Mini Review: Costco Feit Electric 1000 Lumen 3xD Cell Flashlight

LED Flashlights – General Info Other Battery Type Flashlights
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Costco Feit Electric 1000 Lumen 3xD Cell Zoomy Flashlight
Battery: 3xD Cells
Switch: Tail Clicky
Modes: Low - Med - High - Hidden Strobe - SOS
LED Type: Unknown
Retail Price: £14.99
From: Costco UK

First review so bear with me, pictures taken with my cell phone.

I bought this from Costco just out of curiosity as I didn’t recognise the LED in it, it retails for £15 including 3 D cell Duracell batteries.
The packaging promises 3 modes of 1000 , 500 and 250 lumens plus usual blinkies.
Flashlight resets to full brightness when turning off regardless of modes.

Driver was easy to remove and is a 20mm unit.

LED is sat on a shelf that is a few mm thick, emitter is on a 20mm aluminium star with plenty of thermal paste.

Slide mechanism is well greased with 2 O-rings and a metal circlip and has a nice smooth operation.

Tail switch has nice positive feel and operation with usual triangular threads on it, anodising seems ok with no obvious flaws in it.

Outside beam shot shows the Feit on the left and for comparison a Zuesray on the right, trees around 40 foot away.

The last two shots are around 200 feet away where it becomes more obvious that the Feit has a much better throw than the Zuesray.

The flood mode isn’t quite as wide as the Zuesray but it is slightly brighter with a more NW tint than the Zuesray.

The Feit is the top flood shot and Zuesray second.

Conclusions

Overall impressions are it is quite a good flashlight but it’s big and heavy for it’s output which isn’t that much better than the Zuesray. It’s size is similar to a Maglite 2D but it’s weight is more like a Maglite 3D.

I would say it is the full 1000 lumens they claim but I have no way of testing it further. The throw is quite good but falls slightly short of my Tangsfire C8 however this is my most throwy zoom light, when zoomed the four dies are very visible and I find it a bit off putting having a big dark cross in the middle of where I am trying to light up.

EDIT

LED looks like a Philips Luxeon M

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Mkr led?

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Thats the one, thanks.

EDIT

LED looks like a Philips Luxeon M

http://www.philipslumileds.com/products/luxeon-m

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Thanks for the review I liked it so much I went to my local Costco in Manchester and picked one up.It weights a bit but who cares,I have on order some D cell to AA converters as I already have the charger and Eneloop AA battery’s so did not want to go to the expense of buying another charger for D cells.Im tempted to get my brother one for Christmas or maybe I will keep it lol.

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Any one know if available at Costco stores in the USA? Not yet on Amazon USA that I can see.

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I saw them in the San Francisco Costco the other week.

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Very interesting. It seems the 3 x D cell configuration is good for long run time and also for high output for those who don’t know and want lithium ion cells. This one seems a lot brighter than my Tmart auto-zoom, and also much easier to modify. D is the original flashlight battery size and deserves respect. If one really wants to use alkalines, D seems the only size that gives good output, and it also gives the most energy per price.
I wonder how it would do on NiMH D cells. The types I know of are Eneloops that are really three AAs in a D package (much better than adapters that use only one AA cell), ordinary white low self discharge Tenergys, grey high drain non-LSD Tenergys, and light and dark blue Tenergys that are too old and losing their capacity from long storage. I haven’t found any tests of D cells.
I am trying again to measure the internal resistance of alkalines by shorting them through my meter. My old D cells are down to 1.48 V, which I think means they still have significant charge left. With the three in series, I measure 0.43 A, and similar readings with only one cell, so it looks like around 3 Ohms internal resistance each. So I expect that the output of the Feit Electric light will drop rapidly as the cells wear down, as it did with my auto-zoomy. With a newer cell reading 1.56 V, the short circuit current is about 5 amps., so the internal resistance is much less and not distinguishable from that of the meter and leads.

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Will this run on nimh cells? I see a similar costco light has problems with nimh: Costco, new Duracell 1000 lumens?

I was thinking of getting one to use with some 3xaa to D converters

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This is a real nice light. When it gets to amazon I may pick up one.
Found on amazon

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I found a review on the costco site and apparently NiMH will cause it to burn out the LED

http://www.costco.com/Feit-LED-Flashlight-Kit-\|~~3-pack-with-case~~\|–1000,–500,~~250-Lumens~~\|~~Slide-Zoom~~\|-Batteries-Included.product.100134566.html

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I don’t assume that’s a bad thing. With a copper star, the LED should be able to take more stress :slight_smile:

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Its because these are lights built around the results of extensive engineering, with cooling only just about good enough for the very limited current a C battery will give. As soon as its a li-ion or nimh that will dump its whole charge within 2 minutes if it has to regardless of frying itself in the process, the emitter will overheat and die, as the driver is direct on high.
I have a light from Wickes and people said the same thing, rechargeables will kill it. And they did, when I ran it off a few…Nicad cells. Those will dump the pixies in absolute gangnam electrolitic capacitor style, much faster than li-ion, one light got to live about 5 seconds before it went out. Or it was faulty. Wont know because will keep the nicads away from the flashlights now. The 2nd and 3rd one (yes I bought 3 flashlights from Wickes) quite likes 18650 lithium, its bright as fcuk and no problems so far.

Ps there seems to be quite a movement towards bright lights that use C or D alkalies. Because no one buys alkalies anymore and there must piles and piles of ships full of stock. How to sell it though…how about flashlights with genuine Crees for decent price?? But spread the rumour that rechargeablez killz the diode. Hehe. Cant wait for Asda XHP70 with 6x D’s for £19.99. With a warning that rechargeables kill it.