LED Drop in for 4-cell Maglite is a complete, utter fail. What did I miss..

I went to Walmart and bought the "Maglite LED drop in", the one they make.

My light doesn't seem nearly as bright as it was with an incandescent. Would it be better if I bought a better LED, like a Q5?

Then the spill is terrible. The doughnut gets really big and the light kind of spreads but unless you were up close to something like a book... it's useless.

Does Maglite just not know how to make an LED or is this just what to expect from an LED Maglite.

You sure you bought the OEM one, and not the NiteIze dropin?

From a cold startup on fresh cells, the 4 cell OEM dropin should start out somewhat brighter than the stock krypton bulb.

Howdy Search and welcome to CPF,
Hmmmmm....... it's certainly possible that you have a faulty unit, however, it sounds about par for the Mag LED drop-in. They are basically an old design that suffers from the Mag light's inherent design problem in dealing with the heat buildup that typically occurs when driving an LED hard, so they drive it at a lower level.

If the LED drop-in you currently have is working properly then that will still be a good long running light in the case of a power outage.

There are many other units available, so you should spend some time here reading about them before investing more money. You may find that it's simply more economical to buy a new LED light.

There are brighter LED drop-ins for your Mag. Here are some inexpensive ones that many folks have had good luck with, yet they still have the same problem with dissipating heat as the Mag design:
http://www.batteryjunction.com/tle-6k2.html

Now, if your Mag serial number has a C in front of it, then you can use a different type of drop-in that provides a pathway to the body of the light to help get rid of the heat. It's also more expensive..... but it is currently one of the best available:
http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop2...s_id=5&zenid=fkfkqutbc6a0d92abm3u0te5g3dudk6v

There is lots more info on this subject around CPF, use the search function and maybe spend some time over in the "Homemade and Modified" section.

Also check out all the neat new lights that are available and don't be in a hurry......

Happy New Year.

My 4d Magled is definitely brighter than a standard 4 cell bulb. Maybe you can exchange it for another one.

metlarules said:

My 4d Magled is definitely brighter than a standard 4 cell bulb. Maybe you can exchange it for another one.

Click to expand...

I agree. You probably have a defective one.
Also, did you try a new set of batteries?

Search said:

I went to Walmart and bought the "Maglite LED drop in", the one they make.

My light doesn't seem nearly as bright as it was with an incandescent. Would it be better if I bought a better LED, like a Q5?

Then the spill is terrible. The doughnut gets really big and the light kind of spreads but unless you were up close to something like a book... it's useless.

Does Maglite just not know how to make an LED or is this just what to expect from an LED Maglite.

Click to expand...

I have to ask the same as Marduke, are you sure it was the Maglite brand drop-in, and not the older version of the Nite Ize drop-in which is advertised as for Maglites? The older version of the Nite Ize drop-in (before the newer 1 watt version) was pretty dim but had a very long runtime.

If you did get the one that's actually made by Maglite, did you get the correct version for 4-cell light? If you got the 2 or 3 cell version by accident, it might've fried part of the unit pretty quickly and then dimmed from the damage.

If yours is definitely the Maglite brand 4-cell drop in, then it must be defective, try to return and exchange it.

Hmmm, my 4D LED drop in is CONSIDERABLY brighter than the incandescent bulb! Mind you, it was made by Malkoff

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop2/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_2&products_id=1

Yea I definitely got the Maglite version. I saw the Niteize thing but I didn't trust it.

I'm going to keep this as a backup but im going to go look at Malkoff LEDs. I've heard they were 20 bucks so I don't know why I didn't just do that in the first place.

I just wanted to know if I was missing something or if this was a faulty part. I'm going to assume it's faulty because I feel like I've lost a LOT of light.

i'll run down the main options for you comparing such things as lumens per watt, output, runtime, cost etc and you can decide from there.

bulb type...... lumens/watt ... output ......... runtime ........................m/watts ........... cost
stock ...........12 ................ 50 lumens ..... 2hrs to 50%(9hr total) ... 800 ................. n/a
magled ........ 50 ................ 60 ................44hrs to 50%(+moon) .... 650 ................. $18
terralux ....... 90 ................100 ................16 hours ......................550 ................. $30 (bang for the buck+runtime)
malkoff ....... 90 ................ 180 ............... 7 hrs to 50% ............ 1100 ............... $60 (bright, build like a tank)

please note something seems amiss in the terralux numbers we have on my graph. note that the magled mwatts drops within 10 minutes of being turned on due to thermal regulator, so it may be driven at 300 milliwatts driving its runtime up due to low power consumption and batteries natural efficency at low power drains. also to be noted although terralux led is far superior to magled, the circuit is believed to be less efficent. overall it is however vastly superior.

referenced threads
terralux vs malkoff runtime (speculation thread)
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/178945

flashlight reviews comparision of magled 2d/3d/4d to stock 3d mag
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/maglite_mag-led.htm

malkoff runtime graph on alk, would just be higher output, flatter reg. on nimh
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/178945

suspected inefficiency of terralux driver
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/terralux.htm

Check this thread for Maglite drop-ins and Mods.

The Malkoff is $60(well, $59) but is has a heatsink, uses a current gen LED, and has a good regulator.

If you want to, you can swap the Luxeon III in the MagLED for a Seoul P4. Double the output(or more) for the same runtime.

:welcome:

That's a good chart. Once you see a Malkoff, the stock LED will be too dim. Good stuff.

I concur you may have got a 'dud' drop in, my 2~3 cell MagLED (100Lm) drop in is pretty bright and not too far behind the Terralux TLE-6EXB (140Lm)... FWIW I once also picked up a cheap 4 cell PR-based LED upgrade and it's output was woeful to say the least (but it extended runtime considerably) :thumbsup:

Gunner12 said:

Check this thread for Maglite drop-ins and Mods.

The Malkoff is $60(well, $59) but is has a heatsink, uses a current gen LED, and has a good regulator.

Click to expand...

The Malkoff also has great output with a very nice tint. My 4D focuses well and has great throw. With the 4D using 4 x 10,000mAh NiMH LSD(Low Self Discharge) cells I can get 8+ hours on one charge at 200+ Lumens.

Sadly right after I made this thread I had an epiphany

I only wanted the Maglite as a thrower. It just isn't bright enough for a GOOD thrower. My PD30 sends a beam the same distance but with a lot more spill.

I saw a youtube video on another post about a Deerelight (Too lazy to check spelling) that had a very massive throw and was more than half the size of this 4-cell Maglite.

I only need a good thrower for when I'm working and the PD30 isn't good enough, so I'm going to give this to my little bro to keep in his truck and look for something a tad better.

That chart just proves better can be had.

Keep in mind that Malkoff now uses a warmer tinted LED for his dropins (All of them, I think), so they aren't the cool tint they used to be.

Search said:

I only wanted the Maglite as a thrower. It just isn't bright enough for a GOOD thrower. My PD30 sends a beam the same distance but with a lot more spill.

Click to expand...

I agree, I have a couple of 2D Maglites with Night Ize drop-ins and they are no where near bright enough to make good throwers. HOWEVER - the Malkoff drop-in on my 4D IS bright enough to make it a good thrower, and you can even focus the light to change from throw to flood! One thing that the 4D with Malkoff can beat the Dereelight on is the amount of light vs run time - with 4 x D cell batteries you just have a lot more stored power than what will fit on torches less than half the size.

For normal distances (up to maybe a couple of hundred feet) I find my 4D w/Malkoff has a great beam - bright enough + big enough hot spot, also good spill.

chart edited.

new reference:
Malkoff d cell drop ins ($59 4d-6d and $49 2d-3d)
http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop2/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_2&products_id=2

also note malkoff claims 1100 mah on 4d, and this was a 4d chart so i'm editing that too i guess. noobs beware, your mentors are imperfect. (oh wait, i'm kind of a noob still too)