I have had experience with several kinds of human powered flashlights on my excursions to the outdoors. Most of them were pure junk as far as I can tell. I started with those shake lights that were popular a few years back but even though the ads said you could run them over with a truck and drop them in water they never seemed worth a shake. I tried a couple different makes and they all produced light for a little while then progressively lasted less and less time, till they gave out all together. Then I moved on to crank flashlights that had all these cool features, like radio, high and low beam, and even a plug for charging your cell phone. I never actually tried the cell thing because while half the flashlight body was dedicated to storing the numerous adapters and stuff to plug into a cellphone, they failed to include those adapters in the bubble pack the flashlight came in. While it's cool to have a radio when you're sitting by the fire late at night, it doesn't last very long on a crank and you find yourself standing on your head trying to get that station that keeps fading in and out, while this is an interesting form of yoga it's not a lot of fun when you fall in the fire!
It would seem the less gadgets a crank device has the better as far as performance goes. The best by far that I have field tested in the Oregon woods was the Garrity crank flashlight. It has 2 settings high & low and lasts up to 45 min between cranks. I have even dropped it in the surf for a few seconds with no fail service. The only problem I have had with this light is when sand gets into the button it makes it stick in the position it was in before the sand got there. I actually overcame this little flaw by putting a piece of black electrical tape over the switch to keep the sand out. Other than that I have been crainkin this puppy for 3 years now and it still holds a charge for months at a time in storage. Check It out.
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