LED Club 4-LED Flushlight

LED Club 4-LED Flashlight, retail $15 to $25 (http://www.ledclub.com)
Manufactured by Loo Loo Enterprises (www.ledclub.com)
Last updated 10-27-07




It looks like a flashlight. It eats batteries like a flashlight. It produces light like a.... well, not like any flashlight I'd want to carry around.

Labelled as being from "The LED Club", this 3-AA, 4-LED white LED flashlight looks nice enough. It has a smooth, sleek black finish, and four white LEDs mounted to a white plastic disc. But when you turn it on, don't get all excited and go to the bathroom all over yourself. No really, don't.


SIZE:



The LED Club Flashlight comes with heavy-duty batteries and a thin lanyard. Install them as directed below, and it's ready to use. Twist the head clockwise (tighten it) to get "light", and back it off (counterclockwise) to turn it off.

The lanyard is affixed to the light via a small eyelet in the tailcap if you wish to use it.



Unscrew the tailcap, dump, and load it back up with 3 new alkalines. Put them in with the button-end (+) going in towards the front of the flashlight. Screw the tailcap back on, and throw the flashlight back in the junk drawer. Or us it, if nothing else is handy at the time. It certainly won't bite, if that's what you're worried about. :o

The instructions specifically state to use alkaline or lithium batteries only; yet it comes packaged with those zinc carbon heavy duty batteries. Is this someone's idea of a bad joke?

It draws 260mA (more than a quarter of an amp!) from its batteries, or 65mA per LED.



The LED Club flashlight seems sturdy enough. It's made of aluminum, so it should be able to withstand ordinary falls and other household flashlight accidents. It's labelled as water resistant, but not submersible. So you probably won't want to throw this in the pool and have the kids go after it. It should survive though, if the dog gets upset at the dim output and takes a leak on it.

The finish is a gloss black paint, and can be scratched off with no major effort. After extended use or rattling around in a toolbox, you will start to see bare metal showing here and there.

Because there is no knurling or other texture on the barrel or the head, the light will feel slippery when your hands are wet or after you've just changed the oil filter in your car. Not a good choice to take rock climbing, unless you enjoy going after your dropped flashlight a lot. Although it does come with a lanyard, it's wimpy and too short - you can't loop it all the way around the head of the light to hang it from a pipe, tent pole, or tree branch. When I tried to stretch it around, it promptly snapped. So now my flashlight has the functional equivalent of a tampon string dangling from it.

Although the beam has a nice smooth profile and a pleasant icy cool color; the brightness - or lack thereof - gives this flashlight a big "DO NOT BUY" recommendation. It was easily outshined by a flashlight using a single battery and a SINGLE LED!

The packaging this thing comes in is chock full O nuts... or should I say, chock full O lies.
  • They claim that the flashlight has "4 high-intensity bright LED bulbs". WRONG. They're dim, low-intensity bulbs.
  • They claim the LEDs are cool-burning. WRONG! They're significantly overdriven.
  • They claim that "Each LED produces a phosphor light as bright as a full-sized flashlight." HORSE PUCKEY!! This is so wrong. These are the dimmest f$*#!ing things I've ever seen considering their operating current.
  • They claim that the batteries last up to 10 times as long as a regular flashlight. WRONG!! A regular flashlight using AA cells probably draws 300 to 600 milliamps, depending on the bulb. This light draws 260 milliamps, so even under good conditions (and assuming the linear drain characteristics many of these outfits use in their claims) they would last only 3-4 times as long, at best. Maybe they'll last 10 times as long if their threshold is where the LEDs are barely visible to the dark-adapted eye.




Beam photo. Color is much as it appears in reality, though less purplish.
Measured a pitiful 11,670mcd; and this thing has FOUR LEDs!


Compared to Arc-AAA single LED. The Arc is on the left. It has ONE LED.



TEST NOTES:
Flashlight was purchased & sent for evaluation by a fan of this website.


UPDATE: 10-26-03
I bought a 4-LED blue LED flashlight off Ebay sometime ago, and it turned out to be a Loo-Loo Enterprises product - an "LED Club" flashlight - or flushlight, just like the white model. Externally, it looks exactly like the white model, so pictures are unnecessary here.

The blue model draws 126 milliamps from brand spanking new alkaline cells; 31.5mA per LED. So the LEDs aren't seriously overdriven, but they're not very bright, either.


Measures a truly pitiful (for a flashlight) 6,400mcd with its four LEDs.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrographic analysis of the LED in this flashlight.
Ocean Optics USB2000 Spectrometer on loan from TWO-CUBED.


UPDATE:02-07-04
I received an email from somebody who bought several of these Flushlights, and here is an excerpt from it:

BRIGHTER than the 2AA 4 LED Dorcy(eyes only) but no doubt.
WHITER than the blue-ass Dorcy too !
Draws 80mA total.
Kroll clickie fits right up the tailpipe !
And only $8.00 each.
I have put lithiums in 3 of them and sent them to my Mom,sister and aunt in Montana to keep in their cars. I also put one in mine and my wife's car.
I bought a total of 12 or so and they are all good.

Apparently, Loo Loo Enterprises has made improvements to these flashlights. Maybe it was due to the crappy review I gave these flashlights on this page, maybe they had some other impetus.


UPDATE:04-24-04
I recently bought a green LED flashlight for $7.25 on ebay, and when it arrived early this afternoon, I discovered it was another LED Club (Loo Loo Enterprises) "Flushlight".


Here is a beam photograph.
Measures 25,900mcd at a current draw of 113mA on its included batteries.
A Meterman LM631 light meter was used for this measurement, and my DMM was set on the 2A scale.


UPDATE:10-27-07
From an email I received this morning, comes the following:

"Walgreen's is now selling the "LED Club 4-LED Flushlight", 2 for $ 5. Even though the lights are not that good, not a bad price at all."





PROS:
Metal casing is reasonably impact-resistant.
Batteries are easy to find & replace.
White LED model has a beam with a nice smooth profile and a pleasant color.


CONS:
DIM, DIM, DIM!!! What went wrong?!?
Sucks much too much current down for amount of light provided.
Finish is painted, not anodized.
Wimpy, too-short lanyard.
Mirror smooth finish means the light slips out of your hand when wet or greasy.
Blue model has a hard-to-turn head.

Because of all of these "Cons", I have no choise but to give it the dreadful "Zero Stars - Whip Out your {vulgar term for male urinator; rhymes with "wrecker"} or Sit on the Commode and Uranate On It" rating.


    MANUFACTURER: Loo Loo Enterprises
    PRODUCT TYPE: 3-AA sized LED torch
    LAMP TYPE: 5mm LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 4
    BEAM TYPE: Narrow flood with medium fall-off and smooth beam
    SWITCH TYPE: Twist bezel on/off
    BEZEL: Metal bezel, clear window. LEDs mounted to white plastic disc.
    BATTERY: 3x AA
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: 260mA (white), 126mA (blue), 113mA (green)
    WATER RESISTANT: Splash/weather resistant
    SUBMERSIBLE: No
    ACCESSORIES: Heavy duty batteries, thin lanyard
    WARRANTY: Not stated

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating







LED CLUB 'FLUSHLIGHT' * www.ledclub.com






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