. . . as promised, I tried to melt it. The participants are: brand new Solarforce P1 in black, my brightest UF XM-L drop-in that consistently pulls a relatively steady 4.0 amps, one fully charged Solarforce 18650, my General IRT07 infrared themometer and, my new Canon SX40 HS.
The result . . .
96° F @ 10:48
156° F @ 10:53
183° F @ 10:57
And at 11:00 sharp . . .
Unlike say, an L2P, the can't touch-it temperature is confined to the head. The body of the flashlight and even the lower part of the head stayed under 100°. It stopped rising at 200° so, I don't know if that's the battery or the drop-in. Flashlight is fine and the drop-in is just as strong and bright as it ever was.
200F really isn't all that hot for today's plastics, remember that temp isn't even as hot at boiling water (212F) so I am not surprised it handled it fine.
WOW, not only does it speak to the robustness of the host, but also the XML and dropin too.
So am I reading that right, in a 12 second span it more than doubled temperature from 96 to 200F (10:48-11:00). Thats interesting too. I would have thought it would be more of a linear climb. Assuming its about 65F in your house, 65F to 96F from 0:00-10:48.
bose is right, those are minutes - sorry about that.
E - No deformation or color change.
I posted this partly to confirm my suspicions that this light could probably be treated pretty much like any other P60. There have been discussions about using lower powered modules out of heat management concerns. You don't leave any flashlight that pulls over 3 amps turned on high unattended and/or for a long time and that includes the P1. But, unless someone smarter than me comes up with something else, I don't see why you can't drop any module you choose in this guy.
Solarforce says the switch is good for 3 amps but it looks like it handles 3.75 to 4.0 just fine. Don't know for how long . . .
Yeah looking forward to the full review, I won't get one without the FoyApproved rating. Looks ideal for a sparky's torch (in day glo yellow) even if not fully insulated certainly better than not at all.
I can't expect that any of us really expected these to be any harm or discoloration to the plastic at those temps. What does impress me is that drop-in hanging tight at those temps. If the head is 200f just imagine what the pill itself is!
You all seem impressed by the host surviving those temps and want to run out and buy one but it tells me what a poor host it really is. With that plastic body your hand can not blood cool the host to stabilize the temps like a regular light. Plus everyone always regards a light that gets too hot with great distain but somehow this light hits a whopping 200f and suddenly it's a desirable trait? Yikes.
I would limit this light to 1.4A or less, personally, and for that output I can think of more pocketable lights I'd rather carry. Just my 2 cents...
I don't generally run any flashlight for more than a few minutes. I can concede your point that it might not be the best unit for a long walk, and I don't know what motivates others to like it, but for me, it's all about the earth tone colors, not performance. I know it is shallow and superficial, buy coyote is cool.
This test shows the robustness of the drop-in. I was thinking of getting one of these and using the aluminum head from the L2P with it. I'd still only run it at 1.5A max and will have a copper conducting ring in place of the spring to transfer heat to the sleeve and for negative contact.
Yeah, something definitely doesn't seem right here. Nearly 11 minutes just to reach 96f and then suddenly jump another 104 degrees in just 12 seconds??? I would scrap all those numbers and redo the test because unless that can be repeated it just makes no sense. Solarforce advertises the body as absorbing the heat and releasing it through to narrow slits in the body yet the body only hit 100f while the head topped 200f. Worse design I've ever seen. My hottest lights top around 145f with only 5f difference between head and tail.
Edit: I will qualify my opinion with this...for an incan drop-in the design is great! ;)
