Cheap Dorcy 41-1643 30 Lumen 3 Volt LED Replacement Bulb

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I wanted to replace the standard bulbs in my standard military issue angle-head flashlights. I bought one of these and a TerraLUX TLE-1F. I put each bulb in a new flashlight with a brand new set of Rayovac alkaline batteries in each, including one with the standard filament bulb to use as a baseline.

The results:

Standard bulb: 47 hours 20 minutes

TerraLUX TLE-1F: 94 hours

Dorcy 41-1643: 233 hours

The Dorcy 41-1643 lasted an amazing amount of time before the batteries drained, but was a little less bright than the TerraLUX TLE-1F. Both of the LED bulbs not only outlasted the filament bulb before the batteries drained, but also had a significantly brighter and whiter light.

If brightness is the most important thing to you buy the TerraLUX TLE-1F, it has a slightly brighter light than the Dorcy 41-1643 and a much brighter and whiter light that the standard bulb. Batteries with the TerraLUX TLE-1F also lasted about twice as long as the standard bulb.

If energy efficiency is your primary concern the Dorcy 41-1643 is far superior at a whopping 233 hours of good light on one set of batteries, I was stunned at its longevity. The Dorcy also costs much less than the TerraLux.

Both LED bulbs also would light to nearly full power after they had gone out and the batteries were given a chance to rest, this amount of good light would last from 5 to 25 minutes.

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I used this to replace the incandescent bulb (size PR4) in a headlamp. I didn't want to spend a fortune or the extra bucks to get a new LED headlamp. At the end of the day, I probably should have just bought a new headlamp. The 30 lumens output is clearly stated by Amazon and the manufacturer, so they are not hiding anything. But for working in the dark, 30 lumens of task light is not much. My educated guess is 50 or more would be much better.

On the positive side, this is a direct replacement for a 3 volt (2 normal batteries) incandescent bulb of the PR4 size. Most LED replacements for this general size are 4.5 (3 batteries) or more volts, so this is one of your few affordable options that I could find in 3 volts. Also, other replacements with more lumens are wayyyy more expensive, prompting you to think you should probably just get a new flashlight or headlamp for the same money.

This LED's light quality is good, fairly uniformly white, not blue, etc.

If you are just experimenting or changing a favorite mediocre large bulb 3V flashlight to LED, this might be what you're after. But if you need intense task light, I would go another route.

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Do not take the title of this review lightly. I have any number of flashlights that are old, PR/incandescent bulbs that either need updating or being tossed in the trash. I hate wasting things, so this item is a God send.

It will work in any 2 battery flashlight, like Dad's crunchy old thing that puts out pathetic, weak light even with fresh batteries. I find that older flashlights are of higher quality than current ones, save for the weak light they make.

This dandy replacement for the old bulb will turn your flashlight into a real, useful thing. You will get more light, and the batteries will give you longer life. Yeah, it is kinda like free stuff.

Here is the punchline: for the cost of a replacement bulb, you can update your flashlight into a blowtorch. Do yourself a favor: buy several of these and update every dadgum 2 battery flashlight around the house that you can get your hands on.

Honest reviews on Dorcy 41-1643 30 Lumen 3 Volt LED Replacement Bulb

This LED upgrade makes a good replacement for the incandescent bulb in an existing flashlight. It is not a super-bright high powered LED but it will give off a little more light than the stock incandescent bulb (50%) and with a crisper, whiter light. This upgrade is made to fit in an existing bulb socket/lens focus and therefore limits the size of LED that can fit. If you have some older but rugged flashlights you want to keep and upgrade then this is the option for you. It will add significant battery life. If you need an ultra-bright, high-powered LED unit then you may want to consider just purchasing a new light that is made to fit the larger LED bulb assemblies. I used these to upgrade some older 2-AA cell flashlights I keep around the house for emergencies and a magnetic 2-D cell flashlight I use in my garage; they did give off more light and seem to run forever on a set of batteries.

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This product works well for the intended purpose, i.e., converting an incandescent flashlight to LED. I just unscrewed the flashlight, took out the old bulb, popped this one in to take its place, and screwed the flashlight back together. Turned it on and it worked. Pretty dull, just the way I like it. I've had more than enough excitement and challenges with other products.

I compared the beam to several other flashlights and the 30 lumen rating seems roughly correct when tested with brand new AA batteries. It's quite an improvement on the incandescent bulb it replaced. Out of curiosity I tried batteries that were mostly discharged and the beam was noticeably dimmer, but it still gave light where the same batteries were useless with an incandescent bulb. (That's because LED bulbs draw much less current than incandescent bulbs so there's less of a voltage drop; do a web search on "Ohms law" and "Thevenin equivalent" if you want the gory details.)

This is a very basic product. It's an LED bulb, period. No voltage regulation, no sophisticated optics, or anything like that. The falloff in brightness with old batteries is consistent with the fact that there's no voltage regulation in this unit. But it works fine on its own terms. Just be aware of what you're getting.

At the time of this writing the price of this bulb is only about a dollar less than the Dorcy 41-2510 LED flashlight, which is a great cheap-but-decent LED flashlight. So the 41-2510 is probably a better choice if all you want is an affordable LED flashlight. The best use for this replacement bulb is if you want to modernize an old flashlight that you especially like for whatever reason, such as one that's especially comfortable in your hand or that has sentimental value.