AAA thrower

I've been searching the web for the farthest throwing 1 or 2x aaa clicky penlight. It's for an edc light and would clip in the corner of my back pocket next to my wallet. Only requirements are running off a lithium primary aaa, a good pocket clip, comes on high first, and it must be reliable. So far I've found the pelican 1920 and asp scribe, both at 81m. The peak eager ultra seems like it might have good throw but haven't heard back yet from them (would need to buy the tail switch and a pocket clip). Then there's a powertac sabre at 111m but not sure about the reliability, haven't heard of them before. I realize ansi beam distance is gonna be overly optimistic but it works for comparison purposes pretty well. Any recommendations for something that will punch out pretty far in this format? Thank you!

By definition, a AAA flashlight is unlikely to have a ton of power, so that form factor tends not to emphasize or maximize throw.

Additionally, increasing throw is typically done with a larger reflector, which negates the compact size of an otherwise tiny light.

If you consider a 10440 powered torch to be in this group, I would guess the (long discontinued) MBI HF-R ZoomHead might be a contender. It increases power by using Li-Ion batteries, and increases throw with an aspheric lens.

I haven't done any comparisons or measurements, but in an aaa I like my skywolfeye 1xAA ultra cheap zoomie. For a given head size asphericals do pretty well

Single AAs works too, the led lenser t5.2 has 120m of throw. Are there any other aspherics in this battery format?

No clicky nor clip, but the LensLight Micro is an aspheric AAA which runs on standard cells.

Ended up buying the discontinued led lenser p3 afs p for 20 bucks on ebay. 120m with 1 AAA battery. I think that's about as far a non rechargeable one will throw.

archimedes said:

No clicky nor clip, but the LensLight Micro is an aspheric AAA which runs on standard cells.

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Lenslight micro is 40 lumen, and cant be fully focused for throw. Got a broken one, worked for some months, and both the seller and manufacturer did not answer my mails..
The xq-e hi led will make small aaa lights throw. But no one makes a aaa light with this led. Nitecore got a 2xaaa xq-e penlight, but not the domeless version.
Got a tool ti modded with a 4000K xq-e hi, my favorite aaa light. I wish i had a smooth reflector for this.

jorn said:

Lenslight micro is 40 lumen, and cant be fully focused for throw. Got a broken one, worked for some months, and both the seller and manufacturer did not answer my mails....

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I don't know the details, but I haven't seen any new stock released by LensLight over the past year or two.

I have been wondering about the status of their flashlight product line for some time now ....

My Nitecore MT06 throws quite well for a 2AAA light, but they're out of production.

LightObsession said:

My Nitecore MT06 throws quite well for a 2AAA light, but they're out of production.

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Yep that's the one that comes stock with a qx-e led. They changed it to nichia.

Just remembered the old throw king, the l3 illumination 08. It's a twisty. Just ordered one. I guess it will be the aaa throw king with one of my leftover qx-e hi leds. But i'm more interested on how it will scream with a 10440 :devil: Now i cant wait for the 14 day shipping...

jorn said:

Yep that's the one that comes stock with a qx-e led. They changed it to nichia.

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The MT06 never had a Nichia. It was also only two output modes.

The MT06MD is not just the same host with a different emitter.

LightObsession said:

The MT06 never had a Nichia. It was also only two output modes.

The MT06MD is not just the same host with a different emitter.

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3 mode driver and different led. host looks the same, even the reflector looks the same.

jorn said:

3 mode driver and different led. host looks the same, even the reflector looks the same.

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I agree that the host looks similar, if not the same. I have both lights. The user experience for the two lights is much different. They should have kept producing the MT06.

Zamp said:

Single AAs works too, the led lenser t5.2 has 120m of throw. Are there any other aspherics in this battery format?

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You may want to take a look at Coast hx5. It is a focusable 1xAA light, not a true aspheric, but reaches pretty far in the thrower mode. Single mode only

ma tumba said:

You may want to take a look at Coast hx5. It is a focusable 1xAA light, not a true aspheric, but reaches pretty far in the thrower mode. Single mode only

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The HX5 has a nice quality beam, but doesn't throw like the MT06 or the 2AAA zoomie from Rural King that's $4.99.

The HX5 is my most used light.

Got my l3 illumination 08 yesterday. It was nice and throwy for a aaa light. Uses the same head and reflector as the aa version, so it got a big and deep reflector compared with any other aaa light. So stock light was not that far behind my modded tool ti throw wise. The lux meter on my phone said 1073 lux on the lux meter app. It's not calibrated or anything so i doubt the readings are correct. i Just use it to compare stuff with. My "tool ti thrower" with xq-e hi showed 1390 lux. Dropped in a xq-e hi led into the l3 illumination 08, and it jumped up to 1992 lux. Popped in a 10440 and it ended up at 5120 lux, but it was too much for the tiny led with no direct thermal path, so it quickly overheated and started to change tint from nice neutral 4000k, to angry blue, so aborted playing arond with 10440's. But im totally fine with using nimh and no 10440. It's still my new aaa throw champ.:twothumbs

Edit, to be fair, i used the same battery when i tested and compared the two lights. Charged it yesterday and played with the 08 only for a while, so thought it was quite full, but no.. Took a eneloop fresh from the charger and the lux jumped to 3409 seems the battery i used was far from fully charged. In selfbuild's review of this light, he said the driver is pushing the aaa nimh to it's limit. Combined with a bigger than normal reflector, and a tiny dedomed xq-e hi. I think this is as good as it gets for a aaa light. It sure drains those aaa nimh fast :devil:

Zamp said:

Ended up buying the discontinued led lenser p3 afs p for 20 bucks on ebay. 120m with 1 AAA battery. I think that's about as far a non rechargeable one will throw.

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Looks like you're set, however if you still want more throw, I just picked up an UltraTac A7 (Called AidierA7 on Amazon) on a whim for $7 w/a BLF coupon I found, and the throw is pretty impressive since it utilizes a TIR optic.

Beam kinda looks like an aspheric zoomed out to 80/90%. Comes on in high and utilizes a reverse clicky. Looks to be around 200 lumens on an Eneloop, and Li-ion's work but don't add lumens so no real need.