Sunwayman V11R with AA extender. User Experience!

I received my Sunwayman V11R with the AA extender from Edisonbright Led a few days ago, and I thought I would share my experience with this light with the CPF. First off the build quality is top notch IMHO. The matte black anodizing of the light and the AA extender match perfectly. The XM-L U2 emitter is perfectly centered. The magnetic control ring turns smoothly and with enough friction so as not too turn too easily by accident. I know there has been some negative talk about the forward clicky switch, my sample came with the rubber cover installed on it and it works just fine. I have not tried the titanium switch cover yet. The effort that is needed to operate the forward clicky is about the same as the forward clicky switch on the Quark series that most of you are familiar with. The beam profile is more of a flood with the XM-L U2 emitter and I find this very user friendly as an EDC light. The thing that surprised me the most about the this light was how low the low is on the minimum dial setting. On my sample the low is lower than the moonlight mode on the Quarks. This was very easy on night adapted eyes yet still enough light to navigate around the house in the dark. On Max with a AW Protected 14500 it is truly impressive how bright this little light is. I bought this light to use with the AA extender because this size light fits my hands better and it is easier for me to hold and adjust the control ring for brightness with one hand. The pocket clip came installed on the light and seems to be adequate for pocket carry. My clip is black, this must have changed because all of the pic's I've seen of the V11R have a silver colored clip.

I hope this helps give a little insight to anyone that may be considering the purchase of a Sunwayman V11R. I'm very happy with mine!

When I received my V11R a few months ago (silver clip) I tried it out with the extender. No complaints about the operation but for some reasons I just hated its aspect so after a day or so I was back to its base configuration. I use AW's RCR123 cells in it. The extender must be somewhere in a drawer. Different strokes for different folks ...

Just curious - would be there a way to configure V11R into using two AA's by for example few extenders or one longer (if it's available) ?
I'm thinking about buying it for my father but he didn't like the small size of my ZL H51 before - I know that V11r is bigger but it would be nice to have option for two AAs just in case he would prefer that.

You don't need to do that, there's already an SWM light for 2 x AA, it's V20A

Im glad you are enjoying yours Elk Hunter. If you run into any problems while using the AA extender please let us know. Occasionally mine is hit or miss because the extender doesnt complete the ground to the head (machining problems it seems). I have resorted to using half of a small split ring in the head to make the connection, but it doenst allow the o-ring to seat completely. It is still my most used light by far (the High CRI Se), regardless of the issue) As Kilovolt said, I have mostly resorted to using it in its stock format for size.

Kilovolt said:

You don't need to do that, there's already an SWM light for 2 x AA, it's V20A

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Yes I know about V20A but it doesn't give me option to use 1AA or Li-ion. I think that my father will prefer 1AA size but I would like him to have option to switch to 2AA if he will prefer something longer to hold and/or longer runtime. This is why I'm asking about "growing" V11R/V10R

Elk Hunter said:

I hope this helps give a little insight to anyone that may be considering the purchase of a Sunwayman V11R. I'm very happy with mine!

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I was simply considering the purchase but since I read your observations...I went an' dun it!

Mine works great with the extender and Eneloops (2nd gen) in it. No problems at all. Though, I also went back to using a 16340 for EDC. But for trips away from home, I fully intend to power my V11R with AA batteries. Having that flexibility is nice. I couldn't imagine spending almost 100 bucks on this thing and not getting the extender...

FYI: Installed the metal switch and it was every bit as awful as people here are saying. I kept the metal switch on long enough to take pictures for the blog and then promptly went back to the rubber one.

Love mine (limited edition high CRI). I haven't really used the extender yet - I got it mostly for battery options when camping.

The rubber boot that is now supplied with it works just like any other light. I successfully installed the titanium switch and is it now a permanent thing. I did get plenty of ginding / jamming at first, but after sanding + polishing both the retainer ring and the switch cover and breaking it in for a few weeks and putting 1 drop of 3in1 machine oil, it now works exactly as it should and I ain't going back. It took a bit of work, but I definitely love it and never had to oil it again.

For v11r owners, do u guys find yourself accidentally turning the magnetic ring while holding the flashlight tactical style?

Thank you for your review.
I am accustomed to "give me what I paid for right now" mentality, so I don't care for the soft-start feature of the V11R. When I push a button, I want light now, not 1.75 seconds from now. That's my problem, though, because my usage of lights has been short bursts, then off. Not the casual "turn light on for minutes at a time and use it for a task" type of usage.

Regarding the pocket clip-- mine is black chrome. Very cool. I have taken photos of the light, though, and the black chrome wasn't picked up by my camera, so the pocket clip appears chrome, or even stainless steel-colored.

I took my aluminum AA extender and bored it with some sandpaper on a drill. Now I can run a 17500 in it and still use an AA if needed. A 17500 has double the runtime over a 14500 or RCR123.
I also tried doubling up on the bored extenders to run a 17650 but I didn't like the look of the light like that.

Lou Minescence said:

I took my aluminum AA extender and bored it with some sandpaper on a drill. Now I can run a 17500 in it and still use an AA if needed. A 17500 has double the runtime over a 14500 or RCR123.
I also tried doubling up on the bored extenders to run a 17650 but I didn't like the look of the light like that.

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nice! how long does that take to bore the al aa extender?

Southpaw1925 said:

For v11r owners, do u guys find yourself accidentally turning the magnetic ring while holding the flashlight tactical style?

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Never happened probably also because my ring is sufficiently stiff to avoid accidental turning.

Southpaw1925 said:

For v11r owners, do u guys find yourself accidentally turning the magnetic ring while holding the flashlight tactical style?

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It's very hard to do, even on purpose.

tobrien said:

nice! how long does that take to bore the al aa extender?

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Just about 30 seconds with a professional die grinder. I think it would be less than 5 minutes with the average drill and sandpaper roll.
I also had a friend bore my TI extender with a lathe. He didn't get it bored enough so I finished up with my die grinder. Oh my god, titanium is tough stuff. It's well worth boring the aluminum adapter and going 17500's. The boring comes out ok with a sandpaper roll. Grinding with bits is not very pretty but will work.

herosemblem said:

Thank you for your review.
I am accustomed to "give me what I paid for right now" mentality, so I don't care for the soft-start feature of the V11R. When I push a button, I want light now, not 1.75 seconds from now. That's my problem, though, because my usage of lights has been short bursts, then off. Not the casual "turn light on for minutes at a time and use it for a task" type of usage.

Regarding the pocket clip-- mine is black chrome. Very cool. I have taken photos of the light, though, and the black chrome wasn't picked up by my camera, so the pocket clip appears chrome, or even stainless steel-colored.

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If you are getting any kind of serious delay on power up then maybe you should check your battery level. Just using it yesterday and I discovered that if voltage gets low on a ~1.5 volt cell it doesn't light reliably. I even had this happen on an Ultrafire 14500 cell, although I'm not sure why it didn't give me the usual pulsating low power warning.

I have gotten the V11R a few weeks ago and I too am very impressed with the light. The flood, as you said, is amazing imo and is ideal for a light of this size (since you would use to navigate an area up close because it is not ideal to use as a thrower due to size). Unfortunately I was unaware that it did not come with the AA extender and needs to be bought separately so I am still awaiting to buy that and test it with the AAs. I recommend the V11F to anyone who needs a pocket light, your money will not be wasted.

-Svo

I think you will enjoy the light. No light is perfect but the Sunwayman V11R with the AA extender gives the user several nice options for powering the light and it is easy to EDC with or without the extender.

straygator said:

I was simply considering the purchase but since I read your observations...I went an' dun it!

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My V11R is my EDC light. I used it with a rechargeable 14500 and the extender ring. For me, it's the perfect EDC light!