Cheap cree torches on amazon

[sniper 55]

I spotted these the other day.. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss ... Caps%2C242 They work off a single AA battery or a 14500 lithium battery.
Now I have one I bought off ebay and it gives a good light with just the AA battery, enough to see where your going no problems, it's also small enough for a pocket, it's got a zoom head and when you zoom in you get a square very bright point of light, so you can check out stuff in the distance too.
Ok it's not the brightest torch around, but it's cheap, solid (mines been in my jacket pocket with my keys and stuff for about 6 months and used every day) and the batteries are easy to get. I'm told it's about 3 times brighter with the lithium battery, but I haven't got those yet.
I have ordered a few of the torches and the lithium batteries so I'll be able to see if they really are that much brighter.
For under £2 it's good value.

[jansman]

I have 4 of them clipped to a home made rack by the back door where everyone knows to grab them. The 4 I have are ok but I did have two duds. Not bad for the price though.

[yorkshirewolf]

I tried a few different ones off ebay with mixed results, i've had one that worked but stopped after about a year, one that didn't work and was sent back and one that turned on, fizzled a bit then got so hot i dropped it before smelling like burnt plastic!

I've since gone back to more reliable (but unfortunately more expensive) branded models (maglite/LED Lenser etc)

My way of thinking is:

if i need it in an emergency, i want it to work, first time, every time, - not be stood there thinking "well i saved a few quid but now can't see when i really need to"

That said, i know others have had them and had no problems. You pays yer money and you takes yer choice...

[jansman]

Tbh I have LED Lensers in my emergency kits and in my pocket. The Cree lights are for knockabout use by the family. That said, the Cree lights are brighter and more economical ( battery wise) than the mag lights I ( still have) when I started prepping all those years ago. I wish the Crees had been available when I first started.

They are the perfect 'economy' prep.

[Deeps]

I'm a big fan of the cree's, I've got several of the 1 x AA and about 5 of the 18650 ones that allegedly push out 2000 lumens and are still compact enough for a pocket if required. 2 quid for the wee ones and 5 for the bigger, as Jansman says, very economical prepping, the batteries are a bit pricier for the 18650/14500 but are effective. I've given a few of the smaller ones to mates and they've all been suitably impressed too. Touch wood I've not had any duds yet, they can 'gum up' with crap in your pocket but a bit of manipulation has sorted it out. A big thumbs up from me.

[metatron]

Cree are the company that make the SMD (surface mount diode), their used by a lot of the more expensive torch and headlamp makers. I'd call BS on a lot of the Chinese manufactures who make a flashlight/torch that cheaply use a real one. You have to remember they are the type of people who sell large memory sticks (64GB+) which are really 4GB ones with tweaked firmware to appear to be bigger, up until the point you hit their real 4GB limit.

Everything is faked it China, even things you would think wouldn't be worth faking. Real Cree and Philips LED's are very good and are worth the little extra, not to say that all cheaper surface mount LED aren't bad, its just luck of the draw. Like I bought 8 100Watt LED's, which are basically an array of LED's on a single board, all worked, but only 3 out of the 8 lit up properly. Chinese LED's are extremely hit and miss. Basically, if you buy 100 cheap LED's I'd expect 60% at least to have issues.

[Deeps]

Cree are the company that make the SMD (surface mount diode), their used by a lot of the more expensive torch and headlamp makers. I'd call BS on a lot of the Chinese manufactures who make a flashlight/torch that cheaply use a real one. You have to remember they are the type of people who sell large memory sticks (64GB+) which are really 4GB ones with tweaked firmware to appear to be bigger, up until the point you hit their real 4GB limit.

Everything is faked it China, even things you would think wouldn't be worth faking. Real Cree and Philips LED's are very good and are worth the little extra, not to say that all cheaper surface mount LED aren't bad, its just luck of the draw. Like I bought 8 100Watt LED's, which are basically an array of LED's on a single board, all worked, but only 3 out of the 8 lit up properly. Chinese LED's are extremely hit and miss. Basically, if you buy 100 cheap LED's I'd expect 60% at least to have issues.

The thing with the cheap cree's is that they're, um, cheap, a couple of quid for a very powerful torch might be worth a punt, maybe I've been lucky but I've bought several and not had any problems. I've got all sorts of torches but the ones both me and Her Maj use regularly are the cree's. I do have a thrunite as edc, replacing the mini maglite but thats a size thing. Each to their own, I tend to buy the cree's in batches of 4 or 5 so if one was trout it wouldn't be the end of the world although as I said, not been an issue yet, touch wood.

[yorkshirewolf]

I've upgraded a decade old AA maglite with an LED kit, which is loads brighter and lasts ages, and have a newer Maglite solitaire LED on my keys which is pretty good.

I've had so many torches over the years and I know that there are many better than Maglite for cost, brightness, battery and robustness, but IMHO on the whole I think they're hard to beat, and come to think of it, i've never had one fail to work on me.

Though i do store them with the end battery turned around if it's not in use...

[jansman]

The maglights are tough, to be sure. Where does a chap purchase an LED kit for them please?

[gadgetguy]

The maglights are tough, to be sure. Where does a chap purchase an LED kit for them please?

Try here Jansman http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maglite-Upgrade ... B00GEH0LGG

Not tried these ones myself but its a start.

GG