As you may (or may not) recall, a while back I had posted that I sent Friend Of The Blog ™, Joel, a tactical flashlight for his use in his particularly remote AO. That discussion begat another discussion about the relative availability and wisdom-of-choice between AA and CR123 batteries.
Apparently, this is a case of why choose when you can have both? A generous reader, who is now on the Paratus card list (nicely done, there), sent me a hitherto unknown product. The Streamlight ProTac 1L-AAA pocket tactical flashlight.
Apparently the colloquial term for a device that takes multiple battery types/sizes is ‘dual fuel’ (or, I suppose, ‘multi fuel’). Regardless, this little light runs on either one CR123 or one AA battery. According to the literature, the CR123 gives you about 60% more run time than the AA batt.
First off, mucho thanks to the generous person who, rather than posting to tell me about this item, simply sent one to me as a way of introducing me to the item. Well done, sir…much thanks!
Its a little bigger than the Fenix E12 that I carry around everyday, but it offers a couple extra features the E12 doesn’t…most notably a strobe option.
I’ll set my Fenix E12 aside for a while and carry this thing around to see how I like it. Right off the bat, the fact it can operate on two different types of batteries gives it some high marks. We’ll see how a couple weeks of everyday bumping and dropping (as well as maybe an inadvertent trip though the washing machine) affect it’s reliability. Stay tuned.
And by the way, while we’re on the subject, you do carry a small flashlight in your pocket at all times, right? And please don’t say that youll just use your phone if the need arises… thats just a bad idea for a buncha reasons.
Ever since 1994.
Ever notice how dark a hospital is/would be if it’s night, or you’re in a windowless room even in the daytime, and there’s no power?
The batteries on emergency lighting runs down when the power’s out for 11 days.
And we were back in the hospital before the power was restored doing clean-up and preps for re-opening, even with taking a personal 1-week hiatus after the quake to run shelter aid stations and such.
And on every wall in every hospital was a clock, stopped at 4:31, as a glaring reminder of when it happened.
Which gets you to imagine Future You in, for example, one of the many windowless Porcelain Thinking Rooms in any hospital, pants around your ankles, at work, at 4:30 AM, and suddenly the whole building jiggles, and then it gets very dark.
The good news is your pants were already down, so you didn’t soil yourself.
The bad news is, they don’t put emergency lighting modules in small restrooms.
So now you’ve got to get yourself back together, in absolute bottom-of-a-well-at-midnight pitch darkness, even if it was high noon outside.
An EDC keyring light became mandatory for me right about the time that thought first dawned.
And many times since, as a result, I’ve had a light on me that worked when I needed one.
Yeah a rechargeable Nite Core mini-light thar is clipped onto the belt ring of my truckers wallet. Nearly completely weightless, hi – lo beam via click plus a red/blue lamp option for Sneaky Pete time. Goes everywhere I take my wallet and never gets washed accidentally.
Not a high output light, but more than enough to keep me from being blind.
I’m a nighshift Nursing Supervisor and am aghast at how many of my people don’t carry a flashlight. How are you doing neurochecks?
I carry two and I can tell you there is a long and frightening delay between when power goes out and the generators (hopefully) kick in.
Most of the time I don’t carry a flashlight. I have them in a bunch of places so there is rarely a scenario where I can’t grab one quickly. If I think I willl want one I grab it and put it in my pocket.
These energizer brand ones have worked great for me.
https://www.amazon.com/ENERGIZER-Flashlights-Resistant-Batteries-Included/dp/B0B61FY6DB
I’ve got sure fires and stream lights but these work great so I use them.
My wife and I each have one of those lights. I confess that I don’t carry it daily, but almost daily, for a year now. It has held up well, I think I’ve replaced the CR123 twice now.
One hack that I did was to slide a large piece of heat shrink tubing over it with some shock cord. Then tied the shock cord to create a little handle. I can slide 2 or 3 fingers in the loop and easily use the light with one hand and still grip things with that same hand if needed.
I got the idea from Kevin Estela on Instagram. Saved the post so I could find it again. Here’sa link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr025dhrHt0/?igsh=MWE0ZnZ1bWk0bG5yeA==
1= none, 2=1.
I have, as I sit here at work, 5 flashlights on my person. One white light penlight, one near UV penlight, one Nanolight on my keyring, one Sure Fire 2 x CR 123 in a pouch at my belt, and another, next to it, that is a Thor Fire VG-15, again 2 x CR 123.
One too many nights working ICU when the shore power failed, and “back up” generator, did not.
Did you know that ventilator alarms are battery powered, but ventilators are NOT?
Bad times.
Reltney: WTF good is an alarm that says “Hey, the power’s out. Oh, BTW your PT is blue; too bad.”
I used to live/work in a facility for disabled folks. Turns out the backup generator was: out of fuel; dead battery; no antifreeze. I guess that explains the alarm I heard from the next-door guy on a vent. I is astounded vents don’t have battery backup.
I have two lights in my pocket currently and many easily accessed.
Near UV for … um, bodily fluids seeping through dressings? For God’s sake, don’t use that thing in a hotel room!
I’ve carried a Nitecore MT10C (18350 rechargeable battery, 3.6 inches long) for over 5 years in a front pocket. A Surefire Backup (single CR123) before that.
I’ll be moving away from Nitecore in the future as their US distributor at least passively supports BLM as there’s a flag displayed on the garage wall in their recent MT2C Pro video. The company was emailed with a response that it was “escalated to management for immediate review” over a week ago.
You make your choice, I’ve made mine going forward.
That all said, my pocket light is by far the used edc item of mine.
Steelheart
I carry a PowerTac E5R Gen 4 and use it daily. I’ve carried their E9 in the past.
The light is capable of 1200 lumens, but I almost always use it on the next-to-lowest setting which is all you need indoors.
For anyone concerned about the long term logistics of the cr123 batteries look into the rechargeable ones made by Pale Blue. They easily charge by usb and work well.
carry one of these on my key ring https://www.olightstore.com/i3e-eos , have one of these in my bag https://inforcelights.com/collections/flashlights and a surefire x300 on my pistol…olight (90 lumen) uses a AAA, inforce (700 lumen + strobe) uses 2 cr123, and surefire (1000 lumen) uses 2 cr123…
Besides numerous flashlights positioned in teh rooms where I normally am located,I carry three lights on my person normally. I have a pelight in the tool pocket of my jeans, a small 3 AAA LED flashlight in my left front pocket,and an LED key chain light on my keys in my right front pocket. The key chain light i a recent addition.
For many, many years I worked in places with no windows (such as TV studios). More than once I have loaned one of my lights to another employee so that they could collect the employees in their area and take them to a designated location while I made sure equipment was shut off so it would not be damaged or present a safety hazard when the power came back on.
I wear cargo pants for a reason. A flashlight is one of those reasons. I’m never without it. Two CR123s are plenty of light.
Always have two on me when I’m out and about (two is one and all that.) Streamlight Microstream in my left front pocket, Streamlight Stylus Pro in my left cargo pant pocket. I use one or the other nearly daily, especially as my eyes get older lol. One day I was talking to my dad on the phone and we were talking about how we both had a lot of flashlights. In a brief walk around the house as we talked and without really trying I counted 18.
As an aside when I was a cop I used the spotlight so often that I’d reach for it out of habit when I was driving my personal car. I’d reach for it and my wife would say, “you’re not in the police car!” I finally remedied it by putting a spotlight on my Grand Cherokee. Problem solved! And hence my nickname.
I was traveling once, alcohol may have been involved, the power went out.
Woke up to a pitch black, unfamiliar hotel room, so disoriented didn’t even know which way the door was. Now a penlight is in my pocket at all times or on the nightstand next to my phone and pistol. I like CZ’s glow in the dark tray, going to have to add that to my Amazon cart.
News you can use. Insiders report the high possibility of large grid down events this election. Preaching to the choir but be ready.
I’m a tradesman and I carry a flashlight in the corner of my left side pocket literally every day (right side pocket has the knife). I have carried some kind of flashlight daily for nearly three decades, starting with the miniMag.
The only thing I have carried for over 5 years is a Streamlight 66608 and I am still using my first example. ( I own two because I lost the first one in the garden and then found it two weeks later, none the worse for wear.) I use my EDC light almost daily and sometimes for hours at a time, I have to charge it at least weekly. It has been dropped from ladders, run over by the lawnmower (but not struck by the blade, fortunately) and just generally used hard. Still going.
I much prefer the ultra small footprint that makes me forget it is there until I need it, the multi function clip that allows it to be used as a headlamp on a hat bill, and the USB charging capability that completely takes away the battery logistics issue. I can keep it charged off of the vehicle, off of my power tool batteries (with an adaptor), the USB battery bank that rides in my EDC backpack, or a small folding solar panel in my bugout gear.
I long ago learned the lesson of buy once cry once when it comes to quality tools and this light has earned its place in my EDC gear and then some, and it isn’t even very expensive.
I carry the Bauer rechargeable on the chain with my neck knife. For under $20 it’s proven to be robust. Hint, buy the extended 2 year warranty and trade in for a new one every year or so.