Longest lastng High tempature light?

I am thinking of a the Zebralight sc600 on amazon for 115$...2 hours on one 18650 sounds fabulous at 1100 lunens. But what about their older lights (sc62)? Just as good?

Or maybe there is another brand that is about the same?


I just found out that I can not use my nitecore ec20 on the turbo setting for the 1.5 hour run time I need. I get ripped off so much from not knowing what I need for bicycling.

So I need to know what lights can handle this kind of punishment. Maybe in the winter it will be ok as long as i keep moving?

You can't run any pocket light anywhere near 1000 lumens for more than a couple of minutes, you'll need to start with larger lights, like the soda-can category, and probably stick to ~500 lumen output modes for more realistic runtimes and temperature management.

SC600 reduces brightness after some pretty short time as well. Most of high power 1x18650 flashlights have stepdowns. I think you can disable it in some Eagletac flashlights. Armytek Viking Pro can run for about an hour producing ~700 lumens.

Please tell me which lights are classified as "Soda Can".... I ran my sunwayman D40A on turmbo 950 lumens, for at least an hour. But I need a torch that has a one inch diameter to bicycle light holders.


The Eagletac G25C2 might work? but what is the second highest intensity lumen out put?

Good thing I can ask questions here, thanks fort he help. I really do want at least 900 lumens.

I was also thinking of adding a heat sink, even if I need to make it my self. Are there any to buy?

jawnn said:

please tell me which lights are classified as "Soda Can".... I ran my sunwayman D40A on turmbo 950 lumens, for at least an hour. But I need a torch that has a one inch diameter to bicycle light holders.

Good thing I can ask questions here, thanks fort he help. I really do want at least 900 lumens.

I was also thinking of adding a heat sink, even if I need to make it my self.

Click to expand...

The soda can is a physical description alluding to the thickness of the light's cell holding, making it look like a soda can ( A soda can is fatter than 1")...which is too fat for what you describe wanting.

The "Turbo" figure you quote - and the time you quote it for, are incorrect.

The DEFINITION of turbo, in the context of a flashlight, is that its a temporary increase in output, maintained for a short period of time, typically 30 seconds to 5 minutes or so.

The output then drops to "High" or "Max" or some other designation. That could typically be between 50% and 80% of the turbo's output.

The physics of the system are the limiting factor. To drive a light hard enough to get a turbo output, you are typically creating more heat than it can dissipate, so, the light steps back down after either a set time, and/or temperature limit....to avoid damage/being burnt, etc.

The other issue is the cell supplying that power. If a cell has say 3,400 MAH, that is typically rated at a low amp draw....but for example, if it takes 5 amps to drive a turbo level on the LED, even if the mah was all available at that rate (It is not in real life, at all, or even close), that's 5,000 mah just for one hour....more than even the 3,400 mah cell could handle mathematically.

The main reason you THOUGHT your D40A gave "turbo" for "at least an hour", was that you did not NOTICE that it got dimmer.

Don't feel bad, you're not SUPPOSED to notice, they don't want you to.



They ramp it down more subtly, and, typically, for many lights, you'd need to be staring right at it at a step down to notice it. As your eyes automatically adjust for the brightness, you are a lousy light meter...and, unless you had TWO D40A at the same time, turned one on, left it on for say 10 minutes, then, turned the other one on too....THEN you'd see the second one was a lot brighter than the first one.


To FURTHER obfuscate the issue, the PUBLISH/ADVERTISE the "turbo" modes as lasting for an hour or more....with fine print (Sometimes...) that says its only for 2 minutes, or whatever it might be. IE: They add the REAMAINING time on high to the turbo time, and CALL IT the turbo time.

Of course, they ALSO tend to have MORE step downs, so even the "high" will dim later, and so forth.

If the light is not regulated, it simply starts off at full brightness, and then gradually dims as the cells' ability to support the amp draw drains down.

THOSE somtimes advertise their run time as the time it takes to get to a mere 10% of the original output, but the lumens as whet you get in the 1st 30 seconds or so.....so its say 1,000 lumens for ~ 30 seconds, then some percentage less than that every minute until its dropped to a measly 100 lumens 2 hours later...so the AD says something like "1,000 Eye Searing Lumens for 2 hours of Run Time!"



IE: You cannot get ~ 1,100 - 900 lumens for 2 hours from a single 18650 powered light.




I love my ZL SC600, and it IS bright, but, the run times at that max output, just like the physics dictate, and, just like every other maker out there runs into...are onoy a few minutes at a time.


For cycling, the type of beam can be best configured if you consider how fast you'll be typically going (So you can calculate how far away you need to be able to see w/o over driving your beam), and what your lines of sight might be (Long empty stretches of open road, tight twisty mountain trails, urban traffic, etc...).

Typically, to REALLY have adequate lighting, you need a much larger power supply...and/or the willingness to swap in fresh rechargeables periodically on the ride.

I located the SelfBuilt review thread on your Sunwayman D40A.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...L2-4xAA)-Review-RUNTIMES-BEAMSHOTS-VIDEO-more


From reading the review, it looks to be a great light, but the turbo drops from 940 lumens to 610 lumens after (3) three minutes.

From your post, it looks like the D40A output works for you, so maybe you're actually looking for a 1-inch diameter light that can run at around 610 lumens for an hour.


Maybe a p60 drop-in a 1 inch diameter host will work for you. A suggestion would be using 2x18650 in a Malkoff MD4 with a M91B drop-in. This might work for you if the length is not a problem. It'll give you 700 lumens for over an hour.

From Malkoff's website:

The output is approximately 825 measured out the front lumens at turn on and 700 continuous lumens after warm up. The Lux is 5400 at 1 meter. The current draw is 1000ma at 9v. The full output runtime is approximately 1+ hours on 3 CR123 primary batteries. It will then begin a long taper. It will easily illuminate objects at 250+ feet and will blind opponents within a 100 foot radius. The LED is a Cree XP-L

I'm not so well versed at all the technical details as some, but the ZL sc600 is thermally regulated. It should stay brighter for longer if it's cool/cold out and you're moving; check the Selfbuilt review, as he did a test of the thermal regulation using a fan and, while I don't remember the specifics of his findings, he said it works pretty well. Another option would be lights that have optional extender tubes. One example I know about is the EagleTac T25C2. There are XM-L2 (claimed 965 ANSI lumen) and XP-L (1010 claimed ANSI) versions available, among others, with many other available LED modules. With a 2x18650 extender tube you should be able to get 900 lumens out of it for 1.5 hours (output on "turbo" is reduced by 24% after a few minutes by default, but this can be turned "off" so that output is only reduced by 8%, according to ET), but still have the option to use it as a compact light with the 1x tube.

Another option would be to go to a dedicated bike light. You didn't specify form factor except that you want it to fit in the 1 inch holder, but since you apparently have other lights it doesn't seem like you need that much versatility. Most bike lights come with clamps. I'm looking at the Fenix BC30, which comes with a quick-release clamp that seems sturdy and functions well (per reviewers). It's a 2x18650 side-by-side that claims 1200 lumens for 1 hour 50 minutes (not sure about step downs and such, though).

Just a couple weeks ago I was looking for something very similar to what you are asking, but at the time I didn't have any other lights so versatility was important to me. But since then I picked up a small 2x123 that suits most of my uses except biking. That Fenix is easily the best deal in bike lights, and at the Black Friday price I just saw when checking numbers for this post, it would be hard to beat for ANY flashlight if you like the beam pattern. In fact, I was going to wait till spring at this point, but that price is so good I might be buying one this afternoon!

Hope this helps, and good luck!

I tested my Nitecore EC20 with a new Orbtronic 3400mAh 18650 cell, and got close to two hours on high (960 lumins)! I could not tell when it went to medium, even though I was looking at it the whole time. The reason was that the regulator does not work well. So it does not maintain the 960 lumins.

But I did test to see if it was still on high at about one hour fifty minutes. By switching through the settings.

However the beam is not as good as the Sunwayman at a much lower luminosity.

How many times should I drain and charge a new battery like that to get full run time from it? I did it once.


Wellone and a half hours is enough for me. However the beam is not verytight, only good for slow cyclists like my self.

Someone forgot to tell me about beam quality. The beam on my Sunwayman D40A is better than the beam on my Nitecore EC20.


TheEC20's beam is dark in the center and wider so the D40A appears brighter on the second to highest brightness. 610 lumins?


Both together on the road works ok. But how does the Eagletac TH25C2 beam appear?
And is it a longer throw than the D40A? Well it must be, if it is a good beam. At 910(?) lumins.