MagLites

[270man]

I appeciate the detailed treatise on hunting flashlights that Watchmaker has generated on this forum. He has done his homework and we can all benefit from his experiments.

My question is on general purpose flashlights for the camp. Over the years I've owned a a lot of these flashlights -- mostly 2xD-cell types. Some were name brand (like Coleman, Ray-O-Vac, etc.) and some were unknown brands. Most of them worked okay for their intended purpose but typical problems that eventually ended their lives were: switches that went bad, looseness in the bulb assembly and failure to properly make contact with battery terminals. Practically all of them had plastic housings.

Eventually, a friend of mine convinced me to buy MagLites and I now have a 3xD-cell, a 2xD-cell and a 2xC-cell with focusing beams. The first problem I noted was that the metal housings froze my hands in cold weather and were uncomfortable without gloves. I figured this was something I could endure for a "forever" flashlight that solved the problems I had experienced with previous lights.

Recently, my affection for MagLites has dropped considerably. My 3xD-cell went bad first and I found that the batteries had badly corroded and welded themselves to the metal housing. I've soaked, banged, drilled and tried some other things but this flashlight is gone. Now I've found that the same thing has happened to the 2xC-cell MagLite. Only the 2xD-cell is still in operation.

Anybody else out there have similar problems with MagLites? I use only Energizer or DuraCell alkaline batteries and the flashlights have always been stored in good environmental places (my home) except when I go camping. A lot of battery-powered tools recommend that batteries be removed when not in use, but I never did this with the old plastic flashlights and never had this problem.

270man