What to Look for in a Survival Flashlight

It’s always fun to talk about what to look for in a specific flashlights whether it’s tactical, everyday carry, or professional. For those who aren’t flashlight enthusiasts, they may not know how many different flashlights exist for different purposes and how many flashlights are so versatile that they can be used for multiple purposes. So what about a survival flashlight? What would you want to look for in this kind of flashlight? Today, we’re going to take a look!

A survival flashlight is a flashlight that you can rely on and, as the name suggests, can help you survive. We can’t stress the importance of being able to see in the dark, especially in any emergency situation. In the case of survival, you won’t want to use some $10 convenient store bin flashlight. It’s important to have a high-quality LED flashlight for many reasons including the power, the longer runtimes, and the battery conservation. I could go on and on about why LED flashlights are tools everybody should have, but I’ll save that for another blog.

Aspects of a Survival Flashlight

Size

This is an interesting aspect to talk about because everyone has such different opinions about what the size of a survival flashlight should be. Some prefer tiny flashlights that you can carry around easily or put into a bag without taking up too much room while others prefer longer, club-like flashlights because these bigger ones have longer runtimes and can be used as a club in self-defense. So I’ll talk about the pros and cons of different sizes to help you narrow down what you’d like in your survival flashlights.

Small (less than 5 inches in length) - Small flashlights are excellent because they’re so easy to carry around and take up little room in your pocket or a survival bag. Depending on which flashlight you choose, some of them may come with a battery pack equipped others can run on lithium-ion batteries or alkaline batteries. We’ll talk about batteries in a bit. The downside to smaller flashlights is that the run times will be shorter, you may not have as many brightness modes (something else we’ll talk about later), and you won’t be able to use it as a physical self-defense tool.

Medium (Around 5 to 8 inches in length) - Medium sized flashlights are definitely a happy middle and what I find most people prefer in their survival flashlights. Medium flashlights can run on a range of different batteries including lithium-ion, lithium, and some can even run on alkaline. However, most will need lithium-ion or lithium batteries. Of course, these flashlight will take up more room but some are still small enough to easily carry around using a pocket clip, lanyard, or holster. They’ll give you quite a bit of power and quite a bit of runtime and some have a strike bezel that can be used for self-defense if necessary.

Large (8 inches or more in length) - As you can imagine, these larger flashlights will be tougher to carry around. They’ll weigh more, they usually require more batteries, and they’ll take up space. Regardless, they’ll be incredibly powerful illumination tools with excellent run times. And, as I mentioned before, can be used as a club in an emergency situation.

Different Brightness Modes

Many high-end LED flashlights will come with a few different brightness modes. For a survival flashlight, I would recommend at least three brightness levels and a strobe mode. While the turbo or highest brightness level might be fun to use and practical in many situations, it doesn’t need to be used all the time. When walking at night and not wanting to draw attention to yourself, you might prefer the middle mode or the low mode which will give you sufficient light while not alerting everyone to where you are. The lower modes also help to conserve the battery, an important consideration when looking at a survival flashlights.

I mentioned a strobe mode and, for those who may not know what a strobe mode is, this mode flashes brightly and quickly to temporarily blind and disorient an attacker. For obvious reasons, this mode is strongly recommended with any survival flashlight.

Batteries

One of the long-standing debates among flashlight enthusiasts is whether to use lithium and lithium-ion or alkaline. I’ll detail the pros and cons of both batteries and then it’s up to you to decide which you prefer. Beginning with alkaline batteries, these are easy to come by and are generally inexpensive. So let’s say a zombie apocalypse happened. You’re more likely to find alkaline batteries in convenient stores and scavenging around than you are to find lithium-ion batteries. On the other hand, alkaline batteries won’t deliver as much power as lithium or lithium-ion batteries would. Many high-powered flashlights require lithium or lithium-ion batteries so you might be limiting your options as well. Finally, and the most important aspect to note is that alkaline batteries have a greater chance of leaking and potentially ruining your flashlight. If you go with alkaline batteries, we strongly suggest that you don’t leave them in your flashlight. Take them out of your flashlight if you don’t plan on using your flashlight for a while so no damage will be done.

Lithium and lithium-ion batteries are more expensive than alkaline batteries, but they offer more power and give you more options as to which flashlight you can use. Often, you’ll need to go to a specialty store like a flashlight or outdoor store to find these batteries. A little less convenient than just popping by a convenience store. With lithium-ion batteries, you have the option to recharge them using a charger, or if you bought the right flashlight, you can charge them directly using the flashlight. These batteries also last longer than alkaline batteries and you don’t have to worry about them leaking and damaging your flashlight. The only negative aspects of lithium and lithium-ion batteries is the higher cost and their limited accessibility.

There is so much to look for in a survival flashlight and a good portion of it is up to your preference. There are also a few aspects we didn’t cover here including a strike bezel and accessories. Make sure to check out part 2 of this blog next week to learn more about what to look for in a survival flashlight and learn about a few of our favorite survival flashlights!