How about flashlights for kids for Christmas?

[InvisibleFrodo]

My stepson is getting a HDS 140 for Christmas. Every man should have at least one great light.

May I ask out of curiosity, how old is he? I'm thinking since you said "man" he may be an adult?

 

[Bicycleflyer]

I don't invest a lot in kids flashlights. They tend to lose or misplace them. My son at age 7 went to a Cub Scout camp out and promptly lost a very nice Gerber. After that I swore off expensive lights till he was older and more responsible. I take two approaches. First, I keep a supply of those HFT freebies. If those get lost or broken, then no big deal. In my ongoing effort to teach him responsibility, I still get on him if he loses one. My second approach is get a BIG light. For example I bought my son a rayovac LED that looks like a classic 6V lantern with a handle. Only this version is LED and uses 4-AA. This light is too big to get lost. Even when he dropped it in a field with tall grass, we still located it. He has managed to keep that one for over three years now.

 

[thermal guy]

May I ask out of curiosity, how old is he? I'm thinking since you said "man" he may be an adult?

He is 17 still a kid I'm my book😃

 

[zekeman]

Amazon has an energizer metal led light for about 9 bucks (EVEENML2AAS) 35 lumens and an 1.5 hour runtime. Push button tail switch. It comes with 2 alkalines, but you can buy a dozen Tenergy low self discharge AA Nimh for about $20
The question is how many chargers you need to buy. If kids are in the same family can they share a charger?

 

[Modernflame]

He is 17 still a kid I'm my book

That's awesome. I hope he enjoys his HDS.

 

[konsole]

I ended up going with the flashlights that Mark Anthony recommended, but thanks everyone for the suggestions.

 

[thermal guy]

That's awesome. I hope he enjoys his HDS.

He had better😀 My children do not have my love for flashlights. No matter how hard I push them to carry and keep a good light on them.maybe in time. I can only hope.

 

[bykfixer]

I ended up going with the flashlights that Mark Anthony recommended, but thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Bravo!!!

 

[Tejasandre]

My kid just got this one.

 

[Derek Dean]

Oh man, that is just so cute. I'll bet it's a big hit. Any beam shot comparison photos : )

 

[Tejasandre]

It's on in the pic! Lol. Very yellow

 

[flatline]

Home Depot had a set of 4 2xAAA 50L pen lights for $10-ish. I swapped the alkaline cells with lithium cells and dropped one flashlight into each Xmas stocking.

Probably a waste of money, but I find some comfort in knowing that each of my kids has a working flashlight in their school bag. And my wife has one in the console of her car (although she already had a headlamp...).

I kept the 4th light for myself. It'll probably sit on my shelf until one of the kids mentions that they lost theirs...

--flatline

 

[Derek Dean]

That's a great stocking stuffer, flatline, and I appreciate your pragmatic attitude, realizing that it's likely at least one of them will lose it, to be easily and happily replaced with your backup.

 

[PartyPete]

For young kids I wouldn't go much brighter than a AA type light. However with smaller lights the chances of them losing it is high as well.

Something like the Wowtac A1 is a nice idea for older kids, maybe 9 years and up. Bright enough, big enough not to easily lose and if they do it's cheap enough to replace.

If they can handle owning stuff like that for a few years then something a bit more extravagant when they are 15 or older would be fine.