New Dorcy 3 watt AAA LED at Sears

Has anyone bought the Dorcy 3 watt AAA LED light? I just saw one at Sears for $39.95 and before I put down that amount of cash, I would like to find out if it is worth the money. I was not impressed with the Dorcy 1 watt AAA light. My new Craftsman 1 watt AAA LED tool light is way better than the 1 watt Dorcy. The 3 watt rating of the AAA Dorcy LED definitely has my attention. Anyone checking this light out or know where to get it cheaper?

Is it definately a Dorcy and not a Coast? I know they have a new 1xAA 3 Watt light at Sears.

Exactly which Dorcy did not impress you? My Sam's Club Elements (which is a re-badged Dorcy) are probably the brightest 1W lights I own... much brighter than the brighter of my two Metal Gears. Is your Dorcy the one with the flashligh signal option thingy?

Hi Cratz2 ! YES, its a Dorcy ! Its all black with a rubber "anti-roll" shapped head. The LED is a Lux. and it has the potential of being a real bright light. My old Dorcy 1 watt AAA had the annoying blinking mode and if you bumped it on the end cap, the light went out. It had lots of artifacts in the beam. My Craftsman Tool lights beam is round and smooth! I would like to know if the Dorcy 3 watt is as bright as they advertise on the web site.

Definitely a Dorcy. Basically the same body/packaging as the 1Watt but with a black body and a LuxIII. Didn't buy it tho'. Got a G2 on order so I'm feeling a little poor.

The packaging hints at the light being 75 Lumens (the little chart thingy on the upper left). I'm a bit skeptical for a LuxIII...

Well, they are almost never as bright as the manufacturers say they are... If they say 60 Lumens, assume it's about 35-40.

I have two of the Elements and two of the Craftsman lights and the Elements are definately brighter and have a wider hotspot. And while the Craftsman is slightly larger corona, I think most of the corona of the Element is brighter than the corona of the Craftsman.

One member has confirmed that the Craftsman light is resistored (in the PR base) but I think the Element is direct drive and likely has less resistance with it's high tech switch.

I don't know why it would be brighter than the 1W version if all they did different was put a 3W lux in it. I've tried putting a 3W lux in my Dorcy, but without a boost circuit it just doesn't make a difference.

I think an underdriven LuxIII is brighter than a LuxI given the same specs... I think...

Well, I guess we will have to wait and see if anyone that reads this thread has bought the 3 watt Dorcy light. I am very inexperienced in the electronics and technical side of these lights. Thats why I didn't buy it when I noticed it in Sears. Hopefully, someone that has one of these things will "enlighten" us to the performance of this new light. I had a package of those Sam clubs elements in my hand tonight but didn't buy them because of my experience with the Dorcy 1 watt AAA. I think I got a bad light,I bought one of the first ones that Sears had a couple of years ago, its light was slightly yellow and its beam was very uneven and full of artifacts. The newer ones have most likely brighter and better LEDs in them.

I believe the black 3W light you saw at Sears is the same case as the Sam's Element, I saw those and didn't catch that it was a 3W vs a 1W. I think you may like the Element, though, as it cures most of the Dorcy 1W problems. No blinking mode, and the flutes in the head prevent rolling. The beam is definitely nice, smooth and white, with more flood than most. It does however have the same switch and battery carrier, which means smacking the tail will momentarily break power as the holder negative pulls away from the contact inside due to the battery pack inertia compressing the spring during the whack, and for this switch that means "off" and you have to press the switch to get it back on. That is not as big a concern for me as the light touch of the switch on the side which makes me paranoid about an accidental on, which with the fairly high drain of this bright light will be the demise of the batteries in fairly short order. If I am correct about the model you looked at, all of this Element comment applies to the Dorcy 3xAAA 3W as well. Hope this is usefull input!

Hi Hondo! Thanks for the info. I looked at Sams club's element lights and regret I didn't buy them. I live almost 100 miles from Sams club and have to wait till my next trip that way. I now realize they are very different than my old Dorcy 3AAA. They have been improved and changed! I think you are right about the similarity of the new 3 watt Dorcy and the element. I don't know if the $39.95 cost of the new 3 watt AAA Dorcy is worth the $$$$. The 1 watt element in the 2 pack is a lot cheaper and might not be far behind the beam of the 3 watt light. Anybody do any comparisons?

I'm pretty sure Dorcy makes the Craftsman tool lights too.

It seems that Dorcy has been able to get better binned Lux1s lately. CPFers have consistently reported finding R bin Lux1s in the Metal Gear and Super 1 Watt 3-D lights.

Just my opinion, but I would wait for a review of the Dorcy 3-watt AAA. I'm not saying it's a bad light, but unless the Lux3 has a good driver then I don't think it's worth $40.

I just picked up the Dorcy 3 Watt from ****'s Sporting Goods. It is brighter than my Element 1 watt form Sam's Club, but I'm not sure that I like the color much. My two Elements have bins QYOH and QYOJ. The 3 watt has a bin of TX1K ( or is it TKIK ). I'm new to reading and trying to understand the bin codes. The 3 watt seems a bit greenish/yellow to me, but that is compared to my elements which one of them is a bit bluish/pruple. I think that is what is making it difficult for me to judge the difference in brightness. I actually prefer the bluish tint of the Element over the greenish tint of the Dorcy 3 watt. Looking at the spill of both lights the Dorcy has a much brighter spill and a tighter hot spot, not to mention that the overall beam quality is better, very smooth outside of the hot spot. On their own both lights look very bright and white to me. It's only when comparing them side by side that I see the color difference and notice the difference in brightnes. I guess that the best or purest white would be another bin somewhere in between the two. I am thinking of maybe exchanging the Dorcy for another to see what bin I get or should I stick with what I've got. What would all of you recommend.

Bin codes explained here:

http://home.comcast.net/~theledguy/bin_codes/

The flux bin code (T) is good. The X1 tint code does put it in green territory (the YO lux1s are indeed in blue territory). The K code means the forward voltage is 3.51V - 3.75V. Does there appear to be a driver circuit, or is it direct drive? I suspect that the Lux3 is being directly driven, given the power source.

You could try exchanging it for another light that would hopefully have an emitter with a lower Vf, which might improve brightness (assuming you get another T bin). It's hard to say how much improvement you'd get using NiMHs as opposed to alkalines, given the Vf and without knowing the current draw.

Personally, I'd play the luxeon lottery and see what you get with the next light. You'd definitely want a T flux code. WO or XO would be closer to white than X1. You want the lowest Vf possible, so I'd be happy with J (don't hold your breath for H).

hey Hookd thanks for the quick reply. That link you sent is what I was looking at right after I bought the light. I was a little confused about some of it, but the info you gave me has me all straight now, thanks.

I took it apart (what else do you do with perfectly good brand new flashlight) and on the switch opposite the rubber button there is a hole that looking into I do see an IC. Not sure exactly the function, but I'm thinking some kinda regulation(hopefully). I'll try to put my multimeter to it and take some readings if that would help in finding out if it is a regulation or boost circuit.

Well I exchanged the Dorcy 3 watt for another, this time got bin TYRJ. The green was gone and I had a blue/violet. When comparing it to my Element 1 watters it wasn't that much brighter overall. For $40 I was expecting better. I returned it for a refund and will either hold off on this one for awhile (see if other CPF's get better bins/results) or just go for a Nuwai Q3.

That's pretty much what I've noticed. Just sticking a 3W T bin emitter in a 3AAA light instead of a 1W R bin emitter isn't going to make much of a difference. Unless it's a very low Vf, like a TxxH.