Recommendation please.

I spent the last 5 months in Nigeria with a Tektite Trek 4. I used the light every day and was glad I researched and purchased a led light.
I would like to send a friend I made a light as a gift. I was 100% happy with the Trek 4 except for one thing. The lack of a switch became an increadable bother. The head of the light is twisted to turn on the light.
If you know of a light that is as good as the Trek 4 but has a switch I would appreciate the information.
One thing the recommended light must have in common with the Trek 4. The very long runtime and it must be AA.
Batteries of good quality are horribly expensive for a Nigerian and beyond the very common sizes are hard to get a hold of in most places.
Thank you.

Is there any possibility he would be better served by a quality rechargeable LED light (along with maybe some extra rechargeable batteries)?

The national power grid (NEPA) is rarely on in the area of the country he is in. Most of the time we averaged 1-2 hours of electricity a month so recharging would be impossible. Generators are used but if batteries are expensive you can imagine what a generator costs.
The "Tiger Head" brand of flashlights and batteries they import from China are pure garbage.
The cost of good AA batteries over a longer period of time will actually save him money since one never knows how long the Tiger Head stuff will last.
Do you think one of those shake lights might work well? I don't know a thing about those. I can only say outside of the twisty head of the Tektite I loved it.

The shake lights are good if you don't have anything else, and you need a light to find a real flashlight with - nothing more. You'd probably be better off with a winding light than a shake light, to be honest - at least those take less effort, and there are some decent ones out there, IIRC.

Otherwise, if you're not bound to the AA requirement and can get 9V batteries, I'd suggest a PAKlight or a PALight; those run for MONTHS on one battery, and the last time I changed the batteries on mine was about 2 years ago now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Granted, I don't use it that much beyond the low level, if that, but the thing runs practically forever and has a switch.

The Opalec NewBeam is regulated and runs for 10 hours at constant brightness on alkaline batteries. Then a red LED comes on telling you it's time to change batteries. It still puts out light after the red LED comes on, but it begins to dim. This is a drop in mod for a MiniMag.

The Kroll tail cap switch is also for the MiniMag. The Kroll is a click on and also has momentary with light pressure.

EternaLights seem to provide very long runtime. I think most of these lights run on AA batteries. They are available at Technology Associates. Also consider the Lightwave Tec 2000 from brightguy.com.

I second the Newbeam...but some have found the Kroll to be flaky. You could use a Brinkmann Legend, but I don't know if the switch is reliable. Haven't had any problems with mine.

Though it is a twisty, the Gerber Trio is a good one.

UK4AALED has a clicky, and a very long runtime.

Bob

Depending on the output you need, I would second two of the recs above: the Eternalight series and especially the UK 4AA LED, which is bulletproof, has a clicky and runs forever .link


If you think the Eternalights might do, there's a great special in the manufacturer's forum on the Derringer model.

Would a solar NiMH AA battery charger be a possibility? That would give you the option of NiMH when you had time to recharge or throwing in alkalines for use while the NiMH's recharge.

If theft is not to much a problem some lights come with a built in solar panel to charge the light, and even with a hand crank as well on some models.

[ QUOTE ]
davidra said:Depending on the output you need, I would second two of the recs above: the Eternalight series and especially the UK 4AA LED, which is bulletproof, has a clicky and runs forever .link If you think the Eternalights might do, there's a great special in the manufacturer's forum on the Derringer model.

[/ QUOTE ]This seems like a great special on the Eternalight Derringers. The Derringers are powered by AAA batteries. They fail to meet the specified AA battery requirement of afiaowo.

On a bit of a different subject....are you aware of "light up the world" ? You might find it interesting....

The UK eLED sounds like it would fit your requirements perfectly. It's Luxeon LED will be whiter than the 5mm LEDs in your Tektite, put out more light, and give you about 12 hours of runtime on regular AAs. On lithium AAs you should get upwards of 18 hrs. It has a switch too. It is shorter than your Tektite but slightly wider with a 4AA form factor. It comes in black and yellow.

Link

Cheers,
Ken

Here is a very good light to consider:

Streamlight ProPolymer 4AA LED. This is not the newest version of this light with the 1W Luxeon, but the multi LED model. Uses 4AA, more output and much longer runtime than the Trek 4 and has a tail clickie switch. Also is submersible and very rugged. Add a wrist lanyard and I think you would have a great light for the use you describe.

I do not own this light but I have the 1W Luxeon version which has become one of my favorite lights.

Here is a link: http://www.streamlight.com/4aapropoly_led.htm

Available from BrightGuy and others for under $25.

Mark