Recommendations 2AA size flashlight

I have been looking for a LED flashlight for a little while now and I am having a hard time deciding which one to get (even after reading some of the posts). I was hoping to get some help from the experts /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I plan to use it fairly lightly. Just for camping and general around the house use. However, I am interested in getting a very bright light (brighter is better right? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ).

I don't like the real small "pocket sized", single cell lights, but am looking more for a AA size light. My preference would be to get one that uses actual AA batteries instead of the CR123 batteries that most of the flashlights that size seem to use just because I would rather not have to buy special batteries just for use in the flashlight (unless you all tell me there is good reason to do otherwise).

So, any recommendations?

Also, on a side note - I was looking at the lumaray FL6. While bigger than what I originally wanted, the look and review I read intrigued me. Any thoughts on that light?

Thanks in advance!

Cliff

For *regular* AA's, I'd suggest a sandwich in a Minimag. 123 cell batteries are better for a lot of reasons, but there are times that AA's work better for me, too. That'd be my opinion, go for a nice sammie..

streamlight jr luxeon

I would say go for a sandwich myself, that's what my first Luxeon flashlight was, though there are maintenance issues with sandwiches. you have to clean the inside flange of the minimag body and the respective contacting surface of the sandwich from time to time - but only due to usage. It's a very simple mod to install, reliable, and if you bash up the MM body too much, it's easy to transplant. Not to metion there are a wide variety of options you have for operating characteristics (highly overdriven, very efficient, regulated, etc.) based on what sandwich you get.

The advantages of using CR123s are that, being lithium, they have a 10-year shelf life, can handle heat and cold much better than alkalines (good if you leave your batts/light in your car in the summer, or go camping when it's cold outside) and are lightweight. check out SureFire's SF123s ($1.25 each in boxes of 12) or BatteryStation's house-brand 123s (http://www.batterystation.com/cpf.htm) for $1 each.

That said, you can also get lithium AAs (Energizer L91, and for now, BatteryStation's equivalent) and NiMH AAs work very well with sandwiches and most other 2xAA-powered Luxeon lights. If you don't use the light much, you might want to stay away from NiMH rechargeables as they have a relatively quick self-discharge rate (1-2% a day).

Oh, and welcome to Flashaholics Anonymous! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

One of the favorites around here is the UK 4AA eLED. It's bigger than a 2AA light but you can still stick it in your pocket. It's flat-regulated and has very long runtime. Excellent general purpose or car light, and economical (by CPF standards) at $20 or so. There's also a new Streamlight competitor to it, which is much brighter but doesn't run nearly as long, so there's the obvious tradeoff.

I wouldn't go the Minimag/sandwich route these days. The sandwich was an excellent and innovative product but IMO it's not that practical given the ready-made lights that you can get now, that weren't around when the sandwiches came out.

If you want a basic 2AA LED light the most obvious choices are the Dorcy 4-led ($15 or so at Target?) and the Gerber Trio.

Thanks for all the quick replies!

So, if I go with AA over CR123 batteries, will I sacrifice a lot of brightness, or do I just lose the longevity? If that's the case, I would rather go with the CR123.

I'd suggest either the Streamlight Jr Luxeon (2AA), or the Streamlight ProPolymer Luxeon (4AA).

Welcome to CPF, Cliffton, and why dontcha stay awhile!

The Streamlight Luxeon Jr is a terrific and inexpensive torch. Great for general use, camping, looking in the closet, all that. And using rechargeables makes it guilt-free.

The Gerber Trio is a nicely made, good general use light, and cheaper than the SL Jr, but much less bright as well, since the SL Jr has a Luxeon in it. You will get better runtime, however, if that's a consideration.

However, the high performance lights use 123s or Pilas these days, so you will get better made, brighter, more innovative lights if you remove your AA requirement.

For example, the Surefire E1L, is smaller and brighter than those other two lights (not too different than SL Jr., but much more compact package).

welcome again,
daloosh

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
I wouldn't go the Minimag/sandwich route these days. The sandwich was an excellent and innovative product but IMO it's not that practical given the ready-made lights that you can get now, that weren't around when the sandwiches came out.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have a point. But I must say that the sandwich is perhaps the simplest really good mod you can do, not to mention the light you carry around is a sleeper, so you can suprise your friends. If all you want is just a light, however, a commercially-made 2xAA Luxeon is probably the better solution - but not always as bright or versitale. As for AA vs 123, that's a matter of personal preference. the rechargeable 123s have a long way to come with capacity, so they haven't quite matured yet. But just about any regulated 2xAA Luxeon light will take NiMH cells very well. Again, a concern if you don't use it much, all NiMH and NiCd cells will go flat in a few weeks. Only Lithium-Ion cells (i.e. Pila's) can retain a charge over a longer period of time.

Either way, you can't lose! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

I like my StreamLight Jr. Lux. It's bright, decent price from Brightguy.com, and I use rechargable AA batteries in mine. No problems.

One more rec. for the SL Jr. Luxeon---buy it, use it, then try to beat it for the $---you'll have a hard time.

You could also try a TerraLux MiniStar2 for starters. Not the absolute greatest, but a decent improvement over the stock bulb, and won't break the bank. You can hand it down to your wife once you decide to pursue the 123 route (which you undoubtedly will). Welcome to CPF!

pfff...STREAMlight?! do the 12 CR123 battery deal from surefire and get yourself and Inova XO3 and some grease to get it pumpin. Classy, not very big, damn powerful...Can't beat it!

DanK

BTW JK bout the streamlights..I love my twintask 2D :-D

most bang for buck at $30 is streamlight Jr. using one watt luxeon.

but for max performance find a mini-pro. MM+ or BB750 combined with nice Tbin or Ubin (3watt), so20(w/machining) or so17 reflector, mineral lens etc.

nice sammie from shoppe will cost you aprox. $45-$65 by itself, then add cost of rest of parts.

An excellent mod for $5 is MJLED, which drops in mini-mag. total cost with mini-mag of $15. improves performance nicely, but is not in luxeon range.

Hello Cliff,

I'll echo a Welcome as well.

My favorite 2 AA light is an ARC LSH-P.

Tom

[ QUOTE ]
AFAustin said:
One more rec. for the SL Jr. Luxeon---buy it, use it, then try to beat it for the $---you'll have a hard time.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the light I recommend or give away to non-flashaholic friends. It is a decent size, great performer, and doesn't puzzle people over those "expensive" lithium 123 batteries. And Streamlight's customer service is super should anything ever go wrong.

This is my first post since being deployed to the Sand Box two months ago, and this subject is a good one. Kevin helped me by supplying a T binned Mini-Pro that is living in a natural hard anodized MiniMag. I carry this light 24 hours a day since we never know how the day will turn out.

This leads to my opinion and safisfaction with a high performance AA powered light. We recently had an engine casualty on one of our boats at night. I ran through a recently charged set of Sony 2300mah NiMh AA cells, and ended up using the half depleted AA's from a shipmate's stock MiniMag that was too dull, then a set of AA's from a portable CD player that was in someone's back pack. We had bright light for almost three hours; if I had a 123 light I could not have used the other batteries. We fixed the engine and limped back to port.

There is a lot to be said for using standard batteries, and I mean find the batteries at a liquor store, or here in the Middle East, Africa, camping, or wherever you may be. If this isn't an issue for you, look at the 123 lights, since that is where the killer lights are.

I read a rumor here on CPF a while back that Streamlight will eventually sell a 3watt Luxeon Jr. This will be the light to own if they eventually build them!

I vote for a good sandwich, beginning with the incredible Mini-Pro from Lambda. Get yours with a U-bin, and I promise, you will be happy!

Adam

I have three of the flashlights mentioned here several times already, the SL Jr. Lux, the Gerber Trio, and the Inova XO3 (T3).

The Junior is an EXCELLENT all around light. Its broad spot is broad enough to cover a fair sized area at close range and bright enough and tight enough to spot at modest distances. 75 or so regulated minutes on alkies make the Junior economical to run and, by all accounts, runs longer and cheaper on NiMH batts too.

The Gerber Trio, with its eight hours of regulated runtime on 2AA alkies, should also be considered for a long life back-up and a low level light. Its broad flood effectively lights smaller tasks spaces such as closets and is quite bright with night adjusted vision.

The Inova XO3/T3 picks up where the Junior leaves off. Brighter and tighter, running about 1.75 regulated hours on 2xCR123, the T3 is very nice spot at medium distances and still effective further out. Still useful, but a bit of an eye scorcher close up.

With a bit of shopping and some B/S/T, all three can be had for about $100.

Of course, the CPF thing to do would be to buy all three, but if I had to choose one it would be........um, ALL THREE!!!

73
dim

AdamW, it is interesting to hear your views from the Sand Box. Take care of yourself!

Lots of merit in what you say...those AA lights like SL Lux Jr. are amazingly handy anywhere, whereas I could see the lithium lights being a bit of a sticky wicket if the sh!t hits the fan...

1AA and 2AA lights are my interest, Cliffton. I've tried many.

Forget 2AA xenons. I've tried the 2AA xenons from Pelican, Streamlight, Underwater Kinetics, and Bright Star. All disappointed.

For throw, the leading 2AA contenders are all Luxeons: the Streamlight Luxeon Jr. ($30), the Elektrolumens XM3 ($40 direct from Elektrolumens), the so-called Costco 2AA ($15 to $20 on eBay), and the Smith & Wesson Galaxy Luxeon (two for $52.50 at Costco.com). All are discussed at length in Candlepower Forums except the Smith & Wesson, which is an improved version of the original Costco (better grip, black, and possibly the newer, 45% brighter Luxeon).

Also look at the Aurora 2AA, a very bright $30 light that uses the new Jupiter LED from Nichea. This light was reviewed at the LED Museum, where it was found to be very bright. It appeared briefly on eBay but doesn't seem to be generally available.

The Costco and Smith & Wesson come with an optic but can be modded with an IMS 27mm reflector and glass lens. They may be too heavy for everyday carry, but I love my three Costcos. You can find them on eBay under titles like "1 watt Luxeon flashlight".

The XM-3 was discontinued but will be available again in August:
Click Here
It's rather long to carry around but many find the length well worth it.
If it's a bright, wide flood that you want, forget all of these and go for the new $5.85 16-LED 2AA Wave from http://www.szwholesale.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_23&products_id=7
It's the only 2AA flashlight that has more than 12 LEDs. I owned the 12-LED version and its wide beam was plenty bright--twice as bright as the 12-LED 1AA sold on eBay.

As far as I know, all but the Streamlight can be used with 1.6-1.7V lithium AAs. In fact, I believe that several forum members have used the Streamlight with lithiums with no ill consequence, even though the maker wanrs against it. I've standardized on lithium AAs and won't get a model that can't use them.

Link shortened to stop scrolling - Empath