My Top 3 Flashlight Hacks 2020

In this video, I break down three of my favorite ways to get the most out of my flashlights. Transcript: I’m a pretty big flashlight geek, so today I thought I’d share three little “hacks” that I use to get the most out of my flashlights. Even if you’re not a flashaholic, you can probably appreciate some of the absurd quirks and lengths that I go to with my flashlight hobby. So, not to waste anybody’s time, the first hack is tritium vials. A lot of people think these are just bling for custom flashlights which is only a half-truth. A very common use for a flashlight is when you wake up in the middle of the night because 1) you heard something you shouldn’t have, or 2) you need to hit the toilet. But if you think about it rationally, there’s no point in having a flashlight if you can’t even find it, and tritium vials serve as a great locator. Some lights have slots pre-milled for tritium vials, but another easy way is to just use a drilled Carclo optic which will work with most standard 18350 flashlights. I like to leave my flashlight on its side right next to me while I sleep. The luminescence from tritium is very easy on your eyes, so it’s not going to distract you when you’re going to sleep or when you wake up in the middle of the night. This is not a very costly mod, probably around $30-40, and it’s very much worth it for both the functional and aesthetic benefits. Alternatively, you can go with a glow gasket which isn’t as reliable in the sense that it’s always “on” but comes in at around $10. But if you’re too cheap to do even this, another very reliable method of finding your flashlight is to just put it under your pillow - there’s no fumbling whatsoever when you need it. Now here’s a hack that won’t cost you anything except some time. Losing a piece of gear always sucks, and especially more so if you carry expensive stuff. To this effect, I like to take a small piece of paper with my contact information and roll it around the battery of my flashlights. This way, in the event that someone finds it, there’s a much greater chance that I’ll get my flashlight back. A really efficient way to do this is to go on Google Docs and use a smaller font. Then you can just copy/paste, and wallah, you have a bunch of tabs you can cut out for your flashlights! Luckily, I’ve never actually lost one of my expensive lights, but it’s better safe than sorry. It also never hurts to put “reward if returned” which is a solid incentive because most people won’t understand the value. The third trick I’ll share today isn’t a trick so much as it is second-nature for most flashlight geeks, and that’s redundancy. Ideally, you should have a flashlight on your person at all times, but this just isn’t always possible. The next best thing you can do is make sure you have one nearby. To this end, I like to store flashlights wherever I think I might need them. We have flashlights in the garage, in my car, and I keep one in my backpack as well.