There are a TON of LED flashlights out there, but this one is my favorite: The Dorcy AAA LED Flashlight
Here are my criteria in rating this flashlight:
- Price
- Battery Type
- Runtime
- Brightness
The price is a major factor to me because I have a habit of either loosing, braking, or giving away flashlights.
Battery type is super important because I want to use rechargeables, or readily available batteries.
I want the light to be LED based for three reasons: 1) LEDs are just cool! 2) LEDs are more efficient than standard flashlight incandescent bulbs making the batteries last much longer. 3) LEDs are really cool!
Brightness is of course important with any flashlight, but isn’t the most important factor in my overall favorite LED flashlight. I just want to be able to see well enough to get by. I’ve got a rechargeable 1milllion candela spotlight that I use when I really need to see something far away, or something I really want to light up (for example, the raccoons fighting in the back yard).
The DORCY AAA LED flashlight is my favorite LED flashlight because it is a perfect blend of the following:
- Price – $6 – $8 at Walmart, Target, etc. (The red one below was $5.94 at Walmart on 9/17/04)
- Battery Type – 1 AAA battery
- Runtime – About 6 hours on a single battery!
- Brightness – Pretty bright considering light is produced from a single AAA battery and 5mm LED. Adequate for 95% of my needs.
As you can tell by the majority of my posts on this site I am very concerned with overall value. For the money spent I believe I’m getting a great LED flashlight! It is an inexpensive light that is compact and bright.
Update 4/3/05
While the Dorcy AAA LED light is great for so many uses, I found I needed something with a bit more oomph! COSTCO TO THE RESCUE!
Costco started selling a twin pack of bright white Luxeon LED flashlights. They came in a twin pack for $28… that’s $14 a light, and for a Luxeon Flashlight, that’s not bad.
Update 2/25/09: See my new post, LED Flashlight Review – AA Models
I’m partial to Fenix lights (www.fenix-store.com), but Target stores have come out with a line of good LED lights under the River Rock brand name. One of them is a 1 watt LED, single AA cell light that is nice and small, and puts out a lot of light for its size. There are others in this line, one uses two AAA cells and a half watt LED. Prices are decent and you can get them on sale occasionally.
I agree that there are lots of great LED flashlights out there, but the reason I am in business at http://www.workflashlight.com, is these lights are becoming way too expensive. Like is stated above, there is a fixed list of requirements to call it a good flashlight. Unfortunately most of the time it is a crapshoot. Order a light and it isn’t what you expected, and doesn’t perform like you want, or it doesn’t work. We offer rechargeable battery kits in lithium ion form, and many of our lights are cheap at under $20. We test all of our flashlights before they go out the door, that way we know you’ll be happy. We also stand behind our flashlights as if we made them. This is how you make a good flashlight, and a happy customer.
i just found my new favorite, by a company called county comm in santa clara. It’s AA powered, and has the best and brightest LED i’ve yet seen. I was so taken with it, I bought a BUNCH, and am giving them to my favorite people as stocking stuffers. It’s my new duty light, travel light and SWAT light. I have no financial interest in the company, but just think its brilliant. Oh, and it can be turned down if you need to suppress it a bit. I’d be interested in the opinions of flashlight afficionados.
Rick
I found a 14 Led flashlight from Marshall’s discount stores for $4. It is made by Think Tank Technology. Very sturdy, very bright, very simple design. I love it. I’m trying to find more to give as Christmas gifts.
John, did you find more of these lights? Sounds like the ones on dailysteals.com but that was a one time buy.
Great lights and I would like to buy more!
Jeff
I got a 14 LED Think Tank flashlight from Marshall too. however, I can;t figure out how to put battery in. Any tips?