Holy LED lights!

[mixxedbagg]

I was perusing ice gear at the local L&M Fleet and I was struck by the huge number of LED fish house lights. I can't really remember seeing these much at all during past seasons, now they take up half an aisle. Did the technology change recently to make things ripe for this explosion or was there actually a sudden huge demand for LED fish house lights? I'm plenty happy with a cheapo headlamp in my portable, so I hadn't really put much thought into it before today.

[panfishpounder00]

yes both are correct, though i think the demand has outgrown the technology in the ice fishing realm. frabill has come out with a great set of led's, witch i used for the 1st time 2nite. might i say ...... impressive! the packaging states they run on 6 AA batteries, but i found out that they run just the same using only 3! lasted the whole night and including the tek across the lake. have not heard anything yet on the new clam lights. i bought a set of the rope lights last year and was quickly dissapointed!

[Nick Kuhn]

LEDs have come a long ways in terms of brightness, durability, color, and cost. Remember an LED is a semiconductor, and just about all semiconductor manufacturing is silicon based, but silicon based LED's produce red to infrared light. So a lot of work went into developing a cheap way of manufacturing with different semiconductors that produce white light. I can tell you though that for all practical purposes most LEDs are indestructible.

[servocam]

Solid State Lighting has been a big deal for the past years as the Incandescent bulb will soon be obsolete. Very efficient, cheap to mfg, very durable. Much safer than fluorescent and much brighter.

Other than the Semiconductor/mfg process, there are post-processes for polishing and optical improvements to make them brighter or more focused.

Imagine the energy savings if every incandescent bulb was replaced!

[ben karas]

purchased a polar puck light grom fleet farm last night, and it runs on 3 AAA's lasted on high (all led's) 4 hrs, not that great going to try and find a puck light that runs on AA's. could cost a guy a fortune in batteries!

[Joe]

Ben, check out outdoorprostore.com for very bright leds that run off of 12 volt or larger batteries. They are silicon cased for durability and flexability.

[OnAFly]

I found a couple strings of battery powered LEDs. Wired them together (removing the battery cases), taped them into a bundle which points down, and I have lights powered off my flasher battery. Quick easy solution costing a total of ~5$.