Acebeam EC65 review (21700, 4x XHP35 HI, cool white)

I was talking about 4000lm turbo. You are talking about 3100lm turbo.

3100 lumen for 1 minute is indeed pretty good, but not what is expected.

There are also not too many lights this size. period. In order to get about 3100 lumen I think you would need to look at the many compact 26650 boost driven lights. They are a bit bigger and typically run turbo a bit longer. So I would say the turbo your talking about (3100lm) is quite in line with them.

The bad part here is that Acebeam got our my expectations all jacked up, then did not deliver. If they had just spec’d it at 3100 lumen for 1m we I would not be so let down.

I do not feel let down, a 3000 lm flashlight with 4xXHP35 12V leds on a boost driver from one cell is new and an achievement, more so with a system efficiency of 90 lm/W at turbo.

Please remember that the 90 lm/W is average over the whole turbo runtime, which is at about 800 lumens most of the time. With the turbo cycling and 1229 lm*h it comes down quite a bit. I haven’t tested the battery capacity when it’s discharged in half an hour or at ~10 A so can’t tell you the actual number, but let’s say it’s about 16 Wh which comes down to 77 lm/W.

Ah, thanks! That makes it ok but not extremely special.

I received mine two days ago, the XHP35 version. I do feel a bit let down, turbo for about 12 seconds. I knew from the specs the light was too lightweight. But I bought one any way thinking AceBeam could pull it off. I would rather have an extra ounce or two over the rapid loss of performance. The format of 4 tight packed LED’s over a 21700 is a winner, execution just fell a bit short. On the positive side beam is a good mix of throw/flood. As is it’s a good 2000/650/300/20 lumens pocket light.

It’s not a lack of thermal mass that’s making it drop out of turbo. If that’s what your thinking.

I’m sorry looking at my statement it really lacked clarity.

I want the thermal mass to sustain just running on high. The light heats very quickly on turbo and rather fast on high. I get about 28 seconds on turbo with a fresh battery but too hot to hold. A minute of running on high and it’s rather hot to hold. For me the rapid loss of performance is letting it sit and cool before using again. I’m tempted if the light survives a few weeks of use to pot the electronics for water proofing and thermal relief of those tiny little tortured electronic bits. I’m only guessing, but I believe and extra ounce or two in the host and battery tube will bleed more heat out for longer more comfortable use. The battery tube is very thin.

Do you think it might be better to go up in size to the EC50 GEN Ⅲ?

Hi,

Thanks for the very thorough review. We have updated the information on our website based on your review.
It would be really interesting to see what the performance of the EC65 would be on a 21700 battery that can deliver 30+ Amperes.

Cheers,
Elmer

You can see similar information here as toobadorz tried a LISHEN LR2170SA which is the same as the yellow Liitokala lii-40A. This is a 15A continous rated battery. It’s voltage does not sag under the load and the light runs at 4,000 lumen for 1 minute when the thermal protection starts to ramp it down.

The only 30A continous rated 21700 I have seen is the Samsung 30T. I don’t think anyone has tried this combo yet.

Welcome to BLF, Elmer!

I have some 30Ts coming my way and will update the review hopefully later this week.

Hi Elmer, welcome to BLF! :partying_face:

Ah that is good to hear. Thank you.

Nice, let’s see what they can do.

Thank you :slight_smile:

Elmer, when you want to reply to a specific post or person, look at the bottom of their post and hit the “qoute” button.

I typically write my reply just below the quoted section. :+1:

Noted! Thanks!

Awesome! Looking forward to the update :slight_smile:

Thank you for your exemplary review maukka.

I can now safely cross this light of my list. There are several smaller things that are, in my opinion, not well executed or thought out and keep me from buy this light, but the biggest issue is the temperature limit. Why did Acebeam set it at 75°C ? That is just way too high. Sure it protects the electronics, but the temperature limit should be set according to the most temperature sensitive thing, the users hand. A limit of 50°C or 55°C (maybe 60°C) would be better.

Furthermore most Li-Ion batteries have a maximum operating temperature of 60°C, and bad things can happen when Li-Ion batteries get too hot.

To be fair, the high temperature limit is usually ok, since most of the time you will be holding the light in your hand and can just step it down manually when it feels too hot to touch (>50°C). I rarely (never) leave a light unattended for hours.

Usually when I do runtime tests I will start the fan when the body reaches about 70°C to protect the battery. This time I just wanted to see how hot the light would actually get.

I’m more disappointed about the single real turbo burst. Looks like toobadorz’s new sample was able to do it four times before stepping down to the lower turbo level though. So there’s some variation between lights and batteries. Still, the visual difference between the maximum turbo and the next level down is non existent.