# Brinkmann MaxFire LX



## David13 (Oct 15, 2008)

Ok guys I know this is not a new flashlight and I know I'm not the first one asking this but please help me with all your CPF wisdom. What should I buy to put in my MaxFire LX to get more lumens than the stock one. I want the easiest way to do it, no soldering or so...
Please tell me how many Lumens I have with the stock MaxFire LX and how many I will get with the mod.


----------



## mdocod (Oct 15, 2008)

A pair of AWs IMR16340 cells, a 3.7V 2 cell li-ion charger, (Pila IBC if you are willing), a SureFire P91 lamp assembly.

Runtime will be 9 minutes, output will be right around "holy crap." 

Since it's rechargeable, runtime is less of an issue, but 9 minutes may not be practical for what you want to do.

Word of caution, the P91 will run quite hot, I think the MaxFire body should handle it just fine if used in short bursts.

------------------------------------------

If you just want to stick with primary CR123s, you can drop an EO-6 from lumensFactory, or a P61 from Surefire into it and boost your output by a decent little notch. Runtime will be ~30 or 20 minutes respectively. 

-----------------------------------------

Another option is an LED module drop-in, problem there is that the maxfire does not provide adequate heat-sinking for a high output LED module, you would have to limit yourself to short runs. 

Eric


----------



## David13 (Oct 16, 2008)

mdocod said:


> A pair of AWs IMR16340 cells, a 3.7V 2 cell li-ion charger, (Pila IBC if you are willing), a SureFire P91 lamp assembly.
> 
> Runtime will be 9 minutes, output will be right around "holy crap."
> 
> ...



Ok mdocod, first of all thank you for the fast answer, this is very useful. 
I know SureFire P91 is rated to be 200 lumens still I don't know how many lumens a stock MaxFire LX is putting out. And if I run this lamp for a couple of minutes, what is going to happen? Is my MaxFire going to melt???

Thank you too for the LED option but I don't want to use LED's in this light as I just bought a TK11. Just want to be sure if P91, P61 and EO-6 are easy to use in my Brinkmann light, remember I am not realy into cutting, soldering or anything like that...

I love LED's but I still want to use these old good Incan that stock M*g users don't have!!!


----------



## mdocod (Oct 16, 2008)

I honestly have no way of saying for sure whether it will handle the heat of a P91. I only offer up the warning of the possibility that it COULD melt but I don't know as I have never run a P91 in a maxfire, and the option just became viable as of about yesterday when AW came out with the new IMR16340 cells. If you had asked me the same question a week ago I would have said a pair of regular li-ion cells and something like a P90 or SR-9 or other "standard output" lamp assembly. Or a P61 on CR123s, those were the brightest options.

You can try the P91, or you can wait a few weeks and see what LumensFactory is coming out with (they have new lamps in the works for the new IMR16340 cells). 

I can tell you that SureFire sells something called G3, which is a Polymer body flashlight like the maxfire, and they offer the P91 for it as the "optional high output lamp." I have never heard of that flashlight melting. 

The maxfire has a glass lens like the G3, so the lens will be fine. 

---------------------------------------------------

Remove the head from the maxfire, now unscrew the reflector module out of the bezel assembly. You will now have an empty head that has room (with a couple mm to spare) for just about any 26mm tactical lamp assembly on the market. That includes all of the "P" series lamps from SureFire, all of the "D26" lamps from LumensFactory, and dozens of other lamps from all over the the net made by brands often sold for "airsoft." 


No soldering or anything special required, it's a quick swap of your current "guts" in the head with a standard tactical reflector lamp module. 


----------------------------------------------------

Try not to worry too much about lumen ratings, but take this into consideration.

The stock maxfire is about 6 watts.
The P91 is going to run at 18-20W on those IMR16340 cells.

Higher voltage lamps are more efficient (generally speaking, once you get to 12V and higher it doesn't really apply). 

You will see a very noteworthy difference as I would suspect that the P91 on those IMR cells will probably be about 4X as bright as the stock maxfire. 

----------------------------------------------------

Eric


----------



## [email protected] (Oct 16, 2008)

There's always one of the FM-D26 focusable hosts from CPF's FiveMega (though it's not been established if they will indeed fit the Maxfire LX), combined with your choice of incan bulb & power source! 


Provided the FM-D26 was compatible this would be THE most flexible modification for your light, mind you the purchase price of the components will exceed that of the host


----------



## kavvika (Oct 16, 2008)

DX #1343. I have one in each of my Maxfire's, and they run beautifully on an AW 17670 cell.


----------



## [email protected] (Oct 16, 2008)

kavvika said:


> DX #1343. I have one in each of my Maxfire's, and they run beautifully on an AW 17670 cell.




That's pretty neat... did you have to modify the housing to fit the 17670 Li-Ion battery? my Maxfire LX has 2 tube intrusions running almost the entire length of the battery compartment (see pic below) preventing me from fitting my AW 17670 in there


----------



## Flashfirstask?later (Oct 18, 2008)

The tube can be pushed out very easily, however it is rather easy to bend or misshapen such if you try and flatten the ridges. 

I have two of AW's old 3.0v RCR123's and they overdrive the stock maxfire bulb at 3.2v each on load but longer dropins like the DX 11074 certainly does not fit with the stock metal tube in place as I ended up wrecking the tube and doing a MacGyver wiring setup instead.


----------



## David13 (Nov 9, 2008)

Ok thank you guys for the infos, I will have to order some drop in and try all this for myself.

David13


----------



## Black Rose (Dec 6, 2008)

I was at Canadian Tire today and noticed that they have a Noma branded 2xCR123 Xenon light on clearance for $19.99.

I Googled for info on it to see if it was a decent light or not. 
Based on what I've foind, it appears the light is actually a rebranded Brinkmann MaxFire LX. 

You think it's a good deal for $20?


----------



## outersquare (Dec 6, 2008)

no, buy one of those G2s on sale instead


----------



## springbok (Dec 6, 2008)

Black Rose,

I bought 4 of those Noma lights from crappy tire. Yes it is infact a rebranded maxfire LX.

You are getting ripped. $20 is not a good deal. I bought 2 of the lights 10 days ago at crappy tire and they were on clearance for $12.95 ea. Normal price is $24.95.

ciao for now....


----------



## mdocod (Dec 6, 2008)

If I could find them again somewhere here in the states for under $15 each I would pick up a few more. I think they are a great value. Both of mine have been going strong for years. (both have been modified pretty heavily though, hehe)....


----------



## Black Rose (Dec 6, 2008)

springbok said:


> You are getting ripped. $20 is not a good deal. I bought 2 of the lights 10 days ago at crappy tire and they were on clearance for $12.95 ea. Normal price is $24.95.


These ones have been at $19.99 for at least 6 weeks.

Were the ones you bought tagged $12.95?

I'll have to see if they have any at the other local stores at a better price or simply ask them why the price discrepancy.


----------



## Illum (Dec 6, 2008)

being the fact that they are discontinued I'd say it'll be pretty rare if you do find a place that has them, but good luck on your search Mdocod!
the places I've been don't even have a peg with its name on it


----------



## Black Rose (Dec 6, 2008)

outersquare said:


> no, buy one of those G2s on sale instead


Where? If it's in the states, no good to me due to Surefires export rules.


----------



## ampdude (Dec 7, 2008)

I ran a P61 in the Maxfire I had awhile back without any problems. Though I never ran it for extended periods. I did run a P90 in it with two RCR's for extended periods, problem free. The Brinkmann Maxfire LX does have a glass lens, so that is not a problem. But I imagine the real worry is about the head melting or batteries (primaries) going into thermal shutdown or the conditions of a plastic light being bad for IMR cells in the long run. I suppose this is a very real possiblity since the P91 gets very hot. It is a higher voltage bulb and puts out more light than even the P61, but I don't know honestly whether it gets any hotter than the P61 since they both draw a similar amount of current at their respective operating voltages. I would suspect maybe the P91 gets a tad warmer than the P61 in the long run.


----------



## springbok (Dec 7, 2008)

Black Rose said:


> These ones have been at $19.99 for at least 6 weeks.
> 
> Were the ones you bought tagged $12.95?
> 
> I'll have to see if they have any at the other local stores at a better price or simply ask them why the price discrepancy.



hey buddy

yup, the lights i got had a nice red sticker on them, and printed on it was $12.95 in black ink. I must add, that the scanned price was 19.95, until i pointed out to the clerk that the big red sticker clearly says 12.95. She merely did an override and I was happy  Let me know if you want me to take a photo then I can send it to you.....i think i threw away the receipt allready.


----------



## William A Moncrief (Dec 18, 2008)

I purchased my MaxFire LX at Wal-Mart. I know very little about flashlihts except they light the way. My complaint is the work time for it is only about 1 hr w/ 117 lumens (according to Brinkman) with no warnig as to near dead. It simply goes out. Bummer. I Purchased a Streamlight Twin Task 2-L witth Xenon and Led and was very disappointed. It is not as bright as Maxfire and does not project as well but cost twice as much. Can anyone help me understand this. I like the brightness of the Maxfire and its projection. Why are some of the "Better" FL less powerful and twice as much.


----------



## mdocod (Dec 18, 2008)

William A Moncrief said:


> I purchased my MaxFire LX at Wal-Mart. I know very little about flashlihts except they light the way. My complaint is the work time for it is only about 1 hr w/ 117 lumens (according to Brinkman) with no warnig as to near dead. It simply goes out. Bummer. I Purchased a Streamlight Twin Task 2-L witth Xenon and Led and was very disappointed. It is not as bright as Maxfire and does not project as well but cost twice as much. Can anyone help me understand this. I like the brightness of the Maxfire and its projection. Why are some of the "Better" FL less powerful and twice as much.



The simple answer is that a flashlight that costs twice as much that performs half as good is not a "better" flashlight unless it has some other major redeeming quality. In this case, the streamlight has their warranty and possible slightly better build quality, but the maxfire is a very well built little light at a great price....

You mentioned how it just seems to "go out" all the sudden (well, technically, as I'm sure you are aware, it doesn't just go out, but suddenly rapidly dims down all the sudden)... this is typical of the discharge style of lithium primary cells, they maintain pretty good voltage through most of the discharge, and then suddenly the voltage drops when they run out of juice....

Most people describe this type of cell behavior as a blessing, as it means that you can actually use all of the available power in the batteries and be getting good output right up until the batteries go dead. By comparison, a pair of alkaline cells could never drive an incandescent bulb that bright, and would just get steadily dimmer and dimmer though the entire run, so you would always be debating with yourself as to when to replace the cells to go back to full brightness. 

There are lots of great flashlights out there. I highly suggest checking out some of the modern LED flashlights in this size class as they are really strong performers with better runtime (look for flashlights using the cree Q5 and R2 emitters). When run on a pair of regular CR123s most of them will give you a longer trailing of diminishing output before "going out." Spend some time seeing what people are discussing in the LED section of the forum. Incans in this size class can still be great tools but are lacking in a few areas when compared to the LEDs. Just depends what you are after I suppose...

Eric


----------



## mdocod (Dec 18, 2008)

ampdude said:


> I ran a P61 in the Maxfire I had awhile back without any problems. Though I never ran it for extended periods. I did run a P90 in it with two RCR's for extended periods, problem free. The Brinkmann Maxfire LX does have a glass lens, so that is not a problem. But I imagine the real worry is about the head melting or batteries (primaries) going into thermal shutdown or the conditions of a plastic light being bad for IMR cells in the long run. I suppose this is a very real possiblity since the P91 gets very hot. It is a higher voltage bulb and puts out more light than even the P61, but I don't know honestly whether it gets any hotter than the P61 since they both draw a similar amount of current at their respective operating voltages. I would suspect maybe the P91 gets a tad warmer than the P61 in the long run.



The amount of heat a bulb generates is pretty directly correlated to wattage. The P91 is about 33% higher wattage than a P61, and will theoretically produce ~33% more heat as a result. Current alone has basically nothing to do with it.

example:
A P61 is about a ~4.5V 2.5A bulb. or about 11 watts.
If you made a bulb that was 2.25V and 5 amps, it would still be 11 watts, and make about the same amount of heat.


----------



## ampdude (Dec 19, 2008)

By the way, somebody mentioned removing the tube. The tube needs to be in place to provide the path for electrical current. What I did was remove the tube, cut the ridges out with a dremel and put the tube back in place. The inside wasn't pretty, but it worked good.


----------



## mdocod (Dec 19, 2008)

ampdude said:


> By the way, somebody mentioned removing the tube. The tube needs to be in place to provide the path for electrical current. What I did was remove the tube, cut the ridges out with a dremel and put the tube back in place. The inside wasn't pretty, but it worked good.



With a little bit of work it can be honed out for an 18650, then use some really thin gage copper sheet to make a new thinner walled conductive tube insert....

Both my older maxfires are setup with single 18650s driving single mode R2 LED modules that drop out of regulated below ~5V, the result is a nice little R2 light that operates the LED in the 250-500mA range, and is still plenty bright, but runs for 5+ hours and weighs practically nothing.


----------



## ampdude (Dec 19, 2008)

I should mention for anyone interested in modding the Maxfire that the new AW IMR cells are slimmer in diameter than the AW protected RCR123a's, which in turn have slightly less diameter than the P17670's. So it may possibly be that the ridge does not need to be removed if the Maxfire is used with two IMR16340's and a 9V type lamp assembly.


----------



## loadedoperator (Dec 26, 2008)

I have three maxfires around the house, nice you can bump up the power.


----------



## outersquare (Dec 26, 2008)

i have a couple with DX dropins in them


----------



## Chrontius (Dec 28, 2008)

I have a couple - one was a rechargeable model until it ate its switch mechanism due to a faulty battery stick. It briefly worked well with a P61; I wanted something bright and cheap to feed. The lithium one is my go-to loaner/beater incan.


----------

