LED Emergency Road Flare Kit Set of 3

You know, it never ceases to amaze me how some people will never be satisfied. "Too small", "Not bright enough", "Too hard to open", etc. Okay, I read all these reviews, and wondered in my mind how good the FlareAlerts would be when I actually received my set. In all the criticisms that I read, there is only one I would tend to agree with, but it was not a "show stopper" in my mind. It is in fact true that the middle AA batter slot is a bit of a tight fit for a battery, but I had no difficulty in ultimtely getting the battery in place. As for the rest of the criticisms, I can only figure they are posted by overly fussy consumers. The bottom line is, it seems you can't please all the people, all the time. These units are about 4.5 inches across and plenty sturdy in my opinion. They are >easy< to open. One thing I was searching for in the description and reviews was whether they were weather resistant. In short, they are. There is a small rubber gasket on the body of the unit where the lid contacts which should be quite effective in keep water out of the unit. As also reported, there are two operating modes - one that keeps the light on continuously, and one that provides rapid flashing. The units come with a storage case (pictured) that also has two internal velco-secured compartments to hold the nine required batteries. In terms of brightness, they are not as bright as the emergency flashers on your car. However, they are extremely bright, and can undoubtedly be seen quite a distance down the road. Looking at the unit from the top provides the brightest illumination (for instance, stuck magetically on a veritical plane on the back of your car) due to the design of the lens in the lid, however they are also plenty bright situated horizontally on the ground. When I looked at them directly from the top, I had to look away. That's plenty bright I think. I believe that if my vehicle was ever disabled on a dark and stormy night on a major Interstate, these three units spread out behind my disabled vehicle in flashing mode would attract a lot of attention. The proof in the pudding is the post from the user who actually used these in the conditions described, and who reported that people slowed down when they saw all the flashing lights. That's precisely what you want people to do, so in terms of the units "accomplishing their mission", I would say these lights are doing what they're supposed to do. I bought two sets - one for my wife, and one for me. After looking them over, playing around with them, and even putting one in the back yard at night to see how effective it would be, I would say these will also be Christmas gifts next year for some of the people I care about. I think they are a much better option than flares, which only last about 30 minutes anyway, and orange triangles which can blow over and are not as visible at night. The only downside is the nature of batteries. It's a good idea to replace them every couple of years to make sure you have full strength batteries on hand to power the units. Something you must remember to do - just like changing the battery in your home smoke detectors - in fact, not a bad thing to add to the list. I think these units are a great idea and recommend them to all.

These work great. I have a couple of yellow ones from an earlier purchase. I wish the yellow were available too. I think these are a discontinued item - too bad! The light has a flash or steady on option. The light is really bright and the magnet keeps this in place really well even on rough roads with pot holes. I' used these on a trailer for a 500 mile trip. Trey didn't move at all and they are still working.

I received my flares this week and took some time to inspect them in depth tonight. Each flare requires three AA batteries, and as expected from all of the other reviews, the center battery in each was rather difficult to install. My first instinct was to simply snip off some of the excess "spring" for the center slots, but I would prefer not to make any permanent modifications if I don't have to. So with a little effort, I managed to get all of the batteries in place and test each unit... success. But even though I can get the batteries installed, I'm not 100% sure that my wife or kids would be able to. So I decided to leave the batteries installed. However, leaving all the batteries installed and functional isn't a perfect solution either though. As some other reviews have mentioned, the on/off switch on the top of the unit is easily bumped and the batteries would quickly drain if unnoticed in the case. Also, even if the switch was never bumped, the unit is likely to have some vampire drain. By the time these come out of the back to be used a year or two from now, they could very easily be dead. My solution was rather low tech, but works for my purposes. The two side battery slots have more wiggle room available than the center slot, so I fashioned an insulator. I chose some thick paper and cut strips that wrap neatly around the positive end of the battery, then installed one in a side battery slot in each flare. The paper doesn't hinder the opening or closing of the unit, and slip out easily when needed. So all I (or my wife) have to do in an emergency road-side event is open the unit, pull the tab of paper from its protective position tab and close it back up. A strip of plastic insulation would probably be better, but I don't have any readily available. As for the functionality of the flare, I took it outside after dark and it's plenty bright, even from a distance. Flashing mode and always-on mode were both highly visible. The magnet in each was strong enough to allow them to stick (and stay stuck) to both the horizontal and vertical surfaces on my vehicle. The included pouch is a bit on the flimsy side, but it is functional, and it contains two pockets with hook and loop (velcro) closure in addition to the three flare pockets. Each pocket is roomy enough to store 9 additional batteries, which means you could theoretically drain, refill, drain, refill, and then drain again before running out of batteries. The FlareAlert website claims up to 140 hours of usage in flash mode, so I doubt I'll ever actually need three full sets of batteries. A better use of the additional pouches might be storage space for small survival-type items such as a spare flashlight, first aid items, or fire starting materials... but that's a different topic. Long story short, I'm happy with my purchase and would give these flares 3.5 stars. That's taking off a full star off for the battery compartment, and another half a star for the on/off switch. But the fact that I didn't have to make any permanent modifications to make them useful allows me to round it up to four instead of down to three.

Before writing this review, I made sure to look at the 1 and 2 star reviews (which made some valid points but not deal breakers for us). Why? Because we faced this situation: heavy snow, a car which broke down and low visibility. We immediately got out these flares and were happy to see that they were visible for some distance (to test this out, we stood away from the road, on the ground and far back from the car). One of the MAJOR advantages of this product is that each emergency beacon is magnetized and sticks to cars. I"m also getting another set because I think it is safer to have some behind the car as well as to the side- as well as on the car itself. The bottom line is that they worked on a busy interstate and we could see cars taking care to avoid our car, long before they got within striking range. There were no screeching or skidding noises from those cars. Meanwhile, we stayed outside our car, since the temperature wasn't too cold. The beacons are noted to be able to be "run over" by a 6000 pound vehicle. I can't vouch for that because it didn't happen. I do want to address the concerns of those who gave lower ratings to this product. Yes, it could be difficult to install the batteries for those with arthritis or any trouble pushing batteries into typical battery slots. Yes, it takes a bit of strength to move the top of the beacons counter clockwise to open the case (but not all that much). I don't work out enough to have more than average hand strength. But just to be sure, I had a 12 year old, a 50 year old and an 80 year old open the case. None of them do more than general household chores and activities. I don't know if multiple sets have reliability problems but we'll find out soon enough as I'm ordering more (and I'm revise my review if we had any difficulties with any of the beacons). You do have to get the batteries firmly in place, nice and straight. The top of each beacon doesn't have enough space to accommodate batteries that stick up. This wasn't a big deal to us. The kit also doesn't come with batteries but many products don't come with batteries so I didn't assume it contained batteries. The only decision we had to make was whether to install the batteries ahead of time or have them ready and waiting in the storage bag which comes with this product. In an emergency, it seems desirable to turn on the beacons and get instant safety. But if you install the batteries ahead of time you do need to remember to check them often enough to avoid battery leakage and potentially ruined beacons. There is both a flash and steady option for the lights. If you use the flash option, you are supposed to get 60 hours of battery life. Thankfully, we needed only a few hours of time. If you use the steady light option (no flashing), you get only 20 hours of battery time. I think the flash option would attract more attention and that is what we used when in our emergency situation. A MAJOR advantage is that the beacons are compact and come in a storage bag. Just stick the bag in your car's trunk or somewhere in the back seat or an over the seat storage pack and you're good to go. I'm definitely getting one for a son's car as well as my spouse's vehicle.

Just recieved these and found the bag for the three lights to be very nice. Has pouches on the side to hold the lights and plenty of room to put extra batteries or other small emergency equipment at the bottom. The lights are very bright and either flashes or stays continuously on. I did not find opening the top for battery insertion to be difficult at all. Others reported that putting batteries in was very difficult, something I didn't find at all. They are a tight fit but you have to be pretty weak not to be able to insert them. They have a magnetic bottom so they could be placed on the trunk or roof of the car for more visibility but I believe it's better to have them spread out down the road away from your car to get oncoming cars to move over before reaching your disabled vehicle. I'm buying another set for my wifes car as well. Much safer than flares. You need to have some reminder to check the AA batteries otherwise they will be useless when needed.

Small compact and sturdy. Only 2 features I wish it had, more flash patterns, trivial, and a more covered on/off switch so that the lights do not come on when stored in the trunk of your car. Its a minor thing but when you need them and the batteries are dead because it turned on while in transit, kind of a let down. Overall, very lightweight, very bright and has a magnet inside the base to secure onto a car body as long as it is steel. The carry pouch is simple but great for keeping the set together. I would suggest keeping an extra set of batteries along with them as the lights are easy to accidentally turn on while they are in the their pouch. It is a simple push button on the top if the light itself but can be easily triggered by one of the other lights while bouncing around in transit and stored away. Overall, very happy with them, had to use them once soon after buying and served their purpose well.

These are definitely nicer to have around than the old standard road flares, and certainly less concerning in dry conditions. (On the other hand, they take three AAA batteries each, so you'll need to check on them and replace them every few years even if you don't use them.) When turned on, these can either be on constantly, or blink to draw a bit more attention. The pouch makes for a convenient storage place to keep them all together, and keep the activation buttons from getting hit. While the pouch is naturally a bit big, it can be squeezed down a bit, and I managed to stick them in the built-in storage location for the tire jack in my vehicle, so I won't lose them, and they don't even take up any space I might otherwise be using. The only downsides I can see are the battery nature of all electronic beacons (so you'll need to check on them from time to time) and the small number: I'd be more comfortable with 4-5 if I need to make something very obvious, but the three is probably sufficient in most cases.

This is a well-conceived product, something that I think should be in every vehicle (in the cabin) along with a telescoping lug wrench (or breaker bar) and jumper cables (in the trunk). However, the build quality of these flares is unfortunately poor, particularly the battery box. The problems people have noted fitting the batteries into their slots, particularly the middle ones, I believe is due to the flimsy grommets/connectors used for the positive terminal. The negative terminal is a very long spring, which doesn't give you a lot of room to easily insert the battery into its slot. If you try to shove the positive end in, even if you've compressed the spring for the negative end as much as you can, you have a good chance of bending/distorting the grommet/connector just with the nub of the battery's positive terminal, making it impossible to insert the battery fully into the slot. This happened on 2 of the 3 flares I received, something I could only fix with some needle-nose pliers and micro-screwdriver--generally, tools not everyone will have at the ready in their vehicle should the flares be needed and a problem come up with the battery installation. Besides, you really have better, less ironic things to be doing on the side of the road than fixing your emergency equipment! What's more, the second time this happened was AFTER I'd successfully installed the batteries one time into the flare, popped them out, then tried to reinstall them, just to see how easily it could be done in the event I had to do it on the road. Therefore, success one time is no guarantee of success a second time, should you decide to keep the batteries out of the flares until you need to use them. Another observation, the switch and the soldered wires for the electrical connections to the battery box seem rather flimsy. In fact, one of the flares came with the switch out of position (loose) in its cradle, though it snapped back into place without the need for tools, just the nudge of my fingertip. I suppose this is what one should expect for a relatively inexpensive mass-produced product made in China. It's inner parts are definitely under-engineered. I would pay more for something better made that I could have more confidence in. As is, I am debating whether to install expensive lithium batteries while I can do so from the comfort of my workbench and leaving them in the flares in my car. Lithium batteries are not as prone to leaking as alkalines and can operate in extreme temperatures. However, I think the greater power would be wasted on these LED flares. On the other hand, if I opted for alkalines, I would feel compelled to keep them out of the flares in the bag to prevent them from leaking, but then I'd be concerned about the ability to quickly insert them back into the flares when they are needed. What else? I like the bag, the magnets are pretty strong, and the flares, when the batteries are installed, are quite effective. So, a good product to have, I just wish it were better made and easier to use.