Moderately priced, small, plastic flashlight wanted

I just want a little flashlight to carry every day for emergencies. In the last 10 years, I don't think I had any such emergencies, but a flashlight would been handy to help a guy find a ring that fell under some stuff. Possible future emergencies might be me walking along a path at night where the only light is from cars on the highway, and there's an accident and no more cars. Or there's a blackout and I have to walk up the stairs to my apartment.

Anyway, I know what I want. 4 1/2" maximum length, 3/4" maximum width, plastic case, under $25, and not a Maglite Solitaire which broke even though I hardly used it. Any suggestions?

For another $15 dollars you can buy a really good light. The Fenix LD01 is a great little light, it pumps out 85 Lumesn frome 1AAA battery.
It's 3" long and 1/2" round. I got mine from Amazon.

Is there any reason for the plastic requirement? AAA powered Al flashlights are light too. Even some AA like the Quark Mini are almost unnoticeable for EDC.

Take a look at the small LED keychains you can get nowadays. Fenix E05 and E01, Quark Mini AA, ITP A3, Maratac AAA...

Ooo...the Fenix E05 is a flood light and only $19.95 on Amazon. I almost made "flood light" a requirement but it seemed hard to find in a small light. Well, now I'm thinking that a diffuser on a spot light would give me more flexibility so my order of preference should be adjustable, spot, flood, but I guess I'd have to make my own diffuser for such a tiny light so a floodlight would save me trouble.

The plastic requirement was for lightning safety but I'm a little flexible on that.

I'll look at the others too. I'm a little weary of the smallest of the small because of my experience with the Solitaire.

:thumbsup:

From the size you are talking about a single cell plastic flashlight with about 60+ lumens, which means a high power emitter which would take proper heatsinking these days. I don't see such light being made quite yet but perhaps when more efficient and cheaper LEDs are made you could get one. I too love plastic lights over metal but sadly the higher power lights are almost always metal for heatsinking.
About the only plastic LED lights you will find are 5mm or 2+ cells that are polymer costing a lot more than you want to pay. You could probably get a 3AA plastic light or 3-4AAA light close to what you want but perhaps 50% more than your budget

If it has to be plastic look for UK lights (Underwater Kinetics). Look for a small backup dive light. UK makes non-dive light too so you might find something at your price range there.

I'm pretty sure having an aluminium flashlight in your pocket won't make a difference in lightning strike risk.

I'd recommend either the ITP A3 or a streamlight microstream. I own a few Maratac AAA's, essentially the same light as the ITP but in a slightly different body, and they are great. Very tiny, 3 modes, have been reliable so far.

I also recommend the Microstream because, although it's not as high-tec (it's 1 mode, 20 lumens), it seems tougher and will throw the beam a decent distance. It's bigger than the tiny ITP, but still quite small.

Between the 2, I prefer the ITP because of the amazing brightness that comes out of such a small light, all for about the same price as the Microstream.

For the ITP:
The older Q5 version is a little less bright, and has the modes set up as Med-Low-High. I prefer Med-Low-High as I find myself normally using Medium for most tasks.
The newer R5 version is a little brighter and has modes set up as Low-Med-High. R5 is about $3 more.

I have an Fenix E05 and love it so much that I bought a second in case I lost my keys (which I have never done by the way) Awesome little light. I also use it as my light to point at the ceiling when I am downstairs at night getting ready for work and not waking the whole house up.

I have wanted to get a closer look at the LD01 as well great run times and that really high light if you really needed it but prefer a flood for my keyring as if I am looking for something I find flood better at searching.

Borad said:

Ooo...the Fenix E05 is a flood light and only $19.95 on Amazon. I almost made "flood light" a requirement but it seemed hard to find in a small light.

I'll look at the others too. I'm a little weary of the smallest of the small because of my experience with the Solitaire.

Click to expand...

the Fenix E05 is a good choice. i have one too, and it's great for EDC/ emergency use. the beam is nice and smooth and the build is pretty robust. i had a Solitaire once upon a time, and the E05 is in a different class altogether. the build quality, output and light quality are exponentially better.

Good to know about the heatsink issue. I was wondering why I had trouble finding plastic cases on small lights.

After looking at all the above, I think I'll order the Fenix E05. The ITP A3 doesn't sound too impressive with durability/waterproofness, and I care about reliability more than power. The particular military spec it meets (unless I'm confusing flashlights) doesn't really mean anything without details.

I think it finally died after 6 years of light use. It became harder to turn on recently - if I tightened the head firmly it would be dim so I'd have to loosen it a little to get full brightness, and now it won't turn on. Maybe something in the board that contacts the battery broke. Or maybe it just needs a coat of solder where it contacts the battery because of wear. I think I want something new. Back to the research.

EDIT: I was looking into the Atom A0 and saw a video where a guy mentions his previous light had a spring that got compressed. So, I removed the spring in my E05, stretched it, cleaned it, cleaned the bottom and the rim of the tube and the contact on the board, and it works.

NiteCore Tube, Nitecore THUMB, Nitecore Tip.

Lol, yay for bringing it back from the dead!

:thumbsup:

TMedina said:

Lol, yay for bringing it back from the dead!

:thumbsup:

Click to expand...

The flashlight ... or this thread :ironic:

Just kidding, that's great

Awesome. How about some Acrylic now?
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?406525-Custom-Acrylic-18350-P60-Hosts

Borad said:

EDIT: I was looking into the Atom A0 and saw a video where a guy mentions his previous light had a spring that got compressed. So, I removed the spring in my E05, stretched it, cleaned it, cleaned the bottom and the rim of the tube and the contact on the board, and it works.

Click to expand...

Congrats, but I would have been a bit miffed that I'd lost my excuse to buy a new light. I think I might have mended it AFTER I'd ordered a new one.
P

I think a Photon 2 or Freedom would do what you want. Plastic, light, tiny and you can put it on your key ring and not notice it's there. Utterly reliable, too, the coin cell isn't going to leak or lose its charge even if you don't use it for ages.

I agree with Boko that a Photon Freedom would do what you want. Shop around the web, and you should find some for less than $10.

The Princeton Tec Amp 1L is a cute little 2aaa dive rated light that includes a cone type diffuser and can be found for under 20. Pelican also has some nice looking 2AAA polymer pen lights as well.


.....Aaaaaannnddd I just noticed this is an old thread.

Well, there was still that issue with the tightening causing it to be dim and the sweet spot got even smaller so I'm getting a Olight i3E EOS. I just have to choose between the 120 lumen silver and the 90 lumen other colors.