Costco 3 pack 4XAAA Duracell flashlight

Thanks for the comparison of the 300/350 lights. I picked up the 350 ones, paid full price $20 but they dont seem to have a zoom lens.

I think you mentioned that “this years light is a zoomie.”
maybe I got the wrong ones.

I really like the 700 2-pack for $16. they really light up the building from inside and out, no matter how dark it is. Sofar didn’t find a flashlight that can outshine these.

look around here a while and you will find smaller lights that will beat the pants off of these.
$8 ea is a good deal and when you dont have to wait for the slow boat,get latticebrighted,ect its even nicer.
these have it in the value dept.
might be able to run 26650 with a spacer too.
anyone measure id of the tube yet?

Dcho,

Do you recall if the 2 pack was aspheric lens zoomie, or Maglite-like focusable with a reflector? There is no Costco in my town, but I know someone in a different town that might be interested in that deal.

I am no expert, but it seems to me it is focusable. checkout the pics

Zoomed in

Zoomed out(85%)

Do you mean inner diameter? Dont have a caliper on me but just using a tape measure it looks around 27-28MM. The C-cells are rattling a little bit.

cool.use 26650 with a homemade dummy and 3 c in a pinch

That's what I needed to know. Thank you caramba.

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 :slight_smile:

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 :slight_smile:

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