Water powered flashlight? The Heck?!?!

We’re probably better off with a book of matches.

Chris

I’d say it’s ok for emergency use, when you don’t have access to batteries. Definitely not practical for everyday use. The fact that a fuel cell has made it’s way into a light is cool. It’s only a matter of time till the technology improves.

Very insteresting, I cannot hear about how many charges it can take and the duration decay.

It’s a gimmick. For all intents and purposes, it runs on a non-rechargable, non-replaceable battery (company not yet selling replacement “fuel cell” batteries) They just leave the water out of the battery so that it looks like magic when you add it yourself. The battery still runs out though, at which point you are left with a piece of trash.

Based on Amazon reviews it’s 300 hours lifespan at ~15 lumens output and then it goes in the garbage due to no replacement cells. Im sure the battery chemical reaction continues whether or not you switch the light off, so once you add the water the clock starts ticking. For the $29.99 of this thing I can buy a light and enough batteries to keep 15 lumens going for a LOT longer than 300 hours.

Not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, but while it might be interesting tech and while you might use it in an emergency, how many people here, or out in the world are actually going to buy the thing to use in an ‘emergency’ situation, when lights/batteries are like cockroaches in most developed 1st world countries?

It’s a bad idea because it’s going to spook flashlight enthusiasts and for sure the general public…IMO, at least.

As a technical exercise and proof of concept, sure.

Chris

True though in a worst case scenario. Unlikely, yup.

Looks like it is a sham according to a few posts up. Internal battery? Geez.

It is undoubtedly just zinc and copper electrodes in the “fuel cell” and it sounds like they dissolve after 300 hours of use.

I’d rather have one of those TAC Light zoomies you see on TV. Two for $20.

Just go and get any old 2AA LED light and a few quads of Energizer Lithium Ultimates.

You’ll be good for the next 25 years.

Chris

Again, not trying to dog-pile but in an emergency good water is probably more useful than a mediocre flashlight.
This seems like it would be somewhat cooler if it were marketed like the old potato clocks. Build your own flashlight without using batteries. You’d sell a million of them one xmas and then nothing until nostalgia kicks in and you sell them from time to time.

this was used since the dawn of mankind :+1:

I wanted to add another water flashlight video to this thread. This is a engineer I believe. He uses copper and magnesium threads for 3d printing to make a flashlight. Proof of concept works well enough. Maybe someone can repost the link with the direct video in here I don’t know how to do that.

How to build water activated flashlight by lasersaber

Water here - it’s not a source of power.
It’s just an element of battery.
Water is just a catalyst for chemical reaction.
But clever marketing is accent all you attention on the water.
Really with the water we can only to activate the battery.
Nothing more.
At low temperatures, this battery may not turn on. Or it will take a very long time.

in an emergency water may be a precious commodity.
might have to activate it with urine.
how do you turn on this flashlight?
well you know now.

You can use a plastic bag.
The problem is that the urine can change the chemistry of the battery.

I’m sure in a emergency any water would work. Get some water from a pond or ditch if needed. Not a bad thing for a prepper if you go in knowing its few day use item only.

I still like the other video where the guy made his own flashlight from 3d printing ribbon

TERRIBLE light!
dim
blue
Huge
$30
Prob runs about 10 minutes
prob a charged li ion cell would last longer than this thing sitting around uncharged…
what do the batteries cost?

wle

Pretty certain this qualifies as one of the WORST CASE misrepresentations in the history of advertising...

Having long been both a flashlight fanatic and follower of fuel cell technology, I recall back in 2006 a Vancouver-based company called Angstrom power introduced a replaceable hydrogen-cartridge powered 1W Luxeon LED flashlight as a proof-of-concept demonstration of micro-sized fuel cells.

It ran for 24 hours on a single H2 cartridge producing around 30 lumens. I figured it would take about 2 years for the idea to catch on and improve in efficiency since both lithium ion rechargeable batteries and LEDs were undergoing incredible tech evolution at the time. A huge proponent of rechargeable LiIons, I was hoping the micro fuel cell would co-evolve with them and offer a practical alternative to primary cells.

Sadly, the idea perished on the vine... and I forgot about it for a dozen years until WHAMMO one insomnia-cursed night I saw the Hydra-Light TV ad and excitedly flashed back to the Angstrom Power light...

....and as soon as I pointed my browser at its site I raced to the medicine cabinet for something to soothe my nausea... pretty much every criticism leveled here is sadly true, and worst of all the MISUSE of the words "fuel cell" as glib marketing is almost criminal.

Its basically a salt-water electrolyte battery, with dried salt inside, so it becomes add water and mix thing. Not to mention HUGE, flat-out-ugly, and such a tremendously misleading disappointment that it should be avoided like the plague.