Maglite 3D LED is not bright!

A year or three ago, I bought a Maglite set at Costco that included a 3 D-cell night stick sized light and a much smaller 2-AA light. Both are LED models.

Just this evening I noticed the 3 D-cell light was much dimmer than it ought to be. After swapping out the batteries and there being no improvement in the beam brightness, I tested the original batteries and found them almost new.

Going online, I found out that there had been problems with the first gen LED lights and that the second gen Maglites (much improved) are now at Costco. There may even be a third gen out there as well. Apparently, the old ones were billed as 104 lumens while the 2nd gens are labeled 131 lumens. I think mine is a first gen.

Has anyone had a similar problem with their Maglite LED?

I'm thinking I can buy a new 3 watt LED and all will be as it should be.

+1 on the new LED, I have two three cell units and it beats the halogen bulb. I got my replacement at Frye's.

+2 on new LED's. I have a Streamlight Tactical flashlight that runs on two 3V lithium cells and it's insane bright (I think it has a 1st gen CREE LED rated at 1 watt).

I would love to get my hands on the new generation CREE LED's.

I picked up a CREE XM-L T6 flashlight on ebay a while ago. It was listed as 1300 lumens. It is incredibly bright. Like an aircraft landing light. If there is a drop-in LED replacement for the Maglight with the CREE module - go for it. I threw away all my old incandescent flashlights and bought several more CREE based flashlights. Even the cheaper ones - the Q5's - are quite bright.

Polyalcoholic said:

I picked up a CREE XM-L T6 flashlight on ebay a while ago. It was listed as 1300 lumens. It is incredibly bright. Like an aircraft landing light. If there is a drop-in LED replacement for the Maglight with the CREE module - go for it. I threw away all my old incandescent flashlights and bought several more CREE based flashlights. Even the cheaper ones - the Q5's - are quite bright.

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At 1300 lumens at 1 metre away that almost qualifies as a low beam headlamp for an automobile (in Alberta it's 1000 lumens minimum low limit).

That's a pretty bright flashlight!

I have never purchased Maglite's LED flashlight but did buy the LED bulb upgrade a few years back. I had to buy it online as they didn't have the 4D cell available locally.
It cost me about $15.00 for the bulb alone.
It is brighter than the standard bulb it came with.

JD

My light hasnt shinned too bright for awhile now.
At least there is still someone home.:wink:

o1d_dude said:

Going online, I found out that there had been problems with the first gen LED lights and that the second gen Maglites (much improved) are now at Costco. There may even be a third gen out there as well. Apparently, the old ones were billed as 104 lumens while the 2nd gens are labeled 131 lumens. I think mine is a first gen.

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You will not notice a difference between 104 and 131 lumens with a naked eye. You need almost a doubling of luminus flux to see a difference in that lumen range. There is likely something else wrong with the light if it appears that dim. Likely not the LED, but the driver circuit is not putting out the required amperage.
Nice 900 - 1000 lumen flashlights ("torches" across the pond) can be had from deal extreme (china direct)n for ~ $25. Everyone in our family has one, and we refer to them as our RBFs (ridiculously bright flashlights).
The only drawback is that they run off of 18650 Lion cells, so you need special cahrgers and batteries. The 18650 cell is the common cell that is in laptop batteries in packs. they are a 3.5V cell and DX sells them in pairs.

SwingWing said:

There is likely something else wrong with the light if it appears that dim. Likely not the LED, but the driver circuit is not putting out the required amperage.

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Emailed Maglite customer service. The online manual says the switch/LED assembly is not user-serviceable. It also says to replace the bulb or LED if it fails. WTF? From what I see on youtube, you remove the rubber button, loosen a set screw with an Allen wrench and slide the assembly out. Nothing like making it easy to replace the LED.

So far, this is the second D-cell Maglite that has gone south on me. I have a feeling my next heavy duty flashlight/torch won't be a Maglite.

I have no need to purchase an LED light since I have 27 of the FREE LED lights from Harbor Freight. Nice and bright with supplied carbon zinc batteries and CRAZY bright if you switch to alkaline batteries.

And I have coupons for another 4 or 5 of them.....freeeeeeee.

Want something real nice, check out the Malkoff drop in LEDs. I put one in my 2D Maglite and it really does crank out the lumens. It claims 240. I can't tell you 240 from 200 but I can tell you it is stupid bright.

https://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop/dropin-mod-dropin-lamp-assembly-for-maglite-c-1_25.html

I have the 3xAAAA battery streamlight..perfect for modeling the pocket clip can clip on the BT..I've always got a light in my pocket

The key strength of LED lighting is reduced power consumption. When designed properly, an LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency, which means 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy. The remaining 20% is lost as heat energy. Compare that with incandescent bulbs which operate at about 20% efficiency (80% of the electrical energy is lost as heat).
https://www.niceledlights.com

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
Henry Ford

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I bought one of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Scalable-Z...lashlights&hash=item3cc0d5831b#ht_3934wt_1133
or at least one identical to it a while ago, with a Cree Q5 LED (whatever that means ) for a lot less than what that one is going for; about four dollars, I think. Even on the low setting, it post most other flashlights to shame, and on the high setting, it is unbelievable, especially when focused. Almost as unbelievable as the rate at which it burns through batteries, though! :y:
Still, it's worth it.

o1d_dude said:

A year or three ago, I bought a Maglite set at Costco that included a 3 D-cell night stick sized light and a much smaller 2-AA light. Both are LED models.

Just this evening I noticed the 3 D-cell light was much dimmer than it ought to be. After swapping out the batteries and there being no improvement in the beam brightness, I tested the original batteries and found them almost new.

Going online, I found out that there had been problems with the first gen LED lights click here and that the second gen Maglites (much improved) are now at Costco. There may even be a third gen out there as well. Apparently, the old ones were billed as 104 lumens while the 2nd gens are labeled 131 lumens. I think mine is a first gen.

Has anyone had a similar problem with their Maglite LED?

I'm thinking I can buy a new 3 watt LED and all will be as it should be.

Click to expand...

Yes to need to buy higher watts. They are true bright LED lights

Although, it is old post but what i will say about Maglite review!! After 3 month my maglite totally stopped working. Although, i have gotten a decent flashlight brightness. But i am not satisfy build quality of this top bright flashlight...Because i always try to take high quality flashlight not junk.

LOL. first post zombie thread!

Maglights are workhorses, but not the best or brightest. Flashlights these days get stupid fast.

I shoot for the middle of the road.... bright enough to notice a difference, not so bright as to cause heat issues or drain batteries in 5 minutes.

A surefire 6P with a cree bulb is a good middle ground, and small compared to mags.

Streamlights are also a nice pocket light, but they've doubled in price since they got popular.

I used to work at a place that made aircraft landing lights. A few years ago we started using LEDs in those lights. One of the attributes of these lights is that the LEDs degrade with use. I don’t remember the numbers, but something like several 1000 hours of use and they degrade to only 50% of the original light output. And its a linear degradation with no significant jumps so you don’t suddenly notice that they are dimmer than they used to be. I don’t know if all LEDs have that attribute, or just the high-power ones we were using.

Zeus-cat said:

I used to work at a place that made aircraft landing lights. A few years ago we started using LEDs in those lights. One of the attributes of these lights is that the LEDs degrade with use. I don’t remember the numbers, but something like several 1000 hours of use and they degrade to only 50% of the original light output. And its a linear degradation with no significant jumps so you don’t suddenly notice that they are dimmer than they used to be. I don’t know if all LEDs have that attribute, or just the high-power ones we were using.

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My Surefire 6P LED degraded for sure. Hence the replacement bulb after a few years. Granted, it lasted much longer than any of my incandescents did.

Scotty Dog said:

My light hasnt shinned too bright for awhile now.
At least there is still someone home.:wink:

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I'm sure that someone will take a dim view at that comment.

You should know... I'm so bright... My parents call me Sun!