Ok, I have an old 6P and 9P Surefire lights. They are good, but the Krypton bulbs suck compared to LED. Fleabay has Chicom lamp heads for $10 each which is cheap. However I would pay a bit more to not buy Chinese. Any suggestions?

Malkoff

Not sure of the country of MFG, but these have always been highly regarded.

Malkoff.

Every day of the week. No doubts on integrity, durability or their honest runtimes. If anything, Gene shows lumens at less that what they really are.

I think I will just put them in a drawer for use around the house. $50-$75 for a lamp, when I can get a new Stream Light for much less seems to be a waste of money. Thanks for the input.

Malkoff is the way to go.
The surefire 6p is a great light and it will only be better with the Malkoff.
A 6P incandescent will give you 65 lumens for an hour.
A Malkoff M61LL will give you 100 lumens for 10 hours.
If you are using CR123a batteries it won't take long to make up the initial cost with the money you will save on batteries.
Go to Malkoffs website and read the reviews on the various drop ins.
They are well worth every penny.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by p08:
I think I will just put them in a drawer for use around the house. $50-$75 for a lamp, when I can get a new Stream Light for much less seems to be a waste of money. Thanks for the input.

You're fall8ng for the lumens numbers game and it's not the way to buy a light. I have many Streamlight, Surefire, Olight and many others and they all play the numbers game.

The game is this and it's found on every manufacturer's site - Total runtime is stated to when the light only has 10% of it's stated lumens. Go to the Streamlight site, pick a light, go to Documentation and the Fact Sheet. You will see a graph that shows the full runtime at the stated brightness but it only stays for a few minutes before it tapers down to as little as half the lumens and then it tapers way down until 3 hours later you are at 10% of stated lumens. It's marketing and all the big players do it except Malkoff.

When he says you will get 10 hours runtime at 100 lumens with the M61 LL, you will get that as steady regulated output. And then it tapers

Gene's products use top shelf LEDs and solid brass modules for heat sinking.

Worth every single penny.

Based on actual extensive personal experience I wouldn't trust a streamlight for anything serious. I have converted many old surefires and they have had excellent results.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
Malkoff

Not sure of the country of MFG, but these have always been highly regarded.

Alabama, USA


I bought one of these for 9P mounted to a colt AR to replace the old high output incandescent bulb.

Just arrived today its great; much brighter and clearer (blue white vs yellow option).

Not inexpensive however. Thought about just buying a whole new flashlight for the same price.

However upon swapping out the lamp head I noticed how well the Surefire 9P is actually made and it would be a shame to cast that beautiful piece aside. With a Malkoff lamp in there feels rocksolid. Looks super well made some hoping it’ll hold up to the muzzle blast. Looks far more durable than ones you get an Amazon for $14.

Oh, very personal and friendly… Customer service was superb and direct. Small shop.

quote:

Originally posted by Flashlightboy:
Malkoff.

Every day of the week. No doubts on integrity, durability or their honest runtimes. If anything, Gene shows lumens at less that what they really are.

Gene and Cathy are awesome to work with!

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Based on actual extensive personal experience I wouldn't trust a streamlight for anything serious. I have converted many old surefires and they have had excellent results.

Also based on extensive personal experience of carrying and using a Streamlight every day at least once for the last 25 years, I'd choose one over anything else for serious work.

Malkoff no doubt. Not just for the products, which are excellent, but because these are the people you WANT TO BUY FROM. Gene and Cathy are amazingly responsive, knowledgeable and personable. Honestly good products, good prices for the quality provided and amazing folks. It’s a no brainer.

Also Malkoff’s lumens are like Clydesdale horsepower . They punch above their weight.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
Malkoff no doubt. Not just for the products, which are excellent, but because these are the people you WANT TO BUY FROM. Gene and Cathy are amazingly responsive, knowledgeable and personable. Honestly good products, good prices for the quality provided and amazing folks. It’s a no brainer.

Also Malkoff’s lumens are like Clydesdale horsepower . They punch above their weight.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This. Malkoff all the way! Excellent lamps for the old Surefires, and great people to deal with.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Based on actual extensive personal experience I wouldn't trust a streamlight for anything serious. I have converted many old surefires and they have had excellent results.

I agree. I made the mistake of buying a couple Streamlights over the years. They all broke. Now it's Surefire all the time, every time for me. Never had one fail.

I have a few Malkoff drop-ins for the 6P and 9P. Construction and performance are top-notch.

Now sadly discontinued, but I have one of his LED units in my Surefire M4. The light came packaged with incandescent "regular" and "high output" lamps, both of which were good performers. But the Malkoff drop-in may have actually been built from a tiny portion of the Sun itself. It's now my go-to flashlight for when I need a lot of light thrown far.

I would support Malkoff by buying more, but their products never seem to die.

This thread made me upgrade a SF M2 I had laying around w/ a dead bulb. This will be my third product from Malkoff and no issues to report. The other 2 were SF E2E replacement heads to convert them to LED as well.

I have a discount code for 15% off if anyone needs or plans to purchase from them. Just email me.

As cheap lights to have in drawers around the house I doubt you can avoid Chinese ones.

But then why not just keep them incandescent for that?

I have had some of my Streamlights for 3-4 years now. They are holding up sell, but I don't abuse them, nor do I carry them on my body every day as some do. I like the ProTac HPL for it's small size and bright light. A little large to carry, but the ProTac HL5X is amazing. I know about how companies use different ratings to make their light look better.
But as a ffl I can get brand new Streamlights for less than a lamp replacement on my old Surefire lights. I also like the USB recharge function on the Streamlights as well.
My light collection:

Great - thanks for the post. Now I have to part with $150 for a Malkoff flashlight.

I have an old Surefire 6P that I did upgrade with the Malkoff drop in LED. You can (or could) catch those drop ins on sale for $40-$45.

I bought the lowest output module they sold (60-80 ish lumens). It has full warm output for 10+ hours.

A very nice upgrade, worth the price to me.

Honestly, with the bulletproof push/twist activation of the 6P, and the new LED module, this is an extremely durable flashlight. You can pass this flashlight down to your grandkids. I have an OLD 15 year old Malkoff drop in and I use it weekly. And it will still be usable in 30 years.

As I understand it, Malkoff sold his flagship M60 drop in technology to Elzetta flashlights. He no longer makes them. He still makes his M61. If you want a M60 you have to buy it used or possibly straight from Elzetta.

I will gladly accept donations of old surefire lights