Buy it for Life

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A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!

Guidelines:

Things that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last a lifetime) are A-Okay!

Unlike that other BIFL place, Home-made and DIY items are encouraged here, as long as some form of instruction is included in the body of the post.

Videos links are not allowed as post titles, but you may use them in a text post.

A limited amount of self-promotion is accepted, IF the item you are selling aligns with this criteria:

The item must be made with sustainable or recycled materials.
If electronic in some way, the item must be open-source.
The item must be user-serviceable (if applicable).
You cannot be a large corporation.
The post must be clearly marked with a [Self Promotion] tag in your title.

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Bike lights (slrpnk.net)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Any recommendations for bike lights? They all seem to come with non-replaceable internal rechargable batteries these days 😢

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Honestly my experience has been that bike lights are way better with rechargeable Li-ion batteries, and not replaceable AA/AAA batteries. Every time I bought one that took replaceable batteries, they ended up, within a year at most, being incredibly faded and not working well, even with a fresh set of batteries. They get to a point where a brand new battery will work well, but for some reason where the first battery lasted months, the new ones all only last days.

I have no idea the chemistry/physics involved in this. It doesn't really make sense to me. Maybe rust on the contacts? All I know is that I've had this happen numerous times. Whereas my expensive combined light/camera unit with a built in battery has lasted years.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Cooling is very important for LEDs. I've seen some cheaper brands skimp on the cooling methods, presumably because it means the product costs less to make, and may force a repeat sale later.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Might just be because that’s more of a feature on the budget side of the market, so they’re also made of shoddy materials in most cases.