Why a dependable torch earns its place in every home

Most UK power cuts are short and merely inconvenient. But storms, flooding, and the occasional substation fault can leave a street dark for hours, and a phone torch will not carry you through an evening. Your phone's battery drains fast when it is the only light in the house, and holding it while you check a fuse box or help a child down the stairs is awkward at best.

A proper torch is one of the cheapest pieces of emergency kit you can own, and it will keep earning its keep on camping trips, in the car, and during loft repairs. The trick is choosing one you can genuinely rely on when you are tired, cold, and scrabbling in a dark drawer. Here is what to look for.

Brightness: match the beam to the job

Torch brightness is measured in lumens, and more is not automatically better. A beam that is too intense bounces off pale walls and dazzles you, which is the last thing you want indoors at 2am.

• 100–300 lumens is plenty to light a room, read by, or move around the house safely.
• 400–800 lumens gives you a strong beam for checking outside, in a garden, or down a flooded lane.
• 1,000 lumens and above is useful for signalling for help or sweeping a large outdoor area, but it will chew through batteries quickly.

Look for a torch with at least two brightness settings, plus a low or "moonlight" mode for night-time wakings. A beam with a wide spread is more useful indoors than a narrow spotlight, and a flat tail so the torch can stand upright is a quiet superpower: point it at the ceiling and it lights the whole room hands-free. If you want to signal for help, a strobe or SOS mode is worth having, but keep it locked away behind a double press so you never trigger it by accident.

Battery life and power sources

Runtime figures are usually quoted for the lowest setting, so read the small print. A torch that manages ten hours on low and one hour on high is realistic; one claiming 40 hours at full brightness is stretching the truth.

Think about how you will refill it. Rechargeable torches with a built-in lithium battery and a USB-C port are convenient and cheap to run, but once flat they need mains power. If the power is out for days, a torch that takes standard AA or AAA batteries lets you swap in spares from the kitchen drawer. Alkalines can leak and corrode the inside of a torch if left in for years, so store them separately or check them regularly. Lithium AA cells cost more but last far longer, tolerate cold better, and are much less likely to leak.

Whichever you choose, keep a set of spare batteries next to the torch, and buy the same type for every device in the house so you are not hunting for odd sizes in the dark.

Water resistance and build quality

You will use this torch in the rain, drop it on a patio, and possibly knock it into a puddle. Water resistance is rated with an IP number, and the second digit matters most.

• IPX4 survives splashes and light rain — the minimum I would accept.
• IPX7 means it can be submerged in a metre of water for 30 minutes.
• IPX8 goes further still, and is what you want if you might take it near rivers or floods.

Look also for a stated drop rating — one or two metres is common on a decent torch — and check the body material. Anodised aluminium feels solid and shrugs off knocks; good-quality plastic is lighter and warmer to hold in winter. Rubber seals around the lens and battery cap are a good sign, but they only work if the cap is properly tightened. Avoid anything with a flimsy switch that wobbles under your thumb.

Features that genuinely help

A few extras turn a decent torch into a dependable one:

• Lock-out or a recessed switch, so it cannot switch on inside a bag and greet you with a flat battery.
• A tail stand for ceiling bounce, giving you room-filling light with no hands.
• A lanyard or wrist loop to stop it slipping down a drain or off a ladder.
• A red or low red mode if you want to preserve night vision or avoid waking others.
• Glow-in-the-dark trim or a known storage spot — the best torch in the world is useless if you cannot find it.

Skip anything with dozens of confusing modes. Two or three well-judged settings will serve you better than a menu you cannot read in the dark.

Keeping your torch ready for the next power cut

Buy two: one for the kitchen drawer and a small head torch for the bedroom. A head torch keeps both hands free, which matters enormously when you are changing a fuse or helping someone down stairs. Store them somewhere dry and easy to reach, not in a damp shed or the back of a cupboard behind the Christmas decorations.

Test every torch twice a year. The clock changes in March and October make an easy reminder, and they are also a sensible moment to check your smoke alarms and spare batteries. For a rechargeable torch, top it up then; for an alkaline one, look for any sign of leakage and replace the cells regardless of how much life they seem to have left.

Finally, practise. Turn the lights off one evening and find your torch, switch it on, and stand it on its tail. A minute of fumbling now means calm, steady hands the next time the lights go out.