I finally lost my turd of a flashlight. Well it was actually a fairly nice and somewhat spendy (by my count) flashlight, but I am glad it is gone in a way. I think I know exactly where it is, but I do not want to go and get it, so that I have a reasonably decent excuse to buy a new one. :)

It was a small Coast brand LED light. One of the single LED light lens models. $40 4 or 5 years ago. Bright as hell, but ate batteries (3 x AAA) like a mofo. It seemed to be bright for an hour or so, and then limp along until I could not take it anymore and replaced the batteries.

I was at Lowes today and saw the Maglite XL50 which looks nice. Similar to my old one. I think it was around $30. Thought about it and decided to hold off.

I have a headlight for crawls/attics....this is more of an "inspection" or "project" light for working in dark cabinets/racks, etc. I liked my old Mini Maglite and still have 1 or 2 floating around the house, but I went threw enough bulbs on them to switch to an LED light.

What do some of you other CIs use and recommend? Battery life, brightness, durability, cost....those are my top 4 priorities in order of importance....I am not looking to buy a $200 Surefire or anything. $50 would be the very upper end of my range at the moment.