Cheap-Ass Tools: Novelty Pocket LED Flashlight for $4.50
By Chuck Cage
These aren’t exactly going to make killer work lights, but it seems everyone I know loves the idea of these little, bright pocket LED flashlights. And who wouldn’t? The form factor is perfect for tossing in a camping bag or your glovebox. Of course, the high-end ones can run you upwards of $50 — and blind you from 50′. But the cheap-ass models, while significantly less powerful, get pretty cheap indeed. I guess they’re pretty much the penlight of the new century.
And here’s one you can have for $4.50. Hell, it’s even Prime-enabled on Amazon, so if you happen to have a Prime account, you won’t even pay shipping.
PS: Yes, I know there are shops online (and even on Amazon) advertising this for as little as $0.01. But you’ll pay an imperial assload of shipping, which means you’ll likely pay more than $4.50 all said and done. Hence why I picked this one.
Neiko 9-LED Compact Aluminum Flashlight Via Amazon [What’s This?]
July 19th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Harbor freight has some, 2 for $3.
July 19th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Actually, HF just did a coupon for a free one - no purchase necessary. Also, I just purchased a package of 15 of these at Home Depot for a few pennies under $15, batteries included. They have them in a bin near the registers. That’s enough to put one nearly everywhere and have a few left to pass to a few friends. And, they are actually reasonably bright. 3 batteries per light and the pack had 15 lights and 45 batteries. I don’t know of anyplace I can buy 45 “AAA” batteries for $15!
July 19th, 2010 at 9:08 am
I just saw a 10-pack of 6-LED flashlights at Home Depot marked down to $7.50. And yes, batteries are included.
July 19th, 2010 at 9:41 am
I JBWelded a nut to the middle of mine and I use it with my GorillaPod as a positionable work light.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:02 am
If you keep you eye out online or in the mail for your HArbor Freight coupons they often give them out for free at the store. My local store will even give them out without the coupon if you ask.
July 19th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
These are the BIC lighters of flashlights. There is a place in the world for BIC lighters.
I like the LED style better than the two AA cell maglite style I used to have.
July 19th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Not sure if it warrants a comment but the line “imperial assload” reminded me of a conversation (as all things usually start off) I had in a pub.
Cabe, Cheez, Whiteknight and I have been struggling with the definition of exactly how many an assload is.
Extensive research has revealed…
Imperial Assload
6 fistfuls in a hatful
6 hatfuls in a buttload
12 buttloads to a crapload
14 craploads to an assload
Metric Arseload
10 handfuls in a bucketload
10 bucketloads in a boatload
10 boatloads to a sh*tload
10 sh*tloads to an metric arseload
There are approximately 6 boatloads in a crapload, so an metric assload is approximately 1.2 imperial arseloads.
For external reference, a /11 of IP address space is a metric arseload.
For further discussion on this important topic, go here - http://forums.multiplay.co.uk/rants-raves-other-nonsense/42023-rfc-system-measuring-excessively-large-amounts-things
July 19th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Advance Auto sells a 7 LED version for $2.50, sometimes running a sale at 2 for $5!
July 19th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
I get these at the dollar store for … wait for it … a dollar each.
the Chrome Cheapo deal is better; it comes with iffy batteries for free.
Nice bright lights. They do chew through batteries for LEDs tho. Nothing like xenon MagLites, but enough to get warm. I have enough to leave almost everywhere.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
@fuzzmanmatt
“Advance Auto sells a 7 LED version for $2.50, sometimes running a sale at 2 for $5! ”
At 2 for $5 versus $2.50 ea. I guess I would have to jump on the 2 for $5, that is a hell of a sale!
July 20th, 2010 at 5:06 am
check out dealextreme. pretty cheap flashlights and super bright…. more money than this, but much nicer quality…. still from china of course…
July 20th, 2010 at 6:48 am
dealextreme is free shipping, but the last item I ordered took about 3 weeks! Can’t complain though, I don’t know how they can make money selling stuff that cheap and including free shipping…
July 20th, 2010 at 8:06 am
This is a one day deal but the site is reputable (meaning i have bought off them before)
http://www.dailysteals.com/
seems to have a 6 pack of these for 4.99 today only.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:13 am
With dailysteals remember that you have to pay $5 for shipping. I do like dailysteals though and have bought a bunch of stuff from them over the past couple of years. No! I do not work for them.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:39 am
You can get these for free from Harbor Freight. They have coupons all the time and sometimes they just give them to you with no coupon. We have a pile of them at work and I have a few around the house. Not great but not bad for the price!
July 20th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I have bought my share of these as well as several other cheap led flashlights, and have yet to be satisfied with the reliability of any of the 3 cell jobs (Bad connections/switch problems.)
My new favorite led flashlights are 2 cell flashlights in plastic cases with side switches. The little ones use 2 AA cells and put out equivalent light to the 3 cell AAA jobs. The big ones use 2 D cells and throw significantly more light. I got mine at Big Lots for reasonable prices ($5.00 for the big ones and $2.00 for the little ones iirc.) They also had a 4 cell AA job that puts out a bunch of light but I have my reservations about how it is put together internally (it works good though.)
Bob
July 20th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
I tried these things, gave up after the first month. Cheap china made junk that might work when you need it.
Buy an american made Mag-lite and it will always be there.
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:49 pm
These flashlights are always handy little items to keep in your toolbox. I’ve come across some of the Harbor Freight ads too.
July 24th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Two days ago HD had a 10 pac of six led lights plus three AAA s each for $10.
July 25th, 2010 at 7:25 am
These lights that run on 3 AAA batteries start out bright, but get dim as you use them, the LEDs are direct drive from the batteries. I carry a small LED light that uses a single AA cell, and is much much brighter than these multi LED types. It was about $20 at Target. These cheapies are great for scattering around the house and cars etc, but the batteries can start getting expensive.
July 26th, 2010 at 2:25 am
My rant. It’s a crime against nature to make a light like this that uses AAA batteries. AAs have 2.5x the capacity and cost the SAME. If the product is tiny, then OK, you need AAAs, but it really BUGs me when I see devices like this, that are not THAT small, but still use AAAs. There are plenty of AA flashlights out there, even cheap ones.