Enogear AA Stainless Steel (AA/14500)

Mine has been fine for awhile with 14500.

Ever since I burnt the driver in my Enogear AA by using 14500 batteries, I requested a replacement head from Jackie Zhang at Enogear. It’s been several months and nearly impossible to an answer from him so I thought it was a goner. However, several months later to my surprise I just received a brand new entire AA flashlight (not just the head) and also a 14500 usb rechargeable version for free. I took lumen measurements with my TA lumen sphere calibrated using Maukka calibration lights:

Enogear AA 163 lumens
Enogear usb recharegeable 14500 259 lumens
Enogear AAA 123 lumens

The AA version has the same nice rosy 4000k tint from the last batch making it a perfect EDC for use inside the house. However, this time the AA version doesn’t turn on when I insert 14500 cells. But I rather it not work with 14500 then burn the driver running on 14500 like the previous one I had. The 14500 usb rechargeable Enogear does not work with AA batteries. The tint is also noticeably cooler and whiter with much more noticeable tint shift and not as rosy. The tint is no where near as nice as the AA version but it’s still not bad. The AAA version appears warmer than the AA version. Probably 3500-3800k and not as rosy as the AA version. However compared with the 4000k 219C Reylight, it is more orange and not as yellow so it is still a decent tint. I’m actually surprised the AAA version can get 123 lumens with such warm tint, which makes this one of the brightest NW/WW AAA flashlights in existence. The only thing I don’t like is that it goes from Hi - Med - Low, whereas the AA version goes from L - Med - Hi.

I highly recommend anyone looking for a budget, yet nice AA light consider the Enogear AA stainless steel flashlight. It also makes for a great gift.

Thanks for this well written post. The links made it easier to follow exactly what you were talking about. Would it be possible to get TA lumen spere measurements on the AA Stainless Low and Med modes? Are you using alkaline, primary lithium, or Ni-MH batteries?

Are the Maukka calibrations lights worth the investment? Thanks!

I'm still waiting on my two Enogear AA Stainless lights ordered a month ago (July 11th)!

Enogear Stainless AA using Eneloop Pro
Low = 9 lumens
Med = 53 lumens

Thanks again! Looking forward to receiving mine!

Received a new SS enogear. Again very nice. Only this time no 14500 support and no clip.

Nihm only is fine for me with this light, but I do need a pocketclip. I contacted Jackie from enogear, will see what happens.

Anyone got a good source for ss pocketclips as backup?

Some of their light are really beautifull! The 14500 Brass & Copper lights. And especially the TC8 Titan is a absolut beauty (i do not need another one, I do not need another one, i do not need another one. My new mantra, but unfortunately it is not working most of the time :disappointed: ).

My question is, if there is a driver out there that would run with Anduril and AA & 14500 or AA only (for the Enogear Stainless Steel AA light)? Because the original driver with a lot of PWM flickering and this beautifull mod spacing is absolut no option!
We have 2018! ! ! And you still see a lot of lights from 5-300$+ with: lo-mid-high-strobe-sos-becon (even Nitecore and other expensive Brands).
If you check reviews out there for some of the new BLF lights with Narsil you will find that they all have one thing in common. All are praising the UI. Easy for Muggle and “all you need” for enthusiasts.

If i buy a light today 95% of the time i am checking if there is a Narsil/Anduril compatible driver out there. I did driver/emitter swaps in the past to hotrod lights. ’Today i do it most of the time to get a UI that makes a light more usefull and userfriendly.

The new ones say no 14500?

At least my new one does not work with 14500.

It is odd that some do and some don’t. I asked in email and was told 14500 works. This was back a few months ago.

Are you sure? You need to have button top batteries. Most, if not all, NiMH batteries have button top’s.
The driver is flat, with a little “knob” on it. The spring of the tail switch pushes the battery against the driver. In my case, the retainer ring sticks out further than this little knob. So the body of the battery is stopped by retainer ring, thus preventing the cathode of the battery touching the knob on the driver plate. Try a magnet.

Can someone please measure the driver (maybee a picture too)?

I have ordered one this week since its only 14,9$, did not get any confirmation except from PP, we’ll see what happens

Borrowed from another thread:

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The size is about the width of my fist (small hands). With an SS body, you are carrying around something with enough weight to be a bit re-assured that you are not completely empty-handed.
It has three modes, low-mid-high, no memory. And a crisp tailswitch.
I consider the build quality quite good. Nothing is rattling or loose. Finish is smooth, no raw edges. It looks as if some serious thinking was done before it went into production.The design has some drawbacks, however.
The head is connected to the pill, as is the body/tailcap on the other side. The 12mm ledboard is pressed down by the TIR + loose led centering ring. The 14mm driver has a very slim retainer ring. The switch also has a retainer ring, from the outside. Both with curved indentation, no holes or notches.
My problem was that you can’t predict to what part the driver will stick when opening the light: head or body.
I glued the led centering ring to the led board and the head assembly to the driver (I made some notches in).
Not crazy-glue, however. And I replaced the one-heartbeat-from-DOA XP-G by an XP-G3 (Fasttech € 1.49).

And it is my favourite ever since.

Thanks Henk4U2.
Sounds like it is relatively easy to change the driver.
Still hope to see a few pics of a disassembled light (purely out of interest). Would be nice to see how the light is constructed.
If there are no detail pictures out when my light arrives i will try to make some.

Will have another look at it this weekend

I ordered two Enogear Stainless Steel AA/14500 Flashlights on July 11th and received three in the mail today (Aug 27th). They came in two separate shipping envelopes. The first envelope contained two SS AA/14500 flashlights - one in each tint. This was my actual order, and it was sent from Shenzhen, China. The second envelop contained another SS AA/14500 in the neutral white tint. This one was sent from Yuen Long, Hong Kong and marked as a gift on the customs declaration.

I am not sure why Jackie sent me a free flashlight, but I am grateful. I wrote him an email and thanked him. These are impressive flashlights and I will cherish them forever.

But I want to know the limits of these flashlights so I asked him to clarify if it would be safe to run them with 14500 batteries. I gave him the link to this thread and told him that there was some discussion about 14500 batteries damaging the SS AA/14500 flashlight. If he responds, I will edit this post.

Jacky takes a very long time to respond but he is legit and also gave me a free 14500 usb recharge version to test when my original AA version failed due to using 14500. The replacement AA version doesn’t work with 14500 so you actually don’t have to worry about 14500 frying the driver. In appreciation I actually bought 3 Fireflies ROT66 from him. :slight_smile:

I emailed him about the same thing about 6 months ago when I bought mine. He replied that it was 14500 safe.

What was your original AA version? Was it the SS AA/14500 flashlight? Was it advertised to work with 14500 batteries? Thanks

Could you provide a link to the Firefly ROT66? I am also looking at sending Jackie some more business if I can find something suitable. Thanks again!