Lumintop EDC-05, Less Lumens than Utorch UT01... CONFIRMED

Hum, that’s what I thought :person_facepalming:
I was a “faulty” operator when I put it inverted, but still, my opinion is that all the lights that are able to take Li-Ion cells should have RPP!! Thanks for the answer :+1:

sovereignknight, I will respectfully differ on this opinion as lots of people don’t have protected cells and it is possible to incur on the same mistake I did! I know that a owner must take care of the light and use it correctly, but…we know that mistakes happen.
Just an opinion of course!! :wink:

Other than these, both the E11, the UT01 and the EDC05 are pretty and good working lights, I can see from the user’s reports here

Sorry, my response was for answering your question stated earlier.
What leads me to this question: do the UT01 and the EDC05 have Reverse Polarity Protection (specially for Li-Ion cells)

Anyways, I agree, great care must be taken when dealing with lithium ion cells. Nothing replaces caution and diligence. With that, protection circuits can fail too so it’s best to use caution either way.

The UT01, EDC05 and Manker E11 do not have any kind of PHYSICAL reverse polarity protection. I highly doubt there is anything electrical in the circuit either.

I got a Lumintop EDC-05 two days ago. At first the button did not work.
After a while, I noticed that it needs to be pressed on the edge so that the flashlight turns on.
Now it works almost well. But now I have another problem.
If you turn off the flashlight, then you can turn it back on only
if you slightly open and close the back cover. That is, in fact, completely de-energized it.

I also saw that the tube does not press the entire surface to the contact of the head.
You can see it in the photo.

This is a long running problem with the UT01 as well. my EDC05 doesn’t have this though. Its a completely random occurring thing with the UT01… some have it some do not.

Have people on the forum already found a solution?
Or is it a death sentence?
(My UT01 have this problem only with 14500,
with Ni-Me 1.2v it’s work propertly)

I found this:

So, it’s tha same story with EDC-05.
The manufacturer simply changed the design, but kept the defective stuffing.

I just received my third EDC05 and while my other two work well so far, the third one I just received has some switch issues. It clicks but some presses do not register. I may have to return it. I’ve emailed lumintop on the matter but I don’t expect a response any time soon as it’s Chinese New year.

I was having issues with the button not registering clicks but today I tested it again but it seems to work fine. weird.

When I got this third light it was having allot of issues with the button. The more I clicked it, the better it became. However, the problem is still there it just doesn’t happen as much. Still I find this unacceptable.

Just for comparison, I measured the Zebralight SC5w mkII advertised at 550 lumens at only 44 lux. I tried swapping multiple fully charged eneloops and no change. Cannot believe a $10-$20 UT01 is brighter than a $70 SC5w mkII. I just wish the tint on the UT01 weren’t so green.

Yeah ZLs have never been real $$$ value winners, IMHO.

If you get a good one, the UT01, E11 and EDC05 punch way above the belt.

Anybody know how to open EDC-05?

… and FWIW my EDC05 now also has the same condition as my (and others) UT01. The circuit must be dis-connected from the battery by unscrewing the tailcap, in order to turn the light back on. Its completely a non-issue with me since I always unscrew the tailcap to fully dis-engage the battery anyways.

It did not do this just a few days ago, so its something only recent.

Maybe unrelated , but occasionally my Sp 10b will be dim when turned on and the only way to make it go to high is to unscrew the head and tighten again . I just cleaned the contact surfaces today to see if grease is causing bad connection . Will see.

Can anyone on here recommend an AA light that:

**1. Has 3 nice modes (1, 30-50, 250-300)
2. Has the highest AA output possible on high

I plan to run eneloops - don’t really want to bother with a 14500 since most lights I’ve seen tend to have a stupidly high medium mode around 90-100 lumens that is just a waste of power when you’re using a small battery.

From what I see:

- Manker E11 looks pretty good on AA: 2,60(11hrs),200,400. 14500 is an odd 10,100(12hrs),320,800

- Utorch UT01: same specs as Manker. Basically the same light?

  • Sofirn SF14(own): AA: 3, 33(10.5hrs), 230, 14500: 5, 110(5.6hrs), 600

I highlighted the medium modes above since those runtimes matter the most to me for practical use.

For some reason the medium mode on that sofirn gets a LOT less rundown time than the other two lights for some reason on a 14500 at ~ 100 lumens. Think this is just how it was measured? I can’t believe that an XPL is that much more efficient than an XP-G2 or that the Manker/Utorch is really getting that much longer use out of the same battery?

The Klarus Mi7 has 3 modes. But the 2nd mode is 90 lumens. Pretty close to your requirement.

Zebralight SC5w II

You know, I have another EDC05 that started having weird issues. It use to work fine but now it will refuse to turn on unless I slightly unscrew the head to disengage power to “reset it” then it works fine until I shut it off again. I have to repeat it each time now. It never use to do that before. What the hell is going on with these things? First one with a button issue, now this other one that worked fine until today.

Here is a video of my issue.

Here’s an update. When I use a 1.5v Alkaline in it, it will behave in a totally different manor.

I wouldn’t place too much emphasis on run times in general. Theres just too much variation in trying to quantify it from one review to the next. A healthy eneloop (or any battery for that matter) may not actually exhibit rated capacity.

I spent some time with the EDC05, UT01 and E11 user interfaces with different cell chemistry. I used the EDC05 battery tube and tailcap, and just swapped heads. None of my EFEST 14500 are protected, and in no case did I observe battery-crush conditions. I re-programmed all the lights identically as follows:
>Lowest LO
>Lowest MED
>Lowest HI
>Highest TURBO

EDC05
14500 IMR
>LMHT = All work fine
>Must power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Eneloop
>LMH = All work fine, Turbo shuts off after a second
>Must power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Alkaleak
>LM = All work fine. H is dimmer than eneloop or 14500. Turbo shuts off after a second
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

E^2 Lithium
>LMH = All work fine. Turbo shuts off after a second
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Every once in a while, with random battery changes using Alkaleak, E^2 and eneloop the EDC05 would enter a WEIRD mode sequence… LMH, Strobe, SOS, Beacon, OFF. Turning it back ON, it would then proceed to behave as above… LMH and Turbo 1 sec shut off

UT01
14500 IMR
>LMHT = All work fine
>Must power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Eneloop
>LMHT = All work fine, Turbo is dimmer than 14500
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Alkaleak
>LM work fine, H and T are dimmer than 14500 or eneloop
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

E^2 Lithium
>LMH = All work fine. Turbo is dimmer than 14500
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Manker E11
14500 IMR
>LMHT = All work fine
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Eneloop
>LMHT = All work fine, Turbo is dimmer than 14500
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Alkaleak
>LM work fine, H and T are dimmer than 14500 or eneloop
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

E^2 Lithium
>LMHT = All work fine, Turbo is dimmer than 14500
>Don’t need power interrupt tailcap to turn back on

Between the 3 lights the EDC05 is the most unstable and unpredictable with eneloops and alkaleaks. The E11 is rock solid… no surprises and the UT01 is like the E11 but with the mandatory tailcap power interrupt.