The Power Practical Luminoodle Plus is one of several Luminoodle products. This is one of the most unique and fun lights I‘ve used in the outdoors. A Luminoodle is a flexible string of LED lights that are fully encased in a soft rubbery tube. Luminoodles really look like a giant noodle and they produce a good amount of light. I‘d say Power Practical hit the nail on the head when they named this product and it is just fun to say “Luminoodle”.
The Luminoodle Plus comes in five and ten foot lengths. My test sample is the five foot version. I counted 27 LED lights along the length and there is about a 10 inch section without LED‘s that connects to the battery. The standard USB connection is a bit unique because it has no top or bottom. You can insert it into the battery or other USB socket either way you like. This feature is especially handy if you need to plug in the Luminoodle in the dark.
Power Practical put a lot of thought into how people might like to hang their Luminoodle. Aside from the obvious way of wrapping it around something, there are a couple other options. Three re-usable universal ties and built in magnets provide a lot of options to hang the Luminoodle. I tended to just wrap the Luminoodle around a tree or hang it from my hammock ridgeline, but you can just as easily use the ties that work like re-usable zip ties or just stick it to metal with the magnets.
Power Practical used their Lithium 4400 battery to provide the juice to light up the Luminoodle. A really short USB cable connects the battery for charging and it worked great for using the battery to charge my phone too. Built in LEDs on the side show the charge status, and with the flick of a switch they light up like a flashlight. Again, this is a really handy feature to have in the middle of the night.
Power Practical also built multiple uses into the included storage bag. The fabric of the bag is a ripstop nylon that diffuses the light of the Luminoodle and turns it into a lantern. I took the Luminoodle with me on a 3 day hike in the Ouachitas. My backpacking friends both commented on how well the light worked as a lantern.
Altogether, the five foot Luminoodle Plus produces 180 lumens of light. For the most part, I haven‘t done any official tests on run time for the light on the battery. However, I used the Lithium 4400 battery to charge my phone and run the Luminoodle on a 3 day trip. No surprisingly, the battery had charge to spare at the end of the trip. The Luminoodle has an IP-67 rating which means that it is waterproof for 30 minutes in 1 meter of water. The whole setup weighs just under than eight ounces.
Pricing for the five foot Luminoodle Plus is reasonable, with an MSRP of $39.99. Of course, gram weenies might say it is a bit heavy. The rest of us will enjoy its versatility and how fun it is. Good job Power Practical! Click here to head over to their website and see everything these guys make.
Mark
I‘d like to thank Power Practical for the test samples. We at Industry Outsider have limited budgets and the ability to provide honest, useful information on gear hopefully benefits everybody.
Where would you hang your Luminoodle?
Pretty cool Mark! I’ll have to look into these for when I go on my bike trips this summer.