****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
First, I've found all LED lights that make outragous claims of average battery life of dozens to hundreds of hours is either misleading or totally wrong... no matter what brand or where you bought them from. They either go totally dark in much less than half the rated time, or have gone too dim to even read large print with the light pressed closely to the page. To even get close to half the rated life, skip the alkalines, you must use expensive lithium or the highest capacity NiMi rechargables available on the planet.So they all lie about or misrepresent your actual battery life. I'm sure some of them, if you put the most expensive batteries in the world in them, run the light almost to their rated battery life, if you take them into a fully darkend room, & hold the light to your face, strain your eyes, you will find the LEDs are still glowing very faintly... but that's not useful light.I haven't found AAAA rechargables or lithiums, but you won't need them.This is the only LED light I ever found that doesn't give you bull on battery life. It uses a single LED & 3 AAAA alkaline batteries that can be obtained cheap from many sources. Slightly longer than an oridinary pen, I take it everywhere, & is always with me at work. As an engineer, I've used it several times daily for over 6 months with the original batteries. I thought it might be getting a little dimmer so recently put fresh batteries in it. Although it got brighter, not significantly, so I put the old batteries back in. This light just won't die. Lot's brighter than any keychain light, it's as useful as most big lights. It fell 14' from a ladder onto solid concrete, into puddles, snow, & got paint & glue on it. Using harsh chemicals & scraping to get all the paint & glue off, it still looks & works like brand new. I don't know what they used to paint that light with, but there's not a scatch on it anywhere... no dents yet either. Solid & durable. Your best light will be the one that works when you need it to, & is close at hand. Best $14 I ever spent!Update: AAAA Batteries can be found right here at amazon. Just type AAAA or streamlight in the search box. The streamlight AAAA 6-pack runs $6-$7 & are really alkaline energizers. Also if you tear off the metal around a "copper top" alkaline 9 volt battery with a couple of pliers you'll find 6 aaaa batteries inside. But beware... the AAAAs inside the 9 volt battery have the polarity reversed! So you must put those in your light BACKWARDS. You should also stretch the light's spring out a little for a tight fit & better contact. This won't effect it if you go back to ordinary batteries, just make sure to get the polarity right.
