5 reasons why you should buy rechargeable flashlights and headlamps
When choosing a flashlight or headlamp, one of the most important questions are: should i buy rechargeable or alkaline?
In all fairness, there are some situations where an alkaline light would be the best choice. Alkaline batteries have a longer shelf life than rechargeable lithium batteries. This makes them a perfect fit for an emergency light that could be laying around for years. Just remember to keep the alkaline batteries out of the torch so potential leaking won’t damage the light itself. Alkaline batteries are also a good choice if you only use your flashlight or headlamp briefly a couple of times a week.
However, there are so many benefits to rechargeable lights, and at Suprabeam we are not in doubt that rechargeable portable lights are the future. Therefore, we have listed 5 reasons to why you should buy a rechargeable flashlight or headlamp over their alkaline counterparts.
1 | Higher lumens output
Rechargeable lithium batteries simply have a higher power capacity than alkaline batteries, and they are designed for high drain devices like flashlights and headlamps. This enables rechargeable lights to have a much higher lumens output.
2 | Buying rechargeable is cheaper over time
Rechargeable flashlights and headlamps are more expensive to buy than their alkaline counterparts. However, over time the rechargeable light becomes the cheaper choice.
It costs €2 for 1 battery change with a standard alkaline headlamp using 3xAAA batteries, giving you roughly 2,5 hours of light. If you switch batteries once a week for a year, the battery expenses run up to €109,20! In comparison it costs less than €1 to charge an S4 rechargeable once a week for a year.
It might also be worth mentioning that a S4 rechargeable costs €103,50 on the Suprabeam webshop, which is less than the yearly alkaline battery cost.
3 | Constant Light Output
With rechargeable Suprabeam lithium batteries we can deliver a constant light output, which means that Suprabeam rechargeable products always deliver the highest possible light output without damaging the LED.
Many manufacturers design the electronics to dim down the light drastically in order to achieve a longer runtime. With our Constant Current Technology, you have absolute control over the light output and battery life.
You can read much more about lightcurves and constant light output right here.
4 | Better for the environment
All batteries can potentially harm the environment, however, with rechargeable batteries every single battery has a much longer lifetime. Therefore, using rechargeable batteries save the environment from many single-use batteries.
5 | Rechargeable batteries are designed for high drain devices like flashlights and headlamps
Lithium batteries have a very low inner resistance, making them perfect for devices that need a high constant flow of power, like a flashlight or headlamp. Alkaline batteries, however, has a very high inner resistance making them perfect for devices like remotes that needs very little power to run. When draining an alkaline battery quickly the high inner resistance will develop a lot of heat in the process. This is less than ideal for a flashlight or headlamp.
Alkaline batteries do have one big advantage; the batteries can be replaced in a second compared to the charging time of a rechargeable battery. However, this can be solved by bringing fully charged replacement batteries or alternatively choosing a light with Dual Energy Concept like the S-series. The Dual Energy Concept lets you use Alkaline batteries when the rechargeable battery is drained.
The choice between rechargeable and alkaline is up to you, but we would without a doubt argue that you get the best flashlight or headlamp by choosing rechargeable.