Santa left an interesting flashlight in my stocking - and my two dear children's stockings this year. At first I feared that it was another cheap flashlight that Santa has been known to give me over the years (sigh), but this one has really REALLY impressed me.



It is a Brinkmann Armormax 1 AA LED flashlight. The label says that the LED is a Cree. The body is some kind of glass reinforced plastic.

So I loaded up the light. The only negative is that I had to battle with the o-ring a bit. It wanted to stretch out of shape and ooze out as I screwed the end cap back on. I used saliva to try to lubricate it and after a few tries eventually that worked.

The light output is amazing for such a small light. It has a crinkled reflector, which provides a VERY nice smooth transition from the bright center spot area to a more dim outside area. I would say its more of a flood with a spot center than a spotlight with extra light on the sides - but that is my preference (I don't really like center-loaded spotlights). The spread is about 6' wide at 6', if that makes sense.

It has a rear textured rubber-covered cap switch. Click on - click off. I have no idea how robust/durable this switch is, but it provides a nice tactile feedback and sound.

Just over 4" long, 1" wide body, and 1-1/8" wide at the lens.

Amazon.com shows its cost (not try to look inside that gift horse) at about $13. Time will tell, but up front this looks like a great value.

OK, truth be known, after a talk with Santa, these flashlights only cost us $35,000 ... well, sort of. That is the amount we put on a low interest credit card to temporarily help finance veterinarian bills that mounted when one of our horses broke his leg, and the flashlights were some kind of gift from the credit card company.

BTW, the horse survived the almost unsurvivable. The vet - tops in the Chicago area, treating expensive race horses and the like - said they've never heard of one surviving that injury. He spent something like 5 months on a pulley system that prevented him from laying down (and damaging his leg) and another several months limited to his stall, and is now actually doing quite good ... and I got a nice flashlight too. Don't even go into whether it was worth it ... that was the dear wife's choice - not mine. Trust me.

I believe that the reason there are no replies yet is that we are all waiting to see if you edit that $35,000 to $350, or even $3,500.

$13 sounds good to me. Single AA sized? I like it! Let us know how it holds up!

Rated for 60 lumens for two hours. That's probably emitter lumens, so you'll see more like 40 lumens out the front. An excellent deal, especially as a gift to the non-flashaholic.

It gets better: field testing has already been done.

I have been EDC-ing one of these as an everyday "beater" light for over a year. It's always on my belt, in an open sheath, all day, winter and summer, getting bumped around, dropped, and doing the dirty work (unlike my Fenix and 4Sevens 1xAA models which get the white glove treatment).

After a year's beater use, it's still reliable and in good shape, the switch has held up to 20+ cycles a day, the LED has the same output AFAIK, and there are no weird flickers or quirks. Wow.

Ignore the logo, by the way: I now have two, each with a different third-party logo, and they are identical in construction and consistent in build quality. Lots of different sellers slap their logo on these.

The two-hour run-time is pretty much fiction -- you will get the better part of an hour at full power, then a fairly significant ramp-down toward moonglow mode. You can squeeze only so much juice out of an AA. They get along with rechargeable NIMHs just fine, BTW.

The non-metal body (and heavy ribbing) means that they are light and comfortable for holding in your teeth or under your chin for hands-free use. In a cold climate, it won't freeze onto your lips (trust me, not fun).

My only real bug with this light is the relatively short run time. I prefer a light with a secondary low-output, long-run mode for wilderness situations. I also haven't run it for extended periods, where heat could reduce the life of the LED. But it would make a decent, inexpensive backup light to a good headlamp or primary flashlight.

P.S., In Canada, these are available at Canadian Tire (big hardware retail chain). They come on sale once a year for $11-12. The old ones had a Noma label; the new ones have a Garrison label. Identical build/innards, except the new ones have a nicer tint and are available in bright yellow.

EDIT: Need a belt sheath for one of these? Take the $4 nylon belt sheath for the original 2AA MiniMaglite (the sheath with the velcro flap over the lens and the velcro-held belt loop), cut down to size, and fuse the nylon with a Bic. Bingo.

Thanks Doug! I'll check it out!

No, it was really $35,000 for the vet fees. Yeah, kind of huge, I know. Its history now. The flashlights were a perk from the credit card company.

Ken

Wow! That horse is really appreciated.....