Customer Reviews

Neiko Super-Bright 28-LED Aluminum Flashlight, Gunmetal Silver

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I bought four of these and after a quick test on one, opened the rest up. The lights are quite bright and do a great job lighting up a wide area. Not as bright as a single Luxeon or CREE LED but good bright light. I put them aside for a few weeks without use, and now when I try them they continuosly dim during use. I have to shake or tap it to brighten it back up. Then it goes dim again within 5-30 seconds. Now, even the dim is pretty bright, but it is significantly less bright then full power. It's very annoying. This is happens with at least 3 of the 4 lights (haven't tried the fourth yet) with less than 15 minutes use on any one of them.
Edit as of one month later- I took all four to Burning Man and they all got 30 or so hours of use each. Batteries are holding up fine but all had problems with contiunally dimming and brightening during use. Its gotten even more annoying. I would lower to 2 stars if Amazon would let me, especially know that I've tried a few more of the 1 watt Cree LED lights that provide more light for not too much more money.

Is all you have to do is bend the little medal piece to hold the battery in place better. I had to do the same thing to my doorbell last week. Anything that takes batteries sometimes needs this type of adjustment. My boss ordered a handful of these flashlights. He told me one wouldn't work. I just adjusted the metal pieces that surround the battery. Presto, no problem. Works like magic.

I saw this before so I knew what I was buying. This really is amazing, in particular if you consider the price. There are smaller and more powerful high-tech flashlights but they cost $50 or more, even hundreds. This light is brighter than all my flashlights that use 6V brick batteries that weight 3lbs. This is perfect as emergency light for hiking trips, for computer repairs or just about any other use you can imagine. The beam is very uniform without rings. It does have a blue tint but that doesn't bother me. It seems sturdy, feels good in hand and doesn't look cheap. The enclosed belt pouch though is kind of a joke: bright red, ugly accents and very cheaply made, I wouldn't trust this to hold anything but air. Also, the included batteries are on the cheap side too. For the price you can't go wrong. It was shipped promptly and carefully packed.

As pointed out in another review, connection problems in flashlights are common, but they are easily fixed. When it's dimming and flickering, the current is not properly flowing from the battery to the LED or bulb. Usually this is because the little copper tab on one end of the flashlight through which the battery transfers current through is no longer making firm contact with the battery. The fix is to bend that tab outward again. If it's recessed at the deep end of the flashlight, you may have to use needle-nose pliers to pull the tab back into position or pry it up with a screwdriver. The other end of the battery is in contact with a spring to complete the circuit and that rarely fails. There's also a related issue that afflicts flashlights. Improper contact between battery and copper tab will eventually corrode the copper tab and degrade the ability to pass along current. The fix for this is to cut a little bit of emery paper or sand paper and brush the copper tab till you can see fresh copper underneath the gunk. If you don't have emery or sand paper, try sticking a pencil into the body and using the eraser. It's all much simpler than I made it sound and we're talking three minutes or less if you have everything at hand. Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.

This does not really give you much more light than than the 9 led version. The other problem is that it sometimes works and sometimes does not. There is a connection problem. This has been noted by some others here as well. If you will rely on this for emergency situations, you might want to look at other models.

Interestingly, the cheaper 9 led version works much better.

Great idea, even a great design - but obviously poorly manufactured. The battery connections are miserable and the darned thing just doesn't work most of the time. Pretty useless if it's not dependable and you spend have the time messing with the battery cover. Didn't save the pkg, so I can't send it back... but I have put Neiko on my no buy list.

updated review - we put a 1/8" flat washer in the "head" area of the flashlight just before dropping in the battery pack. It sits in the little area where the pointy end of the battery pack goes. It makes contact all the time now where it needs to. All of ours have worked just fine since we did this.

For the price, this is a decent flashlight... I own a few other LED flashlights though - with only 1 LED and a parabolic lens, which produce similar light output. These 28-LED flashlights produce a less focused light, and more of a 'flood' effect. Still, I decided to go with the buy-4-get-1-free promo, and dropped one in all the places I usually need a flashlight... They're really quite handy and are perfect for most tasks.

I tried the five-dollar 9-light LED version and liked it well enough to forgive its flaws and spend 2 1/2 times as much for the 28-light model. Indeed, it puts out 3 times the light and simply feels much more solid than the smaller and cheaper sibling. Moreover, this heavy-duty model uses the same number and type of batteries and is the same length as the five-dollar model (though definitely heavier and wider). The previous version began to give me problems after a few days due to flickering, requiring me to shake it to get the light back up to initial levels (I've seen similar complaints from other users). This one, however, seems made of the right stuff to go the distance. If it continues to perform flawlessly after a month, I'll raise my rating to a high five.

If Samsung is confident enough in LED technology to use it in their most expensive LCD flat-panel television sets, it certainly should work with a pocket-sized flashlight. Finally, the flashlight company is thoughtful enough, at least with this deluxe model, to provide a stylish canvas carrying case, which can be slipped unto a belt loop, as well as a wrist strap (for the Sansabelt generation?). Most likely, most users will lose or forego both the case and the strap, but they're nice inclusions. Heck, the protective covering I picked up for my iPod is no better material and it cost me as much as this flashlight.

I purchased this item along with the similar 9 LED flashlight selling for less than half. With the two flashlights side by side in total darkness, I can barely see much of a difference in brightness. Sure this has 28 LED's but the LED's on this unit are smaller than the 9 on the smaller flashlight. The head on this is rather big and awkward as well. Money aside, I like the 9 LED version better for its sleek barrel and lighter weight.

As noted the light is very bright, it throws a nice wide pattern. There is a problem with connections as you may have to shake it for it to work at times.