ThruNite Ti3 Flashlight Review

[Roger Caffin]

Companion forum thread to: ThruNite Ti3 Flashlight Review

The ThruNite Ti3 is a diminutive but rugged little flashlight that can produce as much as 120 Lumens of brightness on a single AAA battery.

[Roger Caffin]

These days it lives on the table beside the bed (when I am home).
Cheers

[Adam Kilpatrick]

miniscule!

[Roger Caffin]

It’s even lighter than one of my MYOG headlights, and that is saying something.

Cheers

[Casey Bowden]

Does it work with a standard AAA battery (non-lithium)?

[Matthew / BPL]

This looks similar to my beloved Ti Maratac AAA flashlight except the low setting is lower (yay), the moder order is low to high rather than medium, low, high (yay) and it’s much less expensive (yay).

That is three yays and no boos.

Roger, I get that you aren’t interested in using the clip but I’d be interested in knowing how well the clip works for attaching to the brim of a hat. Did you try that? I find that hand from time to time.

[Matthew / BPL]

Super-nerdy review here indicates it does not use pulse width modulation for dimming which is wonderful.

I also see there is a neutral white version available.

[James Marco]

I believe the pocket clip can be reversed and attached to a hat brim. Remove the front and slip the clip down to the first bezel. One of the few I have seen that can do this…

[Matthew / BPL]

It sure looks like the clip is reversible. The Maratac and Olight AAA do that too. It’s a handy option to have. I’ve cooked and hiked at night with it on my hat before.

[Ken Thompson]

Matt, Candlepower forum is an awesome source of information. Excellent reviews.

[Roger Caffin]

Does it work with a standard AAA battery (non-lithium)?
I would expect that it would, but I don’t carry any non-lithium batteries these days. How well – don’t know.
Alkalines are feeble things, don’t work in the cold, and actually work out more expensive in the long run than lithiums.

Cheers

[Roger Caffin]

how well the clip works for attaching to the brim of a hat.
Sorry – I did not test that. My (Oz) bush hat brim would not support it. So – can someone test the clip with a baseball hat?

Cheers

[Link .]

. HERE is a link I posted last year to a video review by Lint that might answer some of your questions. I bought this flashlight last year and really like it, and yes you can reverse the clip to go on a cap.

[Matthew / BPL]

I broke down and ordered one on Saturday, Amazon delivered on Sunday. I got the NW (Neutral White) version.

The clip is far superior to the one on my Maratac AAA light.

I’m not a flashlight expert but I do teach graphic design and color correction so I’d like to think I have some kind of eye for color. The color rendition is excellent on the NW version. It’s lovely.

I miss the cool glow in the dark O-ring on the Maratac.

It gets hot with a disposable lithium battery running on high for more than a couple minutes. I’m not shocked.

I’m sold. It’s a hell of a light for $14.

[Roger Caffin]

‘gets hot’ – yeah, that is heat dissipation in the LED itself. But then, the heat from an incandescent would be ‘somewhat larger’.

In the field, I rarely have it on more than the lowest setting.

Cheers

[Matthew / BPL]

I should have been more specific about why I like the clip: the connection between the clip and the light seems very secure. Also, the clip clears the back of the light allowing you to stand it up on the end of the light (occasionally useful). The clip works nicely on my OR Sunrunner or SA Adventure Hat.

Good stuff.

[Matt Swider]

I used this light last year for my JMT hike.  I loved it.  I will say I did loose the clip about a week into the hike,which was a bit inconvenient.  It popped off one night, and even though I looked in that are for awhile the next morning it was done.  It was certainly less convenient without the hat clip, but I would do it all over again.  I used one lithium cell for 20 nights of backpacking in September.  I still have the same battery in it.  Like Roger mentioned, I rarely used it on anything but the lowest setting, but the next higher setting came in handy occasionally.  No night hiking on that trip.

[Brett T]

TL,DR: ThruNite Ti3 is awesome, but I’ll likely go back to the Lumintop AAA tool when I inevitably loose my Ti3

I picked up one of these little lights a few months ago. I had been carrying a Lumintop AAA flashlight, which I misplaced somewhere along the way. I decided to try something new as a replacement for my EDC pocket flashlight, and ordered the Ti3. I tend to loose tiny flashlights, so I really dig the low cost of these. The two lights are, in my mind, very comparable in nearly every way. I will say though, I have a slight preference to the Lumintop over the Thru Nite.

The Lumintop gives you the option of twisting the head for powering on/off (like the ThruNite operates,) or, if you prefer, you have the option of adding a “click base” for controls. I never used the click base, but it’s something to consider if you prefer a button control. I prefer the flat base, as it rides a little lower in the pocket and is able to stand on end like a candle. The biggest difference between these two lights is that the Lumintop’s base is magnetic. While I grant you that this has limited utility while hiking, it comes in awful handy on an everyday carry basis. I like having a single light that is as good on the trail as it is in the office, while not sacrificing in either application. It is entirely possible (even likely) that the Lumintop is a few grams heavier, I no longer have one to weigh. The difference would be slight though, and the added utility is worth a few grams, in my opinion.

 

[Roger Caffin]

I tend to loose tiny flashlights,
It’s a worry, BUT
I threaded a short length of fluoro brickies string thru the hole at the end, and tied a short loop. See the pink string in photo 3. I can get my hand through the loop OK, but if I ‘drop’ the torch the loop is too small to slip off my wrist: it stays with me. If it gets in the way I tuck it up inside my sleeve. It’s there, and it does not get lost.

Cheers

[James Marco]

Yeah, I just use a wrist sized hair tie. I push it up my arm when I don’t need it. When I drop it, it hangs on. A lot like Rogers loop of string.

I got one and tried it last week. One thing I did not like was the lack of an auto-off feature.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi James

Can you explain what you mean by an ‘an auto-off feature’? I don’t understand.

Cheers

[James Marco]

Sure, Roger. The Princeton Tec Impulse was always my backpacking light. I got 4 of the older models about 17 years ago. It had 5 modes: High, Medium, Low, Slow Blink and Fast Blink. It also had an shutoff after 5 minutes on the chip. Hmmm…I just looked up the new ones and they no longer have these functions and only have three modes. The weight is slightly less at .6oz, also. These were changed about 7-8 years ago, I believe.

I have a couple others I picked up for my kids at one time or another that do not have the auto-off. But, I really miss it with the Ti3. I would loop the Impulse over my cloths line loop in my tarp and various tents, turn it on and arrange my bedding. Then get in bed and not worry about the light…it would turn off by itself. Including batteries I think it weighed about .75-1.0oz…haven’t weighed it in a while so I am unsure of that. It might be about the same since there is no metal on it.

But it only produced about 10lumens. I did get stuck night hiking with it several times and it is certainly possible if a little dim for that chore. It is also waterproof/submersible to about 3meters (~10feet.) Again, with a hair tie, it looped over one of my shoulder strap drinking hose keepers. Never lost one there. It would also get soaked in rains and ran wet or even under water. I destroyed one when I stepped on it on a rock at camp. I cracked the casing (shroud) and I was worried it would get wet and fail. I have it as spare parts, since it still works. but no longer take it out hiking. On high, it would last about 12 hours, low was about 30 hours, and slow blink mode about 36hours. Fast Blink doesn’t save anything over low because it blinks on high mode. It actually cost a little less than the Ti3. LED’s are getting really cheap now. (I am still waiting for a good UV-C Steripen.) I think a new one costs around 10USD.

Anyway, I really missed the auto-off last week. I had to slip out of bed a couple times to turn it off before I remembered it. I’ll probably go back to the Impulse but can replace the MiniMag LED I had on my car key.

[Roger Caffin]

I think I see. No, many modern lights don’t have an auto-off any more.

If you are cooking dinner at night, you don’t want the torch going off just as the stew comes to the boil. If you are going to the loo in the middle of the night, ditto. So, that’s their design. It works for me.

Cheers

[James Marco]

Well, I use it only to see where I am walking when I head out in the middle of the night. I really don’t need to see where I am peeing. I only check my pot after I can see the steam. It is rare to have a boil without producing visible steam at night. And this is a real rarity for me. I don’t camp in the winter anymore and usually get up around 0500 or so. So, it is light enough to see by the time stuff is mostly packed up and I make breakfast. After about 10 hours on the trail, I am tired, so I set up camp and make supper before dark. The auto-off really doesn’t ever bother me.

[Rob]

I ALWAYS use a light when moving around at night.  I have come too close to stepping on things that do not take kindly to being stepped on.

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