Nightstar Magnetic Force Flashlight Hi-Tech

by Applied Innovative Technologies

Product Details

Data Sheet [282kb PDF]

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Data Sheet [282kb PDF]

• ASIN: B00016WMYU
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,972 in Home Improvement (See Top 100 in Home Improvement)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Advertised, March 8, 2004

By 

Pecos Bill (Gaithersburg, MD United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nightstar Magnetic Force Flashlight Hi-Tech (Misc.)

It's not really fair to compare this to a normal flashlight, anymore than it would be to compare a normal flashlight to a plugged in floodlight.

This flashlight, of course, uses no batteries. A little bit of shaking gives you bright light that will slowly taper down in power until you give it some more shakes. A few notes:
1) "20 minutes of light" is somewhat arbitrary. The light slowly diminishes over time. You'll need to shake it more often if you're trying to, for example, read a book, but if you're just trying to see your way to the bathroom because the power went out then after 20 minutes you can still use it to find the doorknob before you need to shake it some more. For outdoor use I think you'd want to shake it fairly frequently to keep the trail lit.
2) For those who don't read the manual (like me at first!), note that you should shake it from side-to-side, not up-and-down. The repulsor magnets in the casing do half the work for you as long as you're shaking it horizontally (and the main magnet won't bang against anything that way). Shaking it vertically won't damage it but you'll end up doing more work.
3) Maybe this is common knowledge, but I didn't know: the capacitor stays charged so you can charge up the light, keep it switched off, stick it in a drawer and it'll be ready to go when you need it, pre-shaken.
4) The on-off switch glows in the dark, so you can find it when the lights go out.

As for a measurement of how bright the light is, I'd say it's a bit less than a regular flashlight with brand new batteries but it's certainly sufficient to read with and it's bright enough that you don't want to look directly into it.

I'd say this light is a must-have both for home use and camping. While it might not be as bright as a latern or battery light, it has the advantage of being free to use and will still work if all your other light sources run out of juice.

This is certainly a great one for the kids, who can now play with the flashlight all they want and you don't have to keep buying expensive replacement batteries or rechargers! Make with the shadow puppets, cause it's free.

Oh, incidentally:
* It floats and is very waterproof.
* Because of the magnents, if you dangle it from a string it will orient itself to point north.
* Case is a sturdy plastic, seems fairly indestructible short of setting it on fire.

I'm a sucker for cool toys and this is definiately a cool toy that happens to double as something useful.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Remarkable!, October 24, 2004

By 

David Carswell (DC Metro Area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nightstar Magnetic Force Flashlight Hi-Tech (Misc.)

You have to see this flashlight to truly appreciate it. The mousing is a single piece of transparent plastic material (some sort of acrylic, I suppose). I haven't tried to break it, but it is very substantial, and feels tough. The only seam is where the lense is attached to the body. The switch glows in the dark, and does not penetrate through the body of the flashlight (This light is *waterproof*). Though the light has a single LED, it uses a lens to focus the beam; this light has the most uniform beam of any flashlight I have ever seen. It is as bright as any of the single LED lights you will find; not as bright as a halogen or krypton bulb, but plenty bright enough for typical use (if you own LED flashlight, it will not dissapoint you). I get *plenty* of burntime for just a few shakes, and the LED will never burn out.
The quality of manufacturing is superb; this is truly impressive piece of engineering.

Bottom line: as an emergency light, the Nightstar is profoundly useful; bright enough, no batteries, no bulb to burn out, waterproof, lightweight, and simple. As a general purpose flashlight, it is more than adequate. As an extra bonus, you never need to buy batteries or bulbs, which will easily pay for the light in just a few years' use, and is environmentally friendly.

I strongly recommend this product.

-- UPDATE --
The LED flashlight has come a long way since I wrote this review ... I own several that draw 1 to 3 Watts. My remarks that this light would compare favorably to the typical LED flashlight are no longer true. If you own a 3 watt LED MagLite, you will find that there is no comparison ... this light is *dim*. However, I stand by my review: given the purpose of a light like this, it is still adequately bright, and still profoundly useful.
Also, my suspicions about this light's toughness proved true ... this light has spent considerable time being stomped in the floorboard of my car, and has received its share of abuse, but is still as good as the day I bought it.

So this product still gets a strong "buy" recommendation from me.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get the original - beware the imitations, August 28, 2004

By 

Nicholas J. Moore "njemoore" (Burlington, VT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nightstar Magnetic Force Flashlight Hi-Tech (Misc.)

This flashlight is amazing. It is very bright, and provides usable light for much longer than stated by the manufacturer. Their estimates of continuous bright light are about right. The light is a very white - almost blue, fairly tightly focused beam. It's easily enough to light up a dark hiking trail at night and will brightly illuminate the far wall in a darkened room. By the way, shake it in a horizontal manner instead of up and down - no need to fight gravity!

I've seen the imitators products (like the forever flashlight, etc.) They are garbage compared to this one, especially in terms of light output and build quality. There's a lot of confusion about the particular brands. For instance, if you click on the "buy new or used" link at amazon, they give you links to sellers who are selling the imitation products. The kind of junk imitation they are selling can be bought on 3bay for 8 bucks. The original nightstar light is worth 80 dollars in my opinion. I'm buying tons of these for christmas and birthday gifts. So far, they have been incredibly popular.