Given the capacity of 3 AAA batteries, the claimed life of up to 360 hours would be extremely exaggerated. Even low power LEDs draw 20ma, so X 9 would be 180 ma per hour at the 3.6 volts. At 1000ma battery capacity, I would estimate 5 - 6 hours of bright usable light per set of batteries.
So I was at Lowes the other day and the AA and AAA in the large pack were the same price. Please China make more AA LED flashlights. Most of the time I DO NOT need to save the weight and the space AAA offer.
3 x AAA lights are so popular only because it's the cheapest way to make a light, by not having to put a driver circuit in it and using a smaller body tube. Well, 1 x 10440 Li-Ion would be cheaper still but your average consumer buying a really cheap light isn't usually looking to invest in Li-Ion cell(s) and charger for it.
2 x AA are available on some sites like DX.com but are arranged end to end so it sticks out further past the handlebars, and even more so with 3 x AA. They probably won't do many with 3 x AA cells arranged beside each other because the diameter is too big for reasonable pocket carry.
They could do 1 x AA and I sometimes bring along a light with that battery arrangement as a backup, but the boost circuit to get ~ 1.3V up to ~ 3.5V for a white LED means lower efficiency, runtime usually under 2 hours. Then again, at least it is still a lot brighter than the featured 3 x AAA light, bright enough to see by instead of only being seen.
IMO, if you want to use a pocket style traditional light in a generic mount you are probably best off with one using 1 x 18650 Li-Ion or buying one with a real bike light head, Cree XM-L LED and tethered battery pack included which IIRC is about $32 on DX.com.
Comments & Reviews (4)
2 x AA are available on some sites like DX.com but are arranged end to end so it sticks out further past the handlebars, and even more so with 3 x AA. They probably won't do many with 3 x AA cells arranged beside each other because the diameter is too big for reasonable pocket carry.
They could do 1 x AA and I sometimes bring along a light with that battery arrangement as a backup, but the boost circuit to get ~ 1.3V up to ~ 3.5V for a white LED means lower efficiency, runtime usually under 2 hours. Then again, at least it is still a lot brighter than the featured 3 x AAA light, bright enough to see by instead of only being seen.
IMO, if you want to use a pocket style traditional light in a generic mount you are probably best off with one using 1 x 18650 Li-Ion or buying one with a real bike light head, Cree XM-L LED and tethered battery pack included which IIRC is about $32 on DX.com.
They almost have too many of the latter to choose from, though some come w/o a battery pack:
http://www.dx.com/s/XM-L+bike+light
Thank you!