heat problem with SF Z2

hi, I had just purchased a SF Z2, G2, E1E, E2D, P61, P91, A19. Noticed after constant on for 20 minutes, the following combinations is too hot to hold in hand
a)Z2+P60 - hot, keep passing light from 1 hand to the other
b)Z2+P61 - very HOT - need to use glove
c)Z2+A19+P91 - super HOT, auto light out after 8 minutes
Is this normal ?
Other Z2 owners, how do you hold the Z2 when you are hiking at night ? Thanks in advance.

How does the Z2 compare to the others?

My Z2 and Z3 get hot if I use them constant on for that long of a time.

What do you mean by "auto light out after 8 minutes"? You might be reaching the thermal protection point in the batteries.

These lights were really not designed for 'constant on' use for long durations. By design they are short duration high output lights. The Z2 lights have less aluminum than the others and will get quite tosty.

Your E1e or E2e with the lower output lamp are good for not heating up for hiking use.

I don't have the Z2 but I do have a Surefire 6P with the P61HOLA and I learned a while ago that it's just not a "walking around" light (unless it's cold outside). When it's my turn to do the Neighborhood Watch walk in the evenings I've been carrying a CMG Reactor to provide general light and had my 6P in it's holster in case I needed to really spotlight something.

[ QUOTE ]
UVvis said:
What do you mean by "auto light out after 8 minutes"? You might be reaching the thermal protection point in the batteries.


[/ QUOTE ]I meant Z2 stop producing light after 8 minutes of constant on. Did you experience this thermal protection effect ?

At constant on, Z2 is too hot to carry with your bare hand for more than a few minutes. G2,E1E & E2D should be ok on night hike. Battery life is a little short. I had order a KL1 for E1E & KL5 for Z2.Hopefully, with LED, it will be cool enough to hold & last the duration of a night hike.

Firefly99,

I have had the thermal protection kick in, I guess it is like a circuit breaker in the batteries.

The KL5 on a Z2 does get warm. I had mine on in a holster under a jacket and was trying to figure out the burning on my side. It doesn't get as hot as the P60 lamps, but it isn't quite as bright and has less throw. I prefer to use as little light while hiking at night as possible, but usually carry something larger.

Welcome to CPF firefly99!

SureFires are flashlights. High output and small size means they get hot very quickly if used constant-on.

SureFire's High Output Lamp Assemblies are not intended to be used constant-on. At least not for more than a couple minutes at a time.

If you need the high light output for constant-on use then perhaps a larger flashlight is more appropriate. Larger flashlights will also give longer runtimes at higher outputs.

"Thermal Shutdown" is a safety feature of the 123A batteries. Basically it stops the batteries getting so hot they explosively vent

It is most common with the Classic (discontinued) SureFire 12PM and some have experienced it with the P61 lamp in the 6P and M2. It can happen when the batteries get too hot.
It means the ambient temperature is high, or the batteries are already hot from use, or that the flashlight is being used for longer durations then it is really intended.

Al

[ QUOTE ]
Size15's said:
If you need the high light output for constant-on use then perhaps a larger flashlight is more appropriate.

[/ QUOTE ]

What would you recommend for a larger constant-on flashlight, M6, 8 series, 10X ? Which would cool enough to hold with bare hand ? Any advice for the appreciated. Thank You.

Perhaps you are looking for something more like a D celled alkaline powered light, like the Maglites.

Most of the surefire line is designed around tactical applications, and their lights do get hot quickly.

my experience with a Z3 HOLA is that they get so hot, that u cant hold them without gloves...
im not sure if these lights are not made for constant use.
i learned at police school, that u can lay down your flashlight (even surefires) in a room to blind a person and to move some meters behind the light and get some cover.

i used this tactic two times in my life and it worked fine all the time. there was never a shutdown.
i use surefire and batteriestation cr123.
the only shutdown i ever had was during night shooting training with my PILAS. thats why i dont use them anymore in service and why im proud of my A2 as my back up /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ...

firefly99,

I guess it depends on how long a constant-on you plan to use on a regular basis. It sounds like a rechargeable light is what you are after. The SureFire 8, 9 or 10 Series models are fine. They get hot but still easily holdable in my experience.

Al

Gentlemen, Thank you for your advice. I guess for constant-on (2 hours)applications eg.night walk, I will return to 2D Maglites with E2D in jean pocket. Actually, I was looking for a replacement for my Maglites because of battery problems. eg. lousy battery life, leaking alkaline batteries.

I have to say I'm very happy with either my Surefire L2 or my Gerber LX 3.0 for night walks now. I find the L2 on low to be fine for walking around, and the high mode is still available for when I need more punch. On the other hand the LX 3.0 is somewhere in between the L2's two settings (towards an L2 on high, but more of a "thrower" than a "Flooder") and the Gerber light does take cheap AA batts and is a LOT cheaper.

One other funny thing is how much convection seems to affect things. Sitting on my desk on high the L2 gets really hot to the touch in as little as 5 minutes. Walking around (waving the flashlight in the air) it doesn't get nearly as hot!

Oh and an old trick we used to use with 2 and 3 D maglights that might help you. Wrap a piece of 8.5x11" writing paper (the good, high rag content stuff) around the batteries and slide it into the flashlight together so the paper forms a protective tube between the batts and the flashlight. Tear any excess off the end so that you can put the end cap back on. For whatever reason it significantly reduced the number of leaking batteries we had, of course YMMV. Change the paper when you change the batteries.

hi Zespectre, Thanks for the tip. Wish I knew about this earlier. I had already threw away 3 Maglites with leaking batteries inside them. Do you wrap the 123 batteries in your L2 ?

I don't wrap the 123 batts as I've never had a problem with them (knock on wood).

As for the Maglight fix, I'm about to seriously date myself <sigh> but it's a fun story.

When I joined the force all we had was 3D maglights and we had the WORST time with batteries popping/leaking. One of the officers had a special medical condition (drug allergies) so he typed up his information and slid it into his maglight and then told all of us that was where he was keeping it since we always had the lights with us.

A few others thought that was a good idea and did the same thing with medical information (one guy even put a copy of his WILL in there!).

A little while later one of the guys commented that he must have had a good run of batteries because he hadn't had any leaks in a long time. Others of us commented on the same thing while the rest of the crew said they were having a miserable time and asked us what batteries we were using.

We were all using the same duracells, the only difference was the paper wrapped up inside. So as an experiment EVERYBODY "wrapped" their batteries and although we still had failures here and there the rate dropped a lot. The other benefit was that the high rag content paper seemed to absorb a lot of the leaks too so you could get failed batts out and then a quick baking-soda-and-water rinse, let it dry, and you were back in business.

Great idea on the Maglites, I've been wondering about this issue myself and I thought of using some kind of plastic or shrinkwrap, but it looks like that is a better, cheaper and more effective solution.

I've run a P90 lamp in a C2 for close to 30 minutes while holding it, it gets hot but not to the point where I need to keep changing hands. Outside temp was probably 30C, so it's not cold weather either.

Had done the paper wrapping for cells in existing Maglite. Will try the baking soda & water rinse in future. Thank You.