Review of Malkoff M60 / Leef / FiveMega and AW 18500

Okay, all the well-known names are here except for Surefire. With all the mods it seems that there is little if any Surefire left in the picture.
I wonder if the Malkoff/Leef/AW mod, as a Surefire clone, should be called CertainFire, or perhaps PrettySureFire+.

With that said, my AW 18500 protected cells finally arrived, incidentally at the same time as the Pila charger. The cells all came charged to 4.0V. As I ran out of primary 123 cells a while back, this was a good time to finally fire up the Malkoff M60 mod and see how these cells perform.



This is the config used, my favorite setup, Leef 18500 body with Malkoff M60, Z49 tailcap and 2x18500 AW cells. Tailcap aside, on the outside, it looks identical to Surefire 9P, minus the missing logos and serial number and a slightly different (and better) knurling pattern.



And the M60 module:





Here is the FiveMega setup, also 2x18500. Basically it has the stock P90 module until I figure out an LED upgrade and the stock Z41 tailcap.



After some contemplation, I realized I like Z49 better due to instant, one-handed click-on. Even despite its size. Plus, the instant-on is easier to hold with less resistance. Until Surefire designs a better TC, I am stuck with this one, and I really don't want to get a Z59 due to all the issues I hear about.


Firing them up, no exciting fireworks, just the same breathtaking performance I am used to. I couldn't tell any difference between M60 on primaries vs. 18500 Li-Ion cells, they light up the same way the primaries do as expected.

Here is the pic of M60 vs. the stock incan P90 module. Both lites running off 18500 cells. It's obvious which one is which. I don't "get it" why it's often said that incan has better color rendition. Maybe not all incans are the same but P90 is horrible, sickly yellow tint, most unnatural (Not to mention the awful runtime) while M60 gives a pretty good rendition, not to mention being over twice as bright. I think its color rendition is as good as it gets.





Here is the Leef and FiveMega 2x18500 dwarfed by the larger Leef 2x18650 lite. The latter should have more runtime for sure but forget EDC.



And here is the whole and happy Leef + FiveMega family.



18650 is a cool lite that deserves something special for its drop-in module. Right now it has none. I don't have the cells either. I am debating whether to get AW's 2200 mAh cells but the word is, 2500 mAh will be available so should wait until they become available. Of course the ever-expensive Pila cells are another option... Anyway, unless Gene can come up with a custom module that can do up to 12-13V unlike M60 which is limited to 9V, I likely won't get a Malkoff drop-in for it. There is more stuff on the market. I am in no particular hurry, maybe in the future we will see even more impressive performance from P60 type drops-ins...

Nice setups!! thanks for posting:thumbsup:

BTT

Nice.
I have a Leef 18650 body with a Malkoff M60 as well. It's my favorite light. I thought long and hard over the 2x18650 model, but I went with the 18500 so I could use 123A primaries if I needed to. If Gene's M60 would handle 12V, I'd have gone with the 18650 from the get go.

Now, if Leef would only make a 2x 3.7V Lithium "C" cell body with an M-series head.

It's really nice to be able to switch from Li-Ion 18650 or 18500 to primary 123 cells. You never know when you might be away from the charger, or if you travel in places without electric, and so on.

M60 made to run on 12-13V on 4x123 cells should kick some butt, retain the same brightness of 235 lumens but with the LED runtime, meaning 3+ hours I would think? 3x123 has respectable runtime but 4x123 should be impressive.

I need to figure out the best material to make the wrap from, for 123 cells so they are not too loose inside the 18mm bodies. I've used plain paper thus far but it's too thin and needs several layers. I need something with 1 layer.

Etc. Thanks for the review.

I am planning on building a similar light and have a question for you.

If you had to choose only one, the Leaf or the FiveMega body which one would you choose? I know their both of a high quality but Lighthound doesn't have the Leaf body in black in stock. So I'm wondering if I should wait to see if they will be getting more or just go with the FiveMega which is available now?

Let me know what you think.

Again thanks for the review!

Thanks for not calling it a LEGO.

The last time I checked, LightHound had some 18500 Leef bodies in black. If you want the Malkoff M60* drop-in, that's what I would choose. It's not too big, good for EDC, you can easily switch to 3x123 primaries.

The "natural" 2x18650 Leef is OK also but doesn't match the Surefire tailcap or the bezel all that closely. (As you can see on the pic above). I don't let it bug me, I look at it as a unique custom lite. "It's not a bug, it's a feature".

If you want a 2x18650 in black, I guess your only choice is FiveMega, and actually I think he ran out also recently. Maybe check on the marketplace?

FiveMega is OK but you will have a 3mm gap between the bezel and the body with the Malkoff drop-in. I wouldn't file the module, but you can probably grind off the inside of the body for a better fit, one member here has done it, do inquire.
The gap doesn't have any real significance, all works, except that dust may get into it. Or you can put an O-ring into it for a quick and dirty fix.

With M60, the bezel to body gap is present in the stock Surefire 9P body, the Leef body and the FiveMega body, ranging from smallest to largest, respectively. It ranged from 0.8m, maybe 1.5mm and 3mm for SF, Leef and FM, respectively. Some filing might be needed for a perfect fit. I used sand paper actually and went real slow.

After I got a great fit in the Leef body I found out it became a bit loose in the stock 9P body. Which is OK with me as I never plan to use it with stock SF body, but keep in mind that if you grind it for a fit in FM, it might be to loose elsewhere including Leef/SF so wiser to use Dremmel tool on the body itself and don't touch the module.

As they say, it's not a mistake, it's a learning experience.

I like Leef's knurling better but it could use more thread. As I turn the lite on with Z41, it immediately runs out of thread. It works but barely so. Contrast that with that stock 9P body which has quite a bit of room to turn past the point of cut-on. I am not sure what significance this has, if any, other than the fact one member has reported (a while back) that his Z41 failed to cut on with Leef.
I have no such experience with either Z41 or Z48/Z49 but have no real desire to experiment with various tailcaps.

They are both great pieces but the truth of the matter is that neither Leef nor FiveMega are up to Surefire specs. Pretty close but not all the way. Also on the internet not everything you read is true (maybe 80% optimistically), so make sure that *your* setup works with your module. This is highly custom stuff here. They can both work with Surefire stuff but here you deal with one aftermarket piece that has to play well with another aftermarket piece.

etc said:

FiveMega is OK but you will have a 3mm gap between the bezel and the body with the Malkoff drop-in. I wouldn't file the module, but you can probably grind off the inside of the body for a better fit, one member here has done it, do inquire.
The gap doesn't have any real significance, all works, except that dust may get into it. Or you can put an O-ring into it for a quick and dirty fix.

Click to expand...

I have a FM 2x18500 body that I took my dremel to in order to shove my Malkoff M60L in there, I felt a lot more comfortable doing that because the body is really beefy and thus had no worries about damaging anything by doing it. Like you guys are saying I went with the 2x18500 size because going from rechargeables to primaries without having to change the bulb, incandescent or LED, is one of the most attractive features. As stated, you never know when you're going to run out of power and being able to pick up some primaries and dump them in is a nice option. For anyone interested, if you want a good long-running light that's plenty bright I highly recommend the Malkoff M60L modules, the one I have is flat awesome and is now my every day light (took over for my Surefire L4 & 6P).

For fitting the 123 cells a little tighter, what you can do is go to a grocery store and find the Pirouline cookies in the round tin. Inside the tin there is a paper lining that's corrugated, you can cut a piece of that and use it inside the light. I did that and between that and grinding the body for a better fitting head/LED it's now solid as a rock, no gaps or rattling from shaking it. The cookies are delicious too, so double bonus on that.

Interesting, should try that.

Question, I have issues running 2x18500 cells + 1 dummy primary in Leef 2x18650 body. The Malkoff M60 module just wouldn't lite up. Neither Z41 nor Z48 tailcaps worked. Doubly puzzling was the fact that it works great in Leef 2x18500 body which is supposed to be an identical 18mm body with the exception that it's longer.



M60 works nicely in FiveMega 2x18650 (and 2x18500 for that matter and Leef 2x18500).



At first, I thought it was the thread issue as Leef has a bit less thread than either Surefire or FiveMega but such was not the case. (which I validated by running the incan P90 module in it, which does work)

Turns out the problem is that since I filed the M60 module for the perfect fit in Leefbody, somehow it's not getting the full contact. I don't however have an untouched M60* module to validate this theory, but that has to be the case since wrapping the module in alum foil takes care of the issue.




I wrapped the M60 module in aluminum paper and the issue went away. It works. It wasn't getting the contact, the module with the body. Could it be the ground perhaps? Someone cares to enlighten.

Sorry to hear about your issue, but that's why I took my dremel to the light body instead of the module. Hopefully someone else can help you with a better answer and more permanent solution.

No problem here -- I don't plan to use M60 in 2x18650, it was just curiosity.

I plan to get a module that can take up to 13V, so I can run 4x123 or 2x18650 cells.

But I wouldn't think that this particular no-contact issue could be caused by either filing the module too much or filing the body with dremmel.

I've used M60 in 2x18500 for a couple of weeks without any problems... and without using alum foil. It's a perfect fit. So there must be some variance between different units.

etc said:

Question, I have issues running 2x18500 cells + 1 dummy primary in Leef 2x18650 body. The Malkoff M60 module just wouldn't lite up. Neither Z41 nor Z48 tailcaps worked. Doubly puzzling was the fact that it works great in Leef 2x18500 body which is supposed to be an identical 18mm body with the exception that it's longer.

M60 works nicely in FiveMega 2x18650 (and 2x18500 for that matter and Leef 2x18500).

At first, I thought it was the thread issue as Leef has a bit less thread than either Surefire or FiveMega but such was not the case. (which I validated by running the incan P90 module in it, which does work)

Turns out the problem is that since I filed the M60 module for the perfect fit in Leefbody, somehow it's not getting the full contact. I don't however have an untouched M60* module to validate this theory, but that has to be the case since wrapping the module in alum foil takes care of the issue.

I wrapped the M60 module in aluminum paper and the issue went away. It works. It wasn't getting the contact, the module with the body. Could it be the ground perhaps? Someone cares to enlighten.

Click to expand...

Agent_Jaws said:

Sorry to hear about your issue, but that's why I took my dremel to the light body instead of the module. Hopefully someone else can help you with a better answer and more permanent solution.

Click to expand...

AG, you don't have to send your condolences, etc wanted to file his M60 down for esthetic reasons to eliminate a fitting gap. He had received _many_ suggestions to not file his M60 module, as interchangeability could suffer, but whatever floats his boat, I guess. The funny thing is that he claims to want the reliability of a SF.:thinking:

I am a bit disappointed with the runtime of M60 / 2x18500 AW's cells.

I get a solid 2:17 hours of runtime if it's cut on non-stop until the cells hit the protection circuit, but using it in short burst mode cuts down on runtime.

Bring spares with you.. A few sets at least.
I carry 2 sets of 2x18500 cells.

Still great lite and great output considering it's small size. It's really amazing it does what the bigger Mag with Malkoff does, or even better.

etc said:

I am a bit disappointed with the runtime of M60 / 2x18500 AW's cells.

I get a solid 2:17 hours of runtime if it's cut on non-stop until the cells hit the protection circuit, but using it in short burst mode cuts down on runtime.

Bring spares with you.. A few sets at least.
I carry 2 sets of 2x18500 cells.

Still great lite and great output considering it's small size. It's really amazing it does what the bigger Mag with Malkoff does, or even better.

Click to expand...

If my calculation is correct, it'll run about 1/3 longer than the 6-cell Mag-num star Xenon bulb powered by the same batteries :thinking:
That sucks :mecry:

I would like to ask for some advice. I am planning on purchasing a Surefire 6P head and Z41 tailcap and use either a Leef or FiveMega body to run (1) 18650 battery. I would also like the option and flexibility to use (2) CR123A (primaries) also. To be able to use an 18650 or 2 primaries would I need to purchase a Malkoff M60, M30, or both?

Also which body would you recommend, the Leef or FiveMega for my intended application?

Thanks for any replies.

Nice, but I have used both outside and Incan easily allows me to differentiate between thing in the great outdoors MUCH better. For example, look at the rake on the right in your first beam-shots. The tines look white/grey with the Malkoff. Now imaging shining out into the trees looking for hogs or whatnot at night? black/brown objects all take on the same bleached-out color. You need an optic to SEE the outlines, color becomes over-rated and not so useful in discerning objects using LED vs. INcan unless its a warm LED.

Just my .02

etc said:

With M60, the bezel to body gap is present in the stock Surefire 9P body, the Leef body and the FiveMega body, ranging from smallest to largest, respectively. It ranged from 0.8m, maybe 1.5mm and 3mm for SF, Leef and FM, respectively.

Click to expand...

Great info ETC and thanks for the pics. I'm a big Leef fan but don't have any yet. I wasn't aware this was a normalized incompatibility nor that each brand had a standard offset. Here's a solution I came up with last week for FMs offset. So far so good:


-EG

Not sure why etc did not update this thread. He did get his 4XCR123 M60 module from Gene.

Bill