Enogear AA Stainless Steel (AA/14500)

14500 is all that I have used in mine - no problems

I have never run mine on anything but 14500. Never a single problem. Think I tried a NiMh in it one time just to see the difference. Worked just fine. Just down on brightness a little of course. If itā€™s bright enough for you with NiMh then buy a pack of Eneloops and turn off all the lights in the house tonight. Use the flashlight, and flashlight only as your only means of illumination. Tail stand it for taking a shower or using the facilities. Tail stand in the kitchen for cooking. Just use it for everything you do for a whole night. I have never made it a whole night. The kids yell at me and the wife calls the doctor and he shows up with needles and then next thing I know I wake up the next morning. I think my wife is pulling a fast one on me. Not sure though.

Yā€™all got me to look into EnoGear and I bought the little 18500 Brass Beauty. I had modified it with an X6 Bistro driver and XP-L HI emitter for some 1300 lumens but a friend was wanting me to modify his and he was wondering how the SST-40 would perform in it, so this afternoon I stuck an SST-40 in mine, pulled the cheap switch and put in a mini Omten and soldered the small berryllium spring to the switches contact pad.

On moon it makes 0.61 lumens, on Turbo it makes a whopping 2350 lumens from a flat top Efest 1000mAh 18500 cell. :smiley:

Oh, and it getā€™s hot. Really hot. Really quick!

Nice. I was thinking of getting that light as well. How does it perform in stock configuration? I have a few of their lights. The Stainless AA is a great little light. The Titanium 18650. Not so much. Itā€™s begging for a modding.

This screams buy meā€¦. heck for less than a US Jackson and in stainless steelā€¦ but 2 months waitā€¦hmmm Iā€™ll think aboutā€¦

Got mine in three weeks but it seems some people are waiting that long. You should order one. Even if it takes 2 months you will most likely forget about it after a month and then a month later you will get a nice surprise in the mail. :slight_smile:

Stock it has L-M-H-Strobe-SOS like most Chinese lights. Makes around 780 lumens on an Efest 1000mAh 18500. Very compact build, brass pill with a very thin retaining ring for the driver. The brass pill is hollow, has a wider shelf than most of this type though, so I re-flowed a copper MCPCB with DTP directly to it and it works quite well.

I think the material is a type of bronze as they donā€™t really blacken like brass would, my wife has carried the 18650 version in her purse for years now and it still has a golden look to it, so all in all itā€™s a pretty nice light that holds up well. Itā€™s also a favorite of ToyKeeperā€™s. :wink:

This is one that would fare well with a Biscotti driver from Simonā€¦

Pulled the trigger and bought one. Now for the waitā€¦ Will report back when I get itā€¦.plan to run it on NiMh first (IkeaLoop 2540 mAh).

I think you will be happy with it. Still works very well on NiMh.

Received my copper AA light two weeks ago. However Iā€™ve been sick with flu so I will need time to do a review this coming weekend.

stay tune and be patient :smiley:

Are you going to try putting in a 14500 cell? My genuine Sanyo 14500 fried it in a few seconds.

Maybe people should post some pictures of the driver.. Maybe we can see a difference between the ones that can handle lithiums, and the ones that can't...???

I can do that. Kinda bound up today with stuff to do but, this evening I will take mine apart for a few pictures.

Apart from some design flaws I really liked the little light. The head is screwed to one side of the pill, and the body to the other side of the pill. The PCB can not be fixated on the pill. A loose centering ring around the LED has no control over the TIR lens. One could say that things are pretty wobbly on the front side of the light. So it was quite possible that the LED was already damaged when the light was assembled. Caused by a misalignment of LED and TIR.
I wanted to give it one more shot. So I ordered some LEDā€™s from FT. These arrived three weeks later. This time I put in a XP-G3 S3-1A and glued the centering ring over the dome. Then is was time to screw in the pill. I made slots in the pill, and put a drop of glue on the threads on the frontside in order to screw the pill really tight into the head. All trial and error, of course. Gave the threads at the backside of the pill an ample dose of grease. Put in an XXX Eneloop. And presto, fiat lux! So the driver was still OK. After a few minutes I put in a 14500. And that also went OK!
ATM the light is on (medium), with a 14500, tail standing on my desk. And it is getting luke-warm. Thatā€™s all.
I think the LED was pretty much DOA when I fired it up first time. Letā€™s see how things work out from now on.

Itā€™s beginning to appear as if we are basically buying a nice stainless steel AA host rather than a actual light at the rate of these reported failures or bad QA/QC in the light engine department (LED, Driver, head assembly).

Seems like luck of the draw . Mine has been ok with 14500. Hasnā€™t been used much though .

Gave my enogear some colouring, posted it in the ā€œwhat did you mod today threadā€. Think I will get some more to play with.

Itā€™s been two months already and I still havenā€™t received the replacement head. Jackie just ignores my emails now. :cry:

Update: Got this email from Jackie:

_I must appologize that we forgot to send out the head part.

Now we will send you a new flashlight registered post . Sorry for my carelessness.

Do you like to use 14500? If so , we can send you 14500 USB version to try. Itā€™s good_

Jackie really is good people. I think he gets overwhelmed at times and has a hard time with shipping. I in no way think he would do you wrong. I understand itā€™s quite aggravating at times with the speed of the transaction. I hope you are eventually happy with your purchase.

Finally received mine in the mail on Friday. Photos donā€™t do it justice. It feels good and looks good in hand. One of the best tail switches I have used in a while (Good job Jackie at Enogear). It is the shortest AA light in my collection.

Almost looks like it is a Poor manā€™s version of a Haiku (it is a budget stainless steel light, afterall)ā€¦. I was hoping the head screwed into the body a little more (like another 2mm, or at least another 1mm). The exposed brass could compromise the moisture proofness of this light.

Overall I like this light and think it is a nice light for what I paid for (less than $15).