Short Description:

The LPR-3 is one of three replacement bulbs made by Tektite for use in regular incandescent lights. The LPR-3 is made for 3 cell lights. The bulb has a standard PR base, a brass colored heatsink, a single white Luxeon Star side emitter element and a plastic dome which covers the special lens of the Luxeon Star LED. The hourglass shaped lens of the Luxeon Star is designed to send the majority of the light out to the sides instead of straight forward as is typical of LEDs. This allows the bulb to take advantage of the reflector of the flashlight in which it is placed. If used in a focusing reflector flashlight, the beam of light can be focused with this bulb as well.

Tektite also makes an LPR-2 for 2 cell lights and an LPR-4 for 4 cell lights.

Reviewer's Impressions:

The LPR-3 is a really well made replacement bulb. One thing I want to say right away: It is NOT as bright as the 3 cell incandescent bulb it replaces. I can just see folks wanting to buy this so they never have to change the bulb again only to be disappointed by the output. Output is reduced, runtime is increased, and you never have to replace the bulb again since the Luxeon Star element should never go bad.

Installation is very easy. Simply get the bulb that matches the number of batteries in the light, remove the old bulb and replace it with this one. That's it! Just do yourself a favor and make sure that the central contact of the flashlight is the positive battery contact. I do not know if this bulb is protected against reverse polarity damage and I wouldn't risk it. If in doubt, check your light with a meter. Normal incandescent bulbs don't care if the end or side contacts are + or -, but LEDs are picky about polarity. At the time of this writing, most aluminum and plastic lights that take a standard PR bulb have the positive at the end of the bulb, but there are some exceptions, notably some lanterns.

Overall, construction and quality is very good. I have seen these around by other manufacturers, but none of them had the plastic dome over the LED lens to protect it. This is a very nice touch. Output is good and beam color is a very smooth sunlight white. This 3 cell bulb can be used in 4 cell lights if you use a dummy battery to replace one cell.

Let's take a look at the output from a couple of lights, shall we?

Not too shabby, eh?

On average, the bulb seems to produce about 1/3 the light produced by the normal incandescent bulb. Of course this also means that your batteries should last more than 3 times as long by using this bulb.

Now because this bulb sends most of its light out to the sides it really shines (pardon the pun) in battery operated lanterns where you WANT most of the light to go out to the sides. I found it works very well in a 4 cell AA Dorcy lantern with 1 AA replaced with a dummy cell.

Overall, if you want to turn your regular 2, 3, or 4 cell light into a long lasting LED light (at reduced output), the Tektite replacement bulbs are a good way to go.

What I Liked: Never needs replacement, Reflectors retain focusability, Works well in lanterns, Nice color temperature from the LED, Longer runtime, Protective plastic dome over the LED lens.

What I Didn't Like: Significantly reduced output.

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