Do All LED flashlights eat batteries so quickly they are basicly usless or just my cheap $20 Brunton?? I was thinking on investing in a Surefire or the like, but if this is common among these lights why bother.

The simple answer is that they don't.


It all depends on how many mA the LEDs draw (with some lights now using Luxeon Star super LEDs they can draw quite a bit more than a traditional LED does), how many of them there are, how many batteries your light holds, and how efficient the circuit is inside the unit.

Other factors like a 'low intensity' setting will help stretch life out too. There are many online calculators that can help you do the math on LED circuits. My favorite is here.

Higher-end LED lights have amazing run times, and let you switch between "blowtorch" and "penlite" modes. I have switched everything over to LEDs.

Some of the inexpensive LEDs come with 3-AAAs and eat them like crazy. Gives people the wrong impression about the technology, and reliability is sometimes dicey. Shame on the people who market this stuff.

There's a good discussion forum specializing in lighting:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/

Also check out the very excellent:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/

How quick are you talking about?

In general, LED technology is much more efficient than an incandescent light of about equal output. Some LED lights also have circuitry that will extract as much power out of the battery as possible, whereas incandescent lights will often get down to point where the bulb is very dim, but the batteries still have quite a bit of capacity left.

However, as has been pointed out, there are some LED models that do "eat" batteries. If you crank up the power on a light, it's going to go through batteries quickly regardless of whether it is LED or not.

Surefire makes excellent lights, but most models are fairly high output and will also tend to use up batteries fairly quickly, too. So, keep that in mind before you purchase one so that you are not disappointed by the runtime.

OK, So maybe a better question is which LED flashlights have longer run times :ie variable output, that you guys like?

Get yourself one of these

https://www.fenix-store.com/product_info...84f615fd2ee8881

with one of these

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IV0...rd_i=B000WPJIME

you won't be disappointed

+1 on the Fenix L2D. Fenix is a popular brand among the flashaholic crowd that are reasonably priced. Unless you want a physically large flashlight, there's probably a Fenix model that would suit you just fine--and you'll be amazed at how bright and how long these little lights can last, if you've never used one before. Note that even with the models that use standard size batteries, like AAA or AA, you'll generally get better performance using rechargeable NiMh batteries in them instead of alkalines because they can stand up better to the sustained power drain of these lights.

My mainstays for longevity are:

• Standard Mini Maglite with LED conversion
• Gerber TriTac LED Light
• Gerber Infinity Ultra
• Petzl E+Lite headlight

I have a couple of others that use Luxeon Star LEDs and are ridiculously bright but these typically take at least 6 cells and aren't known for their battery life (though it's still better than incandescent)

I haven't been here long, but I have never seen a comment about the crank or shake flashlights that use no batteries at all. They are bulky, but not overly so, and never having to remember to replace or carry fresh batteries seems a real plus.

Does anyone have an opinion on them?

I have several wind-up flashlights, the Chinese versions, bought on a sale 1-1/2 years ago. I see the same models all over the place now, including Costco.

My experience with these has been mixed. The LEDs are bright (for close-up flood use), the winding mechanism is noisy yet functional, ... but the batteries are junk. A few months after purchase, one of them stopped holding a charge for more than a half hour or so. I opened one and discovered there is a tiny lithium-ion button battery inside. I guess I could replace it, but it seems like throwing good money after bad. That light became the "kid flashlight." The others are working, but I wouldn't trust them without a good backup. (One day I may convert it into a cell phone charger -- not hard to do.)

However: the Freeplay-powered crank lights are another thing entirely. They are heavy and very well made, with good NiMH sub-AA cells inside. I would trust one, though I'd need a Sherpa to carry it for me :-).

As to the shake lights: every one I've seen is garbage. Unless there are shakers that are much, much better, I would say "forget it."