C/D Cell LED Flashlight Upgrade Kit

The standard KPR113 Incandescent Bulb draws .74 amp for 3.77 Watts. The light is a cozy warm white. This Nite Ize LED Replacement draws .134 amp for 0.68 Watt. The light is a pleasant white that is somewhat brighter. This bulb is polarity dependent with the positive on the base. I tested this with a 4 D cell Rayovac lantern. Battery pack output measured at 5.1 VDC. Meter used in testing: Fluke 115 I Like It!

It is working as it should good job with the manufacture of this item.

Great upgrade for my maglite. It is now twice as bright and the batteries last even longer.

I highly recommend this little upgrade. Turn my yellow soul bulb into that beautiful blue LED, with ease.

After wasting an entire day trying to find a replacement bulb for a Porter Cable 18v rechargeable flashlight which took a 0.3A push type bulb, I came across this little guy. I went to five different stores trying to locate original bulb with no luck. I even went to a bulb specialty store. Came home and looked up Porter Cable's website in hopes they sold replacement bulbs, nope. No longer carry any replacement parts for an 18v tool. Decided to go back out and gave Home Depot a final shot in finding it. Searched the light bulb aisle to no avail. The closest I found screwed in. Disappointment set in to realize I needed to be in the power tools department searching for a new rechargeable flashlight because of a measly, burned out light bulb. Halfway through the walk across the front of the store, I spotted this little guy hanging on the peg boards outside the last register. An associate wasn't sure it was going to work, but I bought it anyhow. I had a ceiling fan outlet box to get installed, and not enough light in the attic to get it done. Got home and inserted the bulb, nuffin. Took it back out ready to return it when I noticed the new bulb's base was a bit shorter. Took some needle nose pliers and very carefully bent the metal connection tab in the flashlight up a bit more so it would make contact. Bulb went back in and turned it on. Let there be light! Now it's 7pm and still have to deal with the outlet box.

Just what I'd been looking for! Improvement over the original for my 20+ year old maglite!

Converting to an LED flashlight was as simple as changing the bulb. The attached picture shows the LED bulb in its packaging, and next to it is a Maglite krypton bulb and then a standard flashlight light bulb. As you can see, the base is identical for all three so it ought to work in any standard 2 D-Cell flashlight. A second picture shows the flashlight beam with the LED bulb installed and it casts plenty of light. I was concerned about whether the LED bulb would break if I dropped the flashlight, but the back of the package states that it is shock resistant which is of some comfort. And I expect my batteries to last a lot longer now.

BACKGROUND: I have some "Maglite" D-cell flashlights. They are quality lights, but the traditional bulbs are noticeably yellowish and don't seem to be as bright as I'd like so I decided to try out the Niteize LED upgrade bulb. PRO: This is a drop-in replacement for the original bulb. Although the "bulb" of the filament is now a "bump" of the LED mount the bases are identical. PRO: The bulb works in C and D cell flashlights. PRO: The bulb works in 2 to 6 cell flashlights. PRO: White light. Noticeably "whiter" than the filament bulb. INSTALLATION: It was harder to figure out how to replace the bulb than it was to actually replace it. The bulb itself simply drops into the old bulb socket and you put everything back together. OPERATION: Operating the Niteize bulb is no different that the old bulb, turn it on, turn it off. The big difference is the brightness and the color, which is much higher on the kelvin scale (i.e. whiter.) LIGHT OUTPUT: I used the light meter app on my iPhone to take readings with the old and new bulbs. The K on the old bulb registered at 4,000 The K on the new bulb registered 7,000 The LED is advertised at 55 lumens. My app didn't record lumens but did show recommended exposure time and F stop for each bulb for comparison. The shorter the time, and the larger the F-stop the brighter the light. Old bulb: T-1/50 second, F-11 New bulb: T-1/160, F-16 These numbers represent significantly more light from the LED bulb. SUMMARY/RECOMMENDATION: A great replacement for those old-style flashlight bulbs. Makes the old MagLite as good as any new single-bulb LED flashlight.

LED is THE technology for lighting nowadays, but in this little bulb I have found my first disappointment. It works as advertised, but not the way you'd want it to. The problem is the beam, or rather, the lack thereof. I tried it in several lights, and in each case the output was totally diffused - no spot at all. It's hard to compare the brightness with a standard bulb, even side-by-side with two identical flashlights. It may in fact be putting out more light, but it seems like less. You end up with a short-range area light rather than what you'd want for a flashlight. For the specific application I had in mind, it proved to be totally useless. The problem may be the little silicone rubber dome lens on top of the element. I found I could peel that off, but by then I had burned it out messing around with it. This was entirely my own fault and no indication of the quality of the bulb. My guess is that the bulb needs a better-designed lens to focus the beam, rather than diffuse it and hope that the reflector straightens it out. The geometry seems all wrong for that to be very likely to work - the shoulder of the extended case blocks the light from reaching ( backwards to ) most of the reflector, as it would with a conventional bulb. ( See Fig. 2. ) At any rate, it does produce a whiter light than a standard bulb, and assuredly saves batteries. It did fit into a number of different flashlights without a problem. I wish I could have determined if removing the lens would have fixed the beam. Oh well. Another issue with this LED bulb is polarity - you may have to install the batteries backwards to get it to work, and that may not work in some lights. If you have an expensive MagLite, try it, this might be a cheap upgrade. I wouldn't bother with an ordinary flashlight though, just junk it and buy a new one. A few years ago I converted an underwater light to use an automotive LED bulb, and I was blown away by the result. I was really expecting this to work better. I think it is a flawed design that could probably be easily fixed. Since I broke it, I decided to see what is inside. Along with the acrid smell of burnt electronics ( as I said, my bad, ) I found a tiny circuit board with a regulating circuit, see photo. To bad they couldn't squeeze a rectifier on there to take care of the polarity issues.

Installed in a Snap-On 3 cell flashlight. Very slightly yellower beam but brighter than another brand LED bulb installed in a 3 cell Mag light. Pattern adjust in the head works well with this bulb. Probably will buy another one for my remaining MAG Light. Only time will tell if it delivers the promised life and a drop test remains to be done. (I try not to do those) Attached pictures were taken about 10 minutes after sunset. One with the camera flash on showing the fore ground. The other just has ambient light and the Snap-On light with the LED installed. Sorry no pics with the original bulb installed.