Over at Home Depot, they have this Milwaukee LED penlight 2-pack “special buy” for $30.
Here’s why you should buy one:
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1) They are very well-built and very tough and durable.
2) 100 lumens is plenty for a penlight.
3) Protective rubber bite zone.
4) IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating.
5) This is a fantastic everyday carry LED penlight.
This flashlight is typically $20 each, so with this 2-pack, you save $10. If you can’t find a buddy to split the package with you, you could always equip one with lithium batteries and stash it in your car, truck, garage, kitchen cabinet, or elsewhere for emergency or backup purposes.
It has an on/off clicky tailcap switch, and momentary-on function.
It runs on 2x AAA batteries, with 4 said to be included in this bundle pack.
Price: $29.88
Other retailers are also carrying this holiday season special buy, but only Home Depot is shipping them for free with no order minimum at the moment.
I’ve bought these in the past, and it’s a great flashlight. Personally, I prefer the Streamlight Stylus Pro penlight that I wrote about earlier today, and that’s on sale at $14 for the blue-finish model, because the Streamlight has a slimmer feel to it.
On the other hand, the Milwaukee has an easier-to-toggle tailcap switch, and it has that rubber tailcap. But please get a headlamp or worklight – it’s never really a good idea to use your teeth for anything but chewing food.
See Also: Streamlight Deal via Amazon
Thank you to Tom D for the nudge!
Dave
The light output from these Milwaukee’s is “yellower” than from a Streamlight.
I have both and prefer the brighter white output of the Streamlight.
Stuart
*warmer*
Neutral light is often less harsh that bluer/cooler light, but bluer/cooler light can seem brighter.
Dave
I know what yellow means as far as a color. I do not know what warm means as a color. I also know what dimmer means.
100 lumens of yellow light is dimmer than 100 lumens of white light ( if indeed the 2 lights in question are indeed both 100 lumens).
seth
Fun fact: 100 lumens of yellow light (warm) and 100 lumens of blue light (cold) are by definition the same brightness to the human eye. Lumens are weighted to our eye’s sensitivity.
100 watts of warm LED light and 100 watts of cold LED light will be two different lumen ratings.
Stuart
Did not know that, thank you!
I’ve seen differences in ratings, but always assumed that some emitters were more or less efficient than others.
One flashlight model might give you a choice of emitters, and the neutral white option is almost always rated at lower brightness than the cooler white option. High CRI is usually less bright as well, but I thought that’s likely due to lower efficiency as greater wavelengths are output.
James C
To piggyback, they add a phosphorus coating to get warmer tints. More coating means less brightness due to reduced opacity.
Also, when comparing two different lights, beam profile, even subtle differences, can have a huge effect on percieved brightness. All else equal, a floody profile will appear less bright than a tighter beam in many situations.
Lastly, how the ratings are made is all over the place, and some companies certainly exaggerate.
Stuart
I didn’t mean offense; I tried to give you the terminology you need to make sense of any reviews or discussions you come across in the future.
100 lumens of yellow light is NOT dimmer than 100 lumens of white light.
When you dim a light, you reduce its illumination, its brightness, its output level.
Cooler/bluer white light can *seem* brighter.
You have a piece of plastic on the table, and a piece of steel is next to it. They’ve been in the same room at a steady temperature for hours. Pick them up. Which one is colder? Which one *feels* colder? Same temperature, different feel, but it’s not accurate to say that one is higher and the other lower in temperature.
Warm vs. Cool light can be similar, at least in my opinion.
You also have neutral, which is where the Milwaukee falls, where it’s not quite yellow, not quite bright white.
The terminology can be annoying, and it’s even worse when “warm,” “cool,” and “neutral” can be different depending on personal opinions.
That all said, I prefer neutral white light (a little warmer/yellower than bright white) for indoor use, and cool light (bluer) for outdoors or longer distance use.
Color temperature is more objective.
Milwaukee TrueView products usually output 4000K color temperature illumination. https://toolguyd.com/milwaukee-led-trueview/ Think “soft white” incandescent, but not as yellow.
I can’t find data about the Streamlight Stylus Pro, but they say:
So… maybe 6000K.
WHY is this all important? Because once you identify a preference, the terminology is important when you shop for other lighting products. If you know you want a whiter/cooler light, you need to look for a flashlight that has a color temperature of maybe 5000K to 6000K.
This is more of an issue when you want a neutral or warmer tint, because those are less common in consumer lighting products.
Dave
All that matters to me is that a yellowish Milwaukee light doesn’t let me see as much as a whiter Streamlight and since it’s been stated here that they are both 100 lumens, it follows that “white” light illuminates more that yellow light.
I have no need for the science, especially since it’s faulty in the real world anyway. I’ve found that “Theory” doesn’t get much done
Stuart
That’s okay – keep in mind that my comments aren’t just aimed at the person I’m responding to, but everyone else who’s reading through the discussion.
And no, the science isn’t faulty in the real world, it’s interpretations that could be imperfect.
“Theory” is what sorts out the “warm/yellow” and “cool/bluish” lights from all just being “white.”
With incandescent light bulbs, there was bright white, soft white, and others, and what they theory does is quantify things.
“Yellow” can differ from one person to the other, but 4000K or 3700K is exact.
You can ignore the science, but it’s there if or when you need it.
And, as the Seth mentioned, 100 lumens and 100 lumens would be similar. One won’t illuminate more than another, it’s your eyes that might think it does. Go back to the steel vs plastic and how they feel vs their actual temperature analogy, above.
Brad
The bigger issue with these flash lights isn’t color it’s lumens.
100 is fairly old school, just about any decent $30 keychain light will throw 600-800 lumens – Nitecore Tip SE for instance while that is not a pen light design I have multiple pen lights in the 400-500 lumen range in any reflector type of you want (that color issue) all with similar water/dust proofing.
For $30-$35 the RovyVon Aurora A3 Pro would be a much better EDC light smaller, better water proofing, 500 lumens and outputs in 5000k which is a much brighter light range.
$30 for two ho-hum name brand lights isn’t that enticing to someone as a EDC choice. Maybe as a backup light in a tool box, sure not as a carry option tho.
Stuart
But for how long?
If you look at most of the smaller lights boasting hundreds of lumens of illumination, they cannot sustain it due to thermal build-up.
Besides that, do you need 800 lumens from a keychain-sized light for 5 minutes, or 100 lumens from a penlight for 20 minutes and still be able to put it back in your pocket?
More does not always mean much better.
Plus, these deals are on $14 and $15 penlights, but you’re talking about flashlights that cost twice as much and require proprietary batteries.
That RovyVon has a 330 mAh battery. 3.7V x 330 mAh = 1.22 Wh. 2 AAA rechargeable Eneloops = 1.2V x 950 mAh x 2 = 2.28 Wh.
Energizer lithium AAA are 1.5V x ~1200 mAh x 2 = 3.6 Wh.
Sure, there are reasons to have a super bright keychain flashlight with limited battery capacity, and other reasons to have a usably bright penlight that works with AAA.
100 lumens is still a lot of light to the human eye, and plenty for a penlight flashlights that work with AAA batteries.
For enthusiasts willing to spend more – I’ve been liking the Nitecore MT06MD. It’s more designed for medical use, but I got the one without pupil dilation chart and you couldn’t tell the difference. It’s said to have a Nichia 219B emitter, but I’m not sure if that’s changed.
Dave
I use my Steamlight Micro USB for mechanic work and walking across my yard after dark (I am rural–no streetlights/it’s DARK here and many of you have probably never experienced true darkness, but I digress).
100 Lumens of nice bright light is WAY WAY enough for both of those uses. $22 (what I gave for the Microstream) is all I want to spend for a light that could get lost. Heck if I somehow could know that I’d NEVER lose it, why I would I spend more money than what it takes to accomplish the task anyway?
As Stuart says, MORE is not always better. Sometimes it’s just inefficient, poor-ROI overkill.
Brad
If your talking about common AA or AAA batteries sure there is a much lower run time at max lumans but I never need max lumans for more than five minutes it’s usually when I’ve dropped something black and/or non-reflective at 2am in the woods the rest of the time it’s medium settings.
I’m not saying these are the worst lights I’ve ever seen. I imagine the barrel and tail cap are good quality but I’m pretty sure the reflector is going to be a sub-par cree with horrible Q/A as it’s in a name brand non-light manufacturer’s line up. As long as there not in a critical “must have light” environment there probably more than fine.
For me I would never run AA/AAA in my EDC mostly because I hike/camp in full winter and up north in Canada usually at least once a year by myself. AA/AAA fails 90% of the time at -10F or lower which is usually when I need a headlamp and a EDC light the most. CR123A/18650’s will not discharge over time like AA/AAA batteries or fail in extreme temps so they last vastly longer in your pocket for the few times you really, really need it.
That MT06MD would be an improvement but I’m not a fan of “medical” grade lights they have a soft blue shift to not damage eye’s which makes them less than ideal for pitch black scenarios where your trying to find something you’ve lost or not fall down a ravine the light looks fuzzy. Nothing beats big bang bright white for that.
I will admit I’m a light snob to your tool snob 😉 (the reason I come here after all, your my expert). My bag light tends to be a rifle light that can do 500 lumans all day and 1300+ for 5-10 minutes at a burst as long as your not holding it with bare skin (they get very hot).
Stuart
There’s nothing wrong with being a light snob.
My intent isn’t to criticize, but to balance.
I really like the penlight form factor. Easier to retrieve from a pocket than a 1-cell light (most at least), more comfortable to hold for prolonged periods, and more runtime.
The Stylus ran off of AAAA cells. I was overjoyed when the Stylus Pro came out and used cells I could actually find. I bought a couple over the years as they were updated.
The form factor is a good one-size-fits-most. The brands in this and the Streamlight deal are reliable. Quality is decent.
Despite being somewhat of a light snob myself, I’d still buy more of these lights if I didn’t already have a couple of each. I don’t always have to use my favorite lights, I sometimes use flashlights I’m not afraid to drop, hand to someone else, or clamp in a vise.
Koko The Talking Ape
Re ” CR123A/18650’s will not discharge over time like AA/AAA batteries”
The difference you’re seeing is not caused by the form factor of the batteries, but by the chemistry. CR123A and 18650 batteries are (to my knowledge) always lithium batteries, which have extremely low self-discharge, and perform well in cold temps. AA or AAA batteries can be carbon-zinc, alkaline, NiCad (still?), etc., which aare older and maybe obsolescent formulations.
BUT they can also be lithium, and those should perform as well as any CR123A or 18650 battery in the cold, or after being stored. (They may have slightly worse or better capacity, because of the size differences.)
So it’s not the size or shape, it’s the chemistry.
Cheers!
King duck
They going to have any deals on the rechargeable head lights?
Stuart
I’ve been working on compiling some info for Black Friday deals, and more info will come closer to Thanksgiving. I can’t share them yet, but can look for more/others if I know what readers are interested in.
Rechargeable headlamps? Do you have a brand/style in mind? What are you looking for specifically? Price point?
Dave
I asked a guy who’s into lighting when he stopped by my shop this morning. He said lumens is only part of the story and oftentimes has little to do with how well we can see by using a light.
He said, “Buy a light based on the candelas it puts off. 2 lights may have the same lumens but one may be way brighter than the other because it puts out more candelas. Google it”
I did:
Lumens are how much light is given off. Lux is how bright your surface will be. Candela measures the visible intensity from the light source.
Stuart
What is a Lumen, What is Lux, and More LED Flashlight Technical Mumbo Jumbo
Lumens: Total light
Lux: How light is distributed (e.g. flood vs spot light)
Candela: Luminous intensity
The candela over lumens ratio is important, as that’s what tells you how focused or narrow a beam might be based on the emitter and reflector design.
I thought you had no need for the science! =) See – it can be useful.
Koko The Talking Ape
Well, both your guy and you aren’t quite right. (And like Stuart, I’m addressing not you specifically, since you may actually know this stuff, but everybody generally.)
Lumens is how much light is coming out of the lamp total. That flow can be very narrow, as in a flashlight, or very broad , as in some lanterns. Lumens lets you get some idea of how “bright” the light will be WITHIN types. A 100 lumen flashlight is plenty bright for working on electrical panels, but a 100 lumen lantern won’t really illuminate a room (because those 100 lumens are being thrown in all directions.)
But what if you don’t know the type of lamp it is? Or what if it’s some weird lamp that is between a lantern and a flashlight?
So candela takes into account how broad the beam is. Candela is lumens DIVIDED BY the spread of the beam. So a 100 lumen flashlight with a small spread might produce 300 candela, but a 100 lumen lantern might produce 15 candela (because its beam is 20 times broader.)
The important think to realize about candela is that it doesn’t change with distance. Regardless of how far away you are from the lamp, it is still throwing the same light into the same angle. So you’re not quite right, candela is not the visible intensity from the light source, because your eye has a fixed size. When you’re close to the lamp, your eye covers a wider angle and your eye takes in more light. When you’re far away, your eye covers a small angle and takes in less light.
Also, it’s not necessarily a good way to evaluate flashlights, because you need to know more than just intensity over angle. You also need angle, period. A flashlight might produce 3000 candela, but it only makes a tiny bright spot, that isn’t very useful. A beam has to spread at least a little to be useful. So you have to look at the spread too. I’ve found I like relatively wide beams, wider than traditional flashlights. It lets my brain work less hard to construct a picture of what’s around me. But that requires more lumens total to fill that area.
And candela doesn’t tell you how bright the OBJECT will be that you’re looking at. A 3000 candela beam might be super bright when you’re looking at a map, but it might be useless when you’re trying to spot a drowning sailor in the water 1000 yards away. At that distance the beam might have spread so much that it’s useless.
So foot-candles and lux take into account the distance from the object. It determines how well you can actually see things. They divide candela (in effect) by distance. Lighting designers know that for office work, a desk has to have X number of lux, so if the lights are Y distance from the desk, they can work backwards to figure out how many candela are needed (and there is more to it than that.)
But practically speaking, those measures aren’t so important, because people only need to see things that are so many feet from the lamp. if you need to work on some wires or pipes, that’s only 3-10 feet, and if you need to survey a room, that’s maybe 10-20 feet. For those purposes, knowing lumens and the type of beam (flashlight vs lantern) is enough.
But that brings up a potentially deceptive measure that manufacturers sometimes use, which is “reach,” i.e., how far you can see with the light. You can make a weak flashlight with great “reach” if the beam is tiny and narrow (and again, not very useful.) I notice that headlamps or bicycle lights sometimes include “reach”, because sometimes people need to see further than just 20 feet. Headlamps meant for construction or such don’t bother.
Hope that helps!
Stuart
Great explanation and insights, thank you!
JR3 Home Performance
Careful. Science some how has become political. Wouldn’t want this to turn into an election discussion about vote counts
Stuart
You’re the only one going there so far…
Different Seth
Wow, you guys know a lot about flashlight!
I just bought two penlight at Home Depot, husky brand, “virtually industrucable”, water proof and a lifetime guarantee….for ten dollars… how does that factor in for comparison?
Stuart
Husky takes pride in their flashlights, and really try to products good products at affordable pricing. I’ve got one in the basement and another somewhere on the garage. They’re good utility lights.
I started with Maglites 10+ years ago. Once you learn what you prefer, there’s a world of EDC flashlight options out there.
Koko The Talking Ape
I’ve become a fan of Milwaukee flashlights, because like Brad above, I’m irritated by the blue-white light that other brands make. Milwaukees make a slightly yellower white, not as yellow as “warm white” lightbulbs, but just enough to make it feel more natural. It used to never bother me, but since I got one Milwaukee, I notice the difference.
I imagine Husky makes fine flashlights, though.
TMedina
The Husky penlight (2xAAA) is a great, multi-purpose light with a relatively tight beam, giving it longer “throw” or reach. It’s also “cool” or “pale blue” in terms of tint.
The Milwaukee penlight is thicker and longer than the Husky. It’s also a warm/neutral tint, so it won’t seem as bright – it also has a slightly diffused beam, making the light “wider” than the Husky.
For casual use, the Husky is tough to beat. When you’ve got your head in a machine, looking for cracks and debris while surrounded by shiny metal, the brighter, cooler light is actually a drawback for me. The warm/neutral tint is easier on my eyes and shows more detail that might be lost in the glare of the Husky.
Another surprisingly good penlight, particularly for inspecting equipment, is the Wal-Mart “Hyper-Tough” pen light, 100 lumens for $10. Also a cool tint, but a much broader beam than the Husky or the Milwaukee. Which makes it fairly useless at a distance, but for lighting up a section of equipment, it’s great. It’s my go-to, with a handful of others in my bag, depending on what I need.
Grahamlander
I bought these in store to give my kids for a camping trip. I think they are too thick for AAA and the buttons are very hard to press.