A Disturbing Trend in Flashlights

This past weekend, our young cat climbed an enormous tree in our backyard which had a nearly vertical split trunk. She was up at least twenty-five or thirty feet, which meant climbing a ladder to get her was out of the question. Of course, she waited until about dark to perform her stunt, which meant we were out there after dark for an hour two trying to get her down. We tried everything we could think of. Eventually, she shimmied her way down backwards, which was both relieving because there are many predators out at night, but annoying because she could’ve just done that earlier.

At some point, we had three or four flashlights out there and a lantern. But we (and by “we” I mean other people) misplaced one of my flashlights after the ordeal. I’m sure I’ll find it at some point, but I don’t like being without, and I don’t mind a manufactured reason to purchase a new flashlight now and again.

So, I started browsing Amazon for LED flashlights. And that’s when I noticed a disturbing trend: more and more flashlights are rechargeable. Very few offerings, in fact, showed as using batteries. Thus, I refined my search for “AA LED flashlight” and, although there were more choices, many flashlights still showed as being rechargeable.

I see this as a problem. Why? Because it means that, like it or not, at some point we’re going to be forced to use flashlights that are only rechargeable. While not a problem when times are good, this trend could become a problem during a SHTF event when recharging capabilities are limited or nonexistent. Granted, it’s not like all battery-powered flashlights are going to disappear overnight, but there is an obvious trend, and the trend isn’t good from a survival perspective.

I’m also not saying you should go out and stockpile battery-powered flashlights right now. But you should have something available. And if you’ve purchased LED flashlights, like I have in the past, then have some capability of recharging them should something happen. Usually, that means a small solar setup. Heck, even some gasoline to keep your car running is enough to allow you to recharge equipment (phones, flashlights, power banks) while also using a power inverter to run bigger items, like refrigerators during a short-term outage.

Of course, it’s not only flashlights. I’ve noticed this trend in LED headlamps and to a lesser extent in LED lanterns. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a personal fan that isn’t rechargeable.

Ultimately, I’d say the writing is on the wall. At some point, gear that uses replaceable batteries will go the way of the wall phone, cassette tapes … and disco. 🙂

Plan accordingly.


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Comments

2 responses to “A Disturbing Trend in Flashlights”

  1. Shane

    While not the best option—there are battery banks that you put standard AA batteries into and can use them to charge phones or in this case a flashlight–there are also flashlights that can work on AA batteries as well as the rechargeable lithium ion battery that it comes equipped with–albeit at a lower lumen output and shorter life.

  2. GregE

    I’ve noticed that tendency as well, I assumed it was part of the “planned obsolescence” however if you can dismantle the torch, you’ll often find the rechargeable batteries are AA cell form factor and could probably be replaced, another option would be to check the recharge voltage and make up an external battery pack with connectors (or just solder wires to those running to the socket) and tape the battery pack to the torch. I did dismantle an old laptop battery and found it apparently consisted of a lot of AA size cells inside although at the time I didn’t think to try running it on standard AA cells since it still worked on the wall wart without the battery inserted.

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