I recently purchased a Pelican 3310PL LED flashlight.
Most of the flashlight’s housing is made from a photoluminescent plastic, making it easy to locate when the lights go out. It would be accurate to describe this flashlight as a fairly substantial chunk of glow-in-the-dark material.
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It’s also waterproof, to IPX8 (submersible) standards, and quite bright.
I was searching for a small Pelican or Pelican-like case when I first learned about the 3310ELS emergency lighting station, which consists of a mountable case and the aforementioned 3310 flashlight.
I was interested, but I don’t need a wall mount. Luckily, I found that the 3310 was available by itself, as the 3310PL.
The one I ordered had lesser published specs, but what I received was the latest version of the flashlight.
- Up to 378 lumens
- 39 lumens at low, 378 lumens at high
- 202 hrs runtime at low, 8 hr runtime at high
- Polycarbonate lens
- Photoluminescent polycarbonate body
There’s also a strobe mode.
It measures 6.4″ long and weighs 6.2 oz with batteries (3AA). The batteries are pre-installed, requiring removal of a disposable plastic spacer to get things ready.
I am very impressed with the photoluminescent material. It’s so powerful that I was able to get some green glow action on my desk with the room light on.
Here it is charged up an Elzetta LED flashlight on high.
There are some other aspects to note.
The battery door has a partial-turn locking mechanism, with an O-ring providing waterproofing. It’s not the most comfortable battery door design I’ve seen, but it’s clever and gets the job done. You can lock the battery door closed with a quarter-turn of a slotted screwdriver.
Don’t have a screwdriver handy? There’s a plastic one built into the included wrist strap.
It also has built-in battery door retention. They thought of everything!
The Pelican 3310 LED flashlight itself is chunky in design, which is good for a flashlight you’re meant to use in the dark. Its body is rectangular and impossible to roll, although it can slide around on a flat surface.
The flashlight throws a large and somewhat uniform illumination circle with a very bright hot spot at the center. It’s not that great for an everyday light, but would be quite suitable as an emergency or outdoors light.
It is brighter in its low output mode than 39 lumens would suggest, but I’m guessing that’s because it has such a small and focused centered spot light.
This is one of the utilitarian flashlights I’ve ever used. It’s easy to spot in the dark, and has a usable beam profile for emergency situations, especially outdoors. It has a high water ingress protection rating, and is powered by common AA batteries.
Price: ~$30 and up
It’s out of stock at the moment on Amazon, but their price is good if you don’t mind waiting a bit for it to ship.
Buy Now(via Amazon)
See Also(Pelican Emergency Lighting Station)
There’s also a non-glow version, but… why? As mentioned, I wouldn’t want this as an everyday flashlight, and so why not opt for glow in the dark?
I need to do some more testing, such as to see if it’ll stay charged throughout the night. But since it glows in the light after being charged with another flashlight, I’m not too concerned. Still, it’s more of a “oh no, the power just went out, where’s the flashlight?!” kind of flashlight.
With that in mind, I don’t regret my purchasing decision one bit.
fred says
Its not outrageously priced – but I’m not sure that I buy into the premise that you need this if the lights go out. We’ve always kept a flashlight in each of our (my wife’s and my) bedside tables. easy to grab when things go bump in the night. We also have flashlight strategically located around the house in known easy to get to locations. More recently – I’m likely to grab my always-nearby cell phone for enough light to get me to a better flashlight.
In our primary residence my wife finally got fed up with the occasional but annoying blackouts. Despite my protestations that it was not economic, we installed a natural-gas-powered standby generator – so now a flashlight would be needed only if the generator did not start up and the transfer trip switch failed to work. I also hope that the generator obviates the need for the an old battery-powered exit light in my basement shop.
In our winter place the complex has their own standby generator – that they swear they test ahead of hurricane season. But I’m never there to witness the test or a hurricane – summer and autumn being too hot in south Florida for my tastes.
I have found that battery-powered motion-detector lights to be handy for places where the lights might go out and you need to exit. I put a few of these in spots in our summer place:
https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Beams-Wireless-Battery-Operated-Motion-Sensing/dp/B002FCNLHK/
Nathan says
just going to put out there – in those cases of oh the powers out and I can’t see – this would do you no good sitting in a drawer – since it probably won’t glow even if you opened said drawer.
so it’s going to need to sit out somewhere. I could see mounting on on a boat console or in a plane – or car. etc etc.
Rcward says
I can think of a lot of flashlights at that price point I would rather have that run on rechargeable 18650 batteries. The glow in the dark “feature” is a Gimick at best. Sounds like a trick or treating light for someone’s kids maybe.
Koko the Talking Ape says
I think the glow-in-the-dark feature is less useful than it seems at first, because as Nathan says, the flashlight will lose its glow if it lives in a drawer. But that feature COULD be useful in some situations. If it doesn’t add to the cost, I don’t see a reason not to get it.
Nathan says
Notice they sell it with a clear case for wall mounting. which again – on a wall at the office – or on your boat console – would let the body charge up with light – which it might well glow for 12 or more hours.
In fact good query – how long does it glow when charged with a standard lamp for say 8 hours.
JoeM says
This is out of left field but… Wasn’t this the cheesy invention Ben Stiller’s character in “Night at the Museum 2” had? Struck it rich after inventing it because of his experiences in the first movie as a security guard?
By the way, I don’t mean THIS Flashlight is cheesy, I actually think this is a really well done, quality manifestation of the idea. I’m just referencing that the flashlight IN THE MOVIE was cheesy.
I think Pelican put some seriously great features into this, and even the possibility of a sealed box is a great addition. I have nothing else to say about it that isn’t a “+1” to what everyone else has said. I was just remembering the movie had this exact idea in it, and thought it a strangely awesome manifestation in the real world.
Mel Wright says
How do you change batteries on the Pelican 3310
Stuart says
Twist the battery door as far as it goes, and it pops out to allow for battery changes. If you need a quick video demo, please let me know and I’ll try my best.
Mel Wright says
Hit me with a “Video Demo”
Mel Wright says
You promised to send a video on replacing the batteries in the Pelican 3310