Review: SupFire L6

LED Flashlights – General Info 26650 Flashlights
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SupFire L6

Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★☆


Summary:

Battery: 26650 or 18650 w/included sleeve
Switch: reverse clicky tail switch
Modes: Hi-Med-Lo-Strobe-SOS (nice mode memory)
LED Type: XML-T6 cool white
Lens: glass (standard, not AR)
Tailstands: Yes - nicely
Price Paid: $17 for review, reg. price: $21.12 - free shipping
From: Farfar_ledtorch on dhgate (dhgate.com-supfire-l6)
Date Ordered: April 1st, 2014, Rcv'd: April 17th, 2014
Dimensions: 159.0mm length, 44.5mm head, 34.2mm tail, 32.1mm body
Weight: 187g (no lanyard)
Max Amps: 2.33 amps measured at the tail
Max Output: ~595 lumens OTF (measured at 30 seconds), ~23 kcd
Purchase Link: dhgate.com-supfire-l6
Manufacturer Link: Not listed on http://www.supfire.com/English/ (too new?)

Pros:

  • C8 size with 26650 compatibility
  • attractive styling, comfortable in hand, well balanced
  • overall good quality finish (not HA III but at least not claiming so)
  • quality internal components (switch, pill, driver)
  • true mode memory
  • nice tight beam pattern, tighter spill than classic C8's due to deeper reflector
  • tail stands very well
  • thread aluminum pill - appears to match thread and size of the true old "C8 pill"

Cons:

  • only a XML T6 (somewhat dated for a new light)
  • classic 5 modes (strobe gets some votes but rare to find a fan of SOS)
  • moderately driven (some may like this, but generally many like to see over 3 A)
  • no unique or special features (charging port, side switch, SS bezel, etc.)

Features / Value: ★★★★☆

The light came very well packed, in a shipping box, not an envelope:

Well wrapped and with Styrofoam on top and bottom:

No separate box, just bubble wrapped well. The lanyard is a good one for a budget light, standard for SupFire's:

Shown here with it's brothers, the M6, and X5. Similar knurling patterns, and some common styling:

For reference, you can see how the head diameters match up. The X5 is a deep reflector C8 size light:

Close up look at the head - excellent finish, no visible marked or imperfections here:

The body tube shown here is also in excellent condition:

The tail, also in excellent quality overall, has a slight nick on a sharp edge. You really have to be looking for it though:

Close-up view. These edges are a bit sharp, though I don't think it will cause damage because of them being recessed in a little:

Here it's shown with a couple other popular lights. Again, head dimensions and reflector performance match up well to C8's. The Paisen shown here is an XML U2, but driven at only 1.8A, smaller reflector (head: 41mm), next mode memory, and outputs only 367 lumens:

Not such a good view of the threads, but they are acceptable, not as square cut as I'd like to see:

The back side of the driver/pill. The pill is all aluminum with a brass retainer ring. Excellent stock setup, but not ideal for a simple Nanjg or Qlite driver swap:

View of the well centered LED. The reflector seems to be free of any imperfections. This is a large hole reflector:

The head dis-mantled. GITD o-ring is a nice touch:

Shows the large hole for the emitter, thin flat surface for easier fitting of wire contacts:

Close-up of the LED. Clean, well fitted and centered:

Pill assembly. Nice overall mass, consistent with better C8 pills:

Close-up of the full size plastic alignment piece and guard:

Pill cavity opened. Easy access to the driver. Wires are quality 24 gauge:

Close-up of the driver. Those R140'sare looking like and easy potential boost:

Along side the VOB copper pill. The copper pill threads in perfect to the head. I'm thinking the height of the LED/star may match up as well, but not sure yet. Excellent candidate host for a copper pill upgrade:

Standard 20mm aluminum star, epoxied on, but soft type epoxy. Solid pill top:

All tailcap parts shown here. Quality components, full tailcap weights in at 44.6g. Almost as heavy as the larger HD2010 tailcap at 50.5g:

Solid tailcap housing, lots of threads, should be an excellent electrical path.

True Omten switch, getting harder to find these days:

L6 tailcap on left, HD2010 tailcap on right:

Design / Build Quality: ★★★★★

Overall excellent quality. Similar quality level to the SupFire M6, in finish/anodizing, with brass retaining rings, better than average switch's, springs, etc.

Battery Life: ★★★★★

The battery life I expect to be excellent, considering it is moderately driven

Light Output: ★★★★☆

This light does well considering the amps and emitter. Based on the components and power, it seems on course with even the best C8's out there. It may have a slight advantage for throw, since the 23 kcd is pretty decent for only 600 lumens.

(Update) Following is levels by mode:

Hi: 2.33A 595 lumens
Medium: 1.20A 340 lumens
Low: 0.26A 75 lumens

Modes are well spread out. The beam pattern had a very well defined hot spot, better defined than most, no sign of rings.

Summary: ★★★★☆

I've been looking for a decent quality light that is a C8 size and C8 compatible but uses a 26650 for a long time now. This light seems to fit the bill. Only shortcoming I find is it uses the deeper reflector: 41.4mm width, 36.25mm deep, 38mm inner diameter. The pill size seems to be the perfect C8 size.

This is an excellent quality budget light for the price, which is what I would expect from a SupFire. Where $10-$20 lights will typically have a poorer finish, thinner metal, cheaper components in the tail cap assembly, driver, pill, reflector, etc., this SupFire is in the $25-$30 category for quality, given it's size. I am giving it only 4 stars because of the short comings of having only a XML T6, classic outdated 5 mode driver, and under-driven for what this host can support.

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Updates/Notes:


04/21 - it's available now with an XM-L2 emitter. farfarled has a BLF reduced price of $19.41. pm him to get that price for the XM-L2 version.

04/28 - I was able to use a VOB copper pill in the L6! I simply pulled one out of a LM C8 I have, and replaced the stock L6 pill with it. The LED/star does sit lower so there's a significant gap, but I ended up using two O-rings up in the bezel, then everything seated ok -- it's not a good solution though -- better fix would be to elevate the star with some copper disc(s). The difference is about 1.8mm, but still, better to be too low than too high because an easy fix can be worked out.

Results -- tailcap: 3.85A, 1,190 lumens, 46 kcd (XM-L2 U2 1C on SinkPAD, 3.85A Nanjg modded)

June 15 updates -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally decided to go ahead and do a full mod update on this light. I want to see what a high powered neutral emitter would look like and do in a decent small thrower. The pill of the L6, as pointed out earlier, is a standard C8 pill thread, though the height of the star is an issue. I realized the stock pill has an o-ring on it which elevates the star - this was probably an "oops" in the design, so the o-ring was used as a patch to fix the height. I figured for power, I'd go all the way with a FET driver. I have enough parts to build my own boards up now. First issue is the star height, so I had some of these nice copper shims, found one that makes up the gap pretty dead-on. I decided to use a brass C8 pill - this one was from FastTech (brass C8 pill), long out of stock like many things at FT, but it's available at other sources. The brass will allw me to reflow the copper shim on the pill top, and make it easy to solder in the driver.

Stock square piece, then piece dremel-sanded down to fit:

Shown fitted:

Here's all the parts of the light, shown with the original stock pill:

Using a hand file, I made the notch's for the LED wires in the shim, sanded down the pill top and bottom of the star - not super smooth, but enough to be sure no burr's or roughness:

I used solder paste (cheap FT stuff) and a small blow torch to reflow the shim onto the pill. This is after it's done:

My latest favorite thermal grease, GC Extreme. Star back and copper shim now sanded up to 2500 GRIT. I'm not reflowing the SinkPAD to the copper shim on purpose. I'd rather make it easy later to change the LED/star. I know there are methods if doing that as well, but this seems easier, and securing down the star with screws should create a very good bond:

I tapped holes and secured it down. The LED is an XM-L2 T6 4C. I bought a few on 16mm Noctigons, so had to remove and reflow onto a 20mm SinkPAD:

These are 2mm x 0.4mm x 4mm flat heads. Keeps a low profile, but actually, the L6 has a reflector with narrow backside, so easily clears the wires. Probably could have used a Noctigon and still had wire clearance. SinkPAD's give you more clearance for the wires because the pads are further apart:

Final assembly with 22 AWG wires:

Backside view of the pill, showing the BLF17DD backside and the reflow job I did for the components. Also, I always copper wire the springs :

For the pill threads, I used a thermally and electrically conductive grease. Kept the stock lens, but will probably replace it with a UCL or UCLp.

I always like to check for loss's of output from the stock tailcap. On this light, I figured it will be significant because of the high amps. So with a KK 4200

Direct Wired: 1,479 lumens
With cap on: 1,394 lumens

So, there's a loss, but not significant, but easily correctable. I copper wired the tail spring, cleaned up contact first with isop. alcohol, then treated with NO-OX-ID, re-tested and actually got: 1,503 lumens, so higher than the direct wired result. This could be on account of the wire being used is touching the edge of the body tube, so not a great contact point. Once it's assembled the full threading contact is much better.

Here's some results on a KK 4200, 4.19v at rest, 5.7A:

Lumens: 1,503 @start, 1,428 @30 secs, throw: 59 kcd

Other cells tested in amps:

Powerizer 3500 26650 4.20v 6.2A
MaxToch 5000 26700 4.18v 5.9A
Efest 35A 2500 18650 4.18v 6.0A
LG HE2 2500 18650 4.21v 6.15A
Samsung 25R 18650 4.19v 6.05A

The beam tint and pattern is nice - well defined center beam, noticeable brighter area immediately around the center beam, but not much, and a even flood area. Compared side to side to a C8, the flood area is slightly smaller and the center beam is better defined. No noticeable green anywhere. Next to my F13 clone with a XM-L2 U2 2C, the brighter zone around the center beam of the F13 definitely has some green tint to it, compared to this L6's XM-L2 T6 4C.

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Thanks Tom E, you have done a very good job! For BLF members, I give the price 19.41 USD, if you want Supfire L6-update, please send me the PM

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interesting. didnt hear about this light til now. i like the size. should feel better in hand than a c8.
lookin forward to your mod

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Great review Tom.

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Nice review, Tom, thanks!

That driver looks familiar :-) :

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That driver is more than familiar, it's exact! So, your driver has only 3 modes, not 5, and not noticeable PWM's? Interesting...

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Strange indeed, this is a very old driver and was around for a short time…

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Nice looking light, could you take a pic showing, or atleast estimate the thickness of the LED shelf?

Depending on the amount of material there this looks like it could be the host I’ve been looking for to MT-G2 cause of the reflector. It looks long enough but that brass cap on the tail spring also looks long, do you think two 18350’s would fit?

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Great review Tom! Nice job on the pictures too! Thanks for sharing.

Normally I would not nitpick. But since its its you Tom, and I have high expectations, ill nitpick..

"Battery Life: ★★★★★

The battery life I expect to be excellent, considering it is moderately driven"

Seems very generous to give 5/5 just because its moderately driven. Lowest mode is also quite high at 0,24A/75 lumen.

Seems like battery life is pretty average for a mediocre budget UI. Not sure why it gets anything more than 3/5.

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No, no prob. Really didn't know what to write there, and was running out of time (Easter morn - had to get to church, actually). To me I consider it driven low overall, so battery life is longer than most. Didn't really think bout the low mode - you are right from that perspective, a good moonlight mode would be 5 stars . Actually this was my first review, and did want to do more. Battery life, PWM's, beam patterns, beamshots, tints, and anodizing finish's are all my weakness's.

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Good news!the Supfire has updated the emitter of L6-update to Cree XM-L2, and the price is same, so I will sell the same too

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Nice one, an HD2010 contender eh? PM sent to FarFar...

Thanks Tom, be sure and let me know what you think of this one for modifying. ;)

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No - not a HD2010 contender at all, but to me it's a good quality C8 that takes a 26650. Also for modding, the interesting part is it appears to fit a copper pill, VOB's, sold here: e2fieldgear_vob_copper_pill. If this pill fits, I would assume the brass C8 pills sold at FastTech would fit as well. Having verified all this - I was able to screw in the copper pill till it fully seated, but not sure of clearances on the top.

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Post #2 updated with copper pill details.

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Post #2 now updated with full mod details and test results.

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Nice mod Tom E.

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Tanks! Smile Appreciate it - love your builds!!

Simple, but like how this came out. It does get super hot fast. The L6 just doesn't have the mass and fins for efficient cooling, but think the heat mgt mods I did gets the heat away from the LED quick.

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Looks really nice Tom. I like that you’re using Gelid GC extreme TIM, as I use that when refitting gpu and cpu coolers and waterblocks. On OCN it’s also one of the most highly regarded TIMs out there.

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I ordered L6 with XP-E emitter here for 13,5$.

Got it yesterday.

Pretty much like the light in OP, but with some differences:

XP-E emitter and suitable "centering board". - Does not matter, Ill change to XM-L2 anyway.

Lower output and simpler looking driver. - Does not matter, Ill change driver anyway.

Logo on flashlight says Supfire L6-XPE. - I would prefer the regular Supfire L6, but id does not really matter.

Different reflector. Plastic. Lower 1/3rd is OP, the top and most of it is SMO. Reflector is also shorter. 31,9mm deep.

Pill is 21mm deep. Does that make it a little bit longer in my light?

Was it worth trying to save a few bucks over the XM-L version? Not sure, Ill have to see how the reflector performs with an XM-L2, but in my case, it may have been. Modding this light is not high on my todo list right now. For the price paid. I think I got a nice mod host. I dont mind plastic reflector, and I prefer to not have it that deep. If it got a larger pill, and an XM-L works nicely with the reflector, then I would be really happy for buying the cheaper XP-E version as a mod host compared to the XM-L.

The main con for me is probably the pill/driver retaining ring. One of them or both might need some modding to fit a decent driver.

Knurling should have been a bit be more aggressive IMO. but I like the overall feel of the light. Mine does not tailstand that well/stable. But overall it seems like a decent mod host.