Review: EDC-Light Triple XHP-50 (3x 26650) 8000 Lumens Stock!? (A lot of images)

EDC-Light Triple XHP-50

Summary:

Battery:

3x 26650 (18650 can be used, but no spacer was included)

Switch: Reverse Tailcap Clicky
Modes:

Group 1: Low - Medium - MedHigh - High

Group 2: Low - Medium - High - SOS - Strobe

Mode Memory: Off-time (2.5 seconds).
LED Type: 3x XHP-50
Lens: Glass (3.5mm Thickness)
Reflector: Smooth
Price: $95.34
Provided by:

FastTech(link is external)

https://www.fasttech.com/products/1699/10019753/4173500-edc-light-led-flashlight?utm_source=BLF&utm_medium=forums&utm_campaign=NK

Function:

Standard reverse clicky switch operation.

Full click on. Half press for mode change. Low - Medium - MedHigh - High. Full click off.

To switch mode groups:

Switch to Low mode and wait approximately 3 seconds. A few quick flashes will occur and a half press or full click will switch to the other mode group.

Tailcap current (Amps):

Low .21
Medium 1.09
MedHigh 2.45
High 6.15**

All throw measurements are lux values taken at 7ft and calculated back to 1 meter (Rounded to the nearest hundred). Ceiling bounce numbers are just simple lux measurements of various lights to compare relative output.


The EDC-Light Triple XHP-50 is the single brightest flashlight in my collection, but it has a caveat which I will go into below. The above ceiling bounce number is taken 30 seconds after turn on. On initial turn on the output is an eye searing 838lux and 80kcd.

Here we can see the rapid drop in current draw at the tailcap. At initial turn on I measure 6 amps at the tailcap for approximately 11000 LED lumens, or roughly 8700lm OTF. This rapidly drops to approximately 6500 (5400lm OTF) in just 30 seconds. After 3 minutes the output has fallen to 4600 (3800lm OTF). The Efest IMR26650 cells began the test at 4.09v and the Samsung 30Q's at 4.11v. After the 3m 30s test the cells measured 4.03v and 4.08v respectively. The large fins are mildly warm after the short test in 75*F ambient temperature with low air movement indoors.

Keep in mind the above lumen numbers are very, very rough approximations based on tailcap measurements, LED output charts, and a 20% loss from reflector/lens.


My runtime test correlates the noted driver behavior above. At about 30 seconds the output has dropped to around 50%. The output stabilizes around 5 minutes at 40% and then very slowly drops to 30% over the course of the next 165 minutes. The low voltage protection (LVP) is a series of blinks cycling from max to minimum resting for about 1 second after each blink. The temperature at the hottest point on the head slowly rises and peaks at 116* F. The heat distribution is decent, warming the handle all the way to the tailcap to 104*F by the end of the run. The Efest IMR26650 40A 4200mAh cells began at 4.15v and ended at 2.60v, resting up to 3.1v 10 hours later. This is a fair bit lower than I like to see; I wouldn't be comfortable relying on the light's built in LVP.

Pictures:

You can see some mild marring to the anodization on the somewhat sharp edges

The battery tube is exceptionally thick.

Triangular cut threads and a lot of them. They were a little lubed, but really dirty on arrival. I cleaned up and super lubed em' up. Very smooth threading.

About 2pm, clear skies, sun beating down all around... Screw you sunlight!

Why? I don't know. Why not?

Here's a close up of those purty little quad die XHP-50's. Fairly well centered in this picture. With the head design it is very easy to tweak centering to one's liking even with the massive aluminum reflector.

Underside of the integrated shelf aka the driver cavity. The reflector is screwed down from the backside.

The driver.

The ridiculously massive aluminum reflector. Machined around the bases of the wells. Shouldn't be any clearance issues with solder joints if one were to mod it.

Wired in series and thermal glued to the shelf, here sits the 3 XHP-50's. The LEDs are on copper boards, curiously labeled XML. These copper MCPCB's don't appear to have the bend I've seen on cheap copper boards.

The head disassembled.

The Driver spring came stock bypassed.

The tailcap. The switch spring was also bypassed stock. There were also 3 little tabs that extend the contact to hit the aluminum retaining ring.

Comparison:

I brought out my heavier hitters for a large variety of size, emitters, reflectors, throw, and output. Each is estimated above 2000 lumens with the BTU Shocker on the upper end with an estimated 4000lm+ output.


Convoy S2+ Triple XPG2 (11A DirectDrive), Roche M170, Quad LED + Handle, Maglite MTG2 (5A), Notorious HID, Nitecore TM16, BTU Shocker (XPL-HI, 5.7A DirectDrive), EDC-Light Triple XHP-50

I pulled the 3 other multi-well reflector lights for closer comparison.

Beamshots:

Just a little teaser for now. My normal ~50 yard location (Tree trunk the beam is focused on), water line is about 35 yards.

I had to tweak my normal manual camera settings because I don't typically measure such bright lights at this distance; however, the settings are the same for each beamshot at this distance in this review.

First set:

Second set:

Here is a comparison of the EDC-Light Triple XHP-50's max output at 10 seconds and 1 minute.

EDC-Light Triple XHP-50 Low - Medium - High

Conclusion:

At first glance the EDC-Light Triple XHP-50 is rough. There's anodization wear on some edges, some of the edges are sharper than I'd like to see. The threads were a little gritty and dirty. The switch PCB being too small and using little pieces of metal to bridge the gap certainly seems Jerry-rigged.

However, after some quick cleaning the threads are smooth and despite the appearance, the switch works just fine. The driver and switch springs are also bypassed stock.

The driver certainly is peculiar, but while the output does rapidly decline over the first 5 minutes it is slow enough to not be noticeable unless stationary, aimed at a white wall, and specifically looking for the decrease. Despite the rapid drop, after the first 5 minutes it maintains a fairly constant output for nearly 3 hours.

The overall build quality is quite exceptional. Offering a very nice integrated shelf, lots of mass in the head and fins, a very thick battery tube with many threads for decent heat distribution.

It's certainly rough around the edges, but as a whole the EDC-Light Triple XHP-50 is an okay flashlight.

I would like to see an upgraded driver that maintains the initial overwhelming brightness with a thermal step down, and/or have the ability to step back up to that initial brightness.

Mostly just pictures for now. Lots to be added. I might not be able to finish it until Monday/Tuesday, but feel free to ask any questions that pop up.

EDC Light. For Paul Bunyan?

Thanks for the review! this light is bigger than I thought, the head is almost the diameter of the shocker.

I read somewhere, long time ago that Ric was coming up with a 3x XHP70 shocker, but Ric has gone lost since then. :frowning:

I remember that as well. When this 3x XHP50 flashlight popped up at FT I was quite excited. I believe Ric said the XHP70 version of the light in this review overheated too quickly which I could definitely see happening. IIRC Ric halted production or decided not to produce that particular version because of the heat. This may be why he made the driver perform how it does… to be detailed later.

Edit: I think that’s about it for tonight. Added preliminary beamshot still images. I still need to gif-ify the others, and maybe see about finding a decent 100 yard area.

That's the ancient 7x/9x 'beast driver', right? The ones that have a lifespan of around an hour? Meh.

I don’t know, but I’m sure I’ll find out.

Planning on a runtime test soon and some mods down the road.

Not much left to add. The driver is still going, but it is doing some things I haven’t seen in a driver before. Note: it has been doing this since I received it.

I have included some data on the behavior up above.

Perfectly sized for pocket EDC! :sunglasses:

It needs a belt clip!!! :person_facepalming:

Does it change modes in slow motion?

Like a delay before the next mode cycles on? No. I can cycle through as fast as my thumb can press.

Looks EDC to me… Great review man!

Well that’s a good sign. The KD Beast Drivers are famous for excruciatingly slow mode cycling.