Looking for a good 1xAA

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
1

Forgive me as I am going to be posting this in the CR123 section as well.

I'm looking for either a 1xAA or 1xCR123 back up light for my tk15. I have read for the last 3 days through here and CPF trying to find some good "budget" lights and have found things such as the romisens, ITP sa1 and sc1, ultrafire, akoray k-106/109, Trustfire f20 that all look promising.


The requirements for the 1xAA:

-Reliable

-3 modes: High-120+lm, med-35lm, low->5lm...or close to those #'s

-2+hrs on high with e2 lithiums

-70/30 throw/spill...or close

-Forward clicky tail

-Price: $40 or under

Ideally I'd like to have both the cr123 and AA, and eventually probably will, but I'm leaning towards one of the ITP lights ($40), in which case I will get a "budget" light of the one I dont get (AA or cr123). I feel like the ITP's are going to be the best quality in this price range, am I wrong?


Basically I'm asking, what is the BEST budget 1xAA out there right now?? Is there a hands down, top 1 or 2?

Any help is appreciated!

BTW, here are my requirements for the 1xcr123:

Requirements for the 1xcr123 light: (prob wont be using rcr123's)

-Reliable

-3 modes: high-170+lm, med-35-50lm, low->5lm...that general guideline

-Run time of at very least 1hr on high

-70/30 throw to spill, or close.

-dont care either way about strobe/SOS

-Forward clicky tail

-Price: $40 or under, get the most for my money.

2

If you weren't looking for premium one with modes I would say UltraFire AA-S1 without any doubt. AA-S1 is the most efficient light I've seen working with single AA battery. Never needed to insert a Li-Ion in it.

Other than that, although I've never tried one, Mr.Lite lights look very much matching your requirements.

3

Hi there tdoom15,

Good question. The forward clicky tail is a bit of a different requirement. In fact I don't think I own any forward clicky lights yet. They are almost all reverse clickies.

Do you care about the ability to tailstand?

4

Multiple modes are making nonsense of a forward clicky if you ask me. At least with the average mode switching UI.

5

I don't care about the ability to tail stand, but I do care about having the momentary on.

The ITP sa1 has everything I'm looking for, but I dont want to spend $80 on 2 flashlights that wont get used a ton (1AA, 1CR123). I will probably end up getting either the sc1 or sa1, and a budget light replacement for whichever ITP I don't get.

Is there a hands down best, or widely recognized top few in the 1xAA budget lights? Seems the akoray 106 is up there and the F20, on the budget light I am willing to comprimise a fair bit bc I know it's hard to get everything you want without paying the price.

6

Yeah that's a tough one .. bringing too many demands on budget lights is really hard .I thought a ha solorforce which is an answer to a ton of issues because they are so lego and can be both a AA and a cr123 with the tube change and knew you could do the forward clicky ...

http://www.solarforce-sales.com/product_detail.php?t=LF&s=31&id=114

add a tube for 5 $ and a forward clicky tail 5~10$?

My very first thought was a small sun zy-c55 which switches between a cr123 and a AA with the taking out of one 1/2 inch spacer.but it's single mode and side button which I like.A pretty good solid white color and a lot of throw for such a small light and a whopping 9 $ plus shipping .similar to the sipik hk22 1 AA which dx is selling now for about 11.50 except it's a hi/low strobe not very low ..comes in 3 styles 18650 /AA and a cr123 3 modes ...

last suggestion is a tank 556 or a 568 they were made q3 q4 and probably q5 ??( most are q4's) in single modes 3 modes< which I've never seen and 5 modes and they have easy to buy extra length tubes making them 2AA.without the tube they're around 12 ~14 $. tubes are 2.50 from manafont .. they have a beautiful color light I've had a bunch of them and everyone of them is sweet a little ringy but you said you want throw , then you want a smooth reflectorsinple beautifully built and with a 14500 bright as hell.

my suggestions aren't what you want //maybe you have to pay to get what you want .All I know is I'd stand behind my picks to anyone .all 3 are hard to beat .Great lights versatile and easy on your wallet

7

Drop the need for a forward clicky and compromise a little on either runtime or output (say, 1.5 hours or 80-90 lumens output) and you'd have a LOT more choices. As I mentioned in a the CR123 thread, you want 120+ lumens for 2+ hours on a lithium primary AA out of a budget flashlight, and your response when told that's going to be difficult is "well, a $40 flashlight can do it, why can't I pay half as much and get the same thing?".

I mean, drop the incredibly strange need for a forward clicky (and based on what you said you'd use it for it's utterly pointless), you could get an ITP A1 and A2 off of Shiningbeam with the CPF coupon code and they'd do exactly what you need (maybe 8-10 lumens under your output "requirement" for the 1xaa light) for $50 shipped. Plus you'd get the build quality of ITP and the absolutely reliability of a twisty over a click switch, which is a possible point of failure especially in budget lights.

Or be willing to get a good flashlight with most of what you want and be prepared to modify the rest, such as adding a forward clicky and/or new driver and/or new emitter.