Lumapower LM21 EDC Mini Review

I just wanted to let some CPF members know about a great little EDC light that may not get much attention, if any at all, because I believe some people dont even know that this light is even available. In fact, the GX version of this very light "got me back into the flashlight game" some years ago, and I havent looked back

First of all, some specs on this great EDC:

The light is of the forward clicky variety, with L-M-H sequence of operation. No hidden modes, no strobe, no SOS...its a great K.I.S.S. light, as far as modes go.

Second, and the next most important option for me is the ability to run reliably off 10440's, as well as NIMH and standard alkaline batteries. Operating range is from 0.9V-4.2V. On the literature from Lumapower, Alkaline and NIMH are rated at 3, 60 and 100 lumens respectively, where the 10440 ratings are 12,220 and 350 respectively.

Third are runtimes:
NIMH/Alkaline-42 mins on high, 260 mins on medium and 3200 mins on low
10440- 20 mins on high, 160 mins on medium and 2600 mins on low
All in all, fairly respectable numbers, IMHO.
And, this is digitally regulated, with no detectable PWM.

The build quality of this life are usual LP quality, which is to say, pretty well built. Its a bit longer than my ITP, but only by about 20mm. The LM21 is 3.5" long by .5" body diameter with a .57" wide head. The body has some light knurling on the head in three bands, and on the tail body (which is unscrewed to access the battery).

(photo from Lumapower)

Function wise, I really cannot find too much to complain about as far as this light goes, with the one niggle being the clip. Its of the stamped steel variety, and, while its securely attached, it bends out fairly easily and wont return to its original position. Lumapower solved that issue by use of a neat nylon holster which holds the light securely and can be positioned in a number of different configurations based on user preference.

I used to carry an ITP limited edition A3 titanium with an S2 emitter that, factory recommendations be damned, I ran with 10440's. It is a great light to be sure, but, what bothered me was the fact that this light is a twisty-mode light. Yes, after some break-in, I could operate it with one hand, but, I find clicky lights much easier to use in one handed operation. I really wanted to find a Liteflux LF2XT for my EDC use, but, at the money these lights are selling for now, I couldnt justify the expenditure to myself. While the Liteflux is certainly a well-designed/built piece of equipment, I honestly dont need all these extraneous modes that I will never use.

Heres a pic for your perusal- I apologize for the poor quality, but, I have a fairly simple "point and click" digital camera that doesnt allow me to adjust shutter speeds, ISO settings, etc.,but, it serves its purpose well for comparative purposes.

Here's a pic of my ITP S2 on the left and the Lumapower on the right- both lights are on highest setting with fresh 10440's, and are shot at my fence from 25'.



As you can see, the S2 actually looks pretty "warm" in comparison to the XP-G R5 cool emitter in the Lumapower, but, with the LM21 having a more focused hot spot with a bit of spill and corona. So, its the better "thrower" of the two, but not by much. That being said, these lights are used for inspection purposes at my job, so, throw is not something I need typically for close in work.

Bottom line: This light is a great addition to not only the LP line of excellent products, but, to the EDC market as well. Not only does this light have a K.I.S.S. build/mode function(s) to it, but, it runs happily all day with 10440's, which is not something one finds with AAA EDC's nowadays. Even on high, it gets warm for sure, but not prohibitively so. And, its fairly inexpensive to purchase, coming in at under 30$. Even if the factory claims tend to be somewhat optimistic, I dont doubt the factory rating at the emitter. I've carried mine every day for 3+ months and have yet to have any sort of failure, and in varied conditions- work, hiking, camping and scouting for deer season. All in all, a pretty decent EDC for the money spent!

What a cool little light, thanks for posting about it. I never would have found it otherwise, funny they get so little press, or maybe I just missed it. A bit bigger than most AAA, but pretty hefty output! Though the output you cited was emitter lumens, out-the-front is lower but a still-hefty 8-150-250 lumens from a 10440.

I've owned quite a few LP's over the years. Good lights and top notch customer service if you have a problem.

Ok, you sold me. I really like these single AAA, forward clicky lights like the Streamlight Microstream and Pelican 1910. So this is probably my next light. Wasn't some of this new EDC line having quality control issues? I usually try to wait about 6 months for a company to work the bugs out of a new product, and hopefully they have the glitches out of this series. Heh, I just finally ordered a V11R last week. Hope they have the glitches out of that one by now too.

A Microstream with 3 current regulated modes - count me in.

The LP Avenger and Streamlight Microstream are some of my favorite lights and I had been eagerly waiting the LM21 until I read about quality issues with the entire EDC line. Hopefully, all of the quality issues have been resolved and I can put the LM21 back on my wish list. Maybe more LMXX owners will chime in here with their thoughts on the LP EDC line. Thanks for the review.

First, I think the light is a pretty nice looking little package with some potential.

But, I need to make my "rant" about AAA lights in general.
I assume that it doesn't detect the 10440, and have auto-cutoff protection at 3v?

Because this is a must with unprotected batteries, and IMO the lack of this feature in the 10440 format is what is holding that category back from where it could go.
Imagine how much more useful this light would be if you didn't have to worry about running that 10440 down too far, and the light would protect it for you.

This feature is 100% possible to have in a light that is this small, because I have a Chinese-made N-Light B10 which has this feature with unprotected 16340. Since the battery makers appear unable/unwilling to make a protected 10440, it is up to the light manufacturers to put this circuit into their lights.

I think they need to dump the AAA 1.2/1.5v stuff, and focus on 10440, and put a 3v cutoff circuit to protect the unprotected batteries. Whoever does THAT will take the lead in this size category of lights.
This 1.2/1.5v battery stuff is a thing of the past. All the other sizes of lights are moving forward with the modern battery technology, and this size light needs to do likewise.

Thanks for your comments Colinsdad. I've had my LM21 for five months now and I use it every night to navigate my home and ride the fridge. I just tested it shortly with a 10440 using a tiny magnet to make the positive contact but then I went back to lithium primaries because a) I don't need much light and b) my fridge never said wow when I pointed the light on a li-ion at it ...

I am very satisfied with this small light.

Mine was really weak on 10440's. Even tested a imr10440 with no wow. Maby 100lumens at best... and around 30 lumen max on 1,5v. Seen tests of this light messuring 29 lumen max on 1,5v , and 99 with a 10440. ~ The same as mine.
Posted this beamshot + more rant in "list the best/worst flashlight purcase" thread. The lm21 side by side with other aaa lights, most of them around 60 lumen. The 60 lumen aaa lights made the lm21 look dim..All lights are on max.


From left. 1.preon2 warm. 2.Lumintop worm with Nichita219 led. 3. Lumapower LM21 with Nichita219 led. 4 DQGIII. 5.DQG. 6. LF2XT (only light with a10440 on this picture) 7. Preon p0 engine in a dqg body. (4sevens claims 25 lumen, but looks just as bright as the "100 lumen" lm21). 8.Univex aaa. 9. DQGIII engine in a preon p0 body.

jorn said:

Mine was really weak on 10440's. Even tested a imr10440 with no wow. Maby 100lumens at best... and around 30 lumen max on 1,5v. Seen tests of this light messuring 29 lumen max on 1,5v , and 99 with a 10440. ~ The same as mine.
Posted this beamshot + more rant in "list the best/worst flashlight purcase" thread. The lm21 side by side with other aaa lights, most of them around 60 lumen. The 60 lumen aaa lights made the lm21 look dim..All lights are on max.

From left. 1.preon2 warm. 2.Lumintop worm with Nichita219 led. 3. Lumapower LM21 with Nichita219 led. 4 DQGIII. 5.DQG. 6. LF2XT (only light with a10440 on this picture) 7. Preon p0 engine in a dqg body. (4sevens claims 25 lumen, but looks just as bright as the "100 lumen" lm21). 8.Univex aaa. 9. DQGIII engine in a preon p0 body.

Click to expand...

I really don't think that's a fair comparison photo, because the Lumapower comes with an XPG-R5 in it, and NOT a Nichia 219.
Somebody modded the light, and so all real comparisons are out the window after that.

I'm not necessarily defending the output levels of the LM21, but that picture simply can't show it, because it's not showing a Lumapower LM21. It's displaying somebody's modification job.

It was horrilbe out of the box. I modded it not only for a better tint. But most of the light emmitted from the stock xp-gr5 led was not even hitting the reflector. I dident take a pic of the stock beam, but trust me. it was really bad.. It was that way off from the reflector. The beamshot shows a perfect focused 219 led. I have owned lots of aaa lights, and the lm21 is the most dissapointing so far. I might have gotten a real lemon., but im not the only one seeing weak output in the lm21.

It is easy to mod and uses no thread lock. Thats a good thing. No tailcap, so really hard to reach the retaining ring for the switch inside the thin tube.. Hard switch.
Accroding another review here on cpf, the switch is bad for hi current, and might be the reason for the weak output .

I tested the preon head on the lm21 tube, and it looked a little bit weaker on a 10440 than it normally is. Connecting a 10440 directly to the lm21 head with wires, did give better output. But the hotwired lm21 head was not close to a stock warm preon on a 10440... And that was after i had done a lot of work for focusing it, and before i swapped the led.

Jorn, thank you for your input! All I can say is that from my use, the light has performed admirably and I have zero complaints thus far. I'm going to check the lights output at work before I leave with our light meter, which measures in Footcandles, and see if I can convert it.

OK, just did a light measurement with my work-issued DLM-1000 radiometer and came up with a value of 73000 candela/730 Ft Candles at 12" on high with a 10440, which translates roughly to 280 lumens. So, LP's claims of 350 emitter lumens seems to be accurate to me. Yes, I know its not being measured in a light sphere, but, thats what I have to work with.

Nice looking light. Things I like: Battery options, tail cap switch, L-M-H modes in that order, pocket clip, knurling. I may get this one. Right now I am carrying a Solitaire (the lowly incan version) as my backup EDC. It has a new bulb and a fresh Ult.Lithium battery, so it is a bit brighter than typical ones. I carry it in one of the pockets on my cell phone holster, so the smooth surface is a good thing as it allows the light to slide in and out easily. I have it connected to the holster in case it falls out, so it will just dangle and not get lost (cause they are so expensive LOL). I will probably replace it with the LED version, but this looks like it could be a good primary EDC light that isn't too bulky. Plus having a primary and backup EDC that use the same size batteries would be convenient. The clip does look a bit flimsy, but if it comes with a holster then that's fine, as the clip could just be a roll stop.

Could someone explain the UI to me? It's a forward switch and it also uses the switch to change modes? Or does it have a twisty interface to change modes? Apologies if this was already mentioned...

Racer said:

Could someone explain the UI to me? It's a forward switch and it also uses the switch to change modes? Or does it have a twisty interface to change modes? Apologies if this was already mentioned...

Click to expand...

Yes, it's a forward clicky. Yes, you use the same switch to cycle modes. No, it does not have the head twist feature to cycle outputs.

Lights that use reverse clicky lets you cycle outputs by soft pressing the switch while the light is turned on.

Forward clicky lights that use the same switch to cycle outputs, such as LM21, means that need to soft press the switch and cycle the outputs when the light is turned off. Soft press once to activate the low. Release and soft press again to toggle medium. Release and soft press again to toggle high. Repeat the precedure to go back to low and so on. When you reach the desired output, drive the switch all the way and click it in.

So I just received this flashlight in the mail today and is not working at all with my ultrafire 10440 batteries. Any input as to what could be up with that?

avalan said:

So I just received this flashlight in the mail today and is not working at all with my ultrafire 10440 batteries. Any input as to what could be up with that?

Click to expand...

I've had the same problem initially: the positive nipple on top of the cell is too short and does not reach the contact inside the head of the light. You can follow the story on this thread scrolling down the page.

The solution has been to place on top of the cell a very small magnet although at the end I dropped the use of li-ions and changed to primary lithiums.


BTW: :welcome:

I had the same issue with my protected 10440's- the unprotected 10440's I have (AW's and ShoShines) work perfectly. Avalan- go to CPF MP and look up the AW sales thread- the AW's are worth the $$, and function perfectly in every application I've used them on.

I have the LM21 (had it for a few months) and can't say a bad thing about it, it's small, bright for AAA and has three modes.
OK one flaw, switch is kinda stiff at first but after you use it for a while it loostens up. I really like this light.

I saw the LM21 in the Oct Battery Junction newsletter. It's on sale for $25.00, which seems like a pretty fair price.