Led Lenser K2 vs. MagLite Solitaire LED

A while ago I a friend send a link to Jamie and Adam Tested -YouTube channel. I'm a fan of Mythbusters, so he knew that I'd love their stuff. One of the videos they have there is Inside Adam Savage's Cave: Hacking a Flashlight for Adam's EDC. So, I felt that I should blog about flashlights too.

Last year my old and trustworthy MagLite Solitaire broke down after serving me well for 18 years and I had to get a replacement. My old Solitare became un-fixable due to some sort of stress in the inside plastic parts. They broke down to a number of new pieces that didn't fit anymore. Apparently my key chain with number of keys in it cause stress to a flashlight's guts.

In the above video Adam is doing a hack to his JETBeam. Me as a Leatherman man I went for a Led Lenser (apprently they are owned by same company). Model K2 to be specific. However it turned to be a mistake. The LED is bright, it really is, and the flashlight is really tiny, but its aluminum body is not built to be hung in a key chain and stuffed into a pocket over and over again. It broke after 8 months of "usage". Actually I didn't use the lamp that much, but ... It broke. Aow come on! My previous lamp lasted for 18 years!

Here is a pic of the broken Led Lenser K2 (the short one) next to my new flashlight:

Thankfully my favorite flashlight company is back! I don't know what MagLite did for 15 years or so, but they certainly lost the market leader position by not releasing any new products for a very, very long time. So... after failing with Led Lenser I went back to MagLite. Their new LED-products are really good and I got one of their new releases a Solitaire LED. I'm hoping it lasts a minimum of 18 years!