I Bought EVERY Flashlight at Home Depot!

Hi everyone,
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Form the very best to the very worst flashlights I bought all that Home Depot had to offer. The complete line of their Husky flashlight house brand, the Coast, Defiant, Maglite all the way down to the plastic Energizer lights, I bought every flashlight in the store!
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Performance chart: chart — Postimages
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Do you have a favorite flashlight from home depot?

Thanks for doing the video.

The Defiant 3C is not a bad light when you get it on sale (around $7). That’s about 100 lumen per dollar. I converted mine to an 18650.

I also have a few of the Husky 500 (4AA) lights. I think I paid $10 for 2. Again, not bad for what you get, but I agree, the tail switch feels mushy.

haha, fun video!
Yes, I used to have a HomeDepot flashlight. But I threw it away a long time ago. That was before my flashlight hobby days…

Thanks for testing all those :party:

I hear a lot of “not bad”’s in the video but what I miss a bit is a direct comparison, in price and performance, to what we flashoholics buy in China, the C8, the Q8, an S2+, the FT03. Those are all li-ion flashlights, but if you don’t mind that, may we still just as well go to Home Depot (or the corresponding malls outside the US) or are we miles ahead?

hah you are too funny vestureofblood.

I was going to mention this but the vid was getting long so I cut it. The one thing that still truly separates consumer grade flashlights from flashaholic grade lights in my mind is that the consumer grade lights still all assume non rechargeable batteries for power. This means the output has to be lower no matter what. As far as quality to price ratio there are really some companies catching up to us. For example the coast polymer light. Throw out that AAA adapter and put in a 26500 button top and your golden. Truly a great light then. 100% USER. It’s 3 mode NO blinky, sturdy, light weight. Its like 20 bucks… For a 2AA light I really think the Coast G20 is hard to beat. You could definitely get a brighter one online, but with AAA cells I would prefer the single mode moderate output.

Over all I would still say if you have internet access a person is going to do better 95% of the time getting something in the same price range on the internet provided proper research is done, but I think we have finally come to the place where you can buy a descent light in a big box store.

Thanks for the answer! :+1:

There is a difference between HD and the european malls in that those few decent quality flashlights can not be found here, it still all is junk.

Equivalent of HD in the US would be something like Leroy Merlin or Obi in Europe, or Hornbach in Netherlands.

Ha haaa, “$4 flashlight with a $10 battery”. :smiley: Haven’t seen one of those 6V lantern batteries for a while, can’t believe they still sell them.

Yep, that’s one differentiator. And for me it would be the color temperature. With the exception of that $20 Milwaukee “inspection” light, those all looked like they had ghastly cold blueish-white bins. Apart from the obvious economies of scale, I would even venture to bet that they use those nasty bins because many consumers actually prefer it. They would probably say that it looks “cool” (pun not intended until after the fact :innocent: ) and plus it looks obviously different from an old boring inca bulb. Reminds me of when some tuners and European high-end car brands started using HID headlights or whatever those were a few decades back; dreadful color rendering but they sure did look (and were) expensive!

Thanks for the fun video! Loved it.

I have to admit, I miss the days of hitting various box stores finding hidden gems among the dross.

Thanks for doing all that should make my trips to H D much quicker…
I found the Husky dual beam interesting.Is the ring an array of led`s in a difuser tube?
It did seem to have pwm on the video.
Also it looks to be 4aaa cells not 6.
Good video as usual VOB

This video showed up in my YouTube suggestions. Came her me and saw this post. Will watch shortly.

There are two huskies that are almost identical. The 6AA and also a 4AA, the bodies are the same size, but its possible I might have accidentally shown the 4AA carrier in the cut away shot.

Yes the ring is a COB, several small emitters in the ring with the yellow material over the top. There is PWM, Visually I was not able to see it.

Thanks for taking the hit on cost >$600. Looks like you chose a time/day/week that wasn't busy at Home Depot.

The only light I have that's close to anything in this vid, is the Coast Polysteel 600. Plastic does not give much heat disposition, thus the manufacturer spec of 710 lumens takes a dive real fast. Coast is highly visible in stores here in Portland Oregon, it's where their manufacturing plant is.

Always enjoy your videos!

I usually walk right past lights when shopping Lowe’s or Home Depot, but I might have to get that Coast with the “Inspection” beam!

Went to Tokyo recently, this is what i could find in the local electronics store

And this was what the KLM has in their Boeing 777

Whoa… I think I would’ve bought just one of each.

I always did like the 2×AA MiniMags. Hacqueable, with a little drilling. Otherwise a decent solid light.

This is such a great video!

Is Lowe’s next?! :smiley:

Oh, speaking of which, my LuxPro 4×AAA light also has one of those soft-touch e-switches in the tailcap. Can’t for the life of me undo the ring that’s around the pogo stick, but just bridging negative to the tube gives 100% brightness. “100%” through the switch still has some pwm “notches”, which is how it powers the tailcap’s driver.

You always gotta be VERY careful with series alkaleaks, else eventually they’ll for sure ruin the innards of the carrier and light itself if you let ’em. Easy to get 3×AAA carriers (long and short), but try getting a 4×AAA one.

The biggest selection of flashlights in the Portland OR area is at our local Frys electronics store. I took this photo about a year ago with the automatic pano function in my iPhone, the isle is actually straight.