I have a couple we got for our hurricane kits but they just don't last, lighting wise, very long. if you need it for several hours/days who wants to have low-lighting you have to crank every 15 minutes? if it's just a spare then it works for us, it was more of a novelty for us than a practical lighting source when power is out, which happens often and always in the evening lol. both came from home depot a vector and the other is a black and decker. ~ liz

We have the kind you shake and it seems to be pretty good....I think I got it at Walgrens and hardly paid anything...I keep it on the nightstand....

I was the one who posted it as a $10 gift suggestion.

Mine is exactly like the one linked below for sale at Ebay.
As I said in the post, I'm not sure how long a crank up lasts, but the listing says 1 minute gives about 30 minutes of light.

I find it is always 'charged' for a short walk to the mailbox, and was so glad to have it recently when I did some plumbing repair. I loaned it to some friends who were headed camping as they had forgotten any flashlights. The windup one provided more than enough light for several hours, in the hands of the child helping.
It doesn't cast a strong beam a long distance, but is good for close up. I think it is great for a glove box, where often a flashlight won't maybe be used for years, and be dead or maybe leaking when needed.

I got mine for $10 at a country/tractor supply place.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Wind up flashlight.

I have two on my desk here at work. I ordered them a couple of years ago to give to our customers as Christmas gifts. One minute of wind-up = 30 minutes of power. There are adaptors for charging a cell phone.

A friend told me about it and she picked up a package of two for me at Costco. It's handy for some things but it doesn't have a strong light and it doesn't last long. Even though, it is handy for some things, like the glove compartment.

I wouldn't bother to buy another.

We have 2 of the shake ones. My hubby uses them at night in his locksmith business. He has had some of the real expensive battery type flashlights, but since they are kept in the locksmith van, the batteries die in the cold weather. The shake ones seem to be holding up fine. He bought his at a Harley Davidson show.

I also posted about the wind-up LED flashlight. We have one in each car and I have one in the MBr. It's great to have them in the cars since you don't have to worry about batteries going bad. They do last about a half hour or more on a full crank. We have an older one that isn't LED and it's true -- those only last a few minutes and aren't nearly as bright.

On a similar note, I just bought 4 strings of LED Xmas lights for the tree, similar to these:
Holiday LEDs

I saw alot of places are selling these LED lights this year Mtnwoman. Figures they'd come out with something new shortly after I buy a pre-lit tree cause I am tired of arguing with strings of lights not lighting! lol

Thanks everyone, I hadn't heard of these flashlights. DH is a gadget freak and loves his wind up radio and I thought maybe one of the kids could look for one for him.

I have about ten of them scattered around the house and car. I think it is a great technology and I also have the crank radios. Now you can get them for $10. The first one I got was a Sanjean windup and that was about 15 years ago and was over $100 at the time.