You forget fedex shipping…but that drives the price WAY up
if you need NOW…then get some of those 3xAAA 9LED jobbies from home depot or lowes or harbor freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/led-flashlight-mini-2-piece-9-led-3-12-69112.html 2x for $3.19
One-mode sk68 eats a lot of batteries, and gets hot. That just eliminates it as an option in my opinion, whereas 3-mode sk68 is still acceptable. Pretty sure people will quickly learn to switch to low mode to get much longer runtime.
Reliability for the two is similar - I don’t think you should worry about that.
Still, requirement to get it next week cuts a lot of options.
Those are a much better idea than the 1xAA Zoomies. They are bright enough for emergencies, there’s almost nothing in them to break, and they have decent battery life on normal batteries.
The 1xAA Zoomie only runs for about 30 minutes on an alkaline AA. That seems kind of a cruel thing to give to a kid who will probably view it foremost as a very neat toy and will want to play around with it for a while.
it probably has 5 lumens, i would only give that to my enemy
it may be better then no light, but barely, a home depot defiant light would be a much better value
15-30 lumens depending on the model. That’s plenty for emergencies.
Don’t just dismiss stuff just because you haven’t used one recently.
The 9 LED lights can be found at “99 Cents Only Stores” most of the time.
I would get those OR the Sipik as Best Choices.
Sipik uses 1 AA batt—and might consume them quickly.
9 LED light uses 3x AAA in a plastic carrier—which can get lost easily by kids.
**IMHO—The Sipik with an extra battery or two is the best , most user friendly, uses safe readily available batteries,
and indestructible for the end user while beating the budget.
The Rayovac indestructibles are great—but huge and heavy to carry and store, especially for homeless.
those 5mm LEDs are junk, i’ve used far too many, i would be amazed if it had 15-30 lumens, if it has 10 lumens i would be impressed but your saying it has almost half the light of low on a 105C driver?
You were the one who recommended giving homeless kids Nimh’s and solar chargers. I think I’ll just tune you out now.
I think this would be a great all purpose light, but its a bit expensive plus the shipping time.
I think its worth asking the company if you can get a bulk discount
http://solarforceflashlight-sales.com/product_detail.php?t=LF&s=45&id=631
I said it would be ideal, not realistic given the budget, think about it if you were stuck outdoors would you not like to be self sufficient and have years of lighting without spending any money?
The ones from .99 stores aren’t as bright as the ones from Home Depot, Lowes, Harbor Freight.
The ones from Home Depot, Lowes, HF are surprisingly bright and decently made.
What is “ideal” would be that these kids wouldn’t be homeless. These aren’t people that are camping out for fun. The homeless have other issues to prioritize than battery maintenance.
If you want to fight with me over an idea then good for you, i am not interested, lets just agree to disagree. I’m just trying to toss ideas out there, sometimes an idea can lead to a better idea which leads to a solution to the problem at hand and i apologize for making you mad by posting it, that was obviously not my intention.
Not interested in fighting? Didn’t seem like it.
If you want people to respect your ideas, you should try doing the same for them.
the 3 modes would give a long run time on an aa.
2nd choice would be the sk51 aa sipik which has the lantern mode, great for camping, and also as far as I know all have a low mode.
both of the above are zoomies, the kids should have fun with that.
I would go with an Sipik SK-68 (or clone). They’re pretty cheap (can be had for less than $4 each), runs on AA-sized batteries (alkaline, lithium, or 14500 lio-ion, etc. - can find a battery pretty much anywhere), built really solid. The zooming feature is great because when zoomed it will throw really well. The zoom is also great for adjusting the intensity of the brightness for what you want to illuminate.
How about a crank light or shake light? Don’t know if there are any decent enough in the price range, but it would eliminate the battery problem as they will never have to search for replacements.
Or maybe a sipik clone since these are dirt cheap and if bought in bulk should even become somewhat cheaper and a dynamo flashlight as a backup? It could also be used in situation less light is needed so to spare the battery in the sipik.
But that aside, kudo’s for the great work you and your colleagues are doing for this kids!
I’m thinking the same thing. I’m guessing these aren’t typical middle income family kids turned out on the streets, so might have a little more self control knowing how scarce resources can be, but kids will be kids. Zoomies are fun, but these kids don’t need to be exploring abandoned buildings or dark alleys. The SK68, although cheap and bright, will likely just get played with for awhile and have a dead battery when needed or get traded off. I’m of the opinion that for the same cost, one or two mid to low lumen light with longer battery life, would be more useful and likely to be kept. The 3/5/7 single AA LED lights you can pickup almost anywhere would seem appropriate, though you’d want to test individually due to varying build qualities. Being flashaholics, it’s tempting to say brighter is better, but that’s only if it’s close at hand and working when needed.
KuoH
Wouldn't last 2 days before someone robbed them.
Something like this might serve well. You don't often need >100lm, people got along fine for many years using dimmer incandescent flashlights.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_472904-50387-DFL-23_0__
It does not say what LED its using but at that price and 40 lumens is very impressive if its accurate and durable, it would get my vote if there were a review on it or more information