Streamlight Polystinger 15000 to 40000 upgrade

Streamlight have their HP upgrade kit for the Stinger and Stinger XP rechargeables.

I have the Poly Stinger and found that the HP kit fit perfectly. My old 15000cp Poly now shines at 40000cp with the same battery life. The head is now metal and quite a bit larger making carry a little more difficult but this light is now seriously bright.

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Does the HP kit supply a brighter bulb, or is it just a tighter reflector?

Lumen output is unchanged. Turbohead tightens beam and improves throw.

Candlepower is increased from 15,000 to 40,000.

Greg at BrightGuy said the HP upgrade is not recommended for the "Poly" (I would guess there are heat issues with a plastic-bodied light) but I would use it in short bursts anyway. About $23 for the kit. They're outta stock right now, will be another week or so before they come in.

Originally posted by MR Bulk™:
[QB]Greg at BrightGuy said the HP upgrade is not recommended for the "Poly" (I would guess there are heat issues with a plastic-bodied light) but I would use it in short bursts anyway. QB]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Why would there be a heat issue, the Lamp is the same just more focused which might produce more heat but I would think the larger head would heat sink it better. Not disagreeing MR BULK just thinking out loud.

The HP kit comes with a new lamp, head and reflector assembly. Light output is more than doubled, nearly three times.

The reflector is solidly made out of aluminium and I have had no trouble having it on for extended periods on the poly.

The head gets warm but then it is supposed to.

Ok how is then posible to get the same runtime out of the new lamp?

Hi JT, Lemlux

If you check out the Streamlight website it will tell you that the voltage and wattage of the lamp has not changed, it is just a bigger lamp that better suits the much bigger reflector. Therefore battery life will not suffer.

You (JT) said "the Lamp is the same just more focused" and Lemlux said "Lumen output is unchanged. Turbohead tightens beam and improves throw.". Where did you guys get your "facts" from?

I have the upgrade with the manual which states that the upgrade comprises 1xHP bulb and 1xReflector lens assembly which is what I used to do the upgrade.

I trust that this answers your questions and clarifies the facts.

It's just a turbohead, u didn't gain any lumens just a longer throw and more concentrated beam. And the increase of "candlepower" is just focused on one tiny spot as that's what the new bigger head does..... So techincally output is exactly the same.

That was what I was saying, that the light output or LU should be the same you are just putting a Turbo head on it which will tighten the beam. My point is that there should not be more heat.

Hi Herky.
I guess what is technically correct is quite subjective. I believe that output is measured and not calculated. If both bulbs were tested in isolation then perhaps the output would be the same. However flashlight manufacturers realise that there will not be enough output like this so they add reflectors and sometimes overdrive the lamps to achieve more output.
In this instance Streamlight chose not to overdrive but to improve upon the optics (by adding a larger lamp/reflector assembly) to achieve more output measured at a fixed point when compared to the standard bulb and reflector.

I would be most unhappy and would return the upgrade kit if the poly was not a great deal brighter (more ouput, candlepower, lumens whatever you choose to call it)but it is a lot brighter, maybe not as much as they claim but definitley worth the upgrade.

So, technically (by measurement) output is more.

JT, I agree that there may be no extra heat due to the same wattage bulb. In any event if there was, the Al head would easily take care of it without effecting the poly body.

I don't think what is technically correct is subjective at all, and on top of that, you can't just throw the word lumens and candlepower around like that. What the turbohead does is concentrated the 'output' into a tighter focus thus when you measure the 'candlepower' at that point where all the 'output' is concentrated, of course the 'candlepower' measurement is increased but that also means 'candlepower' is lost else where in the 'beam'. Lumens would remain the same as it measures 'output'. It's somewhat gimmicky what Streamlight is doing, but in another sense it's still acceptable. Read about surefires especially their 2002 catalog, it talks about how mesauring by candlepower isn't the best thing. Look at Surefire's with turboheads, of course with a turbo head, it results in a longer throw and a smaller tight beam thus if you must use candlepower to measure the light at one point, it will be significantly higher than one without a turbohead, however lumen ratings will remain exactly the same as in how Surefire lights are listed.

So if you want to say your light now has a longer throw and tighter beam then yes. But if you think the light has gained more 'lumens' of output then no. Did it gain candlepower at one single point but lose candlepower elsewhere in the beam, then yes.

It depends were in the beam you measure your "Candlepower" value.

Because there is no way of know how, where, or with what the candlepower value is created, you could say that the candlepower has gone down.

I wonder whether the candlepower average value per beam area it was averaged over has increased with a larger diameter reflector...

Al