M6 Dive light Yes or No

Well I did it, my M6 will be here tomorrow. My question is this how water proof is it? I am going diving this weekend and am wondering if I can take it.

Eh, how long to you plan on using it? I heard that battery life is extremely short? 15 mins at most?

I do not suggest using the M6 as a dive light as long as it is not "N"-certified by Surefire. All N-certified flashlights are tested to be 100% waterproof to a certain depth (don't know the number) and SF guarantees this. All other lights- even the Milleniums series- are only water resistant (M-series more than any other SF light due to the dubble o-ring sets). You can get any SF-light N-certified, it will cost you 60$ extra but you will be on the safe side. But as far as I know right now SF does not do any of these things since (I guess) they are busy providing these to the special guys and I read something about them building a new pressure pipe to test their lights.
In addition remember that when using a "only-waterresistant" light with lithium batteries in a water enviroment results can be surprisingly nasty. Even though some have tested the lithiums and their behaviour without noticing anything harmful, they don't like water for sure!

Runtime is only about 15min. when using the HOLA MN21/500lm, totherwise you can use the MN20 which provides very useful 250lm for 60min. . You should check for special dive lights, maybe the UKE LC100 with HID technique, they might fit your purpose better than the M6 when used as a diving light.

Klaus.

Millennium Series SureFires are designed to be waterproof. Without being tested, there is no way of knowing though so 'highly water-resistant' is used.

Depending on how you use your M6, and the batteries you use in it, you can expect about 20 minutes of high quality light from the HOLA MN21, or about 60 minutes of high quality light from the standard MN20.

If underwater illumination is your goal, there are many other dedicated divelights. The Underwater Kinetics LightCanon LC100 is supposed to be pretty good.

The impression I get is that operators who need to be able to move underwater in the course of their assignments, can order SureFires that are tested to ensure they perform in the such wet environments.

Al

I'll throw in my 2 cents here and second all suggestions that an LC100 be used for your dive activities instead of an M6, unless of course you are bringing this very expensive light for an experiment.

The LC100 is purpose-built and the high-temp white of the HID beam should be able to throw farther underwater, a fact forgotten by most when they compare lights "over the counter". The longer runtime and the use of water-safe alkalines should also add peace of mind to the whole mix and allow you to enjoy your dive more.

In the same vein, I would not take an LC100 with me if my intention was a nightbust of drug dealers or terrorists

I do have Dive lights but I what to test out my new toy.

jtivat,
whatever you do, go easy - don't short out 6 Lithiums all at once ......

Jahn

jtivat,

I think you will find this link discussed earlier in the year very helpful.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=001345#000000

Make sure you read Deanster's (member 1285) comments.

Anyway, the point is, N-certified surefire products are rated down to 30m (100ft). But would (or should) you take it down to that depth?

Probably not.

Why? I'll just quote Deanster on this.

Originally posted by Deanster:

As for using surefires or other lights that aren't really designed for dive use - there are 3 really good reasons not to: 1) most 'surface' lights are only waterproof to 100 feet or so, which is great for rivers, puddles, rain etc. However, recreational divers routinely dive to 120', and you should never take anything to its maximum depth - it's just playing with fire. For this reason, most dive lights are rated to 500' or so, so you're nowhere near the failure point. 2) Good rule of thumb is to avoid taking into the water that you might want later - having a dedicated dive light means that if you loose it, you haven't lost something you use elsewhere. 3) many/most 'surface' lights don't have good lanyard attachment points, where ALL dive lights have a retention mechanism - which helps to avoid invoking rule 2.

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