New Tank007 releases, the E10 (1xAAA) and E11 (2xAAA). With reversible pocket clip, and tail clicky. The whole tail area incl boot cover is stainless steel as is the head. Very slim design, 20grams only .. but not meant as keyring pendant like the E09. Again XP-E R3, 120lm rating, 3-modes, SMO reflector.
Looks very original and Tank-ish that's for sure, i.e. not beautiful to everyone's liking imho, here image1:
more images: image2, image3, image4, image5, image6, image7
E10 : Size:81MM(Length)*13.6MM(Diameter)*15.2MM(Head diameter). Weight:20g. IPX-6.
E11 : Size:125MM(Length)*13.6MM(Diameter)*15.2MM(Head diameter). Weight:28g.IPX-6.
Since the E09 and E10/E11 are related offerings, in this quick review i am comparing key aspects and addressing the most pressing questions only. For beamshots or performance measurements see the various E09 reviews, guess why ;)
Existing notable reviews or comparisons of the Tank E09:
- https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/5882 (kreisler, 06-2012 last edited)
- https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/8156 (kreisler, 05-2012)
- https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/7658 (brted, 04-2012)
- https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/8032 (old4570, 04-2012)
- https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/9364 (_the_, 06-2012)
- http://forolinternas.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3077 (fran82, 01-2012)
- http://reviewsdelinternas.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/tank007-e09.html (UPz, 04-2012)
- http://forum.fonarevka.ru/showthread.php?t=8859 (teomav, 02-2012)
- http://forum.fonarevka.ru/showthread.php?t=9782 (Vadimka_DDD, 04-2012)
The below notes could be blown to a full review or comprehensive blablah write-up and i might do so to torture the readers haha. But for now go ahead and order your E10/E11 copy from Dinodirect or Manafont already:
+ my E10/E11 early production samples were bubble-wrapped into a generic Tank007 retail cardboard box and came without printed operation manual or accessories. i paid some 15 bucks for them.
+ look'n feel impression. all in all everything looks and feels positively as expected, i.e. nice, very nice. both the E10 and E11 surely look and feel valuable and more expensive. impressive overall! grade 4/5
+ switch. it's a reverse clicky to advance between modes. when disengaged the SS cover boot cant be called "loose" however there is minimal play in the boot assembly which leads to rattling sound similar to Preon P2. once engaged, no more play or rattle, and switch feels firm. pressing the switch feels nice and works really well for tapping or full click. could be operated by off-center pressing with some chance of the cover boot getting jammed at the side -- a well-known problem from the Preon P1 and P2 switches, also see their trouble-shooting. anal as i am i applied a drop of nano-oil on the switch, and now the cover boot gets stuck less often when pressed off-center. while not as perfect as the Fenix LD05 switch, the switch is, to me, better than expected! Well, nano-oil alone doesnt do the trick if you want to avoid any jamming and grating of the button. I chamfered (beveled) the upper circular edge of the button with sandpaper and this mod seems to help a lot:
With the suggested measure you can improve the switch "performance" from a solid 3/5 (factory state) to grade 4/5 or even 4.5/5. Admittedly, before you can chamfer the button, of course you would have to disassemble the switch like i did haha.
+ switch disassembly. the tail is composed of three parts: the SS tail cap, the SS cover boot (the "button"), and the clicky switch:
here the 3 parts in close-up:
the SS tail cap. it is a very nice quality tail cap with cleanly cut threads, and it is firmly mounted on the torch because of the green glue (loctite?) in the lower threads area. the slippery SS surface makes it very challenging to unscrew the cap (by using rubber gloves, 2 pairs of pliers) without injuring the shiny finish.
well, dont unscrew it, if you dont have to! For illustration purposes and for the sake of this §$%&! review i broke the green thread sealing and removed the cap. the problem is, and now you are aware of it!, by trying to unscrew the cap you would/could unscrew the clicky switch a bit from its (also loctite glued!) position in the aluminum body, which will entail a series of new problems (continue reading).
the button. the SS cover boot reminds me of a dish plate or a hat. again, very well made. indestructible.
the clicky switch. the switch is an integrated system with spring, metal threads, immovable guidance rod and the clicky tip itself. it is a very well-made switch, nice nice quality, i am very pleased with this part. compared to the Xeno E03 clicky, this looks and feels 10x better! impressive, sturdy, not a bit cheapish, and should never fail on you. hats off Tank007 Co. for this quality part!
Yah, why does half of the male threading look busted? haha :D Guess why!
Because i wanted to remove the switch from the aluminum body and because of the loctite stuff in the female aluminum threads i had to apply much force for the unscrewing action (again, 2 pair of pliers, rubber gloves). body wall thickness and cleaned female threads look like this:
So what again was the problem with the disassembly?
All problems are caused by the loctite. Be "h" the original untouched height of the male threads for the tail cap: In [A], when you screw the tail cap all the way down and tighten it against the aluminum body, the switch assembly will work fine as it's supposed to do. Factory state. [A] shows the re-assembled parts. [B] shows the male threads after the very first attempt of unscrewing the tail cap: H > h, because the clicky switch got unscrewed a bit too. you were able to completely unscrew the tail cap but at the same time you also unscrewed the clicky switch a bit! When you now screw the tail cap back on by fully tightening it against the aluminum body, the clicky tip will get half pressed and remain this way. As a result, the whole switch will stop working.
Realizing that you caused the mal-functioning of the switch, you want to fix it back to the original state, right? That would be [A], with "h" as threads height. But how do you reduce the height from "H" down to "h", if there is locktite in the aluminum threads? Yes, you must first unscrew the pill completely, remove the locktite cr*p, clean the male&female threads, and then you'll be able to screw in the pill fully down: [A], there you have it!
Be warned that unscrewing the clicky switch from the aluminum body is a major challenge. i ended up busting the male threads (see [A] lol). The loctite (glue?) is simply too strong!
I wished that Tank007 Co. would ship the E10 without any glue in the threads..
EDIT:
the jamming of the button is, as you might know, is a very common problem with SS buttons. that's i guess the main reason why most switches on SS or Ti flashlights are covered with rubber boots instead of SS (or Ti) cover boots, see for example the evolution of Sunawayman V10R models up to V10R Ti+ which comes with an installed Ti button and an included rubber boot as spare part.
The Preons P1/P2 (aluminum, SS, or Ti) are another famous example of users being unhappy with the repeated grating and jamming of the metal boot.
While the 3 parts of the E10 switch assembly are by themselves all high quality parts, an untouched/unmodded, factory-state, out-of-the box E10 switch will likely to exhibit similar performance: the button gets sometimes jammed at the inner ring (hole) of the SS tail cap. Grade 3/5. Fortunately there are 3 simple measures ("mods"?) which can raise the performance grade up to 4.5/5:
measure 1. use super lube oil or nano-oil at all contacting and sliding surfaces to reduce friction between the mechanical moving parts of the switch assembly
measure 2. chamfer the 3-4 relevant edges: 2 edges of the button, and 1-2 edges of the tail cap hole. you could use fine sandpaper or a dremel for the beveling. rounding off these edges helps to reduce friction force too.
measure 3. most importantly, you need to finetune/adjust/optimize the height "H":
- case a). if H = h, then H has factory state and is sub-optimal. => button gets jammed sometimes
- case b). if H < h, this isnt possible because factory state means that the pill is screwed in fully
- case c). if h < H < Hopt, the button sits loose and wobbly on the clicky's tip and gets jammed sometimes
- case d). if H > Hopt, the switch is constantly half-pressed and doesnt work properly
- case e). if H = Hopt, the button gets jammed least often and still works properly
In order to find Hopt, start with case c) and increase H by screwing out the pill a bit. Check if the clicky is fully operational. If yes, then screw the pill out a bit more. Check if the clicky is still fully operational. Continue to repeat this procedure until you reach case d). You have passed Hopt by a bit. Turn the pill back in, just a little, and that's the optimal height: Hopt. On my sample, counting from H = h, i need to screw the pill out by 1/2 - 3/4 of a full turn, i.e. between 180°-270°, in order to reach Hopt. I do recommend applying some silicone grease on the female aluminum threads so that the pill doesnt rotate accidentally when you tighten the tail cap over the pill.
Complicated procedure?
Not really. Fine-tuning an otherwise "problematic" SS or Ti switch is acceptable in my eyes, and nobody can expect from a Chin*se factory to manufacture highly precise switch parts and machined threads such that, when the pill is screwed all the way in, h hits Hopt exactly. Manufacturing tolerances effectuate that factory state will always be H = h, and not H = Hopt. So it is up to the user to fine-tune H, if he/she really needs a button with 4.5/5 grade performance.
Measure 3 is easy to do, measure 2 requires some patience and dexterity with sandpaper. The most challenging part is the switch disassembly itself because of the loctite in all female threads: you dont want to bust the pill threads with your pliers or scratch the SS tail cap or the anodized body with your pliers.
Keep in mind that, even if the 3 measures improve the button's performance noticeably (from grade 3/5 up to grade 4.5/5), they dont eliminate the occasional jamming. Jamming will still occur, here and there, betimes, and is a natural occurrence between 2 "pointy" SS parts which meet with pressure ("grating"), so dont be too worried about this phenomenon. Of course, stellar engineered and manufactured SS switches dont get jammed, see for example the SS switch of the expensive discontinued Fenix LD05.
for even better switch performance, i.e. less wobbliness and 99.3% no more wobbliness, one can fill in 2-3 layers of plastic spacers. all you need is a thin sheet of plastic, a paper perforator, a fine pair of scissors and a file. cut out the spacers from the plastic sheet like this:
and fill them into the SS switch boot like that: (mouse over)
now again fine-tune how deep you screw in the clicky. in my case, i must screw it in fully down, otherwise the tailcap with the 3 white spacers would not fully engage, that is, disengage.
and if you want to eliminate the rattling 100% (switch be ON or OFF, no matter what!), you can cram some toilet paper at the sides of the SS switch boot like this: (mouse over!)
with the above set of mini mods my SS switch boot has stopped rattling and it never gets jammed any longer. Never!
and you learn that chamfering alone does not solve the problem of the jamming neither does lubricating with oil. the real key to success here is the fine-tuning of how deep the clicky is screwed in. oil, chamfers, spacers, toilet paper only do the rest. however, chamfering was most of the work. stainless steel material is hard and working it with grit paper was quite a job.
i don't regret the work.
the result is real goo.
luv da SS clicky now!! :D
+ clicky. the button protrudes more when the light is turned on ("switch on"). the increased pressure on the cover boot stabilizes the button. when the switch is off, less pressure is exerted on the cover boot and the button is minimally loose at its location which would produce a rattling sound when you shake the torch vehemently. since the black cylindrical plastic of the clicky serves as guidance rod for the cover boot, there has to be some play in between. if the boot were a press fit, the button would not exhibit any wobbliness. you cant reduce the boot's radial wobbliness, which is the necessary play for the sliding action, but you could lube the contacting surfaces with super lube oil or nano-oil for improved sliding action. wobblines in axial direction is reduced by sticking the boot to the tip of the black clicky with some silicone grease. silicone grease has the properties of a hypothetical very thick liquid glue which never dries or hardens.
+ tailstand. because of the just outlined properties of the switch tailstand is possible and stable when light is turned on, tailstand is possible and wobbly when light is off. grade 4/5, compared to E09: -
+ beam beauty, PWM, reflector, tint, performance. reflector and LED type and driver appear to be identical to E09, as was confirmed by the manufacturer. so no surprises here, and no tests or measurements done (so far) to re-confirm the E09 measurements of runtime or current draw. grade 3/5. compared to E09 V2: +-
+ brightness. my very E10 unit is as bright as my E09 V1 but clearly not as bright as my gungray E09 V2 (what a bummer. maybe this is due to Cree XP-E LED production unit variation, i dunno). Mode sequence is Hi-Med-Lo, with mode memory. grade 3/5 (this unit!). compared to E09 V2: -
+ legoability. the male threads on the bodies are exactly the same on the E09 and E10:
therefore we get 100% full head back and forth lego-ability E09 <=> E10/E11: you can use E09's head on E10's body and vice versa. some of you might even prefer the looks this way: the black E09 head on the black E10 body!! grade 5/5. very cool!
(image to be posted)
+ 10440's. Protected 10440's are fully supported. the longest Protected 10440's known to man are Protected Gray Ultrafire 10440 measuring 47.1mm in length. the E10 body is dimensioned very generously and could easily host any length of commercial 10440's, probably up to 49.00mm, crazy stuff! herewith the E10 is one of the very few mini flashlights on the entire market which supports Protected 10440's officially. Fantastic. grade 5/5. compared to E09: +
+ pocket clip. the pocket clip looks 90% similar to ITP A3's pocket clip, and the latter fits perfectly as well. thank god, the E10 clip retension force is ~3x higher than the very weak ITP A3 pocket clip. however, both clips are still thin and flimsy, and their narrow clipping space cannot really accommodate the brim thickness of a baseball cap. for the latter purpose i strongly recommend the E09 head+LD01 clip solution because the LD01 clip is thick, sturdy, rugged and takes thick brims fully with ease. Btw the LD01 pocket clip does *not* fit into the 4 grooves of the E10/E11 bodies: the body grooves are a bit too narrow. pocket clip grades in comparison: ITP A3 (1/5), E10/E11 (3/5), Preon P1/P2 (4/5), LD01 (5/5).
as you can see, the pocket clip is indeed reversible:
+ fit and finish. On my unit, the female threads of the E10 head do produce some amount of wobbliness when screwed halfway on the E10 body until it is screwed tight. this is unexpected but to me no big deal because it is a "clicky's head". in contrast, the E09 head produces "no" wobbliness when screwed on the E10 body. other than that, fit and finish is very nice, as expected from Tank007 production quality. this unit: grade 4/5, compared to E09: -
+ weight (head+body=total weight without batteries) on a kitchen scale:
E09: 6+7=13g
E10: 8+13=21g (incl E10 pocket clip)
E11: 8+19=27g (incl E11 pocket clip)
+ battery fitment. tested Eneloops and 10440's only: no battery rattle. grade 5/5
+ the Tank 15mm diffuser (for E08, E09, etc) fits perfectly. grade 5/5
+ operability. makes for very fun and enjoyable perfect EDC! can be operated 1-handed. and can be operated with very thick gloves. grade 5/5. compared to E09: +
+ my favorite lego =
E10 body with its natural SS clicky
+ E09 V2 head (lighter than E10 head, looks better, and eventually brighter!)
+ LD01 pocket clip, clipped to E09 head, bezel up carry
+ Protected Gray Ultrafire 10440
comment: finally the LD01 pocket clip makes really sense. before, operating the "twisty E09" with the LD01 clip bezel up was a pita. now the bezel up LD01 clip doesnt get into the way of operation anymore because the torch is a clicky, so-to-speak a "clicky E09". kreisl once more genius lol
(image to be posted)
+ penlight. the E10 is a pen-light and not meant to serve as keychain pendant. clearly, you should not attach a split ring, key ring, wrist strap or lanyard. well, you could misuse the holes of the pocket clip to hold a ring or strap but .. c'mon on dont be silly haha
SUMMARY:
Users who are aware of E09's performance (beam pattern, tint, PWM) and like the looks and classical penlight form factor of the E11 could look into buying the E11 as budget alternative to the discontinued Fenix LD05. Personally, i'd choose the E10 over the E11 because lego-ing E10<->E09 is more fun and makes more sense to me than lego-ing E11<->E09. And, in the end, the E10 loaded with Protected 10440 is brighter than the E11 loaded with 2x Eneloop AAA because of the higher input voltage!
For the numerous E09 fans --who find the E09 so enjoyable either because of its brightness, throw, slim body, light weight, inexpensive maintenance, or nice impression-- the E10 is a recommended source of fun accessory lego parts:
turn your keychain twisty EDC into a clip-carry clicky EDC with full Protected 10440 support and easy operability. keep the E09 head if you think it be superior to the aggressive looking, pseudo-tactical E10 head.
Typical carry options: clipped to men's shirt or jacket pocket or hat, or carried freely in women's purse. especially females might prefer a clicky in their handbag.
quieno yo rano mama jaja lol 
