Regarding Flashlights and heating

Hi guys

Had a bit of a funny accident.
I never realized my leatherman pouch was hanging close to the tail cap of my Klarus XT11
When I got into the car it must have pressed the switch

When I got to work I reached for my torch to use it and found it was pretty hot, so took the battery out and let it cool (never felt it in the car)
Must have run on high (600 lum) for about half an hour in my pocket

For future reference is this bad for the torch?
Also my torch is still as bright as before but seems to shine a pinch yellow compared to my Klarus XT2C which still shines white.
Did I burn the LED or is this not too much of a prob

Sorry very Noob to flashlights

A well-designed metal flashlight shouldn't damage the LED if you can safely touch the metal surface. The LED is usually ok to 150C, and the driver components shouldn't blink at 100C. There may be slight lumen degradation, but barely enough to measure. High temperature can change LED tint, but usually towards blue after the 'burn in' period (First hundred hours at rated current).

The XT11 has a bit of a warm tint anyway...you might not have noticed before. When overheated, as mentioned, they go cool/blue/purple if damaged, not yellow....so, it sounds like it ran on high for an hour, and nothing bad happened other than using up part of a cell charge.

Ah I see. Thanks guys
Was just curious as I never compared the 2 lights before that.

Don't most of these light step down when hot?

Shouldn't hurt anything. My Preon 2 that I EDC in my front pocket will turn itself on at least 1-2x a week. I only notice it when I feel a warmth in my front pocket. Turn it off and it's good to go. I've not noticed any LED degredation in the past year or so. Only thing that sucks is if I don't notice it, it will drain the batteries. Thank God for NiMH's!

ScaryFatKidGT said:

Don't most of these light step down when hot?

Click to expand...

No. Only a very few do. TMK, the XT11 just has a timer-based step-down, to preserve battery life on high.

I know the nitecore's step down to high after 3 minute of turbo mode
(Just found out) According to the klarus website, the XT11 will drop to 70% of max brightness after 3 min