Well, the first thing you may notice when you pick it up is the weight. It can certainly be used as a defensive object!
The switch has resistors on the PCB to control output and there is no driver in the pill, as far as I can tell. The tail spring is fairly stiff. There is a retaining ring to hold it all together and a wire ring to improve contact. I replaced it with some copper wire.
There are four parts of Al that make up the head including a crenelated ring, reflector ‘holder’, pill ‘positioner’ and pill. The spring on the pill is soft. There is a foam ring around this spring for cushioning the batteries. The emitter wires are of sufficient gauge but my sample had no thermal paste under the 20mm star. The glue-mounted reflector is plastic and features a textured surface at the base and then a smooth surface for the remaining 4/5 of the height. The plastic lens is 52 mm in diameter and although there is a groove to place one, there is no o-ring to seal the lens.
The battery tube has decent knurling and a thick wall with o-rings at both ends.
As for performance, I made these measurements while feeding it some AA Eneloops:
Direct measure from tail end: 2.2A
With tail switch in current path: 1.9A on Hi and 0.14A on low.
I direct-measured 2.3A with 2x Sanyo 2600mAh 18650s with a similar battery holder as depicted in this thread.
As for the beam profile, this is a thrower! The hot spot seems almost cylindrical and opens up very gradually. The spill is quite focused too but sufficient as with most XM-L torches. As a comparison, the spill is a little less wide than the Defiant 3C but ‘cleaner’.
Mere resistors in the tailcap for low is inefficient, it also would mean that high is probably DD
The driver in the tailcap, away from the heat of the pill! There would be problems with switches being integrated with the driver but easier if the switch was an electronic one! But a setup like this could spread the heat around. I like it. Would have to have a positive ground flashlight though.
Yes, you got that right. It reminds me of the current Costco-sold, aspheric Duracell 500 lumen, 3 C cell… except that one actually has an electronic switch. It cuts off the light when the batteries are done. I haven’t checked what that voltage is yet.
I’ve learned a few things from this forum but if this light is DD on high, why is it only pulling +/- 2A? Wouldn’t it be higher with an XM-L? Also, I read an electronic switch is a culprit for parasitic drain. Unfortunately, the threads are not anodized. Thanks dchomak!
All Cree XM-L flashlights with the Duracell featuring an aspheric lens and a flat plastic lens to protect the aspheric… still a bright light.
I compared the throw for the Defiant 3C and the Utilitech 3C and they are fairly close with the Defiant having a bit more flood.
I found two new (to me) large Utilitech flashlights at Lowes, recently. One is a zoomer with an XM-L(2?) that uses 3x D but the one that really caught my eye is a triple XP-G2. The deep, one piece, smooth reflector has ‘larger diameter than P-60 size’ partitions for each of the emitters. What is even better is it uses 9 AA batteries that I think could be substituted with 3x 26500s or maybe 2-3 26650s.
The weird thing is that this model (sku #0569178) is not on any website that I can find (??!!). Here’s a photo:
!!
I have 3 large lights, including a 3C DST so I’m not interested in buying one till the price drops below ~$40. But I sure hope someone finds one at their store and writes about it.
As a side note, the triple using 3x D batteries that was at HD was a disappointment as it didn’t seem to generate lumens more than my stock DST.
I’m thinking this new triple, with the 3 lithiums could be a good performer.
That does look like a nice light. Probably 3S3P. Wish the would go 4S2P instead for higher voltage. But like you said, I seems like a good like to mod for li-ion cells. I'm with you, price is too high at this moment.
Agreed, they would have been much better powered by 3xAA cells. I don't know what's in manufacturers' heads trying to power everything in the world with AAA's. :Sp
