Personal Flashlight Survey

[blink58truckie]

Im a product design student looking to create products related to emergency services especially the fire department. my current task is to redesign the right angle flashlight. common examples are the Streamlight Survivor and the Pelican Little Ed.

my question to all of you is:
what makes you carry a personal light?
what brand/model?
what are the strengths?
what are the weaknesses?
what would you like to see incorperated into a new light?

thanks for your cooperation and time.
FF Brandon Link
Spangler Fire Company
Product Designer/Custom Fabricator

[jbrescue]

Durability! Can't beat the Pelican unconditional arranty either.

[FyredUp]

what makes you carry a personal light?

My personal safety and convenience. It is lighter and much easier to use that the big litebox style lights.

what brand/model?

Right angle falshlight is a Steamlight Survivor xl90.

My helmet light and the light I carry in my pocket are both UK 4AA. Why these 2 additional lights? Easy, I never heard anyone at a fire complain about having too much light.

what are the strengths?

Tough, durable, easy to operate.

what are the weaknesses?

I have an older one and difficulty of battery change was a problem. The new generation fixed that.

what would you like to see incorperated into a new light?

Same quality, lower price. Made in the USA.

Hope this helps,

FyredUp

[KevinFFVFD]

what makes you carry a personal light?
because i personally dont trust the handlights that come off of the engine. i would rather be carrying a flashlight around that i know is going to work when i need it to. plus as said by FyredUp "you cant carry to much light with you."

what brand/model?
i carry 4 lights with me. i use the Streamlight Survivor LED
http://www.thefirestore.com/store/pr..._charge_model/

a Pelican 2400C StealthLite mounted to my helmet
http://www.thefirestore.com/store/pr...ries_included/

and two Garrity LED Life Lite Disposable Flashlights in my coat pocket
http://www.thefirestore.com/store/pr...le_flashlight/


what are the strengths?
i have anever ending source of light and i know that if for some reason one of my lights goes out i have 3 more on me. it just seems to "brighten things up" when i need it the most. ALWAYS CARRY A FLASHLIGHT. and you never know when your going to need one.

what are the weaknesses?
as far as i know, none

what would you like to see incorperated into a new light?
longer battery life. longer lasting bulbs, more power (of course)

[FF49STN]

Streamlight Survivor LED on the coat, a UK4AA on the helmet and a 'Syclone' amber and white torch on the Air sets..

[HotTrotter]

I don't actually carry a personal light, then again, I don't have a Blue light either. My reasons for not carrying my own light is I have to worry about keeping it charged up. The truck mounted lights are always charged, well maintained, and ready to go. What I really would like to see is a hands free device, perhaps helmet mounted, like in the helmet itself. You know, like a minors hat except integrated and steamlined so it doesn't catch on anything.

[firemed9]

what makes you carry a personal light?

I carry them for the safety of myself and my crew and the convenience of being able see at least a little bit better than with nothing at all.

what brand/model?

On the coat, a Steamlight Survivor 2nd generation. (not LED yet)
On my airpak, a Streamlight Vulcan.
On my helmet, a garrity on the rubber.
In my pocket, a pelican 4AA LED.

Never can have too much light is a bad situation.

What are the strengths?

All of the lights seem durable, easy to operate and don't seem to fail when I need them most.
The garrity is cheap and easy to replace when they melt. Have yet to replace one due to the batteries dying.

what are the weaknesses?

Survivor only lasts about an hour at work, Vulcan about 2.

what would you like to see incorperated into a new light?

Longer battery life would be nice and lower price. All need to be Made in the USA.

[dave29]

what makes you carry a personal light?

To see in the damn dark

[MalahatTwo7]

Trotter, a few years back I saw a new style helmet (ok it looked a lot like the one the Brits use ) with a streamlight built into the top of the lid. Looked a bit like a miners rig, and it added a bit more to the top of the lid, but seemed well balanced - at least while walking around "normally". But of course it was another 70 or 80 dollars more than the standard design. I think it was a Bullard.... but its been a while.

What light? I prefer streamlight. I usually carry two. One on the lid, and one hanging from my radio strap - that one points down, so I can see the bleeding floor/stairs.

**I tried the steamlight LED and in auto extrication scenarios or other non-smoke environments, it worked great, but under smoke conditions, it just made a big "white" cloud with limited penetration power.

[DaveCN5]

I carry two. The streamlight and an LED one that I bought at target. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. The LED's produce a bright white light that is good for interior stuff, but it sucks at long distances. The streamlight produces a slightly dimmer yellowish light that can be seen from long distances. Maybe combine the best of both worlds.

I think it would be cool if the light had a swivel on it. Because all the right angle lights now a days that are mounted on the coats are always pointed down at the ground when in a burning because we all know "When you hit the door, you hit the floor." It doesn't do much good pointed at the ground. So I think it would nice to have a swivel on it so you could angle it straight ahead when crawling around. Just my .02

[svmech17]

what makes you carry a personal light?
If your on the nozzle its kinda difficult to carry an engine's lightbox, but i still want some light. I have also found that if you turn on your light in a smoke house or a real life fire, other firefighters know where you are.

what brand/model?
I just bought a little ed LED and wear it on my coat. I also carry a back up sabrelight C battery size in my pocket. And if im not on the nozzel i carry a lightbox (cant remember the brand, probably pelican)

what are the strengths?
The LED extends battery life and i have noticed that LED lights seam to cut through a little more smoke than your standard sabrelight.

what are the weaknesses?
see below.

what would you like to see incorperated into a new light?
Like what was said before I wish the right angle big ed could swivel so it would be more useful when crawling. I would also like to see a better helmet mounted light that could be used with a shield and didnt require a rubber band. Some helmet lights claim to work with shields but most dont.

As for the suggestion by hot trotter. I have seen one of those at a fire conference and they just look silly. His helmet was eurostyle too, so he attracted some comments if you know what i mean.

[labador]

Actually I like to carry 2 just in case one looses it power. A couple of us guys use the buddylight with a backup using a garity light strap around the helmet. Seems to work pretty well together. One goes out always a backup. I like the led's in the smokey conditions better than the others seems to work better as others have said.

Come up with a light that holds a charge all the time and get rid of the batteries / Yea right.

[blink58truckie]

Keep them Coming. this is for a school project. I'm taking these survey results into consideration for my final design.

[jlcooke3]

my question to all of you is:
what makes you carry a personal light?
what brand/model?
what are the strengths?
what are the weaknesses?
what would you like to see incorperated into a new light?

I carry my own lights simply because I don't like to carry the dept.'s litebox. I carry three flashlights. One garrity light mounted on my helmet held in place by a rubber band. One Streamlight Survivor LED 4AA model flashlight mounted on the right side. One steamlight 4AA flashlight that I keep in my left turnout pants pocket. The garrity is cheap and durable the downside is that it doesn't put out much light and what it does put out doesn't cut smoke worth a darn. I guess I use it more for close up work and as a marker so other's know where I am. The streamlight survivor was definitley cost effective it is durable and has good battery life. It could cut through smoke better. The 4AA streamlight is really durable had decent battery life. I would like to see a flashlight that had better smoke cutting ability either through lens design/color and/or bulb design/color or a combination of each.

[smokeater1310]

my question to all of you is:
what makes you carry a personal light?
well i fell through this hole in the floor once doing salvage because there was no scene lighting in the structure. that and half my district doesnt have street lights and we have to sometimes surch dark swampy areas for the victims
what brand/model?
pelican big ed, stealthlight and sabrelight. i'm waiting to buy a blackjack holder from 1445 designs for the stealthlight to go on my helmet
what are the strengths?
easy battery change outs, portability brightness( did i mention i dont use led flashlights only xenons?)
what are the weaknesses?
cant find one except everyone keeps borrowing my dang flashlights on scene i ought to become a pelican rep and sell them to the guys in my county.
what would you like to see incorperated into a new light?
better battery consumption,

[fireslayer1237]

I carry a Responder® Right Angle 4 C-Cell Flashlight on my coat. I love this thing the 4 C cell batteries last usually 2 fires and is bright as hell. then I have a garrity on my helmet and a regular old pelican in my pants pocket. the garrity is cheap melted a couple already but can't beat the price for as long as they work with out dying.

[plisken]

I have as pelican on my helmet and a survivor 2nd gen on my coat, gives me the light when I need it, is hands free and durable, the extra batt is always charges need it. keep a spare survivor 2nd in my trix bag if i have to stay for investigation....

[BuzzCut1]

Structure jacket> Pelican Little Ed
Wildland helmet> Princeton Tec Corona

[GTRider245]

I have a Bright Star Responder 4C on my coat and another Bright Star 4AA on my helemt. Good lights, bright, awesome durabilty and free bulbs for life.

[TC33FF]

Got a survivor light on the coat. A pelican personnal 2aa flashlight in my pocket of my pants. Also we have the newer streamlight small box lights on the truckks so one of those around the shoulders.