Wayne Johnson, founder and owner of ElektroLumens got started in the flashlight hobby like most of us; he was looking for a light to serve a need in which his case was taking walks at night and being able to see and avoid potential hazards. Be they potholes in the road, vicious snarling dogs or on one occasion a little black and white critter waiting in ambush and more than eager to share its eau de stinky.
As most of us can empathize, he wasn't satisfied by the output of the typical lights available at the time (circa 2000). Thus he started looking into good LED flashlights but those were mostly wimpy 5mm ones. Thus he began modifying various flashlights like plastic Ray-O-Vac's, Eveready's, Maglite's and etching his own circuit boards, and beginning with 2 or 3 LEDs, worked his way up to modifying flashlights with up to 20 5mm Nichia LEDs.
That was until the incredible 1W Luxeon LED came out, and he began to use it and forgot about the dim 5mm LEDs. Eventually he began to modify all sorts of flashlights, but mainly the Maglite, yet he yearned to have his own design. He eventually crafted his very own called 'The Blaster' and thus Elektro Lumens was born:
The name of his company was coined based on the notion that nobody in their right mind would ever choose it and intentionally with a 'k' so people would look at it and say, "Why did he spell it with a 'k'?", thus causing them to think about it at least one more time, and hopefully they will remember his company. However, given his recent offerings, the name should now evoke thoughts of wild high output creations of which the focus of this review will be one of his more recent creations, the Big Bruiser.
MFG SPECS
MSRP (at time of review): $149.99 USD
- Three Cree XM-L LEDs, 1000 lumens each, a total of 3000 lumens!
- 35mm Tri-optics, compact, medium smooth beam
- 43mm Mineral glass lens
- Twisty on/off/momentary tail cap switch. Simple, allows short compact design
- Uses one 26650 or 26700A LIMN battery
- About 20 minutes continuous run time.
- Dimensions (Approximate)
- Head diameter: 2"
- Body diameter: 1.25"
- Length:6"
- Approximate weight without battery: 13 oz.
PACKAGING
Being a custom light, the Big Bruiser arrived packaged in ample bubble wrap in a plain cardboard box:
No additional items are included with the BB but I was also initially provided with two MOLI batteries for testing:
DESIGN / FEATURES
Wayne first announced the Bruiser (it wasn't quite Big at the time) in this thread on his forum back in early February of 2011. He had initially conceived it to be a SST-90/50 or MC-E based 26650 sized light that was actually rather svelte in its original form. However, after the prototype using SST-90 melted the optics, Wayne went back to the drawing board and significantly increased the heatsink and added seven cooling fins that tapers in size towards the tailcap to help with heat dissapation:
Top = revised concept | Botom = initial prototype (pic reused w/permission)
By early March, the nearly finalized design for the Big Bruiser took shape:
(pic reused with permission)
Save for some minor details, it is nearly identical to the finalized production version being shipped today:
except for the fact that it's now driven by 3 x XM-L's and medium optics:
which sit behind a non-AR coated lens:
Upon removing the "head", one starts to appreciate the amount of over-engineering that went into the build. The head, lens & retaining ring combined weigh in at a hefty 3.43oz (97.1g). The lip at the edge of the head is a nice 5.7mm thick (although the inside of the head is hollowed a bit to accomodate the threads and lens). That retaining ring alone is 22mm deep!:
This is a nice amount of mass and every ounce is needed to help with heat dissipation.
With the head out of the way, we get to the heart of the Big Bruiser; its optic, light engine and the massive heat sink (partially exposed and held by that set screw) that was one of the main impetus for the resdesign:
The optic is glued in place on the new custom run of boards (first shown in reply #422 here) which is secured by allen screws onto the heat sink w/thermal compound beaneath it:
Here are some obscured close up's of the trio of XM-L's:
They really shine when turned on! (pun much?)
Incidentally one can (at their own discretion) use the Big Bruiser in tailstanding mode this way:
There is a set screw in the center of the board that is secured by a nut (which combined serves as the anode tip) and holds the base of the heat sink in place:
[New: 3/15 - This allows the use of flat top batteries, however, I personally would've preferred a spring so I needn't worry about simply dropping a battery right in. A 26xxx sized battery does after all have decent mass/weight. I've raised this w/Wayne and he mentioned he decided not to utilize a spring as it adds to the resistance in which has tremendous ramifications given this is directly driven but he'll take it into consideration. I also suggested that perhaps he can look into Beryllium Copper Spring as I've heard they are very low resistance.]
The tube is rather long and there is still a bit of clearance even w/my longest battery (68.3mm) inserted. The tail threads, while not square-cut are nicely anodized and was amply greased. The tailcap threads on nice and smoothly but get ready for some excercise as there is quite a bit of threads to work through!
Although the innards of the tailcap are anodized, it can't really be fully locked-out given there is no retaining ring to stop the tailcap cover from being fully depressed. However, I wonder if such an implementation would be treading dangerously close to infringing on a certain mfg's patent on a LOTC... (more on this in the Fit and Finish section):
[/SIZE]
That is one heckuva a beefy spring!
The purple Elektro Lumens "button" caps off the end of the light and has become a signature piece for some of Wayne's lights:
SIZE / HANDLING
From L to R: RediLast 3100 | ThruNite TN11 | Shadow JM07-Pro | Elektro Lumens Big Bruiser | Sunwayman V60C | Niteye EYE30 | King Kong 26650
While not an overly large light, the 26xxx form factor coupled with the massive heatsink conspire to add a bit more overall mass and corresponding increase in the battery tube diameter over 18650-sized lights. Here it is against my largest 1x18650 light:
And against a 1x26650 light:
The light was intended to be held with an underhand grip and preferably with your hand wrapped over the fins to aid with heat dissipation, however, given the momentary capability via the tailcap, one might be tempted to employ an overhand grip which for me personally, was a bit difficult as there is very little (no) room between the fins and the tailcap to fit my fingers for a secure grip:
If an overhand grip is still desired but momentary use isn't required then the grip in final pic is actually pretty comfortable (for me).
FIT & FINISH
To say that the Big Bruiser's non-electrical components are over-engineered would be an understatement. Everything simply looks but more importantly feels rock solid; from the beefy head to the robust tailcap. It also exudes a level of quality that to be honest, I wasn't expecting from a custom light. It does need to be pointed out that Wayne has the bodies sent out for milling and anodization. Speaking of the anodization (black HAIII) it is flawless & perfectly matched between head, body and tail:
The crevices in textured surfaces and sharp edges are usually the most likely areas where anodizing is missed but I am happy to report that I couldn't find any gaps on my sample:
About the only thing I can find anything to nitpick about was some solder residue on the threads and flat part of the rim at the base of the head. Also the use of a nut as the anode tip feels a bit crude and as mentioned earlier I feel the use of a spring here would really add an additional level of refinement. A light indent has already appeared on the anode plating of the battery:
Last but not least, the tailcap "button" is prone to falling out given the lack of a retaining ring, again, I don't know whether this would cause patent infringement but having one installed would certainly help center the tailcap when a battery isn't in the tube. I managed to catch the tailcap button between the tube and tailcap and caused a small nick:
As such, one should always thread the tailcap on with the head pointing up.
For those interested, TEEJ made a good suggestion in this post re: installing an o-ring to help prevent it from falling out.
UI / PWM
Wayne likes simple, he also likes short and stout so the easiest way to achieve both on a light that had grew a little larger than he first wanted was to use a twisty but w/momentary capability. Those there are no levels. It's either off or full blast! There was however discussion on the use of QTC material to help achieve multi-output but I recalled reading somewhere that it didn't pan out (just can't find thread at the moment). As covered previously, it's not possible to lockout the tailcap given there is nothing to prevent the tailcap button from being depressed due to the lack of a retaining ring, also momentary use was slightly difficult for me with my medium sized hands.
The Big Bruiser is direct drive so there is no PWM to speak of.
PERFORMANCE - 2100 LUMENS / 9910 LUX @ 1M
The Big Bruiser is claimed to output 3000lms, which was derived based @ the emitter. So taking into account the loss from the optic and lens and using a rough guideline that the loss is usually around 30%, that should put OTF lumens at 2100. I measured 2102lux (lumens) on my PVC LMD after 30 seconds (to conform w/ANSI FL1 standards, ditto w/the lux reading):
Until I build my IS and have it calibrated, I've actually been pretty impressed with how closely the readings has matched up with claimed ANSI values. I don't need to do any calculations or estimates, it's simply WYSIWYG readings. Of course I don't claim that it's super accurate but I'm reasonably comfortable in stating this is what one can reasonably expect to be within the ballpark of.
Given the sensor postion makes all the difference w/my setup, how I currently validate this is to first use the Xeno G10v2 (as it runs in near perfect regulation on medium & low modes immediately) to take readings that match up with the claims for all modes (H - 486 / M - 150 / L - 10). In my case, I got H - 501, M - 157, L - 11.1:
I then took the Big Bruiser reading after this. Again, not claiming accuracy here but good for comparative output correlation.
As for the lux, given the particular optic in use, the Big Bruiser is definitely not a thrower. Wayne's main focus was to create a nice smooth artifact free beam w/no overlapping projections of each individual XM-L noticeable. Well, he's certainly achieved that... however, I have a bias for throwers (been that way since my very first nice LED light which was a DBS V2 w/XR-E Q5). As such, I plan on ordering an optic w/a more narrow beam to try out. I'll post those results whenever they come in.
RUNTIME
The relevant battery stats are provided above each runtime graph along with:
- Current draw as taken right before the test (not captured for MOLI)
- Actual runtime using ANSI FL1 (first in HR and then in M so for the MOLI read this as .3 Hrs OR 16 Min)
- Also captured the temperature: ambient, the head at start and the max it reached (fan was used for w/all bats)
Given the direct drive nature, max output is obviously not maintained for long. There's also the matter of heat. The MOLI batteries Wayne initially sent me for testing likely had very low internal resistance and thus caused an immediate spike in temp and a corresponding drop in output. The temp nearly reached 137F even w/a fan on. I was only able to attain 16 minutes of runtime.
Shortly after I received the Big Bruiser, Wayne mentioned that he found another supplier for some new batteries and sent me a King Kong battery for testing. As can be seen above, while the King Kong also drops a bit in output shortly after turn on, it's likely that it's internal resistance helps maintain the output in a pseudo-regulated state until finally dropping below 10%. Total time on this battery was nearly triple that of the MOLI @ 47 min. I believe Wayne is now stocking these but best to check in with him on availability.
Just for kicks, I also tested a CK IMR 18650 and it actually held its own but ultimately succumbs to the laws of physics given it's smaller physical size and capacity.Still it managed to beat out the MOLI in both runtime (22min) and output maintenace.
MORE TO COME...
