I recently ordered a Pelican Progear 1810 LED keychain flashlight from Amazon. I didn’t have any specific reasoning for it, but hey, I like to try things out.
It features twist-activation tail cap, and is water resistant to IPX4 standards.
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The flashlight is powered by coin cell batteries – LR 41. I knew this before I placed the order, but when it arrived I was a little surprised.
This Pelican light is so small it’s a choking hazard. Not that it’ll be kept anywhere near my kids, but whoa. It’s small, measuring just 1.5″ long.
It has a 16 lumen emitter, and runtime is said to be 8.5 hrs per set of batteries.
Since it runs off of coin cell batteries, it’s probably not going to be your everyday light, but it should work well as a “darn, I need to light something up and don’t have a flashlight on me” flashlight. Or is that what cell phone flashes in flashlight mode are for?
It’s a cute little thing, and I’m happy with my purchase.
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The flashlight is available in several colors: blue. silver, black, green, red, and gold.
I do have one complaint. The light has a very strong blue tint to it. I can’t see how it could be connected to the blue of the reflector and flashlight housing, so it must be inherent to the LED emitter.
LR41 batteries are easy to find – I bought mine from Amazon (currently ~$5 for 10).
Price: ~$8.50 to $11
Buy Now(via Amazon)
If you want a more usable keychain-sized flashlight, the Fenix E01 is larger and runs off a single AAA battery, but isn’t quite as bright.
See Also(Fenix E01)
Chris Fyfe
Worth a look !
Chris
MikeakaFazzman
How is this compared to the Fenix E01 as far as size? the pelican looks a bit bigger,maybe bulkier? the E01 is amazingly slim.
I bought my wife a purple Fenix E01 a few years ago and she still uses it all the time,the anodizing is beginning to weardown a bit but works like a champ. I have a love afair with my streamlight and foursevens pen lights.
Stuart
This is at least 2 times smaller. I’ll add a photo shortly.
John
It comes with the carabiner?
Is that ‘disc’ (pictured) a lens cap? (if so, why is attached to the key ring?)
thanks for the info…
Stuart
Yes.
That’s a… I don’t know. Looks decorative, and that’s all?
Chance
I like the size of the light, but the 16 lumens it puts out is pretty paltry. I know it’s in a completely different price range, but the Surefire Sidekick is an amazing keychain flashlight. If you buy it on sale through Surefire or other retailers it can be had for much less than the MSRP, plus it’s rechargeable, so you won’t have to continue to buy batteries for it, and the longer you own it, the more that price gap continues to shrink. Oh, and it puts out 300 LUMENS on high! It also has accompanying medium and low modes as well. It is a fantastic flashlight.
Mason G
If you guys haven’t checked out the Nitecore Tube, you definitely should. It’s a 45 lumen usb rechargeable Keychain light. It has a two modes. It’s also a great price at $9.95 right now on amazon. I’ve had it attached to my key ring about a year, and it’s held up great.
firefly
The Nitecore Tip is a really nice option for keychain light with rechargeable battery.
Mark
Don’t see the upside, it seems to sit in a bad place between squeeze lights (bad battery format but tiny) and AAA lights (can recharge, has some run time and lumens)
Pete
The fenix E05 would be a better comparison. My wife has had her E05 for 5 years now. She has yet to break it lol.
Robert
It’s funny you mention cell phones. I used to be a big flashlight fan and always had a AAA light on me. With cell phone flashlight mode, I haven’t carried one in years. When I need a bigger light, I get one, but an EDC is no longer needed for me.
BigDan
Motorola had a shake to turn on flashlight mode which I used all the time. Don’t know if anyone else does but that is way better than finding it in the pull down menu or an app on the screen.
Paul
The Fenix UCO2SS is a comparable form factor with a 10180 Li-ion battery. 10 lumen low for nearly 4 hrs, and an impressive 130 lumen high for 25 min. Just picked one up myself to give a try. Also, while phone flashlight is nice for quick use that’s all I ever use it for since it drains the battery and most phones could use all they battery they get. Much rather age an easily replaced flashlight battery than put that time on the cell phone.
Koko the Talking Ape
Link to a product description or sale page?
Pat M
I found a couple of drawbacks to using a cell phone as a flashlight recently when I needed to pull a car out of a snowbank. I needed to use both hands and that meant either putting my phone back in my pocket, or setting it in a snowbank.
Rain could be a similar issue. I know some cell phones are now water resistant etc but to use one in a ditch at night I would rather have an inexpensive and easily replaced flashlight.
Diamond Dave
The olight is my next keychain light at 90 lumens with a AAA battery and you can also get the silver model with a rated 120 lumens! Here is a 2 pack one of each through Amazon and they have super ratings along with being small enough for EDC. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IOS5HZ2/
Koko the Talking Ape
This looks most comparable to the Streamlight Nano, which also takes LR41 batteries (three of them) and is about the same size (like a peanut). The Pelican is a bit brighter.
There are a few issues with the Nano which make me hesitate about this Pelican. The biggest is that on the Nano, you twist the cap to turn it on or off (as with the Pelican), and you twist it more to open it up and replace the batteries. So it eventually unscrews itself and dumps the batteries and cap in your pocket, where you don’t feel them (they are the size of blueberries) and lose them. People have taken to wrapping the Nano threads with a few turns of teflon plumber’s tape.
The second is that the batteries, which are like largish asprin, are a little fussy to load. They tumble easily if you drop them in the tube. The best method is to make a little stack of the batteries on a table, then drop the tube over them and slide the entire thing off, covering the opening with a finger, then flip over and screw on the cap.
But like other people, I now use my phone if I ever need a flashlight. I have a bigger one in my bag, just in case.