Gadget Daddy: A flashlight for the masses? Small LED proved indispensable during hurricane

If there's one thing a hurricane will teach you during three days without power, it's what qualities are really important in a flashlight. I had several flashlights to help out while cursing the recent darkness.

I also have two oil-based hurricane lamps [about $18 online] to augment the flashlights. But that's another column for another hurricane season.

I relied on one flashlight more than all the others combined, however. It was a pen-size one — about as big around as an index finger and about six inches long — that uses two AA batteries.

At its brightest setting, the manual recommends using it no more than 10 minutes at a time; longer might compromise the LED circuitry. Given rest intervals between those high-intensity uses, batteries will last about six or seven 10-minute sessions. Medium and low levels present no such problem or limitations.

The lowest setting — aptly called "firefly" — produces a faint light that's bright enough to read by and to see near-at-hand objects. But it will burn like that for 15 days. Yes. You read it right. Days.

The flashlight is the ThruNite Archer 2A V3 (about $30 from Amazon.com, where nearly 4,000 customers have given it an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars.) ThruNite, founded in 2009, is a contraction of the company's motto: "Guiding You Through the Night."

No matter what time of day, the flashlight also provides guidance into a hurricane-darkened room as well. There is an adjustable clip on the flashlight for attaching it to clothing and pockets. There is also a lanyard to help keep it handy.

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Even with the lanyard in place, the flashlight will stand on its end. It's a nice feature when the entire room needs to be lit up and you need to have your hands free. It can also be placed on its side without rolling off the table.

A tail switch turns the flashlight off and on. A button switch, located near the light-end of the flashlight, cycles through high, medium, low, firefly and strobe settings. It has a "memory," so it will turn on at the same level of brightness that it was when it was turned off.

It might seem like a larger flashlight using C- or D-size batteries might be a better choice. But the brightness and efficiency improvements in LED bulbs, coupled with improvements in AA batteries, have placed the smaller flashlights in a favored position.

I found the ThruNite Archer while doing some research on batteries (which is a column onto itself. But to give a shortened version of it here: Get rid of alkaline batteries and invest in nickle-metal hydride rechargeables instead.).

In August, Wirecutter, a New York Times consumer website, recommended the Archer 2A V3 as a flashlight for the masses: "We settled on this model after spending four weeks in the New Hampshire woods with 23 flashlights, draining almost 80 batteries, researching the topic for over 50 hours, reading through countless threads at a number of flashlight enthusiast forums, and speaking to a man who has personally reviewed almost 200 flashlights."

Me? I was lucky enough to have it around when Ian came tapping at the window. It quickly proved indispensable, from peering out the front door into the darkness, to providing a reading or nightlight when it was the only source of light.

It'll guide you through the night — or through Hurricane Lisa or Martin, should they come lumbering this way before the end of this year's hurricane season Nov. 30.

Lonnie Brown can be reached at LedgerDatabase@aol.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Small ThruNite LED just might be the flashlight for the masses