some big differences in price here; I paid £10 last week in Tesco extra at Pool ( Redruth not Dorset) how long ago did you buy one for £8 ? and where? Anyone else find differences in their area?

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Got to be careful about that. I booked a ticket for an elderly friend on National Express on the web recently and nearly sent them from Falmouth to Redruth. 😞

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some big differences in price here; I paid £10 last week in Tesco extra at Pool ( Redruth not Dorset) how long ago did you buy one for £8 ? and where? Anyone else find differences in their area?

£12 in N. Staffs on Thurs last.

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I think some of us may be talking about different models.
I nipped into Tesco's today and looked at all 3 models and the prices were as follows; 3W 'AA' cell model @ £10, 3W 'C' cell model @ £12 and the monster 4W 'D'cell model @ £18.
Any advance on those prices?

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Does anybody have any idea how long one of these would run on decent rechargeables? I used mine in Harnisha Burn on Saturday morning and got a good hours use out of the tatty own brand batteries it came with without any noticable dimming so I imagine it'd be a useable amount. It barely seems worth faffing about with a normal caplamp for shorter trips if you can just strap one of these on.

tesco in oldham the monster was £20,i got over 2 hours constant use it was still going strong but it had dimmed a little,not got rechargables in d-cell so cant comment on those.

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prices do vary £15 quid for c cell one in portmadog.
Thorpey

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Just got 2 of the 'c' cell torches on Sunday. £12 each. Must say the light output was great for the size of the torch. For some strange reason I seem to have tens of those c cell batteries knocking around so I went for that one. Cant wait to try it out and see how long they last. :thumbup:

I have had a little trouble with two of my 'C' Cell Tesco torches. After a few knocks and drops underground they started to flicker on and off. It seemed the spring pushing against the battery had become compressed, so was losing contact. Stretching it fixed the torch, but I certainly wouldn't like to rely on the torch. Conversely, my Fenix torched have been put through hell and have always worked perfectly, so I guess you do get what you pay for.

As for prices - my local Tescos seems to change the price every time I go in 😉

With all the current interest in lighting I have decided to take it 'all the way' so to speak.
There has been a chap posting on the caving networks who crammed 3 Crees into an Oldham headset, I understand that he had heat problems, no kidding.
Anything overambitious put into a plastic or bakelite headset will have heat problems, however...
I just turned up an old Maglite C or D cell, years old with the batteries corroded in. Some work with a hacksaw, chisel and Stilson Wrench got it disassembled. I have salvaged the head, the partially corroded base cap, albeit with enough good thread left, and the forward part of the tube. There is an internal thread for the switch gear inside the tube, so on a cut down section of the tube the base cap screws in, the section of tube screws into the head, so in effect all I have is the head, well sealed and watertight.
A helmet bracket of an old Odham headset, a length of stainless steel bent at acute angle, and an 10 mm plumbing connector attaches my 'bracket' and provides a 'gland' for the cable to pass in. This is in a hole drilled into the base cap as there is nowhere on the head to do this because of the shape and because the tube screws in making a sort of double skin.
Although there are no electrics in it yet I tried for wear on my helmet, it felt OK. It does stick out more than the Oldham, but I considered this and the design of my bracket places it slightly lower than the Oldham.
I will be using external switches in a small abs box, 2 of them. One will control 1 Cree, the other the other 2 Crees giving me choice of 1, 2, or 3 Crees plus the intermediate settings. It should put out about 660 lumen. I shall mount the Crees on a piece of aluminium shaped to fit snug into the torch body so as to conduct away the heat. I shall also heat sink the drivers in the same way.
This one should work, and the choice of a single emitter for normal use puts it back into the realm of sense.
Will keep you all informed, and warn everyone in advance of anywhere I plan on using it.

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Cheers Roy, for reminding me. I shall soon have a comparative test of the Tesco Cree and a couple of Fenixes: the results are not quite what I expected...

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One thing I'll say about those Fenixes, they must be watertight. Got back from a trip today and chucked stuff in the washing machine at 40 degrees, and forget to remove the Fenix from a pocket.

After a 1 hour wash and spin it still works perfectly and is now shiny clean too :thumbup: