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I purchased this flashlight for emergencies. Haven't had one yet but it's seen a lot of causual use. It's great not having to worry about changing batteries. Turning the crank is quite easy. You get many minutes of light after ten or so seconds of cranking. Also, if the flashlight is turned off after cranking it holds a charge for quite a while.
I liked it so much that I bought a second one, which now has a slightly different design. Unlike some reviewers, I prefer the new design. The crank is even easier to turn. When you first press the on button the 3 leds come on as before, but now the second click of the on button reduces it to one led, while the third click turns it back off. The new "one led" option allows the light to stay on longer, for the same amount of crankng. It is good for times when you don't need a bright light.
The feel of the on and off button in the new design is a positive click; the first version felt mushy to me. The crank locks into place in with a more positive click. The crank has been shaped so that when it is locked into place the grip of the flashlight is more contoured and fits into my hand better.
The old design does put out a whiter light than the new design, but when I tried both lights on the same text I found that I could read better with new design. Also, when looking at something at a distance I find the pattern of light thrown out by the new design to be more even.
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[Note: This is a re-upload of my original review which was first written on Jan 22, 2007]I own both the Garrity Power Lite and the ILLUMINATOR wind-up flashlights. They have the same basic design, but with the following differences:
1. Size: The Illuminator is about the size of a man's electric shaver. It is easier to hold and to crank. The Garrity is bulkier, mainly because of the extra plastic lenses in front. It is also less comfortable to hold because rubber grips on the sides are shorter (see my Customer Image for size comparison)
2. Ease of Cranking: The Illuminator's handle takes very little effort to crank. However, you need to turn it virgorously (2-3 turns per second) in order to charge up the battery. The Garrity's cranking presents more resistence and is noisier. But the good news is that you only need to turn it at around one turn per second to charge up the battery.
3. Light Output: Both flashlights use 3 white LEDs, and have the option to turn on either one or all three. As far as I can tell, the LEDs are identical. The main differnce is that the Illuminator's light output is diffused, while the Garrity added three plastic lenses in front to produce a well-focused beam.
4. Light Duration: When fully charged up, the Illuminator gives out brighter light initially. However, its light dimmed down within a few minutes. After ten minutes, the light becomes barely visible (see my Customer Image above). The Garrity, on the other hand, produces fairly consistent light output for at least one hour!
Based on longer light duration, I would recommend the Garrity over the Illuminator. The Garrity is also cheaper when you order it with free super-saver shipping. (Be carefull when ordering The Illuminator, because some places offer the flashlight for $8-10, but charge another $8 in shipping!)
[The following Info for geeks only]:
Why does the Garrity produce much longer light duration than the Illuminator?
The Illuminator uses one 3.6V Lithium-ion rechargeable button cell (capacity unknown, probably around 30mAh). The Garrity uses 3x 1.25V NiMH cells rated at 80mAh. In my opinion as an electrical engineer, the NiMH design is much better because:
1. Each white LED needs about 20-40mA at 3.6V to produce sufficient light output. Three NiMH cells provide a consistent 3.75V throughout most of the discharge period. The Li-ion cell may provide up to 4V when fully charged, but its voltage drops quickly during discharge to 3.6V and below. This explains why the Illuminator produces a brighter light initially, but dims down much faster.
2. NiMH cells are more robust and can withstand over-charging better than Lithium-ion cells can. Think about it: there are chargers that can fully charge up NiMH cells in 15 minutes (that is, charging at 4X), but there are no chargers that can do Li-ion cells in less than one hour. In this case, since you can charge up the battery in one minute and then use it for up to one hour, that means the battery is being charged at 60X! This kind of abuse is not recommended even for NiMH, and it can be murderous for Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.
[Update on April 9, 2007]
Warning: Don't crank the handle virgorously when you have just the middle LED turned on. This is because the voltage across three NiMH cells can be as high as 4.5V when being charged. At this voltage, excessive current can flow through the LED and burn it out as I have found out for myself. Luckily I was able to replace the middle one with an ultra-bright greeen LED. (It looks really cool, too.)
[Update on Nov 6, 2007]
Please check out my review on Duracell Crank Light 3 in 1, 3 LED Flashlight, Radio, Charger. I feel it is even better designed than the Garrity.
[Update on Dec 24, 2008]
I should add that all three Illuminator crank lights I bought two years ago are nearly useless now (batteries can't hold any charge). The two Garrity crank lights are still going well.
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This past Wednesday, the Southern Tier of New York State and Northern PA experienced major flooding, the worst this area has ever seen. We were one of the lucky ones. Our home sustained absolutely no damage, but we were without electricity for over 3 days. My husband just got this flashlight as a birthday present the Saturday before the floods. This proved to be very handy. The light is bright and it illuminates for quite a distance. Also, the LED light is truer for color. When our other rechargables were used up, this one was still going strong. I plan on buying several more, one for each vehicle and three more for the house. I will never be without it.Honest reviews on Garrity Power Lite 3 LED Crank Light
Was browsing through some Red Cross literature late last winter after a brief power outage, and they had suggested that every home have a wind-up flashlight flashlight available for emergency use. Did some research on these, and last spring ordered a Garrity Power Lite 3 LED Crank Light. Was simply looking for a reasonably priced crank or wind-up emergency flashlight without any frills, but one that was built well and might hopefully last a few years. Must say that I have no regrets about this choice.Came very close to buying the Dynamo Illuminator Wind-up LED Flashlight, but checking with people who knew more than I did, found that it didn't seem to have the battery life of the Garrity. That was backed up by some of the reviews found here.
The product features from Garrity say "easy-to-wind crank-light provides up to 30 minutes of light with one minute of cranking." Further down the product description says: "With just one minute of cranking, this flashlight will provide up to one hour of bright light with its three super bright LED bulbs." My personal experience has been that 60 seconds of cranking (60 complete cycles), this Crank Light provides decent illumination for over an hour... and it will last longer than that if you use it in the single bulb mode. The only thing to watch out for is to not crank the light with it turned on in the single bulb mode, as too much current could flow through the LED and burn it out.
If you're looking for a full-featured item for a home emergency kit, then the American Red Cross FR150 Microlink Solar-Powered, Self-Powered AM/FM/Weatherband Portable Radio with Flashlight and Cell Phone Charger, which is made by Eton, might be a perfect solution. Have had mine since last summer, and it's actually an amazingly small full-featured emergency radio that has a flashlight with three LEDs on the its side. It provides surprisingly bright illumination, and for comparison it's about on the same level as my Garrity Crank Light. It's radio pulls in both AM and FM stations, and with surprisingly clear reception, and it receives all seven NOAA bands using a separate slide selector, so you can monitor changing weather conditions, along with tuning in to the FCC and EAS public alert systems.
Others crank-powered emergency lights you might want to consider are the more costly Duracell Crank Light 3 in 1, 3 LED Flashlight, Radio, Charger with its extra features, or the Wind N Go Flashlight. Should you be looking for something extremely small, yet the idea of hand-cranked generator power is appealing, the diminutive Ziotek Mini LED Dynamo Keychain Flashlight should work, as a few turns from its crank and and you'll have full power again.
Summarizing, I can recommend the Garrity Power Lite 3 LED Crank Light as a sturdy and reasonably-priced solution as an emergency light, and it's handy enough for general use as well.
[Update: January 13, 2009]
Please see NLee's excellent and informative review on the same Garrity Power Lite 3 LED Crank Light here. His are still going well.
[Update: January 9, 2012]
Since I posted this original review on December 23, 2008, I've had many occasions to use my Garrity Power Lite 3 LED Crank Light quite a few times, especially last winter and spring when my area of Eastern Pennsylvania had gone through a number of power outages that had lasted for days. This, along with my American Red Cross FR150 Microlink Solar-Powered, Self-Powered AM/FM/Weatherband Portable Radio with Flashlight and Cell Phone Charger proved themselves to be invaluable when other similar products had failed, and when I had run out batteries for my larger and more powerful MagLite Heavy-Duty 3-D Cell Flashlight. Will be upgrading the MagLite to the newer LED version, but it's the Garrity LED Crank Light that I'll continue to rely on.
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Based on the reviews of this flashlight, I believe this is probably a very good value. However, on the one I received, the crank mechanism broke after testing it a couple of times. Other than that, it appears to be well designed and I might even buy another one and see if I have better luck. All of the good reviews can't be wrong. I just thought my experience was worth documenting.
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