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First, let me tell you that I am a bit of a flashlight nut. I have many. I often debate with others what to look for in a flashlight. This is not the smallest light, nor the brightest. However, I have looked long and far for something just like this one.
Here is what I like in a light:
1. Powered by traditional batteries. Yes, it's true that the (much) more expensive lithium cr123a batteries pack more punch, and have a longer shelf life, but the cost is ridiculous. I use this light a lot hours each day. I want a light that is powered by easy to find and inexpensive batteries, or even better, easily found rechargeables. I use Sanyo Eneloop batteries. Very very good.
2. Small size. I carry this around with me much of the time at work, and need something I can have on my belt, or back pocket. This one is a great size. It's a little heavy, but that is due to the amazingly thick body. It is seriously beefy.
3. Tactical switch. I like it. That's all. I prefer the button on the back, and this one feels great. It's rubber, and have a nice solid feel. Click it once for on, press it lightly to toggle between high and low, and click it again to turn it off. It defaults to the high setting when first turned on, which is good. You DO NOT need to cycle through high and low to turn it off.
4. Intensity. I challenge you to find another light this bright (220 lumens) powered by AA batteries. This thing is truly amazing.
I purchased my first one at a local AC/Heating supply house while working part time in that industry. It was almost $50, but looked like a nice light, and I was not disappointed. It has taken lots of abuse, and seems no worse for the wear, except for the corners getting warn of its anodized coating.
I liked it so much, that I tell everyone about it. Recently, I found a need for a second one, and found it here for little more than $30. What a great buy.
I have had my original for about 2 years and have had no issues. It really is as good as it sounds: 2 AA batteries producing 220 lumens of intense light. Highly recommended.
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Paid about $35 including shipping on this.eBay has it for about a dollar less if you want to risk it. You do not have to pay the $65 tag you see under the photo here on Amazon. Just look at the multiple sellers listed. My seller sold at $29, plus shipping.
Bright as hell! Reviewer that says he questions the 220 lumens rating?
Maybe, something was wrong with his, but not mine. There is also an older version of this light rated at 180 lumens. Maybe, he got one of those instead. It looks exactly the same, but probably has a Luxeon in it. The older ones I've seen though were always a green metallic color.
It's 220! Don't look into it! Blinding. Shine it up into the sky at night, looks like a light saber able to reach aircraft. It's definately as bright as my tri-Luxeon Rebel 90, Mflare 4D, 500 lumen light on its low setting of (220-250 lumens).
Machining and finish are superb.
The only thing, I'm not so sure about is the plastic lanyard ring around the tube between the buttcap and the body. Just seems "in the way", and the only "cheap", or plastic part of the light.
Other than that, this is the lowest priced, highest power, finest finish, refined, 2AA light you'll find at $30!
This thing leaves a MiniMag LED, 2, 3-cell AA, or any of the D-cell LED Mags in disgrace!
A short burn time on this small, powerful torch, but I accept that because I wanted big power in a small package using off-the-shelf batteries. I don't use a light for work or daily so I don't want to get into recharging to obatain the other small, powerful, lithium based torches. Although to reach say 900+ lumens in a palm sized torch, more powerful batteries must be utilized.
This is a fantastic light for anyone who wants small, and super-powerful, but doesn't want to deal with chargers, etc. Just keep a big, bulk pack of alkalines handy if you want to burn this mutha on high.
If you do want to save on battery costs and recharge, the great thing is that the new "precharged" NiMHs can hold a charge longer than the rechargeable Lithiums if the light sits idle.
Nice trophy addition to my growing collection of about 15, stock, LED lights, all able to use off-the-shelf batteries, most Luxeons, and a few Crees:
1 Mflare 4D (500 lumens), but same length as a Maglite 3D
1 Maglite 3D (about 80-100 lumens), 3W LED upgrade
1 Maglite 2D (about 60 lumens), 3W LED upgrade
2 Palm Blaze 3C (130 lumens)
1 Rayovac Extreme 3C Cree XE(150 lumens)
2 Eveready Emergency 2C,2AA,or 2AAA 4xLED (50 lumens)
1 Coleman LED MAX 3AAA (115 lumens)
1 Terralux 2AA Cree XE (220 lumens)
2 Generic 1AA 1W (35 lumens)
2 Generic 1AAA 1W (35 lumens)
1 Coleman Family Lantern 8D Cree XE (175 lumens)
Best Deals for TerraLUX TLF-3C2AAEX LightStar220 3-Watt LED Aluminum Flashlight
As of this posting, this is one of the brightest lights currently on the market that runs on 2 AA cells.I fully disagree with another reviewer that claims a 90 lumen light he owns is brighter, & a candlepower forums reviewer claims that a 130 lumen Fenix is brighter. They either used batteries that couldn't handle the current required, had dirt on their contacts, or got a defective unit, or have other than honest motives.
This light far outshines my 140 lumen LED upgrade module in my 3 D cell maglite. With 2500mah Tenergy rechargeables in it, I would guess it's pretty close to 180 lumens... which is really bright! When I turned it on at work, jaws dropped, & everybody wanted one.
I suspect just like most AA & AAA LED lights, you'll get closer to it's rated lumens (220) by using lithium AA cells.
It ran 2 hours & 35 minutes on high on the cells I used, before the light dimmed noticeably. I cheated a little by using relatively newer fully charged cells, & topped the charge off with a little additional charge just before running the test (over charging a little). By 3 hours in was much dimmer, but still brighter than my AAA arclight P, Fenix E01 AAA, & my LED upgrades in my AAA & AA maglites at 40 lumens.
With the 2500mah rechargeables I used, over charged a little again, it ran on the low setting for 13 hours before I notice it got dimmer. I think it was closer to around 70 lumens with fresh cells in it. Perhaps with lithiums, it may be closer to 100 on low. By the 14th hour it was still brighter than my 40 lumen LED lights with fresh batteries in them & I shut it off.
At around under 30 bucks these days, you won't find a better bright light for the price.
It's solidly built. It's heavier & larger than what you'd expect from a 2xAA light... mostly due to the heavier metal, deep fixed-focus reflector, & tailcap switch. The beam is nice, round, around 6000-6500K in color temp. & has a nice throw, but not as narrow as a D cell maglite. Once clicked on, a tap of the tail cap will switch to the other brightness... no need to fully click it off to change the level.
One can get hurt if struck with it, with little or no damage to the light. The weakest spot of the light will probably be the tailcap, & lens... which seems to be good quality. This is probably more a tactical light rather than an ordinary household or hanyman light flashlight.
Honest reviews on TerraLUX TLF-3C2AAEX LightStar220 3-Watt LED Aluminum Flashlight
I purchased this flashlight after reading some of the positive reviews and now regret it. Thought I would save a little money and get a great light I was really, really stupid. This flashlight puts out less light than a 3D cell LED Maglite rated at 104 lumens. Trust me, I have compared this flashlight in all sorts of situations with several other flashlights and it does not measure up to comparable lights. I even returned it to TerraLUX as a warranty problem only to have them claim that nothing is wrong with the light and also claimed that they measured the output as right on of course, their so-called Quality Engineer would not give his name or the supposed test results. Imaging what their lifetime warranty is actually worth! Believe me do not buy. I purchased a Fenix E21 Fenix E21 Flashlight about the same time and it blows the LightStar away in brightness, beam quality, quality of build, everything. TerraLUX will not tell you what their flashlight rates by ANSI standards call them and ask them to give the ANSI industry standard ratings of their flashlights they won't do it. They only list the specs by their own, manufacturer ratings. In other words, they have lied about their light to generate internet sales from which it is too hard to make returns. Fenix on the other hand uses ANSI standards to rate their light which is waterproof to IPX-8 standards and impact resistance rating to 1.5 meters. The Fenix is rated at 150 lumens (ANSI standard rating of course) but again, trust me, it blows the LightStar220 away. TerraLUX simply exaggerates their specs to generate sales. Spend the extra 8 to 10 bucks for the Fenix E21 you will so glad you did!! Or spend less and buy this Dorcy 41-4750 180 Lumen High Flux LED Cyber Light Flashlight with Batteries There are much, much better lights available than the LightStar or anything from Terraluz.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for TerraLUX TLF-3C2AAEX LightStar220 3-Watt LED Aluminum Flashlight
First the pros:1) Well made (apparently)
2) Relatively inexpensive
3) Aggressive styling
4) Runs AA cells (a pro for some)
5) Wrist strap and pocket clip included
Now the cons:
6) Lumen output vastly overrated
7) Only modes are full power and half power
All in all, a decent light for the money, but nothing like all the glowing 5-star reviews I read here on Amazon before ordering. I wish I had taken the time to first read the comments made on those reviews before ordering, vis-a-vis the fraudulent lumen rating of 220. And I presume I indeed got the new 220 lumen model since my light says right on the body "Lightstar 220" and the late date of my receipt of this specimen (June 24 2010). One of the comments regarding lumen output stated that there was an earlier version that only outputs 180 lumen.
No, I have no photometer to take objective measurements. So here's the deal -I also own two other tactical-size lights, a Fenix TK11 and a Maglite XL100. Fresh batteries in them all. Okay, let's leave out the Fenix -it has to use lithiums and is a much more expensive light (more than double), and it shows because it far outshone the other two.
So it's a head-to-head between the Terralux and the Mag. Went out ten paces from my house and shone them both against my house side-by-side. Fact 1: the Maglite has a tighter brighter hotspot. Fact 2: after an entire minute of deciding, decided that the Terralux is overall (spot plus flood) only a shade or two brighter than the Mag. So little brighter that I had to think about it for a whole minute. Fact 3: the Mag is rated by Maglite at only 83 lumen (I think it's more). So the question arises: how can the Terralux be anywhere near 220 lumen ???
Now butt the two together lens-to-lens. Notice both lights have exactly the same outside diameter. Now turn each 90 degrees and compare the reflectors. Notice the metal construction of the Terralux bezel is about 3 millimeters thick, and the Mag is about 1.5 mm thick. See how much more area the Mag reflector has in cross-section ? Maglite was able to fit a much larger, more effective reflector in the same size bezel. (recall that the area of a circle is proportional to the SQUARE of the radius, and then see how that extra 1.5 mm radius translates into an appreciably larger reflector surface).
To double-check my estimate of the brightnesses, I then paced out about 30 paces and positioned my face into each of the beams (several times each). Again, I judged the Lightstar to be only very marginally brighter than the Maglite.
Okay, for a $35 light the Terralux isn't bad, but it's no Maglite XL100. No modes, an inch longer, one year warranty, no known-quality-Maglite-construction. Only if one of the pros 3) through 5) listed above is important to you, I say the XL100 is the better buy for the same money (shop around and you can also get the XL100 for about $35 delivered). Only if you must have a wrist strap should it cost you more.
What most sticks in my craw is that I was promised 220 lumens and, at best, I only got 2/3 of that. Perhaps using lithium cells I could get more but I doubt 220 lumen. I believe the Terralux people did one of two things with this lumen rating -1) they're just passing along the number claimed by the LED manufacturer (Cree?) for maximum possible output or 2) if they are in fact quoting the measured output of their Lightstar 220, then they have cheated somehow; probably by measuring under laboratory conditions with a juiced-up voltage (by wiring it directly into a benchtop DC power supply)
I say 150 lumen tops. 220 ? No frickin' way!!!
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