For those that own the Duracell 3xAAA or 4xAAA, can you measure the draw when the flashlight is off? I am wondering what the drain rate is…. the reviews on Costco.com say that it drains the batteries in 3-4 weeks.
Thanks,
-d
Excuse my ignorance, I am a newbie, I have one of those free red multimeters (and my dad has a more serious looking one)
I think i can measure DC current but I have never done it on a flashlight.
Should I just turn off the flashlight and follow this video?
Actually, He doesn’t explain how to measure it on a multi AAA flashlight with a battery carriage.
Edit: I still want to learn how to measuure the parasitic drain but I found some of the reviews you mentioned on AMZ.
LOL one of them said that these flashlights are a pure marketing genius!
Hey it’s Duracell branded and a high lumen flashlight with constant current draw = You need more Duracell batteries!
This industry is getting evil, first they get you addicted to flashlights and now they design them so you spend all your pocket money, gas money, rent whatever, to buy batteries and they brainwash you to buy a particular brand 
On a more serious note, one or two of the reviewers measured the drain on both models
300 Lum= the parasitic drain is 1mA for the grey one, 0.3mA for the red one, and 0.2mA for the black one.
350 Lum=did not see any current when turned off
Here is a video how to replace the circuit board of the switch with a cheapo light (I didnt want to embed the video only put the link, to save space)
anything with an e switch will have parasitic drain. can you unscrew the tail for lockout?
Yeah, but 1mA drain is really bad. Standby on most of my lights is just a few microamps, not worth worrying about.
New price for the 3 pack at my Costco is now $7.97
The “7” at the end of a Costco price is an indicator that the item is on clearance. Originally these were $19.99
They then went to $14.97 to $12.97 and now $7.97. they still have cases of these at this price. It will be interesting to see if they go still lower, but 3 lights and batteries for $8 is phenomenal.
FWIW… I have the 300L non-zoom lights from last year, the version with the half orange peel reflector.
My MNKE IMR26650 does not fit. Its just a mm or two too big. You can completely alleviate parasitic drain by unscrewing the tailcap about 1/2 a turn, well before the point of the gasket being exposed. I like 4xAAA better than 3. Nice white tint XPG2. Low mode PWM is really bad.
The head is glued together and its all direct drive at the business end. In other words all the regulation and mode switching circuitry is contained in the tailcap e-switch. Not sure how to take the switch apart, its not the typical brass retaining ring with 2 holes. Furthermore, there’s no where near enough thermal mass or heat path under the LED for this to be worth modding. If I remove the tailcap, battery holder, looking into the barrel I can see light pass through beneath the LED… so theres not much material there to conduct or sink the heat away.
OK lights but nothing to get excited over. If you want instant gratification, $$ would be better spent on a thorfire AA or 18650 on Amazon and expedite the shipping to same day (or 1-2 days if you can wait).
I am highly doubtful that zoomy aspheric optic one is 350 Lumens OTF. Maybe 350 at the emitter but not OTF, lot of wasted lumens on those small diameter aspheric designs. I guess it would all depend on the optic design and how close it gets to the LED.
my .02
[EDIT] I was just playing around with mine (first time in a year) and I remembered why I dislike multi-AAA designs so much… picking out the batteries from the cell caddy with a finger nail is dam near impossible!! Nails on chalkboard!! Back into the flashlight graveyard drawer it goes.
time to mod to accept 18650 or 18500 if you dont have room.
anything stuck with 3aaa here gets relegated to disposable/loaner status.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh,
But these are 4AAA lights
The problem here is that some people think every light should me modded, and if can’t be it ain’t worth owning. That may be true, but the allure is these lights is the PRICE. And they are very decent performers as is Give a non flashaholic one, or three of these and pile of AAA cells and they should be very happy for a long time.
The included cells (12) retail for at least $6. Subtract that from the cost of 3 lights, $8, and what is there to think about?
Yes!
dispose of as in “gift”
they are disposable at that price point.
and with the lack of sag with 18650 should run fine on it.
if i get some i will toss the batts in the aaa bucket for the tv remotes and mod them.
hell modded and fed laptop pulls they are still disposable.
use them where loss,theft,damage are a real possibility.
they are a tiny step above $2 trash lights.
would be better without that parasitic e switch.
if they have real cree,nichia,ect could even be cost effective to mine them for leds.
So if I understand correctly your 2016 purchased lights are 350 ZOOMies?
I just got a pack and they are not Zoomable at all.
The 350’s that I just got are Zoomies. The 300’s from last yeat were compound reflectors.
And just to confirm what kramer5150 said. I estimate that the 300 reflector has more OTF lumens than the 350 zoomie.
Would you be able to tell anything about the LED emmiter from this pic?
CLICK to ZOOM
No, my lights from 2015 are the NON-Zooming versions. With the half orange peel reflector.
I got 2 of those model number slips my mind 1 is a zoomie the other is not. Both are decent lights. I keep saying I'm going to beef them up. Just never got around to it.
I got to compare the tints of these lights. the 700 lumens is cool white but the 350 lumens ones have an awful greenish tint.
Checkout these 2 flashlight deals I came across in a Costco in Massachusetts.
A 4 pack of 350 Lumen lights. Includes the Duracell AAA cells to run them.
And this 2 pack of 3 - C cell flashlights for $10. That’s $5 each and includes the 6 Duracell C cells to run them.
A few months ago these were on special for $15.00 the pair.
How about this deal?
The 4 pack of Duracell 3 -AAA is now $9.99!
Real honest to goodness XP-G2’s
And the package includes 12-AAA Duracell alkalines!
I looked and those 12 cells cost more than the $9.99 for the 4 flashlights with included cells
To be fair, even COSTCO gets 50 cents per cell in quanity, meaning that at COSTCO prices those 12 cells are worth $6 alone.
That means the net cost of the lights is 1 buck a piece.
Note, these lights can not be modded and as far as I can tell can not even be taken apart. They do have 3 modes and work very decently just as they are. Even the cell carrier is custom and I don’t see an easy way to convert over to 18500 use. But for the functionality and price, this is a killer deal.
Yeh, pretty good. I’d still consider the lights disposable, ie, use ’em up as-is ’til something fries, then just toss ’em. Well, after gutting it for the emitter and optix, at least. Probably a decent XP-G or a LB clone. 
I wouldn’t try refitting any of these to Li use, though. 3×AAA lights use the internal resistance of the AAAs to limit current. Stick a Li cell in there, and you’ll have a DD light that would probably fry itself to bits in no time, as there’s near-zero heatsinking.
I forced one apart this morning. I took pictures of the destruction and will post pictures tonight when I get home.
For me, it was very interesting as to how these were made.