Malkoff Opinions

[michiganstud]

Hi everyone. So as of late I've chosen my Stinger HL and my Surefire G2X for duty. I've been curious about the Malkoff drop ins. They are very expensive to just buy one to try and not like it.

I'm looking for something to drop in to my 6P bored for 18650 batteries. My current is the Sport Tac 1500 lumen and it gets so hot after 15 min you can't touch the light.

I've spotted two on the Malkoff site and I'm looking for someone with real world use to tell me.....

Is the M61 450 lumen vs the M61 SHO 750 lumen. My main concern is heat. ..do these things get 🔥 so you can't even touch the light???

 

[thermal guy]

They will get warm yes but not too hot to handle. That's the great thing about malkoff stuff. they are designed to work hard. And be very reliable.

 

[michiganstud]

Any opinions on the beams???

 

[knucklegary]

All the M61's with reflectors have a very useful beams, a nice balance between spot and spill. I don't think you'll be disappointed..
If you sign up for email with Malkoff, first timers get 20% discount👍

 

[bigburly912]

Every time I carry my Malkoff for an extended period of time at work my deadlift increases by 135 pounds.

You can't break them. The beams are nice. You can call or email the owners and they will answer you usually within a couple of days. Really can't beat them.

 

[thermal guy]

Any opinions on the beams???

The M61 SHO 750 is almost twice as bright and has a lot more throw. It will give you the same output on 2X123's or a single lithium

 

[paulyg]

I have my M61 in a SureFire M2. It will illuminate a room fairly well standing in the doorway with the light facing forward at your belt line. There's a very small amount of dark from your 8:30ish and 2:30ish back to the wall depending how deep into the doorway you are. You can easily I.D. things for a decent distance (20-25 feet)

 

[Bob A]

I've only recently found this website, and it has stimulated me to delve into the photonic world, and look for interesting light tools.

Sadly, I find that information about these objects is available only with difficulty. When I visit a manufacturer's site - recent visits to Surefire and Malkoff have underscored this - it's a real PITA to extract useful information across their product lines.

Typically, the lights are pictured, with cursory information about their characteristics, and you have to click on each individual example, and scratch around to find out anything but the barest details about their operation. Then go on to the next, and so forth

Decades ago, this sort of information about products was usually presented as a two-dimensional array, with the various models listed, and all their distinguishing details arranged in rows and columns. You could see what the company made, and how each one differed from the others. It made access to info easy and graphic.

I'd have thought that the ease of providing information, as well as updating it, would be even better in the computer age, but it seems not to be the case. The best one can do is to luck onto a site run by an aficionado, who takes the trouble to lay the info out for everyone, Finding that guy is a crapshoot, and usually takes a fair amount of digging, and some luck. If you're not motivated to make the effort, you're stuck with the pretty pictures and PITA poking thru the mess the Marketeers have deigned to provide.

Did I say this was annoying? Time-wasting? An abject failure of Practical Product Promotion? C'mon, make me want to buy your stuff. Don't make me beg.

 

[Dave D]

Did I say this was annoying? Time-wasting? An abject failure of Practical Product Promotion? C'mon, make me want to buy your stuff. Don't make me beg.

If the Malkoff website is too complicated for you then you are not one of their target customers, they are not selling to the mass market.

If you want a drop-in, for instance, firstly choose your voltage range, then the output level and then choose if you want standard, neutral or warm tints. Simple really.

If you need any help just ask, if you phone the company you've a good chance of Mr Malkoff himself answering the phone.

 

[michiganstud]

Decades ago, this sort of information about products was usually presented as a two-dimensional array, with the various models listed, and all their distinguishing details arranged in rows and columns. You could see what the company made, and how each one differed from the others. It made access to info easy and graphic.

Decades ago there was pretty much xenon or Halogen bulb lights, and there were a couple leading brands of those to choose from. You chose maglite or Streamlight mostly. When you got the specs it was 20k 0r 30k or 35k candlepower....and you knew that's exactly what you'd get, same from light to light.

Now it's LED with hundreds of makers, specs are complicated, different tints, beams, engines, etc. Nothing is the same from maker to maker and it isn't really standard. 800 lumens rating isn't really regulated.....companies just stamp a rating they feel is good and shoot the product out. Enter in the Chinese markets and your issues go up 10 fold.

I get it. Frustrating. But I will say Malkoffs site isn't too bad. Their charts aren't complicated and he actually has tutorial vids I watched explaining the different indicators.

 

[Johnny Ryall]

I'll chime in on the heat, I've used a lot of lights from O garbage to cloud and I gotta say my malkoffs get warm but not even near as close to the other brands, as someone said they are built for real life work and duty, my personal fav daily carried malkoff is E2T on a 16650 body, great blast and good run time

 

[bykfixer]

The Malkoff beam is like a frustrom. Very similar to a Stinger HL.

Some lights have a V shaped beam where it floods side to side with a flat wall at the farthest point. Some like an arrow where the center spot reaches much farther than the spill. Some a conical where the floody walls reach out with a nice curved tip.

The Malkoff has a nice blend of spill that fades on the outter edges to help preserve a peripheral vision with a gentle blend that gets brighter toward the center. Yet not quite conical. It's a very good overall beam in my view.

One nice thing not noticed by some is how the light begins past the light. As in a dark area between the tip of the light and where the beam begins. So it does not illuminate the person holding the light like many do. You hold the light in a tactical method, look down and with some you see your feet are lit up. Not the case with a Malkoff.

I'm not familiar with the SHO version so I don't know how hot it gets. But I do know Gene Malkoff focuses on reliability so it's doubtful his module gets all hot like the 1500 lumen SportTac. Sure, it's going to get warm no doubt. It's a physics thing. But he's mindful that a really hot LED is baking itself to an early death so there's probably some thermal step down built in.

 

[Bob A]

I get it. Frustrating. But I will say Malkoffs site isn't too bad. Their charts aren't complicated and he actually has tutorial vids I watched explaining the different indicators.

I just hit the Malkoff site again; the most useful bit was the drop down menu allowing choice of small, medium or large LED flashlights. However, the only way to evaluate the lights in any given category was to go thru them, one by one, without any capacity for side-by-side comparison within the category.

That's the sort of thing I'm complaining about. Sure, comparing different mfr's would be of interest, but that's not the point.

I'm not intending to single out Malkoff; Surefire has the same sort of presentation. Fenix leads me into a morass of question and answer games once I indicate my interest in a flashlight. It just seems that the process could be simplified, and made more user-friendly.

Tutorial videos may appeal to some, but that's not my go-to for taking in information; a drawn-out process that may or may not actually address the information I want. Maybe if you enjoy that process it would be fine, but I'm far more oriented toward words and figures, where everything is laid out and quickly accessed.

 

[whao]

I will add some info on the heat as well. I put a M61 SHO in a bored 6P with one 18650 battery. After 15 minutes, it went from 70F to 102F. So just as others have mentioned, it would get warm, but nothing like untouchable.

 

[Monocrom]

Fantastic creations! Lights and modules.
Speaking from experience.
Though a bit too smooth.

 

[tech25]

I just hit the Malkoff site again; the most useful bit was the drop down menu allowing choice of small, medium or large LED flashlights. However, the only way to evaluate the lights in any given category was to go thru them, one by one, without any capacity for side-by-side comparison within the category.

That's the sort of thing I'm complaining about. Sure, comparing different mfr's would be of interest, but that's not the point.

I'm not intending to single out Malkoff; Surefire has the same sort of presentation. Fenix leads me into a morass of question and answer games once I indicate my interest in a flashlight. It just seems that the process could be simplified, and made more user-friendly.

Tutorial videos may appeal to some, but that's not my go-to for taking in information; a drawn-out process that may or may not actually address the information I want. Maybe if you enjoy that process it would be fine, but I'm far more oriented toward words and figures, where everything is laid out and quickly accessed.

For some more info see the Malkoff runtime thread. https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/malkoff-runtime-graphs-cr123-alkaline-comparo.445450/

It's not up to date but will give you an understanding of the different offerings.

 

[340pd]

My go to is a Malkoff MD2 SHO with a high/low switch. Perfect for walks on low and if you unscrew the head just a bit, it just takes a bit of thumb pressure to go from low to high. Heat has never been a problem. If you purchase a Malkoff the high low switch is a must.

 

[ilikeguns40]

One of the best companies I've ever purchased from and I've purchased a lot from Malkoff devices. Quick shipping, quick responses, and products made to last while proudly built in USA. I'm more of the MDC E series fan vs the larger models, but that's just my personal preference. I wish Gene would offer some better LEDs like Nichia to their MDC lineup but all in all I think the 3 mode MDC CR123 and AA MDC have the most balance between carry and usability. His drop ins get warm, but nothing to worry about. They are made to be reliable and outlast you.

 

[hamhanded]

One nice thing not noticed by some is how the light begins past the light. As in a dark area between the tip of the light and where the beam begins. So it does not illuminate the person holding the light like many do. You hold the light in a tactical method, look down and with some you see your feet are lit up. Not the case with a Malkoff.

This was one of the first things I noticed when replacing a P60 xenon with a Malkoff drop-in. The spill beam is more narrow than the incandescent it replaces. I preferred the wider spill, since I used it for things like walking the dog, and it doesn't offer as much peripheral vision. An A2 incandescent, Streamlight Pro-tac, and E1B all have wider spills and tighter hotspots. The Malkoff is smoother, but I still wouldn't call it a flood.

The other thing I noticed is that the Malkoff 3-mode on-time switching is bonkers. You never really know what mode it will start on, especially if you pocket carry. Would love for this to be more like the Surefire two-mode lights, where it always starts on the same mode (off-time switching, instead of on).

But... they're rock solid. I'd go so far as to say they're more solid than Surefire or Streamlight put together. You could call them apocalypse lights. No doubt they're the toughest lights I own.

I'd recommend skipping the 3 mode and picking up a single mode like a M61L or M61WL for the best experience in a 6P.

 

[michiganstud]

I got my 16650 Orbtronic batteries today, charged them up in my nitecore charger.

My G2x LE ran exactly 90 minutes on them. Same run time as the CR123 primaries. So that's a win for today.

I wish I could report better news on the Malkoff SHO drop in. I put it in my 6P defender host and it is supposed to be 750 lumens, which should be brighter than my G2x. You'd think. It was easily half as bright as my stock G2x. Super disappointed. My G2x easily outshines it by beam, throw, distance, and flood.

Fail. I'm sticking with my tried and true, trusted stock G2x with 16650 cells.