An old Sangean radio I inherited stopped working. It would search for stations and land on proper freq., but no sound. It worked on four D-cells I have no more D-cells in the battery box. I have one old six-volt lantern light converted to D-cell, but when those Ds die, that's it. I am ditching that 25-year-old lantern light that still has original bulb. The LED lights are much lighter and brighter with longer run time. Did hate D-cells. Bulky and expensive. kris
Humans didn't leave the Stone Age behind them because they ran out of rocks..... The best flashlights in 2025, tried and tested | CNN Underscored Me being me, I opted for the Fenix PD36R of which I have 2, but that's MY mileage. Yours will vary.
I have a Petzel Tikkina headlight to replace the old one I wore out. Loved the old one but they redesigned the Tikkina and not much of a fan now. May go for the Black Diamond 300, but each of them retail for $20, and folks say the BD is still solid, but the Tikkina... Rest my stuff is Nebo, Eveready. Found if I got too much into the higher levels need a techical degree to operate. kris
where can you recycle non rechargeable d cells? our town recycling center says to put them in the trash. mercury batteries have a special bin.
Our county says NEVER put alkaline in trash. You are supposed to take them to a recycle depot 30 miles away. I have a bag of them....probably the bag would be considered hazardous waste and we could all die.... kris
How timely, this arrived yesterday: Not perfect, but "some assembly is required:" put in a cell phone-like, magnetic charger base - so it normally rests on the charger with the light off and batteries running a safe, tickle charging rate power goes out or take off the charging base - turns on the light long life, rechargeable battery cells - old school, I like NiMH cells with a proper BMS versus LiON that have built-in degradation three light banks enabled as a function of carry handle position - up right, one bank for a directional light and lower angles to bring all three online for omni-directional, room light Since I've put in my solar roof, I realized I don't need room lights to wander about the house. A portable LED lamp like this will do just fine but also be useful in and around the house. For example, when fixing one of my growing collection of ceiling fans, checking the mail box, or fetching an errant dog. With the ability to range from directional to omni-directional and a charger sensing ON/OFF, it will meet my minimalist needs. Best of all, a "Bob style Management System" (BMS) should outlive me. Bob Wilson
Aren't there adapters to use AAs as D cells? Should be fine when long running time isn't needed. Though decent flashlights are no longer a high priced item these days, for now. Have seen rechargeable lithium of the letter cells on Amazon that charge up through USB chargers.
for anyone with cordless power tools, the flashlights are great, there's always a fully charged battery, and the batteries don't lose charge when sitting
D cells. Definitely a lot of cons. But I also se a lot of pros to such older tech. Speaking of radios, cheap LEDs and most anything that's a cheap electronic device cause a lot of radio pollution. It's the bane of our existence (speaking for us amateur radio operators). It used to be just vacuum cleaners. (Ever had Mom vacuum while you're trying to watch your favorite TV show?) But now, nearly every electronic device from eBay, Amazon and Temu is a spurious emission spewing beast. Sometimes I just got to drive out some 30 miles into the middle of nowhere, far from any houses, in order to get good reception. Anyone see the Auroras tonight? There's a geomagnetic storm right now. It's making it hard for me to communicate on my little ham radio.
Wait till you move into a neighborhood with a lot of solar panels and EV chargers! You shouldn't have to drive 30 miles to lower your noise floor enough to do the ham thing. Toroids and wire and relatively cheap and this might be a good time to learn morse or digital. I'm dipping my toe into FT8. -Still haven't even got a good start on CW - but I don't think I have the bandwidth to start on that little skillset while I'm still in my working years. If you're rolling a (TR)USDX it has an onboard CW decoder. TALK about squeezing every last ounce of processing power out of an 8 bit microprocessor! That presents problems and opportunities if you're into DX. REMEMBER...You have one big advantage over me. My elevation is 33'
I converted all 3 of my D-cell mag-lamps to LEDs. It was almost the cost of new mag-lamps. In any case; I love them and they can be used as a club, in a pinch. That reminds me, it's time for their annual checks. I had a battery leak in one of them that spurred the conversion process. All my other battery operated stuff is in little baggies along with lose batteries - to prevent that from happening again.
I thought I remembered from my compliance (lawyer mandated) training that it is actually illegal to throw alkaline batteries into the trash, but this might just be for the big kids - something called "universal waste." My report-to office has a 'battery recycling kit' that I now have to......um......'dispose of' with prejudice. Actually, I'll just take it to a local federal government operated recycling center. THEY are not interested in making or even saving money!!!
