Flashlights

[Gardenarian]

We seem to have a large collection of "cylinders for holding dead batteries", as I've heard flashlights defined. Never seem to have a working one when the power goes out or I need to check for raccoons.

The LED ones are so much better than the old kind that I'm thinking of getting rid of all the conventional ones. (I think we have three or four.)

We have a couple of LED Maglite flashlights for camping, and we use conventional (non-renewable) batteries in those (no place to re-charge in the woods!)

For the house, I'm considering getting some plug-in rechargeable flashlights. They are designed to go on automatically during power outages, but it would be great to always have a working flashlight available. And, since they stay in the outlet, I wouldn't misplace them.

Does anyone have experience with these kind of flashlights? A lot of them seem to come with a night-light feature, which I would rather not have. I also wonder if they have replaceable batteries, or do you have to throw the whole thing out and get a new one every 5 years??

Here are 2 I'm looking at:
Energizer Weather Ready
Greenlite

Are you still holding onto your old plastic conventional flashlights??
Any creative suggestions on what to do with old ones?

[rosarugosa]

Hey Gardenarian: I haven't been able to figure out the flashlight thing yet myself. I like the "cylinders for holding dead batteries" description; I hadn't heard that one before.
We had a rechargeable several years ago, and it ended up dying in a fairly short period of time (unfortunately I cannot remember the brand). We most recently have had a flashlight with a large 6V battery that lasted several years before the battery died not too long ago. I really like this flashlight because it gives off a lot of light, so I need to get a replacement battery. We also have a Stanley tripod flashlight with batteries that have lasted a long time, and those are AAs. That has been versatile during power outages because the tripod functionality allows you to set it up and use it for task lighting. It gives off pretty bright light as well. Good luck in your quest!

[Rosemary]

As our old ones have died, we've replaced them with LED flashlights, which we can usually pick up on sale for a few dollars.

[rosarugosa]

Apparently our Stanley is an LED. So does that mean the batteries last longer due to the greater efficiency of LEDs?

[goldensmom]

I had the kind of flashlight that plugs into the wall and comes on when the power goes out several years ago and now don't know where it is or what happened to it. I like the wind up flashlights to have on hand for emergencies, one in each vehicle and several stationed around the house. We have Mag Lights and a couple of Energizers, can't remember what exactly they are but they were in the $50 range. We have a spotlight plugged into a portable power source (solar powered) kept on the back porch that we use to search for things outside that go bump in the night

[Rogar]

I have pretty much abandoned my old flashlights in favor of headlamps. They leave your hands free for working on things, opening doors, finding keys, or what ever. They come in varieties that have LED lights and very long battery life. This is one that I have, though they come with a different prices and features. I have a couple of others that are similar. http://www.rei.com/product/829577/ma...-2011-closeout I have some larger stand up lanterns for additional emergency lighting in power outages.

[early morning]

I had a plug-in rechargeable Black and Decker flashlight for years, until I dropped it in the pond... I like the shake or wind-up rechargeables with a capacitor or storage battery. I've given up on regular battery flashlights, but DH has them all over the house - and they are always dead! I swear they are battery vampires! I think I'll paint fangs on all of them, lol.

[try2bfrugal]

I keep wind up flashlights and lanterns around, too, as well as the emergency lights that come on when the power fails. The problem with the emergency lights is that people unplug them when they need to use the electrical socket and then the lights never get put back and end up misplaced somewhere. I usually manage to keep one or two in the sockets through unyielding perseverance, but it takes a lot of effort and as I write this probably 2/3 of the emergency plug in lights in the house are MIA.

[Mrs-M]

We have two LED flashlights, and according to DH, LED lighting is THE way to go. We're currently in the process of searching for LED lanterns for when the power goes out.

[Gardenarian]

Hey, we finally found some emergency flashlights that do everything we want. They plug into the wall so they are always charged, you have the option to have nightlight on or off, there are two levels of flashlight, plus you can set it on a table with a downlight for use as a lamp. The battery lasts for 10 hours or so per charge, and we got them at Costco for $20 for a pair. They have the awkward name of Eco-i-Lite. The plastic does seem a little cheap, but so far so good. They are BRIGHT!


[IMG][/IMG]