Flashlights

Flashlights: Florida is the land of the newlyweds, overfeds, nearly-deads and frequent (often prolonged) electrical outages. In addition to hurricanes, the Sunshine State has the most numerous and violent thunderstorms in the world. Everyone who isn’t out on the beach with their head in the sand, meditating on the advantages of denial, owns a couple of flashlights and (presumably) attempts to keep them in good repair.

Trouble is, electrical equipment that is seldom used involves maintenance, and who in the world is going to set up a maintenance schedule for a flashlight? What happens is, the torches get tossed into a drawer, where contacts slowly corrode and batteries - especially cheap carbon/zinc batteries - lose their oomph, leak, and destroy the light. Or, folks get the stick-’em-in-the-wall-and-leave-them-there rechargeables and stick them in the wall and leave them there. This slowly fries the batteries to the point of eventually having less power than it would take to give that stupid bunny a good thump.

Then there’s the quality of the equipment to be considered. Emergency flashlights run the gamut, but in my experience tend to be either the low-end Eveready and Ray-O-Vac stuff from the supermarket or a three pound MagLite that someone thought looked reassuring. (We’re talking rank and file here, not flashlight freaks like me.) In addition to the maintenance, or lack thereof, these lights tended (until recently, at least), to be equipped with incandescent bulbs that deal with batteries like a thirsty wino handles a pint of MD 20-20, and burn out at inconvenient times, such as when dropped while switched on.

That is no longer the case, Grasshopper. By spending a few bucks more, a person seeking the light can enter the 21st Century and get equipment that virtually eliminates all the problems listed. When the power goes out, these folks will not fear the darkness.

Good LED flashlights have been around for a few years now, but only recently have entered the realm of the non-geeky owner. The first ones produced only monocolored light, usually red, ran on peculiar batteries, and weren’t generally good for much beyond finding a keyhole in the dark. In the ’90’s a Japanese scientist discovered that if you put a fluorescent material on the emitting surface of a blue LED, it could be made to glow white instead of blue. These “white” LEDs pulled a battery down in a hurry with their requirement for higher voltages, and were a pain in the butt to keep feeding with those exotic batteries.

The big advantage of LEDs over incandescent lamps (bulbs) is their relatively low power requirement. Despite my remarks in the previous paragraph, most LEDs use roughly one tenth or less the power of incandescents, which waste about 90% of their energy in the form of heat. (Touch a burning high-output xenon lamp with your finger to see how it looks with a fingerprint welded to it.) On the other hand, LEDs produce mostly visible light, although rather less of it. That used to be a problem, but higher output diodes have arrived that do a good job in most applications that don’t require spotlights.

Another big advantage of LEDs is that, because they don’t literally burn themselves up, they last for about 10,000 hours of use as opposed to bulbs, which rarely make it past fifteen or twenty hours. They’re also virtually unbreakable. When LEDs first arrived, no one knew how long they’d last. They hadn’t been around long enough for anyone to find out. First estimates were about 100,000 hours, and some manufacturers still claim such numbers, but the consensus is that 10,000 hours of good service is probably about the top end. That’s about fifteen months of continuous use, sufficient for most folks. (I actually tried to wear one out, and it is noticeably dimmer after about two years as a night light - and a few dozen AA alkalines - but it’s still the one I carry in my pocket.)

Enter the microchip (IC) power converter. This device, which takes current from a low-voltage cell and steps it up to the higher voltages where LEDs work best, revolutionized flashlights. They allowed manufacturers to make torches that were relatively small, used more powerful LEDs, and that ran on common, easily-obtained cells - AAA, AA, C and D - ordinary, garden variety, meet-’em-every-day “flashlight batteries.” All of these cells operate at a nominal 1.5 volts. Before the IC converters, if you wanted a brighter LED you needed to step up the voltage by using more cells (at least two), and a bunch of LEDs to produce the extra light. Some models use(d) as many as forty or fifty LEDs and six or more C-cells or else bulky and expensive rechargeables.

Converters changed all that. It’s now possible to make - and ARC Flashlights does - an LED light less than 3 inches long the operates on a single AAA alkaline cell and puts out more light than a Mini Mag 2-AA cell light, (which is more or less the standard in small incandescent flashlights.) Not only that, but you can run over them with a truck and they won’t break. I had one, but gave it to my daughter. I will have another. They’re even brighter, now. There are even more exotic special purpose lights that use a 1-watt LED and run on a single AA, but battery life stinks!

Until the past year or so, bright, high quality LED flashlights were scarce on the ground, and expensive compared to - say - the Mini Mag, which can be purchased at most of the big-box stores for under ten bucks, with batteries, carrying case, and an extra bulb. Decent LED lights cost twice that, on average, with the top of the line stuff like the ARC in the $20-35.00 range and up. The top notch made-to-last-forever-and-survive-Humvee-attacks stuff still costs to high heaven, but prices are coming down and there are several good LED torches on the market for under twenty bucks, including one at $9.99 that’s an incredible buy. (Remember, we’re talking quality, reliability and long life - of the light and the batteries it uses. You have to figure on paying a little more, Skippy.)

In addition to “pure” LED lights, there are combo units that use LEDs for close-up work to save the battery, and (usually) xenon lamps for brighter, longer range needs. There’s also a burgeoning conversion industry, and you can now have a Mini Mag with the bulb replaced by an LED for about $10 to $30, depending on how much power you want. I have one. It works pretty well, improving - if not actually increasing - the light, and improving battery life by a factor of about 5 at the cost of losing the ability to focus the light. Not much of a loss, though, as the 3-LED array is bright enough that it’s no longer really necessary. There are, I believe, other conversions that retain the focusing ability. If I were still a cop, I might look into that.

My first LED light was a keyring light from Photon, and it’s still on my ring, working fine after several years. It’s bright enough to find your way down a path, even change a tire in a pinch, and is about the size of a quarter. ($7.99 - $15.00) When I gave the ARC to my baby I replaced it with a CMG Infinity Ultra (AA cell, now owned by Gerber) that I’ve carried and used for three, maybe four years. It’s always in my right pants pocket with my Space Pen, medication tin and pocket knife, and is an excellent buy at about eighteen bucks. The LED has lost a little punch, but it’s still a faithful companion even though a bit beat up, like its owner.

During last year’s hurricanes Michele and I used our lights (she has an ARC) extensively, performing chores, reading and for just general room lighting by aiming them at the ceiling and bouncing the light. After eight days without power, she was as sold on them as I am, trust me! A couple of weeks ago, in preparation for this season, we purchased an Inova X1 single AA light at Target ($19.99). It out-performs our previous lights quite a bit, at the cost of some (but not much) battery life, and a small increase in size. I estimate the power at about 1/4 watt, and it will light up the bathroom sufficiently that you can shower, shave and do most anything but apply makeup.

I thought the Inova was the cat’s south end. However, I’d looked at a .5 watt light at Target at the same time we bought the Inova. Having passed it up as “too cheap,” I went back and got one to cover the low end market when I decided to write this article.

This little light, made in Taiwan and branded “River Rock,” kicks ass! It’s actually brighter than a 3 C-cell, LEd-converted “Mag Lite we have - quite effective out to 50-75 feet. Using 2 AAA cells, at about 7 hours life at full power, it’s still plenty economical to use, and at the price ($9.99) you can afford one to go with every pair of socks. Construction is black anodized aluminum, pretty sturdy, with a nice little clip for pocket or hat brim, and (like the Inova) a switch with a button on the back end that you twist for constant “on” or push for signalling. Twisting it farther “off” makes it safe for carry without fear of running the cells down. I’d prefer a “clickie” switch. I don’t like twist switches on the back of the barrel although I prefer them on the front, but you can’t have everything for ten bucks.

This is definitely the unit I’d recommend for most folks. There are more powerful lights available in the $15 - 35.00 range, but this is all you’d need unless you’re goin’ coon-huntin’, and the batteries are cheap and don’t take up much space.