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Rocky’s Reloading Room |
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Product Review: Premiere Electronics LED Lights
At a table across from me at a gun show a while back, two guys were selling flashlights. Every flashlight on the table was turned on and burning brightly. “They’re burning their profits in batteries,” I thought. Then I overheard their sales pitch.
“How long do you think this light will burn?” one of the sellers asked a prospective buyer. “Beats me,” said the buyer, “Maybe eight or ten hours?”
“Would you believe eight or ten WEEKS,” said the seller. Weeks? This I gotta learn about. So I paid close attention to the rest of his spiel.
It turns out that the otherwise standard-looking lights can perform this trick because they don’t use conventional light bulbs at all. They use specially made LEDs. And unlike regular LEDs, that are red or blue or green in color, these are a bright blue-white-very bright. Because LEDs (or Light-Emitting Diodes) use almost no current, the battery life of these lights is almost incredibly long. Before the end of the show, I bought one light and arranged to use three other styles for the purpose of this review.
The patent-pending lights come in several styles. So far, there is a key chain light, a penlight, a medium-sized light, a very handy full-size light and a headlamp style. The three smaller styles use a single LED and the two larger models use two LEDs. I’ll review all but the medium-sized unit, which uses two C-size batteries.
The key chain model uses a watch battery, and is operated simply by squeezing the unit to turn it on and releasing it to turn it off. It is just slightly larger than a US quarter in diameter, and is about a quarter-inch thick. It requires a good squeeze to turn on the light, which guarantees that it won’t come on accidentally in a pocket or purse. It produces an amazing amount of cool bluish-white light as long as you squeeze it. I’m told that it would burn for several days if used constantly. When used for a few seconds at a time, it may never burn out. If it did, the battery is easily replaceable.
I use this model as a bedside light when I’m on the road. During the night, I can just give it a squeeze and check the clock, or use it to find my way around a strange motel room. It’s also great to help insert a key, search under a car seat or do any of a hundred things where a tiny “always there” light makes itself indispensable. If I need both hands, I can even squeeze this tiny light in my teeth for a supply of light when I need it most. |
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The next size up is the penlight model. This one comes in a sturdy aluminum tube just over five inches long, and has a pocket clip. Using two AAA-size batteries, it has a push-button switch similar to a ballpoint pen. Click it and it stays on, click it again and it turns off. I personally use this one to examine the insides of people’s ears when I make custom earplugs – which is what I was doing at that gun show. It works admirably. I’ve been using it for almost a year now on the same pair of batteries, and it’s still about as bright as the first day. That definitely wouldn’t be the case if it used a standard light bulb, as I know full well. Usually I can get a few weeks service out of a standard penlight before the batteries are dead.
The next model up in size uses two C-cell batteries, and would be about the perfect size for a daypack, a glove box or a tackle box. If one chose batteries with a long shelf life, it would make about a perfect emergency light for almost any situation I can imagine. The company says that they’ve left one turned on for upwards of eight months continuously, and it still produced enough light to read by. If I were ever to take up mining or cave exploring and needed a light that I could depend on until I got rescued (heaven forbid that I’d need to be!), this would be the light.
The first of the two-bulb models is the Quantum 2000 model. This and the headlamp model put out at least twice as much light as the single bulb models, at the cost of a somewhat reduced burn time. Still, each is rated to produce more than 50 hours of light at full brightness and much longer at diminishing light levels on one set of batteries. The Quantum 2000 uses four AA-size batteries in a very impact-resistant rubber housing that measures five inches long and just over two inches in diameter. It has a click-on, click-off switch and a wrist loop of nylon cord. At the end of the cord loop is a small vial that contains a standard light bulb as a replacement.
Why one would need it is a bit of a mystery because the twin LED unit is almost completely shock resistant. You can (and I have) throw the unit up in the air and allow it to land on a concrete floor while turned on. The bulbs do not shatter. That’s because they don’t have a hot filament and are completely solid state. The Quantum is also waterproof and floats. All told, a great outdoors light where its slightly greater bulk is no problem. To test this model, I’ve left it on all night as a nightlight on several occasions. No problem. I’ve used it while night hunting and camping as a regular flashlight, and it is bright enough to see even small trail obstacles clearly. Again, I’ve used it at every conceivable occasion for almost a year on the same original batteries. I estimate that I’ve had it turned on for at least 50 hours total, and it’s still going strong.
The final model is the Navigator 2000. It also uses four AA-size batteries and a twin-LED bulb unit. But this model is designed as a headlamp. A strong rubber strap is fully adjustable to fit any size head or even over a hat, and it grips well enough that it doesn’t slide around or wobble in use. The light assembly is a bright yellow high-impact ABS plastic. At one end is a large diameter switch that turns to select on or off. The other end of the housing removes to give access to the battery compartment. The unit can be adjusted to point up or down and it holds its position very well.
This unit throws a wide, soft beam that gives good illumination over an area perhaps 30 feet wide and out to a distance of 50 feet or so. It would make an excellent trail light when one had both hands in use, and a fabulous light for night fishing or night varmint calling. Because the light beam itself is more of a flood than a spot, it has a soft quality to it. I haven’t been able to prove it yet, but I think it would be less likely to spook either a called-in predator or a fish than a conventional light.
The Quantum and Navigator twin-bulb models have a suggested retail of $39.95, and the smaller units are less. That may seem expensive, but the biggest cost factor with flashlights is the cost of replacement bulbs and batteries. These lights should more than pay for themselves in a short time just in battery savings alone.
After using these lights for almost a year, I continue to be flabbergasted at the quality of the light they produce and the almost perpetual use I’ve given them with no degradation in light output at all. They are nothing short of incredible. For an outdoors person who is sick of the unpredictable nature of ordinary flashlights, who feels as though he can never trust his source of light, these revolutionary flashlights are the answer. Quite simply, they’re the most amazing flashlights I’ve ever used.
You can order several of your own, or get additional information from the distributor, Southern Utah TV; 765 North Bluff St, Suite A; St George Utah 84770 or at 435-673-6313.
Rocky Raab |