I am in the market for a new flashlight. I work in a shop and it will be used on my belt clip. I work on cars so it will most likely be dropped, water splashed, a little oil, and bumped. I am wanting to stick with standard AAA batteries. I am new to this forum so I was unable to decide where to post this flashlight at. It claims to be a 18650 with AAA adapter so I posted it here in the 18650 forum. I was originally leaning towards the Nebo Redline for $25 new with case on ebay until I found this:
I am not worried about the location, I purchase stuff from hong kong and china all the time on ebay. I am curious what you may think because I have no experience with these kind of lights. I would like to keep my purchase under $30 for flashlight, case, and shipping total. If you have any other suggestion I am definitely open to it. Thank You for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
Doubt that lumen claim is accurate, especially on 3xAAA instead of li-ion 18650.
Is ‘flood-to-throw’ zoomie type something you want/need? That light appears to be f-t-t.
One thing you want to consider for working on cars is PWM. Lights that use pulse width modulation to control brightness (with too low of a frequncy) can have a dizzying strobe effect and make moving assemblies like pullies and belts hard to make out.
Its kinda hard to explain but if you have used a cheap led light with multiple modes you have probably encountered this.
SK68 runs AA batteries. Joshua wants to use AAA for whatever reason. Have you tried the search function on the top left hand side of the page or the forum posts? Cheers and good searching.
I work on cars, and on a daily basis I use either a sipik sk68 clone, or a single mode G10. Neither can be killed.
Both are AA, not AAA, but in my opinion they are ideal. Most of my colleagues started out with LED lensers, which have mostly died, and I’ve convinced them to buy sk68 clones!
Josh - do you really want aaa? or were you just looking at 18650/3xAAA lights because you have 18650s?
You should realize the 3xAAA option will not be as bright as 18650s. As long as you are aware of that.
AA will have better runtime and many more options. May want to consider AA. (I’m more of a cr123a man myself.) Whichever way you go, definitely use rechargeables of some kind: nimh or lifepo4 or li-ion.
I have finally had a chance to look over all or your replies and you all are of great help. I do like the sk68 clones they seem to be very nice. I am not looking for a specific aaa or aa flashlight, I would like almost any flashlight with the aaa or aa compatibility because those batteries are more readily available for me. I do love the rayovac indestructible and I was considering one from walmart but its size was my only issue. It seems to have a larger barrel than most. The flashlight I am seeking is more of a reward and a useful piece of equipment I do hope to use. I just received my state inspectors license and I told myself as a reward I would get a very nice flashlight. As weird as that may sound I believe rewards are good drives. The flashlight I will use will be specifically for when under vehicles and needing to see things quickly and easily. Mainly during inspections. We have drop lights from the ceiling on extension cords we use for while working so long term use will not be an issue for my flashlight. I am unsure of the difference between the pwm and other lights. Overall I am looking for a good flashlight that will be durable, bright with a large coverage area, use aaa or aa batteries, and stay in a pouch/case on my belt when not in use. I do believe it will be rarely dropped and splattered with any liquid substance one can think of. It will be bumped quite a bit though. Thank You again for all of your help and I look forward to hearing form you.
If you’re buying a reward for yourself spend a few bucks more. Nothing worse than celebrating a well deserved goal with a McDonalds dinner.
Instead get yourself a nicer light intl-outdoors is now my favorite vendor specifically because they offer the BEST drivers on their budget lights. Believe me after having been in budget lights for a while a good driver makes all the difference in the world. Getting into 18650’s opens up a world of lights brighter, longer lasting, and just as compact if not more than any AA light can achieve. A pair of 18650’s an a budget charger don’t add that much, maybe $25 on top of the cost of a light and then you can also get other lights too.
The Roche F12 or LXP compact light have very good specs and no doubt you’ll be more satisfied using them for work than a cheap zoomie.