Does it exist?

I love my Surefire L4. And after reading the review about the E2D LED, I am surely going to purchase one of those as well.

However, one thing that I do not like about these lights is the fact that they get pretty hot pretty quick. I use my lights camping and I do a lot of camping. Night exploring takes place most every time I go. I have headlamps but love my Surefire.

I am wondering if there is an LED flashlight out there above 100 lumens that does NOT get extremely hot after using it for around an hours time...or at least less hot then my Surefire.

Anyone...:candle:

Or am I hoping for something that does not exist simply because of the nature of LEDs?

The only way it won't get so hot is by using a larger body. The L2D doesn't get HOT on high mode (but does on turbo).

The Luxeon V models do run hot. That's the nature of that LED and SureFire's thermal management doing the best it can getting rid of the heat to the surface of the flashlight.

SureFire's current offerings - E2DL, X300, KX2C, E1B, L1 etc seem to run far cooler.

That it? 2 responses? With all the vast knowledge and LED flashlight collections out there on CPF, I would have thought there would have been at least a few more...

So am I to believe that there isn't a >100 lumen LED flashlight out there that isn't better than my L4 that doesn't get extremely hot after using it for ~ one hour?

Well, of course, now the hereto before unthinkable (for me anyway): what about an incan that will be >100 lumens that will last for longer than 20 minutes and is the size of my L4...??

wacbzz,

to be fair, I think the responses you have had were quite explicit. Size15's said that the Luxeon V is particularly bad in producing heat (inefficient) and the newer LEDs such as the Cree used in the E2D are more efficient. Therefore, the E2D will not get anywhere near as warm as the L4; I think the Cree Q5 is twice as efficient as the Lux V (give or take).

Andrew

There are a whole host of current lights that don't run as hot anymore
that exceed 100 lumens.

The newer generation of leds ie. Cree-XRE and Seoul-SSC-P4s are much
more efficient and have better thermal regulation to boot than the
luxeon Vs (in the L4)

The list is vast ....

Perhaps if you specify in detail what criteria you are looking for,
ie custom/mass-manufactured, what brands, what size, run-time etc.
then it will be easier to make a recommendation.

For custom lights, the Bitz and the Nautilus have had very good reviews and
both exceed 100 lumens output for over 1 hour runtime. They are both
edc-able and much smaller than the Surefire L4, and I doubt that they
get as hot as the L4 despite their much smaller size.

Novatac-120 is another you could look at.

For mass produced, Fenix has a huge range of lights that exceed 100 lumens
output with the newer generation of leds.

The Current gen LEDs are twice or more the efficiency of the last gen Luxeon I, III, V, and K2s, so they have twice the output(or more) for the same input. This also means less heat generated.

100 lumen isn't much of a challenge anymore.

Do you want something floody like the L4? If yes, then the E2DL isn't for you because the optic gives it a pretty throwy beam with some sidespill.

With the most efficient LED's (Q5, R2) you should need little more than 0,3 A to get about 100 lumens, and that should not be much of a challenge to dissipate without getting hot.