Review : Manker E14 II , pocket rocket flashlight (+teardown w/ interesting driver !)

4000k 219c is more yellow than it is rosy

Ok took some shots to compare tints. All pics with Sony A7rii, daylight white balance, aperture priority, F2, ISO-100, and center weighted metering. I noted shutter speeds to give an idea of output, however due to the different beam patterns and the center weighted metering its more comparison of lux than lumens. Matrix metering would have given a better comparison of lumens but might effect tint.


Control shot external flash (1/200, F22, ISO-100. Flash at 1/128)


4Sevens QT2L-X, CREE XML, Cool White, 1/250


Nitecore HC30, CREE XML, Neutral White, 1/320


Astrolux S41, Nichia 219b, 1/250


Manker E41 II, Nichia 219c, 1/500


Eagletac MX30L4, Nichia 219b, 1/800

I thought I’d do something a little more colorful to show the color reproduction. This is a painting by Inga Rausch and done as fan art of my cat (I have a famous internet cat). She was nice enough to send it to me from Germany all the way to Pennsylvania.

Control shot external flash (1/200, F22, ISO-50. Flash at 1/128)


4Sevens QT2L-X, CREE XML, Cool White, 1/125


Nitecore HC30, CREE XML, Neutral White, 1/125


Astrolux S41, Nichia 219b, 1/200


Manker E41 II, Nichia 219c, 1/200 (looks like my camera over exposed this by a stop. 1/400 would be a better comparison in output)


Eagletac MX30L4, Nichia 219b, 1/640

To me the Astrolux S41 is just a beautiful tint and color reproduction, its like sunlight in your pocket. But I like the higher output and UI of the Manker E14 II better. I haven’t spent enough time with either light to chose what one will be my EDC or my walk around the woods light. For photography the S41 wins for sure, I was watching a turtle lay eggs today and had the E14 II with me. I used the it to shine under its body to get a better shot of the eggs but the mismatch in tint between the 219c and sunlight just ruined the photo. Any ideas on what would happen if I swapped emitters between S41 and E14 II?

Thanks we’ll see I’ve been into flashlights, lasers, and other things light related since the days when it was cool to have a Surefire hotwire light. I often ended up building my own stuff. I can remember I was part of the group buy to get the first batch of Nichia HCRI emitters when they where released. Nowadays I get an itch about once a year to get back into it and caught up on the new technology and buy a light or three… or build one.

professor_pouncey on Instagram??

Haha the one and only. I can’t believe anyone on here would catch that, you just made my day :slight_smile:

My Manker E14II arrived today.

I got the XPG3 version.

The output on turbo is amazing. The tint is a nice pure white without noticeable green.

On turbo on a fresh 18650 cell the head becomes too hot to touch in seconds. This is the disadvantage of having a big chunk of direct copper in this kind of light. Heat transfer is just a little too good. The LED can withstand much greater temperature than your hand. Sometimes it’s better to have less effective heat transfer that lets the LED get hot, but then takes longer to radiate it off the light resulting in a cooler exterior body housing.;

It looks like there is no further stepdown from High @ ~850 lumens. Are there heat issues with sustaining that brightness with this light? Comfort-wise or otherwise?

Just tried letting it tailstand at 850 lumens high for several minutes with a fresh 30Q inside.

Even at just 850 lumens the head of the light was too hot to comfortably touch, though not burning hot. You wouldn’t want to rest your hand there, but you won’t hurt your thumb operating the control. If you were using it to go for a walk at night at that setting you’d either need to use a glove or hold the light by the body tube.

For comparison, I also tried tailstanding my modded Jaxman E2L 3xXPL HI 5A2 with H17F driver with temp sensor and an 18500 IMR cell. After running about the same period of time on 100% FET power with the temp sensor activated, the E2L was producing substantially more lumens than the E14II, while remaining much cooler than the E14II. This result is not too surprising given the E2L’s aluminum construction, dark-colored anodizing (better emissivity than polished copper), and much larger surface area from the more numerous and deeper heatsink fins.

Can you hold it OK until the 40s stepdown?

Come-on Tuff guy! :smiling_imp:

sorry, guess it was answered while my 1 finger typing was in progress

Definitely not by the head. It gets burning hot in much less than 40 seconds. Can probably still hold it by the body though.

Incidentally, the threads on the head match those of the Convoy S2. A convoy S2 battery tube will screw right into the E14II’s head. It isn’t long enough so won’t make battery contact and won’t work out of the box, but it does actually screw in.

This does open up the way for modders who want to use the E14II as a mod host. You could add a tailcap mechanical clicky. Or maybe use the E2L’s 18500 body.

Thank you for the reply.

My concern is mostly about having it in turbo and trying to turn it off
is it too hot to access the button?
and do you need a long press to off?

Haven’t actually tried waiting the full 40s so don’t yet know if it’s too hot to press the button.

However, to turn it off, yes you do need a long press to off.

My turbo goes for a minute and while I can press the button to turn it off I can’t really have my other finger on the opposite side of the button touching the copper. So 4 fingers on the tube and one presses the button. It really is to hot to hold the head in a few seconds. I bet the head gets too hot to hold faster than my soldering iron.

If you can touch the body but not the head, you can always loosen the tailcap to turn it off.

Just tried leaving my E14II tailstanding on high (850 lumens). When I got back to the light after 10 minutes it was still going strong… but the entire light was too hot to touch. Even the tailcap.

850 lumens might be ok for extended running if you hold the light in your hand, but clearly won’t work for tailstanding indoors.

I’m definitely feeling like more and deeper heatsink fins would be a good idea.

To be fair, no LED light this size should be left on high unattended… particularly if it has multiple modern emitters and runs at 30+ Watts. Hot rod lights aren’t about safety or comfort.

Hold it during use to monitor heat and to wick away some heat through your hand. Or use it in ways which otherwise keep the heat under control, like on a moving bicycle.

I suppose it also depends on the light.

If you have a light with a temp sensor in the driver, it’s probably safe to tailstand depending on how it was configured.

Not a good sign.

Had the light less than a week and already the switch or driver is broken. Now the light is stuck in the “on” position and cannot change modes. Guess I’ll have to do a driver/switch replacement.

Considering this wasn’t a super-cheap light it’s disappointing that it failed so quickly.

It has been reported that the switch is sometimes not mounted perfectly and will stop working after a while.

Just take it apart and put it back together and it seems to fix the problem(if that is what the problem is…

There is nothing holding the switch in place except for pressure and if not exactly in place, it seems to slip after a while and stop working.

Hope this is what is wrong with yours! :+1:

It started working again on its own after a week.

Haven’t decided if I want to try disassembling it or not. I like the output, tint and how it feels in the hand. But I consider it too heavy for pocket EDC and the head heats up way too fast. I’m not sure it’s worth any effort trying to disassemble or mod this light.