# Flashlight finder?



## Ultrarunner2017 (Oct 1, 2008)

Hi;
I have had the unfortunate situation where, during a power outage I was unable to find all of the flashlights in the house. I am always able to find the ones I keep myself (I am anal about keeping things like this in easy to reach and remember places), but the rest of the family is not so attentive on such things. We have several of the rechargeable ones that are plugged into receptacles and have nite-lights, so they are always available, but sometimes two or three flashlights are buried in piles of clothes or in drawers, or behind the couch?

So I just had this idea to attach key locators to the flashlights. I can attach the ring of the locator to the lanyard ring on the flashlight (if it has one).
But what about a flashlight with a built-in locator? It sounds like a great idea, and since you already have the power to run the locator (as long as the battery is good), or maybe it could run on a separate coin cell in case the main battery is dead. The nice thing about a separate battery for the locator (or a completely separate locator as the key locator) is that even if the flashlight's battery is dead, it can be located, and the battery changed. Of course I need to put another locator on the batteries themselves :laughing:
Is there such a thing? If not, maybe it would be worth my "inventing" one.

FW


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

I have a Grill clip on light, attached to the conduit for our basement stairs, so I can use that to light the stairs when the power goes out. We keep a flashlight that has a magnet on the side of our fridge, along with the flood light.

Then we have a Maglight on the ledge by the backdoor, two small flashlights on the bedside tables in mine & my wife's bedroom.

Then of course if all fails, there is the flashlight function on our iPhones, if need be.

I do keep spare batteries downstairs in a cabinet in my workshop.

If you want a really good flashlight, look at the Cree ones on 5.11 Tactical's website. A little pricey, but are worth paying for. Real bright, do not use up batteries due to they are LED, and if you need to blind an intruder, they will do that also.


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## Ultrarunner2017 (Oct 1, 2008)

gregzoll said:


> I have a Grill clip on light, attached to the conduit for our basement stairs, so I can use that to light the stairs when the power goes out. We keep a flashlight that has a magnet on the side of our fridge, along with the flood light.
> 
> Then we have a Maglight on the ledge by the backdoor, two small flashlights on the bedside tables in mine & my wife's bedroom.
> 
> ...


Personally, I have an excellent headlamp that I love. It's a Black Diamond Icon. Very bright, and very comfortable to wear. I bought it for running and hiking, but it is great for DIY work and emergencies. I have a couple other good LED lights, but those are MINE. I don't lend them (especially the headlamp) to anyone. I was thinking of cheaper flashlights for the rest of the family - those who aren't so good with their stuff, and it wouldn't be wise to spend a lot of money on it. I guess if I really wanted to have a way to find the flashlights, I can just buy the key fob thingies, and attach to the flashlights. But then, at $25 for a set of 4 key finders, I could buy at least that many reasonably decent flashlights. So if one or two of them are temporarily lost, no problem.
I've got two really cheap ones I bought during the Sandy outage. They're still working, but need to have their switches cycled a dozen or so times periodically to keep them working. 

I would buy more of the rechargeable nite-light plug-in ones, but the batteries in those are junk. They only last a couple years and then will not keep a charge long enough to be useful. I would prefer to get them with replaceable batteries - then I could use Eneloops, but so far I haven't seen any like that. Maybe the Eneloop people will come out with them soon.

FW


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