Maglite Solitaire LED 1-Cell AAA Flashlight Silver, One Size (SJ3A106)

you would think that someone that buys a solitaire wouldn't be serious about lights, but i am.as a steamfitter, my job requires me to carry just a few tools with me at all times and weight adds up fast. i can use this light 20-50 times per day. i try to carry the lightest tools possible.pros:-made in the usa.-takes an aaa battery. those button cell lights are worthless to me.-at 37 lumens it's almost too bright inside small pipe. luckily, i'm a green fella and i like nimh batts. and at 1.2 volts, they take a little bite off the brightness while still leaving a very bright light.-focused beam!!!! yep! if i fancy a flood to walk around the yard, it's there. if i wanna tighten up the beam to see across a big pipe or an otherwise longer distance, i have it! oh, joy; oh, rapture!-great price. around 15 smackers is a dandy price and it should last years.-aluminum construction. plastic lights melt on hot pipe.-pretty tough, yet not described as "tactical". what is the deal with everything painted black being described as "tactical"? whatever. i'm up to my knees in cheap, imported, "tactical" trash. i wish this stupid marketing trend would end.-it has a lens to ward off lint. cool.cons:-the threads are poor. when i unscrewed this baby, the bottom threads were loose and rough and the top threads were about the same. personally, i always tighten up the top (bulb end)threads of any maglite by wrapping them with teflon tape. do this at your own risk. i likes my threads smooth and tight. the problem with the bottom threads was mitigated with some very high-dollar never-seize. this also should be done at your own risk. a person could also use a tiny amount of silicone lube. once again, this is at your own risk.*edit: i actually found that this stuff is the best lube for the threads if you don't want to make a mess with teflon tape. works really good and makes the thread action very smooth::Silicone Grease 2 0 oz Jar* edit 2: lets ease up on that con. my light has never failed due to the treads or anything else. still, lube ain't a bad idea.-with 37 lumens coming from a single aaa batt.,somethings gotta give...and today that something is battery life (i'm comparing this light with my trusty fenix e01 here). the fenix, while only putting off about 10-13 lumens, has a batt. life of way over 20 hrs....this solitaire shuts off at around 2 hrs. with a stout alkaline and at about 90 minutes with a 800 mahr nimh rechargeable. i would really like to see this light knocked down to 20 lumens to bring an alkaline up to 8-10 hrs. but it's american made and we like hot-rods and hot-rods eat fuel, huh? well, i can deal with it with decent rechargeables because everything else about this little light just plain rocks.-not a huge big deal, but a had to find a pocket clip to fit this. no biggie. a clip from a regular 2 aaa maglite will also work and keeps the light from rolling.to end, this light was worth the wait. maglite did such a great job with this product. sure the threads need help, but that whole problem was fixed in a few minutes for me. the poor threads and the low battery life is what cost a star. if i could give another half star, i would.the battery use is just fine for me. i figure i can pop in a fresh nimh cell every 2-3 days and my world will keep spinnin'.Mag instruments just got my business back.good job, folks :)*update 11-5-13*this baby has been through hell and it still performs flawlessly. sure, when i turn it on it sometimes flickers, but that's the nature of the switch and it doesn't really affect anything. this light is always on my person and it does not get babied.some other guys that i work with have bigger and brighter (too bright imo) lights, but theirs are bigger and harder to carry on their person...so guess who is always loaning out his light? this guy!i put a fresh battery in it every week and i have not had one go completely dead on me. i always carry an extra battery in my lunchbox, but i haven't had to break one out.perfect luminosity.perfect build (after the thread mitigations described above).this is it. this is the light i have been searching for and i'm glad its an American company that makes it...it has earned it's name....and did you see the price? deal of the century.*update 8-29-15*:still. going.but man is it ever beat up.i average 1 battery charge/week out of this baby.i don't even bother with a big trouble light when i have to crawl inside of a pipe for a repair (many times it's someone else's weld).the guys that have the flash lights with a click-switch always have to buy new lights, but my silly little maglight just keeps on going.after i bought this on, i bought some more because i figured i'd lose it (to a borrower, most likely), but i'm still using the same one.because the battery lasts about 90 mins.(rechargeable nimh), i carry a fully charged battery in my lunch-box. i"ve never had to change batteries during the work week, so i guess 90 mins. is long enough.the people that built this need to congratulate themselves.*update 5-18-2017*still works, but i bought a new one. i had beat this poor girl up for years and the lens was just to dirty/messed up to use anymore. i removed the lens and use it around the house now. it surely isn't maglite's fault. the amount of abuse the poor light went though was way above and beyond (also, it still works!).here's to years of faithful service from the new one.*update: 9-24-2020* still carrying the 2017 one and the original one still works. i beat the heck out of this poor light. it's not intentional; i get into my work and sometimes things just get abused. at work, my maglite is always on me and always ready to grab and use. it's just nice to have one thing that can be counted on. it gets dropped, lent out, forgotten, and sweated on but it just keeps going.*update: 12-31-24* hey everyone. funny how time flies. looking at retirement in a couple years...guess i'll be carrying one of these little solitares when i'm fishing, huh? had to lay the 2017 maglite to rest.... still works but there was some catastrophic damage by a certain steamfitter...yeah. that poor little guy was really beat up. i like to buy them a few at a time and use different colored parts...makes it hard to steal my light,lol. the one i'm carrying now has about a year of service under its belt and is always hanging on my t-shirt collar when i'm working. i'm a very quick draw, too.still use my solitare at work and it's about 20 times a day...eyes are getting bad so i try to work less in the shop and more in the field (less welding--less politics). seems like the little solitare is the one thing that always works. it would be pretty neat if they built an aa version. exact light, but with a single aa battery. meh. whatever..the aaa version has served me so well! good job maglite!

I bought the grey version of this a few months back, and have gotten quite a but of use out of it. I have had no problems, and liked it so much that when I saw these going for the price that they are right now, I bought 2 more. (one for my mom and one for a present)I have seen others say that they had problems after so long, bad switches, etc. Here are something things that I have seen with my other mag's in the past, that may be a quick fix.First, these do not have a switch. Yea, I know, people say switch time and again. But there is none. The way that this works is, when you twist the top down, the lens cap assembly pushes on the LED assembly, which breaks the contact. When you loosen the cap, the spring pushes against the battery, which pushes the LED assembly back in place, up against the body, which finishes the circuit and the light goes on. Because of this type of setup, there is no real rubbing, which is good because that means, there is nothing to wear out by it rubbing, or flexing too much. The bad part, since it just moves slightly, that also means that there is nothing to knock out any dust/dirt that may get in between those contacts too. But, there is a simple fix to it. Take the lens cap off, loosen the tail cap to release a little of the pressure off of the battery/LED assembly, then simply find something to twist the LED assembly around in a circle. This should scratch the contacts to make a better connection, and dislodge any dust/dirt that may get in there. Also, if you feel the spring may be getting a little loose, or not so tight, you could always stretch that out to give more compression too, but I have never had this problem on any of my mag's that I have ever owned, but I did see one person a while back that stated that they did have this problem and it fixed theirs. So I thought I would just put it out there.You may wonder how dirt may get in there. That is easy. Dirt can get in from either side. If you use it as a lantern and take the top lens assembly off, or even if your hands/battery are dirty when you put a new battery in. Don't forget, this space is left open when the light is not in use, and is jarred a lot while on key-chains, etc. which give any dirt that gets in there a lot of opportunity to go into little spaces. If it makes you feel any better, you could use some compressed air to blow the dust out too. I have multiple of the 2 AA version of this too, and those work the same exact way. I have had those for quite a while too, and have never really had any problems with them either.Helpful tips. When you put a battery in, if you have the lanyard on it, grab the key ring on the lanyard to snug down the end cap better. If you just tighten it by hand, it can come loose, and you can loose the whole light except for the tail cap. Grabbing that key ring when tightening it, just gives it that little more tightness so that it does not come loose.As for the light. It gives off a good amount of light. A lot more then my old incandescent version did. My old incandescent version is only 2 lumens. Basically, it is about as bright as having 2 candles lit (the incandescent version that is). Bright enough to get your key in the door, but not good for anything much farther then that. This one is bright enough that you can see a ways in front of you. This LED version is probably comparable to the old 2 or 3 D flashlights of the past. As I already stated, you can remove the lens cap and use the light as a lantern too. Good for if you go camping, or if the power goes out and you need to temporarily put some light in a room, or even while working in a space with no light. LED's last a long time, so you dont have to worry about the LED burning out, and having to constantly replace bulbs too. Incandescent bulbs only last something like 40 hours?? maybe. Not really sure of the exact number, but it is only double digits of hours.As for the lumens. That will very depending on your version. My old one ran at 37 lumens and had a run time of 1 hour 45 minutes. The new one I just got stated 40 lumens, and 2 hours of run time. Exact specs say 57m, 40 lumens, 816cd, 2 hours, 1m, 2m. I think 1m was good up to 1 meter under water, and 2m... 2 meter not really sure if that has something to do with reflective light or drop/impact rating. This is higher amounts of everything then the old version. But which one you get is up to the person that you buy yours from. I got mine from amazon. and in case you are wondering, there is a little bit of difference between the 37 and 40 lumen version, but it is just slightly noticeable. Don't expect there to be much a difference in the brightness.Overall, the light is a very well made light. Durable and made out of pretty much all aluminum metal, so no need to worry about some plastic breaking or it rusting. Like all maglite's it is made in the USA, and it uses a phillips brand LED, not CREE. For those that do not know, Phillips brand LED's are more efficient, and give better light then CREE (china) brand ones. I have gotten CREE LED flashlights before, and after comparing them to the Mag's that I have, they always come up short. Not sure if Mag under rates their specs, or if CREE over inflates theirs, but to give an example. My one CREE one was rated at 160 lumens. My XL series mag is rated for about 105 lumens. There is almost no difference in brightness between the 2 of them, even though the CREE one is rated to be 50% brighter. and as for efficientcy. Even on 2 different flashlights with the same factory marked specs (battery type and lumens), the phillips LED flashlights always have a longer run time then the CREE brand ones do too. I have found this to be fact time and again, between different brand and types. But this is just my experience, but is also why I state that these use good Phillips brand LED ones.No, this is not the brightest thing on the market, nor is it the cheapest. You can get probably 2 or 3 cheap china made ones for the price of one of these. But then again, if they last you like they last me, it will be a one time buy, and you will get your money back in battery's that you will not need to purchase vs the cheap ones. Plus, buying a USA made one, you are supporting a company that is keeping work here too. Personally, I am tired of them making everything in china, and if I support a company here, I will. But it is your choice where you buy your stuff from.

[EDIT]: I'll let the rest of my review stand, but in the week since writing it, I've had to change the battery again because the damned thing is so flimsy it comes on in your pocket. So I'm actually going through more batteries than I did with an original solitaire.Also, about 20% of the time it just doesn't turn on at all. This is awful, and I'm going to buy a different flashlight (I might even go back to an original Solitaire if they're still made well.)----I've used Solitaires for more than a decade. Always loved them, but of course you end up changing the battery every week or three with the standard once.This one is the same exact size and shape. Upside: it's crazy bright! But it's not as well built and just sort of feels a little flimsy. As bright as it is, there are two real problems:- the on/off toggle (which is the same twist as the original) is waaay too loose. So it comes on in your pocket, and you still have to replace the batteries.- it doesn't always turn on! Like, WTF?!? A *maglite* that doesn't turn on all the time?!? The original Solitaire would stop turning on all the time after years of use. You know how you had to stick some tinfoil in there, or stretch the springs? But that was after years. This one comes this way. Sometimes I have to actually bang it - and sometimes that doesn't even work.So why 3 stars? Because (a) it's really bright and (b) it's the best pocket flashlight I know of. The "Streamlight 73001 Nano" is great, but too small for my hand (and uses watch batteries.)I'm hoping MagLite starts making these as well as the original Solitaires, but I doubt they will.