Old P60L in nitrolon question

I did some googling but didnt see a good answer. How important is the upgraded alloy bezel on a Surefire G2 if its running a P60L? Does it improve output vs runtime due to thermal regulation or is it actually important for LED longevity and reliability?

Might help keep the emitter a little cooler but realistically those were only putting out 80 or 100 lms so they really don't get very hot. I doubt you'd have any problems, especially if use is intermittent.

Kinda my thoughts as well. I'm debating on running one of my spare/back up G2's with my M61NL for general purpose use and keeping the P60L in my G2 at the bedside or switching. Neither gets much use; the bedside light is just for "bumps in the night" and has to be 100% reliable... The P60L works fine in that capacity. Although I could swap out for my recently acquired C3.

In any case, looks like options are open if the P60L doesn't get excessively warm.

The SF P60L is discontinued. If you plan to keep yours ( such as for any "collector value" ) , I would not run it in any host that might possibly compromise it's already marginal heatsinking.

Discussed in detail, here ...

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?337334-Surefire-P60L-is-getting-dimmer

It is not easily replaceable at this point. If you don't care, or plan to eventually upgrade this obsolete dropin anyway, I suppose that it may last for some time (if used gently) :shrug:

IIRC the thermal limiter in the P60L would rapidly reduce the output to 70lm in an aluminum 6P, reduce to 60lm in a G2 with aluminum head/bezel, and ~50lm in an all-nitrolon light, and would even descend further than that over time.

It was a very poor design partially because SF couldn't get around Malkoff's patent(s) IIRC

My first Surefire was a 6P LED that had the P60L which I purchased at Lowes back in 2007 IIRC. At the time, I was really impressed with it. But once the flashaholic bug bit, and I started getting exposed to other lights, it was then I realized how lousy this drop in was, sorry to say. Certainly not Surefire finest product by any stretch of the imagination.

Over 10 years later I can say though that mine is still functioning just fine, so it appears to at least be reliable. I'm pretty sure Surefire initially released it in the G2 LED with a nitrolon bezel, but soon afterwards started selling the G2 LED with the aluminum bezel. So apparently Surefire felt it put out enough heat to warranty the aluminum bezel.

I used one in an all plastic light. No real problems but then got a M60LL and the P60L was moved inside a battery holder.

As mentioned the P60L did not really have a high output so even with the limited heatsinking I wouldn't worry about it. The first G2 LED's didn't even have aluminum bezels.

I have a P60L and I don't plan on getting rid of it. It's not the brightest, or the best tint, but it does have that collectable factor as it is mint, and it's the only LED drop in that I'm aware of that allows you to completely screw down the bezel on a metal P60/D26 format light. You can do this with other drop ins with the G series lights, but it damages the internal metal sleeve.

If I recall correct there were 2 P60L modules. First was 60-ish lumens that held steady and second was an 85 that stepped down to 65.

I also may be wrong here but I feel like I remember there being an upgrade kit where a proprietary head was available with the 85 lumen version. I remember thinking I had gotten lucky scoring a G2L with the 85 lumen module in a Z44 (not the "special head"), which I promptly put in a matte finish solar force head to better match the nitrolon body. The tint in my particular example casts a gray tone making my red truck look a lot less red. Perhaps it is "on the way out" like described in other posts.

But not long ago I acquired a nice tan G2L with a nitrolon head that has a real nice beam and tint. But being the early LED's ran way less efficient, I only run it for short periods in that configuration. Certainly heat build up isn't massive like todays sunshine bright numbers, but being a sorta vintage piece of history I prefer to be cautious. Not because of fear of over heating. Cautious because it has a real nice tint and my thought is based on other comments that the P60L darkens over time at a faster rate than one would these days.
Plus I remember a conversation with PK one afternoon where he told the story of how he, his brother and Peter Gransee (of ARC fame) had collaborated on the P60L and were able to devise a module as bright as the P60 without being "puke green". He said folks wanted "white, white, white" and after a few batches they had produced some that were pretty good. So I think my tan G2L has one of the 'good ones' in it.

For nostagia purposes adding a P60L is a good thing. But for light quality there are certainly better options available. A Malkoff M61NL is pretty sweet in a nitrolon head and runs fine in it according to Gene.

Edit:
Thinking back, I recall the first time walking around with my '85 lumen' G2L and noticing after a couple of minutes it looked like I clicked it to medium. It was a noticable drop. I turned it off and back on and same thing occured. So like Kestrel said perhaps 50 lumens.... and I remember thinking "I hope this step down crap don't catch on, otherwise folks will be touting a thousand lumens (for 8 seconds).

I could be wrong but the step down and longer runtimes occurred because the P60L was placed in all plastic lights aka G2. In a 6P they run brighter but shorter.

I don't recall there being any step down circuit in the P60L and I had a few of them when they were available. Doesn't seem like there would even be room for one.

I also thought they were all rated at 80 lumens.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?175486-Surefire-G2L
Here's a couple of answers from back in the day...