swoeste's Full Review: Dorcy #41 4297 6W 3AAA Flashlight
I've been using the Dorcy 6-Watt LED flashlight for about 2 months, and generally I'm very pleased. Now, while the flashlight has its drawbacks, I wasn't surprised by them, since I read various reviews about the product on Amazon.com. While I'll touch on some of the points in those reviews, the information in my review below has some unique aspects.
First, the negatives. This flashlight is expensive; I paid $32 for it, plus shipping. (Amazon has since cut the price by $2.) I thought that awfully steep, even for such a bright flashlight. And, I wouldn't call the "fit and finish" superb either. While the flashlight looks and feels okay; it's a nice, solid jet-black metal case with a nice heft, the screw-on cap at the back end has a bit of play in it. Thus, every time you change the batteries, you need to seat the cap just right before you can screw it back on, otherwise it will jam while you're turning it.
Another negative is the battery life; it's short. To be fair, the Dorcy 6-Watt flashlight provides its brilliant illumination with only 3 AAA batteries. Still, the light only stays at its maximum for about an hour. You can get another 30 minutes or so of acceptably bright light after that, then it's time to change the batteries.
Now, for the positives. The flashlight is resistant to shock; I've dropped it several times on a concrete basement floor from heights of 3-4 feet. So far, none of the LEDs have broken, nor has the glass lens in front of them.
The batteries are fairly easy to remove from the holder inside the flashlight, despite being a tight fit. And, the rechargeable batteries I use (nickel-metal hydride) work just fine; they last at least as long as the alkaline batteries included with the flashlight. Of course, it's a given that anyone who owns this flashlight should use rechargeable batteries. At least with the AAA size, they'll recharge quickly (2-4 hours) in most plug-in battery chargers.
The flashlight casing also has a flat surface on the outside, which allows you to set the flashlight on a table top, or something similar, without it rolling away.
Now for the best feature; this flashlight is bright. With fresh batteries, you need to avoid looking directly into the light at close range (up to arm's length); you could blind yourself briefly. This flashlight is bright enough that if you had 3 or 4 of them, they'd be bright enough to throw enough light into a modest-sized room that you could go about your business with ease. Just put the flashlights in some kind of holder on the floor, or on a table top, and aim them at the ceiling; the reflected light will be enough to brighten the room nicely. I could easily see this as a solution to a brief power failure.
The light beam that the Dorcy 6-Watt flashlight throws is much superior to your typical, old-fashioned, incandescent bulb flashlight. The LEDs make for a nice, bright beam, that despite diverging with distance, still has a fairly even brightness through the area the beam lights. It's much better than the beam from an incandescent bulb flashlight, where you'll get a noticeably bright center to the beam, and a rather dim outer ring.
Now for something completely different about how I use the unusual brightness of this flashlight. It makes an ideal "spot" light for the produce I grow in my basement. At close range, it's more than bright enough to give enough light for the corners and other spots in my homemade greenhouses where the light is blocked by the taller plants. Of course, since the flashlight is so small, it's easily moved from place to place, and since it's battery-powered, I don't have yet another trailing cord, or have a need for another available plug.
I'm planning on buying a mountain of these flashlights (100 of them, from a wholesaler), and a mountain of rechargeable batteries (500 of them), and using these flashlights as the only light source to grow produce indoors.
So, while not the cheapest or best made LED flashlight on the market, the Dorcy 6-Watt flashlight has enough going for it to make it a worthwhile purchase.
Update - 3/01/09 Since I wrote the above review, I did purchase 100 of the Dorcy 6-Watt flashlights, and 500 rechargeable, nickel-metal hydride batteries. I also now have over 100 solar-powered battery chargers. And what have I done with them? Exactly what I mentioned above; grow produce indoors. <p> So far, I've been successful at growing Swiss Chard, and leaf lettuce indoors using only the Dorcy 6-Watt flashlights for light. So, yes, it's possible to grow some things that way completely independently of grid-supplied electricity, and without sunlight. However, it is a very labor intensive process, as even growing modest amounts of just 1 or 2 vegetables takes 40 - 50 flashlights at once, and up to 400 - 500 batteries per day (which all are recharged by solar chargers). So, I spend a lot of time changing batteries in flashlights, and changing batteries in solar chargers; I also spend time attaching and removing flashlights from the fixtures that hold them over the tubs where the produce is growing. <p> Is it all worth it? That's a hard question to answer in some ways. I will say you can grow produce without an expensive solar electric system with large solar panels, a large battery bank, an inverter, wiring, etc. It's also much easier to vary light intensity, even over small areas, than with a system that has just 1 or a few large light bulbs. And, it's much easier to buy my "system" a small piece at a time, than going the conventional route with a solar electric system. <p> I'll also say the produce I've grown this way is probably the most juicy, tender, flavorful, and colorful I have ever had. So, despite the work, I'm going to try growing some other kinds of produce, including spinach, beets, radishes, potatoes, tomatoes, kale, and melons.
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