Better bulb for a surefire 6p

[guitardemon]

I love my surefire 6p, but i hate the short battery life. I just heard that surefire came out with a 6p LED light. Can i buy an LED lap assembly and put it in my 6p? If not is there anything else i can do to get more battery life out of my 6p?

 

[bubbacatfish]

A number of companies are now making LED drop-in replacement modules for SF lights. You'll get much better run times but probably less light. I just bought a one of these off another member of CPF (it's damn bright, maybe just shy of the brightness of the P61 bulb) but was planning on trying one of these to try out as they're cheap (hard to beat the price & I've had 3 transactions without a hitch with them). Good luck with your search!

 

[guitardemon]

That second bulb (the dealextreme one) seems interesting. I cant seem to find anywhere that has its run times though. Anyone know what the run times supposed to be with those?

 

[bubbacatfish]

I know the DX drop-ins have been discussed on CFP, pop over & do a search, you might find something. Guaranteed whatever the runtime is it's better than the SF Xenon 20/60mins runtimes.

 

[tirod3]

Worst case, buy a new 3 Watt Rayovac from wallyworld.

Yeah, I know, a big step down if you're a Surefire owner. I am, too, but it does as well as a G2, comes in an nice machined body, and takes AA batteries. You can drive it on 2500mah Nimhs to cut your costs. And I like the whiter light.

A drop in will probably do better than the old fashioned incandescent bulb in everything but focus/spread. The color will be different, but you'll get used to it, and the runtimes are so much better you'll be able to use it more without worrying about the dreaded dim out.

LED's are going to radically change lighting in America across the board. Cars, homes, and public areas are already seeing the death of the inefficient incandescent bulb. Edison's run of lighting is coming to a close.

 

[fasteddie]

I have the original model LED head for the 6P and its worked flawlessly for years. Haven't measured runtime exactly, but a set of batteries lasts thru many many camping trips.

 

[bladefixation2]

You can get some drop in Cree LED P60 style modules for the 6P

I havent tried them but I've heard good things about the Cree LED a lot of light output and high runtime, more efficient than a Luxeon I believe.

I would like to try one but I cant find any here in the UK and I've recently imported some arc AAAs from teh States, its expensive I dont like importing things too often!!

 

[ThinkOfTheChildren]

As mentioned above, CPF is a good source of reading material.

A recent thread within this forum that dealt with this same issue can be read here. As I said in that thread, with the current Cree LED's, you can get a drop-in that is significantly brighter than your current lamp, with a longer runtime as well.

Surefire's own implementation of the Cree in their LED version of the 6P opts for longer runtime over brightness. I believe it is still brighter than the stock 6P incan, but not as bright as the third party options available. It all depends on whether you want to stay with the SF name, and whether you want to push the limits of output or go for longer runtime instead. You have an amazing number of options given the body you are using.