Originally Posted By: rebwa
Regarding batteries, while I do keep some Alkalines on hand at home, for a long-term outage to feed lanterns, radio's and other devices. I keep lithium's in all my emergency devices in kits, lights in my suv etc. Daily use lights/devices run on eneloop's. I've lost several lights due to Alkaline leakage. Just a heads up in that regard as one leakage in a headlamp occurred within a couple of months of loading it with new Cooper-Tops and the light wasn't left in a hot or cold environment.


I do have lithiums in my GHB as well as my BOB and other places. I definitely like them better for many reasons. I used the alkalines for this test because I wanted to have fresh batteries for all the lights and alkalines are far cheaper. Since this wasn't an endurance test, and everything but the incandescent were regulated, I thought the alkalines would would not affect the test results.

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I really like the Photon Freedom's especially the ones with the covert or boot over the led. They offer a lot of use for their size and weight. My only concern is that they can get turned on rather easily if care isn't taken in packing them, making sure they are on the correct cycle etc. I went to the Pico light for my PSK for that reason and it also is FAR easier to change out the batts. In the best of circumstances the Photon's are not easy to change batts, not something I'd want to do while trekking home after a disaster. I at least, need a nice flat surface and good light to open those up. I have a couple of the red photon's clipped onto the Surefire lanyards. A little over a year back I picked up one of the Photon Rex lights for a daily use light that is rechargeable, it's on my lanyard and so far it's performed great and has been through several charges. There are some mixed reviews on the light but mine has performed great and taken lots of daily abuse.


The Photo Micro-light II is my first modern key-chain light. I have not tried any others. The Photon Freedom was one I had been thinking about, but am less sure after my experience with the multi-mode lights in this test. The "covert" version of the Freedom may get me to try it though. However, I think I'll try the heat-shrink tube that another poster mentioned first though. Good info on changing the Micro-light batteries. I haven't yet needed to change one and it is good to know it is not necessarily simple.

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I've owned a Petzl Tiki Plus with the red lens cover for years and it's a great headlamp. However, for my pack I've replaced it with the Petzl e lite, which is small, light weight and runs on 2 cr 2032 batts with a 10 year shelf life and will operate in extreme temps. It comes with a protective case and I also keep an extra set of the batts with it. The only downside of the e light is the batts are expensive for a daily use light. So for reading or puttering around the house during a power outage I'd opt for the Tiki Plus.


I have been trying to keep my batteries relatively standardized. At the moment my standard is AAA and AA. The CR2032 batteries sound like they have a lot of positives, but I'm not yet ready to stock and rotate another battery type.

Thanks for the feedback. I always learn a lot.