Considering that these are all XR-E based lights, I would say that they’re NOT putting out what they say with 1xAA.
Hi, can anyone confirm if XENO E03 can run on 14500 unsupervised? For example, tail-stand the E03 and run it on Highest mode in room temperature continuously until the battery is flat?
Thank you very much!
An old but surprisingly bright contender is the Tank007 TK-566. It has a rather ringy beam profile, but it’s impressively bright even on NiMH or alkaline. I have no idea how many lumens it really is (they claim 200), but I like it.
+1 for the TK-566
I have one from DX that is XPG and it is pretty dang bright. Especially for the cost. Think I paid $15. Not the prettiest… and the build quality is fitting for the low cost, which is to say adequate at best. But for the money, it is pretty bright. If I had to guess I would say roughly 180lm.
I like Ni-mh a lot too, but give LifePo4s a try. I use Tenergys myself. They are a good compromise. Comparable power to CR123s. Runtime is short, but that is really their only downside. Otherwise, their discharge curve is supposedly sorta similar to Ni-mh. Low self discharge.
I can check that for the sake of science but with its low mass I don’t think it will stay cold for long. It loses its lower modes, at least they all become medium as far as I remember. Even Zebralight drops the brightness in time not to burn the light.
4sevens Quark and Thrunite Neutron / Archer series keep their low modes with lithium ions, though. Still, would warm up quickly on high.
Well, the XRE can easily do those lumens if the light will pull enough watts through the LED.
For the SC52 to get 285lm from an XML it needs to draw about 2.8W, which is about a 2A draw on a freshly charged NiMH. An XRE can do 195lm and an XPE can do 230lm with the same power. (Some SK68s come with an XPE instead of the expected XRE.)
My single mode SK68 with XPE draws about 2A with NiMH so it is theoretically producing ~230lm - good enough for a $6 alternative.
Though I normally run it as a pocket rocket with a 14500, my 3 mode SK68 with XPG2 draws about 1.6A with NiMH which gets it into 225 lumen neighborhood and I’m only into it for about $15.
If you want to save money an SK68 or other 14500 capable light that has a good NiMh draw (~2A) and an XPE gets you to your target. An LED swap to XPG2 should get you to about the same 285lm as the SC52.
It’s probably heresy on another forum, but for here if you have a light you like and the draw is good, the LED swap could be a great alternative to the “latest and greatest” new light.
I must admit, replacing an XRE with an XPG2 really makes a big difference. I had a Romisen I replaced with a Neutral XPG R4 and it is way brighter than before. Worth a try.
I think there are few lights that can do 200 lumens OTF on a NiMH or alkaline. The emitter power would be about 3W or so. On a 1.2V cell, that is about 2.5A and that is not factoring in driver loss.
Realistically, I would expect 100 to 150 lumens on NiMH max.
The Balder SE1 I suggested does not get much above 100 lumens on NiMH. I have not tried a LiFePO4. Still a good light for the price, just performs a lot better on Li-Ion.
Tried to see how it goes, but E03 was hand burning hot after 7 minutes. I couldn’t risk blowing up the lithium battery inside. It was hot already when I took it off. Sorry.
My personal favorite single AA (alright, admittedly for the moment) is an Olight i2-EOS. With a Lithium primary (I haven’t tried a 14500) it gives a humble 70-ish lumens on high. The part I like is that it gives them for a long time…and the low of 2.5 lumens will, in a bind, give you light for a weeks worth of nights. Another attribute that I favor is that it ALWAYS starts in low - no blinding highs to pass through in a darkened room to simply see where you’re going.
I think it cost about $20, and after having been carried daily for six months or so, shows not the slightest sign of wear or distress. It might not have friends and neighbours saying “WOW!” but that’s never been one of my criteria, which are simply adequacy and reliability. The i2-EOS fulfills them nicely.
I guess this result already answer the question 
The new Armytek Partner A1 hits about 330 OTF at turn on quickly dropping to about 260.
It’s significantly cheaper direct from Armytek at the moment, but they charge quite a lot for shipping on top.
Also, I have tried two Thrunite Saber 1As and both were about 110-115 genuine OTF lumens. On 14500 they hit over 350, but mode spacing is poor 1/160/350+.
OK, just for completeness, I checked the Balder SE1 (XM-L T6 3C NW) output again:
14500 (4.1V resting): 365lm OTF after 30 seconds
Fully charged NiMH:69 lumens OTF after 30 seconds
power supply at 1.4V: (2.29A) 130 lumens OTF after 30 seconds
There you have it. As I said when I got it; “man this thing isn’t very bright, oh wait it can take a 14500… now it’s bright!”.
I find that’s often the case with 14500/AA lights, a lot of the time they are optimised for 14500 batteries and perform poorly on AAs while lights designed for AA’s only tend to be a lot brighter on AA’s than AA/14500 lights.
Check out JohnnyMacs Armytek Partner Series review. 1xAA version looks like it can output over 200 lumens.