[Review] KDLITKER E6 (1 / 2 x 18650, XP-L Hi) ~ A quality P60 flashlight

I will be reviewing the KDLITKER E6, the new P60 style flashlight sold by Kaidomain.com
Here's the product's page: KDLITKER E6

Let's start with the packaging.
The flashlight comes in a simple cardboard box with a clear front cover.


Apart from the flashlight itself, you also get an extension tube (the light can be used either with 1 or 2 18650s), a nice adjustable lanyard,
two rubber cigar grips, 4 spare o-rings, a cleaning cloth (which I forgot to include in the picture) and a GITD switch cover.


As seen, the light is actually a P60 host, which means that it accepts regular drop ins.
The whole light is covered in diamond cut grooves for better grip, while the cigar grip attachment also helps in keeping the light from rolling.

Its surface is coated by a nice coarse, black, matte anodization that gives it a stealthy look.


And here's the light on its full length, with the extra 18650 tube installed.


Being a P60 host, the light can be easily disassembled into its basic pieces.

Both threads of the body are anodized, which allows for mechanically locking out the light by slightly twisting the tailcap.
Despite being triangular, the threads are cleanly cut and arrived well lubricated.


The head houses the AR coated lens which is held in place by the smooth bezel.

Here's the P60 pill that came with the light.
Kaidomain offers a wide selection of pills, but I went with an XP-L Hi 6500K with smooth reflector and 3 modes.
The pill has a larger brass core and its overall quality is right on point.


The emitter is perfectly aligned with the help of the centering ring.


Thanks to the switch's deep positioning, the light can tailstand with ease.
The tail of the light can be easily taken apart by loosening the retaining ring.


The reverse clickie switch is quite stiff and tactile and is seated inside a white spacer.
The switch's spring is quite soft in contradiction to the pill's spring that's a bit thicker and stronger.


And here's the E6 with the Glow in the Dark switch cover installed.




User Interface

The drop in that I chose has a very simple UI and that's the primary reason why I went for it.
It has 3 modes Lo (5%) -> Mid (35%) -> High (100%) which can be cycled by a half press of the switch.

Of course mode memory is existent as well as LVP which completely shuts off power at 2.6V
Additionally, Kaidomain refers to a function called 'Smart Thermal Management' that is used to monitor the pill's temperature and regulate the current
going into the LED accordingly.


Performance

In order to measure the current draw of the flashlight I used a clamp meter and a Samsung 25R 18650 cell.
The cell configuration doesn't impact performance. The driver will pull half the current when it runs on 2 x 18650.
My measurements are for the 1 x 18650 configuration.


Mode - Current (A)
Lo - 0.05
Mid - 0.45
High - 1.52

Lastly, here are a few beamshots to help you understand the mode spacing.

Low


Mid


High


Overall, the flashlight is keeping it nice and simple.
It doesn't have any bleeding edge technology into it, but everything that it packs should be more than enough for one's needs.

1 Thank

Nice dark and simple light.
May i know will the lvp still works with 2x 18650?

I like it. Lights like this serve me a cool purpose cause I have tons of drop ins. I could use with an infrared light with night vision goggles. Or a green, red,blue drop in, ultraviolet, etc, etc, etc. The build looks very solid and the anodizing is spot on. And the decent price of just $22.00 bucks ain’t bad. Thanks for posting Bill. You always give us great stuff!

Hi bilakos10

Thank you for your reviewing.

Enjoy :smiley:

Ban

Thanks for the review bilakos10.

You are welcome guys!

Since you have some dropins available, you can even go for the host-only option that goes for around half the price.

Nice review!!
I’m a big fan of p60 lights and a few drop-ins without hosts. This could be nice addition to my lights.
Frankly I didn’t think anyone manufactured new p60 hosts anymore. This is a nice surprise.

Cool! Nice to know there is a host only version for sale.

Thanks for the review. I ordered one a few weeks back. I also picked up the KF8 Xhp50.2 that should be sweet. But they are still in transit. Thanks

Thanks for this review! Just came across this “new” P60 flashlight in KD and found your review. I’m considering the host version.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this, was if it’s an upgrade to the Solarforce as far as thermal transfer. For as long as I can remember the issue with the Solarforce and clones was there was some open space inside surrounding the drop-in. It was a common mod to fill the space with strips of a soda can or copper, aluminum tape, etc.

I always thought why doesn’t someone just make a host that fits the drop-ins tightly without the gap? But maybe that’s not possible?

If it is I hope KD thought of that when this was designed.

I received my E6 host. I definitely like it. The amount of space around a drop in inside the head is probably approximately 0.5mm (so 0.25mm on each side). About as tight as it could get and still accomadate all drop ins.

I have a lot of drop in modules and Kaidomain Kdlitker’s are by far the best and brightest for under $30 and these cost $10 which can’t be beat.

The XPLHD SMO and op are brighter for flood and throw than any drop in I have, brighter than my S2+ and as bright as my XHP50.2. I am extreamly pleased with their drop ins.
http://www.kaidomain.com/p/S026671.KDLITKER-P6-XPLHD-Cree-XP-L-HD-White-1000-Lumens-3V-9V-2-Groups-of-3-to-5-Mode-SMO-P60-Drop-in

I am swapping all of my drop ins to Kdlitker’s. No I don’t work for them. Just a flashlight guy, Dad, husband, and hunter that lives in the woods.

Thanks for the info, so I guess their has to be some gap/space on these hosts to be able to accommodate different drop ins. Yes .25mm around is a very small gap, but a gap is a gap so no heat transfer there. Are you wrapping your drop-in’s for the E6?

Also where to get the E6 host for $10? (I’m seeing $13.99) does KD offer a BLF discount?

Thanks for your feedback on the KD XPL HD dropins, that’s exactly the one I decided on last night, only the 5000K NW version. I’m also curious for the XP-L HI version, I’ll probably get the XP-L in OP and a HI in SMO.

I wonder if KD will come out with an XHP35 / XHP50 drop-in too.

Many of Kaidomain’s Kdlitker P60 modules are $10. Their P60 host, the E6 for 1x18650 only, is $13.99 and their E6 host that comes with the extension that can be used with the tube for the 2x18650 use or without the tube for 1x18650 is $15.99.

I am not wrapping my modules. The light does a great job with transferring heat. They really stay cool. Now my S2+ XPL hi gets hot in under 5 minutes.

I’m happy with it.

Thanks Funner, OK I see, I thought you wrote the E6 cost $10, now I see it was the dropins, sorry, my eyes were deceiving me from sleep deprivation!

I did find a discount code for KD, kd5off for 5% off, its not much but better than nothing.

EDIT: The code only works on items that aren’t already discounted, so it won’t work on the E6 hosts because those prices are showing as a “Discount price”
Same goes for the XP-L and Nichia drop-ins.

When a flashlight gets hot, in one way its a good thing… means the heat is transferring away from the LED and into the body, making the body a heat sink to take heat away from the LED.

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No offense meant, but this is pretty much a contradiction of terms. If it did a great job with transferring heat, it wouldn’t stay really cool.

For the P60 lights the body won’t get hot because the heat stays in the dropin (poor heat transfer to the body due to the air gap) that’s why people wrap those dropins. For the most part I think it’s not necessary with low current “off the shelf” dropins, but if you build your own hot-rodded dropins they’ll need wrapped.

I wish KD made an 18350 or 18500 tube for the it.

I wonder if the E6 will lego with Solarforce, anyone know?

Just noticed KD’s newer drop-ins are upgraded with large brass pill for better heat dissipation, nice!

http://www.kaidomain.com/Search/SearchResult.New%20KDLITKER%20P6

I just turned it on for a couple of minutes until it warmed up. The heat transfer throughout the upper half of the body vs my S2+ which the heat is in one spot. Which makes it more difficult to notice.

After it was on I then pulled out the drop in and the heat was the same as the flashlight body.

I will put the drop in in another light to feel the heat transfer.

The E6 host seems to spread the heat out through the whole end of the light.

Every time I use it it has been outdoors where the temp is 20-40 F so that helps to keep it cool and that is why I noticed almost no heat.

One thing I have noticed with the E6 is if. You jar, shake it, tap it hard, or tap it hard on the counter it will change modes.

I would think stiffer springs would resolve this. With 2. Batteries it is more likely, I think because the more moving weight of those 2 vs 1 battery.

I will see if I have some stiffer springs or make a double spring setup. I did try stretching the springs a bit and it seemed to help, stretching a bit more would probably help. Or adding a copper spacer with nylon outside would tighten the tension on the springs helping this.

Still like the light though.

Great, thanks for the testing, sounds good!

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Are you using a flat-top/short/unprotected cell, or a longer button-top protected one?

Maybe blob some solder on the end of one spring?
Or a magnet on the cell?

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Also do you have any Solarforce lights/host to see if the tubes/threads lego with the E6?