up the landscape. You will have 30 hours+ and no noticeable heat when on low beam.
Stu

I have left my StreamLight twin tasks turned on for DAYS not hours to test battery capacity- no problem. You can keep them 20 minute HOLA gizmos that fry 6 123's- I had a 15 cell (123) that ate'm in an hour- it was COOL but I traded it...

NikolaTesla /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

http://www.tjtech.org/gallery/NikolaTesla/MyNewLights

Aren't Rechargeables more economic to only poeple like law enforcement personal who use lights for longs hours on a daily basis? I personally prefer cr123s, since they're a bit more convenient.

I've used lights for an hour before, but RARELY. Most of the time its 10-15 minutes max.


However, with this said, I like knowing that if I NEED to use a light hour plus, it can do it.

I had my U2 running for more than half an hour as I did battle with a cockroach once... those little buggers are hard to catch and kill! And of course I needed a light as the insect deliberately chose to hide in all the dark and inaccessible corners so I couldn't take it down or it would have been a much shorter story /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

The U2 is 18650 powered so it was guilt free lumens, and it's nice to know that I have an extended-runtime option in case I need it. We carry lights EDC because we can't predict what situations we'll run into, I carry a variable power light because I can't predict how much runtime I'll need. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif