bypassing regulator

I recently returned a 1 watt Extreme Sportsman to Wallyvilla since I could only get in neighborhood 3 hours with three tests of my new AA 2650's. Again, I am getting 11 hours of acceptable light with 9.6 watt-hour pack and a 1 watt Garrity with 3 settings. Great for working a long 400 hour paint job.

I've been modifying all my 3 AAA Brinkman headlamp to 4 AA's for I am guessing 12 hour runtime at 1 watt, with 25 ohm pot to extend runtime to well in 15 range, as moving equipment you don't need that much light.

I don't get it, a 2 AA should run over 6 hours as does an unregulated Brinkman. But the regulators are making them brighter, but clonking out too early, as if they are made to force us to use non-rechargeable 1.5 cells. Thus, the sinister motive may be at work.

So, we may need a way to bypass circuits for the regulator to use our flashlights for more than 3 hours, if regulation prevails. Anyone with pics of a regulator and how to bypass?

which 1W Sportsman Extreme are you talking about? the 2AA flashlight, or the 1AA headlamp?

the 2AA flashlight should have lasted around 6 hours to 50% initial output using alkaline cells, and probably close to 8 hours to 50% with 2650mAh rechargeable cells.

The 1AA headlamp would drop to nothing at around 3 hours with a 2650mAh rechargeable, so I wouldn't find that result too surprising.

This was a 2 AA with one setting.

I agree it should have, but reality was first test = 2.5 hours with 1 dead cell; second test = 2.5 hours and flashlight died, while I put cells into brinkman for another few hours of use; Third test 3 hours.

Note too I used 6 different batteries to make sure I had no bad cells, or if I did, hopefully only one test would be messed up. Using fast charger, which is only practical solution for as many lights as I use in my work.