I have multiple people in the house who should probably be carrying flashlights to be safe but also seem to lose things regularly. I’d like to get some flashlights with decent light and battery life to put on all their keychains. I always carry my Fenix e28r in my pocket, so I don’t really know as much about the keychain-sized lights.
Sell me some or point me in a good direction, please!
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Pretty much a size, vs lumens, vs hassle question.
Tiny, low lumens, simple-replace coin cell or dispose of the whole light
Larger, better light, simple, external rechargeable or alkaline
Lot’s of light, may be more expensive but lots of ‘clones’, many modes, onboard lithium, complicated but can be used in a simple on/off fashion.
I’ve used all of the above and settled happily on a clone like this one. I almost never use anything but the press and hold button to temporarily light my way.
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AAA size: (single mode, high output)
Low CRI: Olight i3e (free with other purchase)
High CRI: Skilhunt E3a
10180 size: (2 modes, USB rechargeable)
Low CRI: Olight imini2
High CRI: Skilhunt EK1
I would choose a High CRI option
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This is my keychain flashlight of choice…
(There are no images in this review because I need to reupload them.)
Here’s what appears to be a rebranded Tunenge S15…
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/3256805077768291.html
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This is helpful. Thanks, everyone!
I just ‘dissected’ a really small one, literally 30 minutes ago: the Trustfire Mini2. The reason I did so is that I already hated it from the day I got it. The beam profile wasn extremely ugly due to the weird TIR they used, the threads felt really bad, regardless how much you lubed them. Charging was done via Micro-USB.Battery life wasn’t all that great and it had also some ‘standby’ drain. I just discovered it had a 80mA 10180.
Unfortunately, after the dissection ‘it’s no more’, but fortunatelly I won it, so no real loss there!
Therefore I would certainly not recommend you the Mini2. I know that Trustfire also made a second version, the Mini2S, but I have no experience with that.
Oh, there was one possitive thing about the Mini2! It was SERIOUSLY small and I actually quite liked how it looked! 
This is a very good topic. Back then we had the BLF A01 and Sofirn C01 and C01S, both fantastic AAA lights. Nowadays we have nothing good unless we significantly up the budget. I’m not a fan of lights with built in cells, they are not field-replaceable when required and eventually become e-waste.
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I wish I have stocked more BLF A01 and/or Sofirn C01. Scored a few and gave them to friends.
For the lights that are still in production, I’d recommend the Skilhunt E3A or EK1. Personally, I carry a Sofirn C01 on my keyring, but they are out of production.
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Depending where you are, probably would be more expensive to have someone ship a keychain light vs buying one new.
Dunno if they still make 'em, but Wuben had some rather nice necklace-lights. Silver, rose-gold, etc., twisties, nice chain to wear as a necklace. Could be a nice gift for a gril…
Funny that this popped up today. I had the same thoughts, so I bought my wife a Emisar KC1. We put it on her keyring, and she immediately lost the light. With the keys.
agree!
Both the AAA Skilhunt E3A and EK1 are available with a High CRI LED.
Another great option is the AAA Emisar KC1, available with several great options of High CRI LEDs. I like DeDomed 519a 4500K.
The AAA Olight i3e is as small as the Emisar and Skilhunt AAA lights, and is often available for free from Olight… but it is Low CRI.
Most 10180 lights are also Low CRI. The Skilhunt is the exception
imo the AAA options are a better choice for non flashaholics, than the slightly shorter 10180 lights.
The AAA options are the simplest, and spare batteries are easy to find.
Here is a size comparison:
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Oh, no…
This is totally something that would happen in my house full of ADHD’ers
I have a similar light like this on my keychain, the Jetbeam Mini ONE SE, but something to consider is how (easy) the lockout can be used. On my ‘early’ model it was extremely weird/complicated: turn flashlight on, triple click to get into the UV mode, than hold the button for 8 seconds to lockout. 4 seconds hold to unlock.
For that reason I never used lockout, but that did result already one time to an turn on in my pants pocket (because one of my keys pressed onto it), which I finally noticed because of my leg suddenly getting pretty warm.
I don’t know if similar models are also so easily activated, but it would be good to make sure that it has a lockout mode that is not so complicated that you don’t use it.
I do believe Jetbeam has changed/updated the model in several ways, including an easier lockout, but on a lot of websites/listings there are tons of pictures of the Mini ONE SE without the Jetbeam logo, but also some with, so there might be a lot of fakes out there, listed as (real) Jetbeams.
The button on the clone I have is pretty ‘firm’. It’s been on my keychain for a couple years and I haven’t had a problem and no idea if there IS a lockout. The UI is kind of a mess IMO.
My key chain is minimal and I don’t carry much in my pockets.
Like I said, this style is complicated.
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It’s really depressing that the E3A/EK1 are the best options now. The EK1 has a built-in cell (read: becomes e-waste in a few years, if not less), and the E3A has only one mode, and the high CRI version uses LH351B, which is R9050 with a nauseating green tint as tested by ZeroAir. Not acceptable when lights from 5/10 years ago have moved on to 219B/SST20. Sofirn C01S and the original A01 beat the E3A in every department while being cheaper.
The AAA Emisar KC1 has the best High CRI LED options.
Jackson offers even more LED choices.
this pic from his site points out it can also use LiIon:
The KC1 is the most expensive option. The Olight is the cheapest, sometimes available for free…
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With a med/low mode the KC1 would have been the best AAA keychain light on the market, but alas…