Comments on: Sylvania DOT-it LED Lights

By: Zathrus

Zathrus — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:37:16 +0000

Harbor Freight is selling knock-offs of these, 3 for $12.96 this weekend (10/5-10/7); they claim 5 LEDs, use 3 AAA batteries, and use velcro tape for mounting. Don’t know how they stack up to these for brightness though — as we all know, more is not necessarily better.

By: Daniel Rutter

Daniel Rutter — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 06:23:47 +0000

I’ve seen them in the supermarket, but assumed they were more of those lame lights that use button-cell batteries.

Button (and the flatter “coin”) cells are all the battery you can fit into a keyring-type tiny-light, but they’re made to deliver only MICROamps of current and will be beaten to death surprisingly quickly by a single LED, let alone three. People often use keyring lights for years without changing the battery, but after the first ten minutes you’re getting only 10% of the original brightness, and it only gets worse from there.

This doesn’t stop manufacturers from making umpteen eyeglass-light or book-light sorts of products that run from button cells. All of those products pretty much suck.

But lo, the Sylvania site makes clear that the Dot-It lights use AAA batteries! Neat!

By: Leslie T

Leslie T — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 04:08:59 +0000

I love these. I first picked one up at the local Canadian Tire store as an emergency car interior light and my children (3 and 5) loved it so much thay now each have one as a personal night light. They discovered that they make fabulous hand shadow night toys as the triple light sources let them make some magical ceiling images.
I haven’t taken the backing paper off any of them (to use the adhesive) as they’re being moved around a lot so I can’t comment on that feature.
These seem to last forever - the first one is now about 2 years old and is still as bright as the newer ones.