To upgrade or not to upgrade..... Do I need a new bulb?

So this is part laziness as well as part being out of the loop on my part. I admit that.

I have 2 lights, a SureFire E2E, Surefire M2 and Surefire 9P. I have used them for years and years as tools and didnt give them much thought as they get the job done. Recently I needed to buy a weapons mount for the 9P and since I've gotten that I figured it wouldnt hurt to see what the latest and greatest was to see if it was worth upgrading.

Currently they are configured as follows...

SF E2E - 2x RCR123, Lumens Factory EO-W2r bulb. Rated at 150 lumens.
Surefire 9P - 2x 17500, Lumens Factory EO-9 (D26), Rated at 380 lumens.
SureFire M2 - Stock form

I primarily use the E2E and 9P as you can guess. E2E is EDC and 9P is "What went bump?" and hangs on an AR15.

My question is is should I look at upgrading the bulbs? Doesnt look like batteries have changed one bit but man theres some new bulb options out there. To date myself I picked all of this up probably 5 years ago. Luxeon was the shiny toy on the block at the time.

I'm thought about getting a new bulb for the E2E and 9P as follows...
E2E - http://www.velenodesigns.com/html/surefire_e_series_led_drop-in.html
9P - http://www.dereelight.com/module-list.htm Probably go with the 700 lumen series....

But before I pulled the trigger wanted to see what everyones (Or anyones!) opinion on that idea was. Are the new emitters out there really a worthwhile upgrade? My bigger concern is the 9P over the E2E. I like a lot of throw on the 9P with as much spill as I can still get without killing throw.

I know ratings can sometimes be optimistic and not a real world measurement so before I jump on this would these be upgrades that if I put them in the light I would turn it on and go "Wow, that was money well spent"? I dont want it to be a case of buying a new emitter only to try it out and see minimal gains over what I currently have. Having said that, what I have is 5 years old so I wouldnt be surprised if things have come a long way......

Thoughts?

A belated welcome to CPF!

I think you are good with what you have. I have a 9P with a EO-9 lamp and it is plenty bright with plenty of punch. Brigher is not always better. I have a M6 with a MN21 lamp and while it is plenty entertaining it is not very practical. Unless you have lots of open space(s) brighter just means more annoying glare.

If you have been satisfied with your setup why change?

If you really want something bright and useful get a M3LT. The low setting is 70 lumens and it is perfect for a general use light. And the 400 lumen high really lights up the night!

If your 9P is going to be used as a weaponlight for urban home defense when I'd suggest going 200lumens max, I assume the walls of your rooms are white and as so they will reflect light really well, so if you point it at an intruder it will blind the person, but it will also blind you if you have night adapted eyes.
But if you're going to take it for recreational shooting, then slap an XM-L LED driven at 3A into it for 700 OTF lumens of fun.

The veleno designs LEDs are highly recommended for the E series lights.

I suggest to ditch rechargeable LiCo cells for weapons lights because the recoil can slowly damage the protection circuit in it over time, if you really want to use rechargeables you should use LiMn cells which are branded as AW's "IMR" cells, they are much more safer since they do not vent with flames so they do not require a protection circuit so there is little to fail. But the IMR cells only come in 16340(CR123 size), 18500 (too fat for surefire lights), and 18650(also too fat).

Roger999 said:

If your 9P is going to be used as a weaponlight for urban home defense when I'd suggest going 200lumens max, I assume the walls of your rooms are white and as so they will reflect light really well, so if you point it at an intruder it will blind the person, but it will also blind you if you have night adapted eyes.
But if you're going to take it for recreational shooting, then slap an XM-L LED driven at 3A into it for 700 OTF lumens of fun.

The veleno designs LEDs are highly recommended for the E series lights.

I suggest to ditch rechargeable LiCo cells for weapons lights because the recoil can slowly damage the protection circuit in it over time, if you really want to use rechargeables you should use LiMn cells which are branded as AW's "IMR" cells, they are much more safer since they do not vent with flames so they do not require a protection circuit so there is little to fail. But the IMR cells only come in 16340(CR123 size), 18500 (too fat for surefire lights), and 18650(also too fat).

Click to expand...

First off thanks for the welcome Kelmo! I dont post much, more a lurker.

I should have been clearer in my uses, thats my fault. I live 6 miles south of a town of 265 people. My "home defense" is geared more towards 4 legged critters than 2. I have the not so enviable job of seeing what the dog barked at and what the chicken clucked at. Often ends up being coyotes, badgers, raccoons and the most enjoyable...skunks.

So in that regard I like as much light and as far of a throw I can get HOWEVER I also like a decent runtime and the ability to keep it on without concerns for heat. The last thing I'd want when facing Pepe LePew is to have the light die due to a 5 minute runtime or overheat and burn out!

At some point I'll also have to add to the small collection and get a real piece of canned sunshine, something to light up the field with. But, thats a bit down the road for now.

So what I could do for fun is get a Deree XM-L single mode with OP reflector and since it has inputs of up to 16V run 3 IMR16340's in the 9P.....

Do you think I would see an increase or decrease in runtime moving from the current LF EO-9 to the Dereelight and the EO-W2 to the Veleno unit?

If the XM-L is driven at 3A, 3X IMR16340's should give about 25-30mins of runtime, the orange peel reflector will make the beam more floody but smooth, the SMO will make it through more but there may be artifacts/uneven beam(won't make a difference when in use), your EO-9 on 2X 17500 would be giving you about 40 minutes of runtime.

The E2E running 1X 17670 on the Veleno drop in will give 1 hour of runtime on high.

Definitely upgrade...

E series - not much choice as Veleno Designs E-Tower is a great product... tints are a little short in offer (mine neutral turned to be really yellow, too yellow to remind of incan, to be honest)... but I'm sure cool whites he offers are awesome...

As for 9P the choice widens drastically... the one you asked about is fine, Nailbender offers also good dropins with FULLY customizable options in his thread... can't go wrong with that him... and of course, as always... Malkoff as THE BEST !!! You run primaries, you run ICR/IMR in it, get the best output-vs-draw therefore making it run looong on one set of batteries... and it follows SF bomb-proof phylosophy...

I'm using C2 with Nailbender XML 2B 2.8A 2.8-6V 3-mode and MD2 with Malkoff M61 as we speak... I like both setups so I carry NB on even days and Malkoff on odd days of the calendar for now...

Uh, yeah... My wife confiscated my E1E with Veleno XPG... I loved the fact, gave me a reason to purchase three more lights/hosts...