If you’re like most people, you probably have a few old, broken or just plain useless items cluttering up your junk drawer. And if you’re like most people, you probably don’t have a flashlight that’s actually useful. That’s why it’s time to replace that old flashlight in your junk drawer with a new one that can actually help you out in an emergency. Here are five of the best flashlights for replacing your old one:

  1. The Black Diamond Spot Headlamp is perfect for replacing your old flashlight because it has both a bright light and a red light that can be used to signal for help in an emergency. It also comes with an adjustable headband so you can customize the amount of light it emits.
  2. The Fenix PD35 is another great option because it has three different brightness levels and a strobe function that can be used to signal for help in an emergency. It also comes with two extra batteries so you’ll always have enough power when you need it.
  3. The Coast HP25R is perfect if you want something small and lightweight that can still provide plenty of light when needed. It also comes with two different brightness levels and a built-in rechargeable battery so there’s no need to worry about running out of power during an emergency situation.
  4. The Streamlight Stinger Pro is another great option because it has both a bright light and SOS mode which can be used to signal for help in an emergency situation. It also comes with two extra batteries so there’s never any need to worry about running out of power during an emergency situation. ..

Even If Your Old Flashlight Works, Toss It

Listen, we get it. Nobody wants to be wasteful and that cruddy old flashlight you’ve had banging around in your junk drawer for years still works. But does it work well? Probably not.

In fact, if you haven’t bought a flashlight in a few years (or decades) you’ll be blown away by how much flashlight technology has advanced. That old clunky yellow plastic flashlight in your junk drawer runs off C or D cell batteries and only throws enough light for you to, possibly, avoid falling down the stairs in a power outage.

New flashlights, though? That’s a whole different story. You can pick up compact, rechargeable, and highly efficient LED flashlights these days for so cheap. They’re so bright you won’t just be able to find your way around your house in the dark with ease, but you could even signal ships out at sea with the things.

Given how great modern flashlights are, there’s just no good reason to rely on some clunky old hardware store flashlight that barely throws more light than a candle. Toss it and upgrade to something with some real blast-through-the-night power.

Want Flashlight Suggestions? We’ve Got ‘Em

At the risk of outing myself as a flashlight aficionado, allow me to assure you that you can spend a lot of money on a flashlight. There are some really fancy models out there, especially marketed to the Every Day Carry crowd.

If you want a high-quality finely-milled flashlight capable of throwing 2300 lumens of illumination, I will absolutely be the last one to stop you from living your flashlight dreams. But $120 to replace the $2 flashlight in your junk drawer is a bit of an extreme upgrade. And picking up a 14,000-lumen model that you could use to blind the pilots of low-flying aircraft is a bit excessive for casual home use.

Instead, I’d encourage you to buy some of these more practical and economical options. The old plastic 2 D-battery flashlights found in junk drawers across America only put out about 25 lumens. And the cheap plastic flashlights that replaced them, despite now having LED bulbs, are still only about that bright.

So literally, anything off of this list will blow that old clunker or its new cheap counterpart out of the water. There’s no good reason to spend $8-10 on a low-quality flashlight when you can get so much more for your money.

Our recommendations are a mix of models that use traditional batteries and rechargeable batteries so you can select a model that meets your needs.

If it’s been a long time since you’ve bought a flashlight, I promise you that you’ll be blown away by how good they are now. After picking up one of the models above you’ll be looking for reasons to use it.