3 cell Incan 9P verses M3 beam color

[U2VOODOO]

Kind of new at this please bear with me.

I own both the 9P and the M3 Combat Light. The 9P has the origional bulb since it was new (5 years ago) 105 lumen, I beleive. The new M3 has the high output bulb installed, 225 lumens.

My question is this; Should the M3 light color be bright white with new batteries, just as the 9P has a very brilliant white color beam, with new batteries? The M3 seems to be rather yellowish beam. Switching batteries back and forth between lights doesn't seem to matter either.

The throw and available light is very impressive, just yellow tinted. Is this considered to be in the normal range, or do I have a scewy bulb?

Thanks for your help
U2VOODOO

 

[nzgunnie]

It depends very much on the cells, and how tired they are, and what brand they are. The MN11 is a very high current draw lamp. Cheap cells, or cells that are already depleted somewhat will not provide it with the voltage required to get the bright white light. It's run time is only 20 minutes, after all.

 

[Siskik]

Do you happen to have a pair of 17500's rechargeble batteries on hand?

You can put them fully charged in the M3 for just 2 or 3 seconds ONLY just to test. The 225 lumen bulb should be nice and white.

It is not recommended to do this at all, actually (it is damaging to the batteries and could render them dangerous.) But just to test this one time should be fine.

If you don't have them, it's not a bad idea to get some since your P90 (105 lumen lamp) will run very nice and white (and safe) for guilt free lumens.

regards,
John

 

[mdocod]

What brand of CR123s are you using?

 

[U2VOODOO]

I only use surefire brand batteries. I don't do rechargables yet, sounds like I should.

It kind of brings up a new question; How often do you buy "New" batteries from a surefire dealer that are two years old when purchased? This is a dealer that turns their in store battery inventory about five times a year.

Could this mean that corporate holds an inventory stock that is dated somewhat?

Without starting a war, the store is Sportsmans Warehouse. Just curious about the effectiveness of two year old batteries. The newest batteries I ever bought there, are about 1.2 years old, by their shelf life date stamp.

Should I order them directly from Surefire? I wish surefire put the date on the outside of the box.

 

[KeyGrip]

I think it's just a lamp problem. You say the M3 is new, but the beam isn't as white as a 5 year old P90 even with the same batteries? That just doesn't sound right.

Unless, and I'm just conjecturing here, SureFire does not drive the M series lamps as hard to increase lamp life and reliability. Then it would by okay for a new lamp to be more yellow.

You might try calling SureFire and to see what they have to say.

 

[mdocod]

Here's some things I've noticed about incans:

Beam profile can be deceptive when trying to make comparisons between lights. I'm guessing that the P90 has a tighter beam profile than the MN11 in this comparison, or...? I could be wrong about that....

The HOLA series lamps from SF are drawing 2.5A from CR123 cells. The amount of voltage sag is just ridiculous at this load. Any amount of resistance somewhere in the circuit above normal could cause noticeably less output and whiteness...

Eric

 

[Sgt. LED]

Exactly

Clean and relube it well and it might help some.

 

[U2VOODOO]

Thank you guys.

You may have something there. I will try cleaning the threads. It kind of does make sense that a "combat light" probably has a heavier filament to take more abuse.

I will also call surefire and see if they have any thoughts. I appreciate all the comments.