Hi Everyone,
I’m planning on buying 25 or 30 inexpensive flashlights for gifts this year at my office.
I prefer AA or AAA lights priced in the $2 to $5 range.
Let me hear your suggestions as to which are good ones.
Thanks…
Wayne
Couple bucks over, but pretty awesome: http://www.thrunite-store.com/thrunite-tis-60-lumens-cree-xp-e-r4-led-flashlight/
I bought one of these, it seems pretty cool for kids. Mini C8 1-Mode 30-Lumen White Light Flashlight
1*AAA
Mini c8 is garbage it’s like these other AApolicelights for some bucks or for free…
No comparison to a real cree led AA or AAA light like the tank007e09 the olight i3 or the ultrafire m5. The last one was on sale on DX for 1.3…but this deal ended.
The only real cheap and bright light is the sipik sk68, this will blow a lot normal people away with its brightness…
This is one of the most widely sold lights anywhere for a good reason. It’s a cheap well built light and for the money it simply is really hard to beat.
+1
Definitely agree with that one, the various Sipik SK68 Clones (and the real one) make the best Xmas gift in your price range.
I bought the Sipik SP68 expecting to hate it but it’s turned into my goto flashlight around the house. The zoom is a nice feature. I don’t think you can do much better for $4. I have a Tank and a Black Cat but they cost a bit more than your price range.
What everybody said. I did the usual chasing after the perfect SK68 clone for a while, realized you never know what you’re getting (even if you buy two from the same place! at the same time! in the same order! they may well be a bit different).
So, I had, er, a dozen.
So — I’ve been giving them away, and of course they’re WOW! gifts.
Suggestion: put Energizer Ultimate Lithium AAs L91 (blue and silver) cells.
in the flashlight, when you’re giving it as a gift.
Why? Just my opinion. Here’s the long form:
LED flashlights are still plenty bright when alkaline cells are nearly discharged and once they’re discharged, the shell’s corroded inside, so they’re likely starting to leak!
In the old incandescent bulb days, the battery would get weak, the light would get noticeably dim, and — most of the time — the amateur would swap batteries. Unless they left it in a drawer for a year or two, they’d notice and check them often enough they wouldn’t leak or just barely start to leak.
Today, with the SK68, your gift light will last most people a year in intermittent use.
So for your gift lights, put in that battery and tell the person why.
Note there are other kinds of Energizer Lithiums, with shorter lifetimes.
Note also that any battery that sat in baking sun in a hot box for a while has lost some capacity. I’ve been burned on cheap NiMH and cheap Energizers from discount resellers (well, I got what I paid for)
For gifts —- find a good deal on the right kind of cell.
Else you’ll be helping your friend/family member dig out and clean out a leaked alkaline battery after a while, and explaining how it could be that the light still worked even though its guts were being dissolved by brown sludge …. a chemistry lesson you don’t need.
Good advise Hank! …and part of the reason for the gifting is to help spread the word about this crazy flashlight addiction.
Even if one other friend gets the bug It will be fun to be able to share and discuss what new flashlight someone has purchased.
I have several SK68 clones and know they’re generally great lights. I was just hoping to save a few bucks on my gifting and still find that undiscovered (by me at least) ‘great, inexpensive’ light.
Thanks…
W
That bundle with a Li-ion (14500) battery and charger is not a good idea for Christmas presents — don’t give li-ion cells to people who don’t already have experience handling them properly. And cheap is good for flashlights (well, if the heatsinking is done right) but not good for Li-ion, generally.
Look for it for less than $4 without a battery and charger bundle — it’s the same Sipik clone; many similar ones at Amazon these days for around that price.