Nitecore EC20 over two hours??

A man on amazon said he tested the Nitecore EC20 and got much more run time than is stated on the package. Is that really possible?

"I tested 2 different batteries to see how long they could run when left on the 960 lumen power setting of the EC 20 flashlite. I used the ORBTRONIC 3400 mah with the Panasonic cell and labeled NCR 18650B (?) and the ORBTRONIC 3100 mah labeled Industrial NCR 18650A. The 3400 battery ran 2 hours and 40 minutes until the low level LEDs flashed rapidly and the flashlite showed 3 volts.

The 3100 mah Orbtrionic battery went 2 hours and 50 minutes"


Will the nitecore chargers charge the Orbtronic to it's fullest load? it stoped at 4.2 volts the only test I did.

Sounds like he's a shill. Moving this to Led Flashlights forum.

Bill

I can tell you now, if you buy the light based upon the belief it will perform as claimed, you will be VERY disappointed.

See this review: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...2xCR123A-RCR)-review-RUNTIMES-BEAMSHOTS-VIDEO

It has pretty dismal regulation on high. You would be much much better off with a Zebralight SC600 or SC62.

Even the old SC600 which is a few years old now would have performed similarly, if not better. It wont be as bright but I guarantee it would be brighter for longer than the EC20 would be after its output starts to drop like crazy which seems to be in no time at all.

SC600 review (old version): http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...Review-RUNTIME-BEAMSHOTS-comparisons-amp-more!

LOL!!! That EC20 SUUUUCKS!!!! (I just compared the graphs selfbuilt provides in the two links above)

The EC20 dies at 41 mins whereas the OLD SC600 runs at almost the EXACT SAME LEVEL that the EC died at, for almost another damn hour!!

…… and that is with the EC20 running a 3100mAh cell VS the SC600 in the other link running a 2200mAh cell.

/nuff said

Actually, the EC20 isn't bad - it's a decent current-controlled circuit with good efficiency. The issue is that it has a double step-down from Hi. This gives extended runtime, but at the expense of output. See a direct comparison to the SC600-II (and other lights) from my recent SC62 review:




The Amazon reviewer was actually correct in his runtime measures ... it's just that the light spent most of the time at less than half the initial output. In my testing, I would estimate EC20 Hi output as ~850 lumens for 5 mins, ~530 lumens for another 37mins, and then ~340 lumens for the next 2+ hours.

This is why ANSI FL-1 output and runtime values are of only limited value ... you need to see the curves to understand what is really going on.