Malkoff M61 with 18650? Good or not good combination?

Would the Malkoff M61 used with a single AW 18650 2600mAh cell be a good combination? Or does the M61 work much better with dual cells?

If you want full regulated output for the entire run time, you want to use 2 cells.
If you can accept it to be regulated for part of the run time, and then a long diminishing output taper, you can use one cell like an 18650.
It's a matter of personal choice. Some people like the long tapered output as a gauge of their remaining battery life. Others prefer regulated output all the way.

I use an M61w with one AW 3100 18560 battery as my work light. I can't tell a difference between two primaries, two 16340s, or a single 18650 in terms of brightness. I've done a few runtime tests with the 18650 and only when the light was at the three hour mark and the voltage registered 3.22 volts did I notice it was getting dim enough to warrant a battery change. When it was at the two hour mark (3.54 volts) the output was good and I couldn't tell much of a difference if any from when I started the test with a fully charged battery (4.2 volts). So far I'm happy with it and I would recommend the combination although you'll probably get slightly less runtime with the lower capacity AW 2600.

P_A_S_1 said:

I use an M61w with one AW 3100 18560 battery as my work light. I can't tell a difference between two primaries, two 16340s, or a single 18650 in terms of brightness. I've done a few runtime tests with the 18650 and only when the light was at the three hour mark and the voltage registered 3.22 volts did I notice it was getting dim enough to warrant a battery change. When it was at the two hour mark (3.54 volts) the output was good and I couldn't tell much of a difference if any from when I started the test with a fully charged battery (4.2 volts). So far I'm happy with it and I would recommend the combination although you'll probably get slightly less runtime with the lower capacity AW 2600.

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This seems perfectly consistent with the 3.4V regulation cutoff stated on Malkoff's web page. I might have to consider this setup myself!

Wouldn't you want to recharge before getting to the 3.4 threshold anyway?

It works quite well on an 18650. There are some nifty run time graphs that others have prepared (that I wish I could find) but what you see is you get comparable output during the entire time the two primaries are in regulation, but after the primaries give up, you get a tone of extra time with a very slow ramp down on an 18650. I've also read somewhere that because the AW 2600 cells tend to maintain a higher voltage as they discharge, you may actually get more run time in regulation that one of the newer higher capacity cells (3100 etc...)