![](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/incandescent_led_combined-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Incandescent vs. LED Lamp in Two D-cell Maglite<\/center><\/p>\nI’ve been wanting an LED flashlight for a while, and yesterday when Danielle and I were at REI<\/a> I saw that Maglite<\/a> offers LED upgrade modules for their existing flashlights. Years ago when I was in Civil Air Patrol<\/a> I had acquired a two D-cell Maglite for various encampment \/ search and rescue \/ utility purposes. Despite its age (and wear, including being thrown at someone as they ducked into a fire escape) it still worked great, so I figured that a new LED bulb for it would work out great.<\/p>\n While out and about today we stopped by Home Depot and I picked up the Maglite LED Upgrade Module (Model SH32DCW6J, Part 108-000-701)<\/a>, which is advertised as being fitted with a three watt LED. A bit of research showed this to be a Luxeon 3W LED, presumably part number LXHL-PW09<\/a>.<\/p>\n The lamp itself<\/a> had no problems fitting into the flashlight<\/a> just like the incandescent lamp<\/a>. Once it was installed I shined it around the basement with the lights on and I wasn’t completely sure that it was brighter, but one look at the comparison photos taken in the dark<\/a> showed that the LED is quite a bit brighter. (I tried to keep the focus as similar as possible on those two, and both were shot at ISO 100, f\/11, with a one-second exposure. Locations for the tripod and flashlight were both marked with tape for consistency between shots.)<\/p>\n The part cost US$18.97, but I figure this is worthwhile. It should also help save on batteries. I’m not sure if the LED is being powered in a way which allows the LED to dissipate a full 3W (probably depends on the circuitry in the bulb housing<\/a>, but it still seems pretty good. Hopefully this will come in handy while camping next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Incandescent vs. LED Lamp in Two D-cell Maglite I’ve been wanting an LED flashlight for a while, and yesterday when Danielle and I were at REI I saw that Maglite offers LED upgrade modules for their existing flashlights. Years ago when I was in Civil Air Patrol I had acquired a two D-cell Maglite for\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,11,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acquired-things","category-making-things","category-moved-from-livejournal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24638,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007\/revisions\/24638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![I was in Civil Air Patrol<\/a> I had acquired a two D-cell Maglite for various encampment \/ search and rescue \/ utility purposes. Despite its age (and wear, including being thrown at someone as they ducked into a fire escape) it still worked great, so I figured that a new LED bulb for it would work out great.<\/p>\nWhile out and about today we stopped by Home Depot and I picked up the Maglite LED Upgrade Module (Model SH32DCW6J, Part 108-000-701)<\/a>, which is advertised as being fitted with a three watt LED. A bit of research showed this to be a Luxeon 3W LED, presumably part number LXHL-PW09<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe lamp itself<\/a> had no problems fitting into the flashlight<\/a> just like the incandescent lamp<\/a>. Once it was installed I shined it around the basement with the lights on and I wasn’t completely sure that it was brighter, but one look at the comparison photos taken in the dark<\/a> showed that the LED is quite a bit brighter. (I tried to keep the focus as similar as possible on those two, and both were shot at ISO 100, f\/11, with a one-second exposure. Locations for the tripod and flashlight were both marked with tape for consistency between shots.)<\/p>\nThe part cost US$18.97, but I figure this is worthwhile. It should also help save on batteries. I’m not sure if the LED is being powered in a way which allows the LED to dissipate a full 3W (probably depends on the circuitry in the bulb housing<\/a>, but it still seems pretty good. Hopefully this will come in handy while camping next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Incandescent vs. LED Lamp in Two D-cell Maglite I’ve been wanting an LED flashlight for a while, and yesterday when Danielle and I were at REI I saw that Maglite offers LED upgrade modules for their existing flashlights. Years ago when I was in Civil Air Patrol I had acquired a two D-cell Maglite for\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,11,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acquired-things","category-making-things","category-moved-from-livejournal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24638,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007\/revisions\/24638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/colorneg_311_cc-scaled.jpg\"){kind=link}
![the Maglite LED Upgrade Module (Model SH32DCW6J, Part 108-000-701)<\/a>, which is advertised as being fitted with a three watt LED. A bit of research showed this to be a](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9219-scaled.jpg\"){kind=link}
![The lamp itself<\/a> had no problems](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9221.jpg\"){kind=link}
![fitting into the flashlight<\/a> just like the](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9225-scaled.jpg\"){kind=link}
![incandescent lamp<\/a>. Once it was installed I shined it around the basement with the lights on and I wasn’t completely sure that it was brighter, but one look at the](\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9230-scaled.jpg\"){kind=link}