High output AA?

[rickw12]

Thanks. I’ve seen that one. Lights with two switches like that don’t make sense to me. But taste aside, I need to avoid that kind of thumb action as much as possible.

[moodysj]

@Enderman

Unless you use high discharge NIMH AA cells like eneloops or eneloop pros, you’re not going to get “high output” using AA.
Any flashlight that says more than 400 or 500 lumens is either using nimh or li-ion cells to get those numbers.

Not necessarily. A Energizer lithium ultimate primary L91 AA is a different animal than alkaline. A light behaves very differently on it vs an alkaline. So it is an AA and gives much higher output than an alkaline AA. In some lights, it even outperforms a NiMh

[moodysj]

@WalkIntoTheLight

@ChrisGarrett

@nquinn

@ChrisGarrett

@WalkIntoTheLight

@zak.wilson

Zebralight manages around 500 lumens from AA, but I don’t think anybody else is running them nearly that hard. Full output requires an NiMH battery, of course.

+1

The Zebralight SC5w is a great light, by far my favourite 1xAA light. Over 500 lumens, nice tint & beam, fantastic UI. All on a single Eneloop.

It’s a little pricey, but IMO, the Zebralights are well worth it. I have a drawer full of AA lights, but it’s my Zebralights that I end up using 99% of the time.

That light is meant to run on one specific battery and one battery only—an Eneloop Pro, or its rebadged equivalents.

You’re not popping in an Energizer AA alkaleak and getting 500LM. Maybe an Energizer Lithium Ultimate, but not a regular jobbie.

Chris

I’m still impressed any 1.2v NiMH battery can hit 500 lumens. I thought most were in the 200 range and 14500’s were needed to hit 500-600. Sounds like Zebra has some way to get more of of the eneloops.

They spec 5A and the Eneloop Pro (and equivalents) can handle that for limited runtimes.

You’re not getting long runtimes at that current, but it’s better than anything an alkaleak can handle at that draw.

Chris

You don’t need an Eneloop Pro for the Zebralight SC5w. I use regular Eneloops, and they work just fine. It will put out 500 lumens on a regular Eneloop for about 20-25 minutes. Cumulative run-time on 500 lumens, because you have to step the light back up to 500 lumens every 3 minutes. You have to do that test with a fan, or the light would get too hot.

You obviously get much better runtimes and efficiency on lower modes, but it’s nice to have 500 lumens when you need it.

As for other brands than Eneloop, they probably work fine as well, as long as they’re based on the same tech. There are lots of Eneloop clones. I’ve never used any of them personally, but many people swear they are identical.

Alkalines won’t get you the 500 lumen output, of course. Stick to 100 lumen lights if you require alkaleaks, or just never use the higher modes on brighter lights.

Energizer ultimate lithiums will get you way over 100 lumens

[vit55]

Solution is Manker T01II 500 lumen on AA throw 282 meters no expensive like Zebralight.