A tale of 2 Novatacs

So I ordered two 120Ps when I saw them on sale for $105 apiece and they have both arrived today. One is black and one is brown (HA-nat). In comparing them, I noticed a few differences.

• The black light's tint is pure white and the brown light's tint is warm.
• The black light looks slightly brighter than the brown.
• The black light has more aggressive knurling
• The black light gets warm after only 10-20 seconds on high whereas the brown light doesn't seem to get warm at all.

The last point somewhat bothers me. What does this mean? Is the black light running harder? Does it have better heatsinking? Or is the brown one more efficient? It kinda worries me how differently they seem to produce heat. I'd love for somebody with some knowledge to spill some light on this.

I also have two Novatacs, and have had others before these. These are awesome lights (which is why I have 2..), but I have also noticed that they do each have subtle differences in the output, beam color, knurling and sheen/color of the anodization.

Currently I have an olive drab 120P and a black 120E. My 120P has a cool white tint, and my 120E is slightly warmer in color temp. I also noticed on the 10 lumens mode that the 120P is slightly brighter. When turned on max the output is very close, but with a different tint. Unfortunately I haven't turned either of them on max long enough to get a sense of the heat differences, but I'll do that tonight and let you know what I find out with how mine compare.

I did have a Novatac previously, and I did notice with that one that it got noticeably warm quickly when on high (within about a minute). It seemed to heat up more quickly than my other LEDs, other than my Nitecore EX10 which gets really warm on high.

When I had two NTs I also noticed that they varied slightly in tint. One was more yellow and the other more blue.
I also think this variation in tint is why one seemed brighter than the other. I much preferred the slightly yellower tint so I sold the more bluish one.

I did not notice a difference in operating temps.

Yeah that knurling, tint, and whatnot I expected. The temp differences I thought were strange. Thanks for the input.

Novatacs are supposedly power regulated, so if you got a slightly less efficient LED in one, they would drive it harder to keep the same output, but with more heat (and less runtime). However, I'd expect the difference to be smaller than you describe.

So, basically, I don't know.

Well the brown was never acted right, so I called Novatac and talked to Joe, who was extremely helpful. After listening to my observations, he told me to send it in. So I'm thinking the black one is functioning correctly and the brown was not. Maybe that explains the differences in brightness and heat.

I've dealt with NT CS twice and each time they've been very helpful.

I tested both of mine (120E and 120P), and after about 2 minutes on high they were noticeably warm, but they warmed up at the same rate. So it must be an issue with the one you are sending back.