Need a good flashlight ?

[canned o minimum]

A friend works at HD and told me bout them LED replacement bulbs.. Imma git one fer Christmas.. OK, so I gotta git 3 !

[John Foote]

TerraLUX TLE-6EXB MiniStar5 140 Lumens Extreme LED Replacement Bulb. ...that 140 lumen bulb in a 3 cell really lights things up! I had no idea!

Thanks JD! I've been wanting something along these lines for awhile. At first, I thought Maglite would have some upgrade kit, but they seemed to prefer to sell new flashlights rather than LED upgrades. Old Maglite bodies being pretty much indestructible and really well finished, it always seemed a shame to just toss them out. Now I don't have to.

[8ball_99]

Oh yeah don't get me wrong the coleman lights are pretty good for the money. I've got a few of them I keep in our camper. But I carry one of those Fenix LD20s in my truck every day. The coleman max is 135 lumens which is pretty good. That 45 dollar Fenix is 180 lumens. I like it cause it has different light levels It will last 70 hours on low lol Also has a SoS mode where it will flash SoS non stop..

[Wolffarmer]

I have a 2 D cell Mag light, very nice. Last year got a 2 D Cell Led by Craftsman. Ok, but it is getting lose already. Have 3 2AA cell Mag penlights. Long story as to why I have 3 but it happened. They are very nice. I also have a mess of the free LED lights from Harbor fright. They are handy and they are worth the price, zero. The batteries they come with are junk. Get a good battery and compare the weights. You won't need a scale, just hold them in your hand. There is that much difference.

Randy

[asianflava]

Have 3 2AA cell Mag penlights. Long story as to why I have 3 but it happened.

That's all? I probably have a dozen of those buggers. I can probably only find 3 or 4 at a time though. They have a tendency to get lost and refound.

Like I mentioned, they issued them to us at work. I'd find lost ones, broken ones and get reissued a new one. I'd take the broken ones and use the parts to make working ones. The one I used had an American flag anodized on it. I had it for 6 years because if I saw somebody else with it, I knew it was mine. Nobody else had one like it.

[GPW]

I have a few Mag 2/AA lights , all with the 3 LED conversion .... They work well for close up ... I did mix the colors too , so now they’re two Tone ...
But the “Bubba’ shines easily a 100yards (all the way down my driveway ) .. and then some ...
Might even be Bright enough to signal the Mother Ship ...

[john warren]

since i can never find a flashlight more then two or three times. i just get cheep ones. but my wife will tell you im used to wandering around in the dark.

[Wolffarmer]

The batteries in my home thermostat died last night and I looked for my 3 AA Mag lights to rob them until I get to town and back. Can't find any of them



Randy

[dratkinson]

The batteries in my home thermostat died last night ...

Idea #1, failsafe thermostat in parallel.

I've thought about this problem with the new digital thermostats---batteries are required to make them work. I've decided that if I ever get one, I'll keep my old mechanical one wired in parallel with it. (Yes this means there will be two thermostats on the wall.)

I'll keep the old one set at 55F. Then, if the fancy new one fails while I'm away, the old one will take over as the temperature drops and protect the house until I get home and use it (the old one) to raise the temperature.

Full disclosure: My home thermostat is an old Honeywell ChronoTherm. It is two mechanical mercury thermostats in one unit and a Sony clock mechanism to switch between---maximum of six high/low temperature changes per day, and every day is the same. The battery only runs the clock. If the battery dies, it simply functions like an old-style, one temperature mercury thermostat---a built-in failsafe. These can still sometimes be found on Ebay.



Idea #2, external power supply.

I remember reading the instructions for the new digital thermostats. I remember they can be powered by an external source.

I seem to remember there being a "B" terminal inside the thermostat that accepts power from the furnace/thermostat 12v transformer. All you need is a wire to get it from the transformer to the thermostat.

Check your digital thermostat's owner's manual. Look for the external power feature and how to wire it.

Then check your thermostat connecting wiring to see if there is an unused wire. Follow the recommendations for color codes so any HVAC technician working on your system later will not be confused.

I believe one of the thermostat pair of wires is used like a ground connections. This is why you only need the one extra "B" wire to complete the external power circuit for the thermostat. The other thermostat (switched) wire controls the 110V furnace relay that runs your furnace.

Wired this way, your thermostat battery becomes a backup to the external power connection. I don't know if your thermostat programming is stored in permanent memory, or temporary battery-backed memory---meaning it goes away if the battery fails. You will learn this when you replace your battery.

When I talked to an HVAC technician about digital thermostats and any failsafe programming, we tested one and learned that as soon as the battery was installed, it preset itself to 55F. So whether from a battery failure or the restoration of external power after a power failure, it should set itself to no less than 55F.

It's been a long time since I looked into this so take everything with a grain of salt and reconfirm everything for yourself.

[Wolffarmer]

Good info Drat

Great idea on wiring in an old style thermostat. Might do that someday. I have an old trailer house I can rip on out of.

This one runs my pellet stove so I still have the electric baseboard heaters that are set about 45 degrees. Unless I leave for more than a day in the winter then I crank those up to about 50.

I got the house in Dec 2005. Moved in 5 years ago tomorrow in a blizzard, finished the loan 2 weeks later. Did not get an owners manual but I can figure it out. The old batteries I pulled out of it has a best used buy Jan 2002. I think they did their duty.

Randy

[Treeview]

Skip flashlights...we only have two hands...a flashlight, armpit or chin are needed to hold it..then, aim??? Nawwwww!

Get a proper headlamp. Look at mountaineering quality. Petzl and Black Diamond make good ones. One of mine has two bulbs, the halogen lights it up like day time.

headlamps will likely have AA batteries. That makes it easy to scavange fresh ones from some other appliance.

I make sure that there is an extra bulb in the lens cap. Using some double face tape or modeling putty to hold it into a corner will be a life saver.

One of my headlamps is powered by 4 D-cells which are in a battery pack that gets clipped to my belt. The bezel on the light screws so that the beam can be refocused.

There are cheapy headlamps stashed all over. Just like reading glasses, when you need them they are priceless!

Check Sierra Trading Post for great deals

Tom

[Woodstramp]

Back in my frog gigging days we used a car headlight attached to a wooden handle hooked to car battery its a wonder we didn't die.

Pete,

That's a blast from the past we use to do the same thing carp hunting with bows and arrows.

[DragonFire]

I was wondering about headlamps...who used them and which ones were good, and a good deal. I want to get one for someone for Christmas...and I wouldn't mind getting myself one. Seems to make sense...as we do only have 2 hands (if we're lucky....)

[M B Hamilton]

Headlamps are a way of life here. We have at least two cheap ones stowed in each vehicle and more in brown paper bags that we give to friends when storms take down the power grid.

For day to day use (we're outside with the dogs a lot year round but especially this time of the year) we use Black Diamond Icon headlamps. They incorporate two different sets of leds, one for area illumination and the other for long range beam illumination. Both lighting modes are available at three different intensities of illumination, plus flashing.

The long range beam is rated at 100 meters. All I need to say is believe that. The area illumination mode is ideal for seeing what's on the ground in front of you. Seeing it, not guessing at it. It's illumination is useful out to about 30' and spreads out more the 100º, but the hot spot is in the center of that.

Battery life is long, rated at about 120 hours. There are colored leds in the battery pack to advise as to battery strength (green: >50%, yellow: >20%, red: <20%). I just change out my batteries when the yellow led comes on.

[Big Dan]

I have not needed mutch light when camping. Just enough to see what Im doing. and if I"m doing something, chances are I'm useing my hand. So I agree with the others that recomend a headlight or a brim light. Some time I'll use both at the same time if I want more light. the brim lights are nice at night when nature calls. Just put on my hat and hit the button and do my thing without haveing to fumble around for a flashlight.