Glow Sticks!

Any one use or Carey one as an emergency back up? If so what brand why and what type of experiene did you have with them.

I just orderd twenty

"Cyalume SnapLight Industrial 12-hour, 6-inch Green glowstick. Catalog number 9-08001"

For mine and my brothers kids! On a six day car camping trip at the end of the month no doubt ill stash a few for something or another!

When they arrive ill undoubtedly let my kids crack two for a initial impression test. I'll let you all know what I think then.

When I was a kid my mother would take my brother and I car camping. We were not allowed to wonder from camp unless we had our glow sticks with us. It's these memories that inspired my. Purchase. Any ways I get to check the mail every day until the arrival!

Kids love them, and they're reasonably cheap longlasting light for them. I've never carried them backpacking (couldn't figure out how to turn them off when I was ready to go to sleep), but for car camping, they seem like a great idea! My guess: at some point, you and your brother will each have one, and the words "Luke, I am your father" will be spoken.

Have a great time.

This is something I'd use for fun rather than backpacking. My backup light for backpacking is one of these little "keychain" LED lights. I keep it on a cord around my neck along with my whistle and compass.

It's bright enough to get around with; some really lightweight backpackers take these as their only light! I prefer a headlamp (Petzl E-lite in summer, Princeton Tec Aurora when the days get short), but there have been several times when this little LED light has saved my bacon, like the time I couldn't find my headlamp because my dog was sleeping on top of it!

I do the same thing, Mouse: headlamp (PT Scout, has a tab that covers the switch to prevent accidental turn-ons) and a keychain backup (PT Pilot or Pulsar). I find the keychain light handy when I need to change batteries in the headlamp; for some reason, they never need changing during the day, so a bit of light helps make the nighttime change easier.

They're fun but not bright enough to be a flashlight when you really need to see where you are going. However, they are useful to dangle from packs when out at night and you want to keep track of other people.

When we used to carcamp, we found a couple of those solar powered lights worked well to give a little light in the camp. They are a good beacon back to the camp for those who get disoriented in the dark.

One thing fun to do is take a picture in the dark while each kid traces a letter of a name. If you do it quickly, you can get a picture of the name in lights.

Here is a good sample: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1...elevant_count=1

I must admit I may have pre planned some epic light saber battles now I wish I had orderd both green and red colors and the 10" ones.

I have found them to be highly undependable. They won't light if the packing is even slightly abraded and worn. Many LED lights are much more dependable, and with very low lumen ratings, are much longer lasting....

Snap lights arrived today! And my first impressions are that they look exactly like something you would see hanging on the wall of some manufacturing plant somewhere. The box is what I'm refering to not the light itself.

Each light is marked with an expiration date mine 07/17 so I have some time to use them!



It's still a little bright outside now to justify popping one off. So I figure ill wait till the kids are fed and bathed and suprise them with them for a little evening entertainment!

You can expect another post from me before to late tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest

are we there yet ?

Well one thing is for sure these are not the glowsticks from my childhood they put off and exceptional amount of light for a good number of hours. I was asleep through most of this. Even though there still glowing now a
little over 11 hours latter its not an impressive amount of light but it is some light.

I'll be able to tell you what i really think of them after or trip at the end of the month!

Those thing have come a long way. Back in the 80's we used cyalumes attached to SCUBA regulators for night diving...bright enough to see people but not too bright.
Now days we use the super tiny "bobber lights" (1" long) taped to the bottom of disc golf discs for night golf. Those things are very bright and you can track your disc through the air and on the ground, easily. I've hung full sized ones from the tops of sailboat masts and on the bows of kayaks. They are absolutely waterproof. Never used them backpacking though....there are lighter, brighter options.
My biggest hangup is they are "disposable" and create trash, so they are a last resort.

I use them for backpacking, and any camping with my kids. They usually want some sort of night light on all the time. So, I crack one for each tent for each night. Their piece of mind is worth it to me. Plus, I put them in their backpacks . I also use them at halloween to stick on a each kid. Some day I might do a weight comparison and even cost comparison between these and those battery powered glow sticks.

I did find a local store that sells them at 10 for $6, which is cheaper than walmart's 2 for $2.50. Surprisingly, these cheaper ones are also brighter than the walmart ones. And with that, you have to compare brands. Some are very bright, and some not so much. The different colors also determine brightness. The greenish-yellowish ones seem to be the brightest, and the red-blue ones seem dimmer.

Oh yes, I also bring two on each scout campout. The boys use them for flags when they play "capture the flag".

So just pitch them in a landfill when finished.

Actually my local recycle center excepted them .

Wouldn't take my burnt out. compact fluorescents a few months back but took the glow sticks " go figure"

Still trying exactly where to dispose of the bulbs as I'm pretty sure they contain mercury. And I'm not just going to toss the out!

Would the local fire department take the bulbs? Around here, they take a lot of the hazardous stuff that you aren't supposed to put in landfills.

You know I'm pretty sure they would! Thanks I have no idea why I didn't think of that. Now I'm still stuck on the debate of weither I should buy more compact fluorescents or standerd incandescent bulbs. and more beeswax candles.

Around here we have a toxic waste collection twice a year--for stuff like paint, pesticide containers and, of course, those mercury-containing fluorescent bulbs. The paint gets recycled into "new" paint. I don't know what is done with the fluorescent bulbs, though. One of the problems with the government trying to make us switch from incandescent is the disposal problem!

We have been trying out LED bulbs in our lamps, our problem with them is they don't seem to be as bright (and yeah we are using the recommended if you used 60/100 watt use this bulb) and at least the ones carried locally take a bit to brighten/warm up. Been happiest with halogens - which aren't in the "banned" list.

Those things were fun when I was a kid hanging out at the local skating rink.

I figured i would update as I've been using these for a little while now. And I'm over all very impressed if you can get a pack with free shipping they are well worth the money!

Very bright and burn for a long time! Easy to read by and make a great night light for any occasion. I've set a few aside for our next power outage