LiteXpress LXB525 2 Mode LED Upgrade Module 525 or 55 Lumen for 3-6 C/D Cell Maglite Torches

UPDATE 16.01.2022. The company LiteXpress seems to have an outdated US webpage dating from 2014 and new products do not show there up and the same for the german webpage. I contacted LiteXpress Germany and they never answered. The seller on Amazon however stated these products are just recently first made availlable in 2020 and still new for the company but said details about specs are an "company secret" and they won't tell which LED bulb is used and the colour temperature neighter. This is definatelly an "germasian" company, most likely an unipersonal company - designed, engineered, R&D in Germany but manufactured in China. I suspect they use Osram LED's of some sort which again is a german company. Indeed the canadian amazon webpage states it is an Osram LED, claiming it is the Osram OSCONIQ P 3737 LED as per description of the manufacturer (Jablokoff). Often german companies are unknown but make high quality products. This may be the case with this company as well - and generally german companies have an shitty customer service. I looked up the datasheet of these OSCONIQ P 3737 series and there are 2 models with 540 lumens which have an colour temp of 4000 K and 5000 K respectively and another one with 520 Lumens has an colour temperature of 4000 K. It must be one of these 3 used in the LXB525 module. The flickering of the bulb is an indication the batteries are empty. When that occurs at empty batteries, I measure 100 mA (full battery charge it draws aprox. 1000 mA) power draw on high 525 Lumens, 30 mA on low 55 Lumen (fully charged it draws aprox. 100 mA) and the batteries have an Voltage of 1.15 Volts. So this bulb does the same as my Panasonic AM/FM radio when the batteries go empty. It stutters more and more with the voice shutting on and off in an accelerated pace. I got about 1 hour and 40 Minutes of mixed use (mostly high) runtime with this LXB525 module on 4 x AA NiMH Eneloop which have 1900 mAh. Thats means my below calculations are correct in real life and you get an runtime of this LXB525 module of about 1.5 hours on high with 1900 mAh batteries (AA) and with D cell 10000 mAh batteries you get roughly 7.5 hours of runtime on high. In the below calculations of the recent days I confused actually batteries in serie and batteries in paralel. But now I have figured it out. These MagLites have the batteries in series meaning they will just up the light output with more batteries (like an 2 D light will be emitting way less light than an 6 D light). So the base mAh of the single battery is the power availlable for the flashlight. Thats why these incandescendent, Xenon MagLites had allways in about the same runtime but differed in ligh output (like around 27 Lumens for an 2 D cell and the 4 D had 98 Lumens and so on). Series and paralel batteries confuses the ordinary consumer since the companies praise it like that if the runtime improves vastly with more batteries. Thats not the case but with more batteries a more powerfull LED can be installed. Overall the stated runtime is vastly overstated as well for this LXB525 LiteXpress module in real life experiments. Think a bit: I get 3 hours of runtime from the same 1900 mAh battery (does not matter if 2 or 6 in series) with my 168 Lumen factory LED Maglite which draws 350 mA (it would be 16 hours on an 10000 mAh D battery). And I shall get 16 days of shining (thats 384 hours) from the 55 Lumen mode which draws 100 mA (previously I measured 90 mA) on a fresh set of batteries? No way since it theoretically draws 3.5 times less energy from the same battery and we know the other flashlight lasted only 3 hours (drawing 350 mA). So I get roughly 3 hours x 3.5 times = 10.5 hours (52.5 hours on an 10000 mAh battery) of runtime of the low mode from the LXB525 module. Thats about 0.5 days on an 1900 mAh battery and 2.5 days on an propper D cell 10000 mAh battery and not 16 whooping days. The following calculations below are a bit confusing and tedious but for some they may provide realistic data. Today I did a comparative test ran the 3 D MagLite 168 Lumen flashlight (factory LED) for 3 hours. Its lasted 3 hours with usefull light left on 3 x AA NiMH batteries. These batteries drew 350 mA on the beginning when they were freshly charged and at the end of these 3 hours continuous shining they drew 110 mA. At the end of this time (3 hours) the light output was visibly diminished. At the end the Battery showed 1.22 Volts. That tells me there is a bit of runtime still left till the battery would cut off. But the light emission was already reduced visibly compared to an fully charged battery set. I estimated for this light before an runtime of about 2.1 hours, which this exceeds well in real life ending up at 3 hours and with usefull light still left. That means my guestimation before was about right but it looks like the factory LED MagLites are more efficient than I assumed giving for an 3 hours runtime on 3 x AA NiMH 1900 mAh batteries. So the previous assumptions where in about right with the 5.5 factor division for real life observations. For this 3 D LED MagLite the runtime is stated at 80 hours with alkaline batteries and that seems to me an gross overstatement as well since I get about 3 hours of runtime with 20% of the power source (3 x AA at 1900 mAh) and if we adjust it to 100% (for 3 x D cell at 10000 mAh each) then we would get only up to 16 hours of runtime. So in all cases even with full power D cell batteries you will likely not get 80 hours of runtime out of this factory LED 168 Lumen MagLite. From the nominal runtime one can expect in real life in about 20% of real runtime. Thats surprisingly again in about the factor 5.5 which we used before to calculate the real life runtimes for this LXB525 LiteXpress module, the Coast HP1 runtime and now this 3 D cell LED 168 Lumen MagLite. So the LXB525 LiteXpress module can realistically shine for about 1.4 hours runtime on 525 Lumens (or a bit more since there can be usefull light left) and has a runtime of about 15 hours (with usefull light left) at 55 Lumens on low mode (with 4 x AA NiMH Eneloop 1900 mAh batteries). That seems to be realistic. For comparison the MagLite 3 D LED 168 Lumen flashlight draws with 3 x AA NiMH Eneloop batteries 0.35 Ampere power. That is 350 mA power usage. The LXB525 LiteXpress module draws on 525 Lumen 970 mA and on low 55 Lumen it draws 90 mA. The LXB525 module emits on high 212% more light (525 Lumen vs 168 Lumen) than the factory LED 168 Lumen Maglite, or 3.1 times, - but it draws only 177% (970 mA vs 350 mA) more power, or 2.7 times. So 970 mA draw from 4 batteries and 350 mA draw from 3 batteries. If the LXB525 module lasts about 1.4 hours run time on 525 Lumens then the 168 Lumen factory LED MagLite should last about 2.1 hours continuous shining with 3 batteries. This could be realistic in real life use. Overall the LXB525 is by far the better lighting experience compared to the factory LED MagLites. This LiteXpress module is vastly superior in overall lighting experience. It will have however an 52% shorter runtime due to the much higher light emission. This week I ran the 4 D MagLite during 3 days till the batteries today seem to be empty. 3 days normal use at evening it lasted me on 4 x AA Eneloop NiMH batteries. Today I used it on 525 Lumens for 15 Minutes straigth. It holds pretty well the lumen intensity but started to flicker more and more. That flickering I believe is the temperature control which reduces the light output. I suspected the batteries where at the end of their charge but believe the flickering is the temperature control. It slightly flickers and starts to flicker more and more. That was in an hot enclosed environment. Once I got out into a cooler place, allmost immediatelly the flashlight stopped flickering at all and shined normally although with noticeable less light output still on high mode (without having switched it off meanwhile). So it flickers if the temperature control kicks in. And if the batteries are at the end of their charge it reduces light output but still it lends for an usable light approaching then already the low mode level at 55 Lumens. So if the batteries are going dead the high mode 525 Lumen approaches more and more the low 55 Lumen mode ending both at the same light intensity. Once the environment gets cooler the flickering stopps indicating that the flicker is the temperature control kicking in. All in one on mostly high mode (the 2 past days I used it on 55 Lumen mode for about 30 Minutes continuously) this module lasts at most 1.5 hours of continuous shining or 3 days normal evening light use. When I took out the batteries today to recharge them they measured 1.17 Volts while they measure about 1.3 Volts when they are fully charged. So that indicates the batteries are indeed empty. I measured the Amperes on the tail of this 4 D MagLite with this LXB525 module from LiteXpress using 4 x AA NiMH Eneloop batteries w/ Eneloop adapters and got following results. On high mode 525 Lumen I got an reading of 0.97 Amperes (970 mA) and on low mode 55 Lumen I got an reading of 0.09 (90 mA) Amperes. Thats what these 2 modi are drawing. I am not an electrician engineer but to me it looks like if these 4 x AA NiMH batteries at 1900 mAh each give in series total 1900 mAh again. According to some online current calculators and my rudimentary electrical skills this module should produce in this set up about 2 hours of light on 525 Lumens and roughly 22 hours of light on the low 55 Lumen setting. I hope that is somewhat correct although I feel the hours gained on 525 Lumen a bit an overestimate. I measured as a control my Coast HP1 as well and got an reading of 0.35 Amperes which gives an theoretical whooping 5.5 hours of continuous shining experience. This number I know is not true for the Coast HP1 as it is in real life only about 60 Minutes one gets light of it. So the whole endnumbers should be divided in 5.5 times (factor 5.5) as that is more an real observable number. So that means I get for the high setting on 525 Lumens with this battery set up divided by the factor 5.5 an battery life and usefull light of about 1.4 hours. That seems realistic to me. On low setting 55 Lumens one should then get an estimated light duration of about 15 hours. That could be realistic. Remember the LXB525 LiteXpress module draws around 970 mA on 525 Lumen setting and 90 mA on 55 Lumen setting. So expected battery life will be with this set up 1.4 hours for 525 Lumen and 15 hours for 55 Lumen. Using 10000 mAH alkaline/NiMH propper D cell batteries x 4 = 10000 mAh in serie, one should get roughly 10 hours theoretical battery duration on 525 Lumen. And with D cell batteries on the low setting one should get theoretically 110 hours of continuous light shining on 55 Lumens. Thats 4.5 days continuous shining on D cell batteries but the package of LiteXpress claims for an up to 16 days light shining (most likely for the 6 D cell MagLite models). Well, I extrapolated from my Coast HP1 light for known run time data and I guess one can not easily switch that over to other lighting systems. At least for an D cell battery set I find it overstated to claim a runtime of 10 hours on 525 Lumens since the claim for the MagLite 3 D cell with the 168 Lumen LED factory bulb is 80 hours. And this is around 3 times of light emitting (525 Lumen vs 168 Lumen) compared to the factory LED 168 MagLites. I hope this calculation gives a hint what runtime to expect and hopefully I did not make an gros error on the calculations. Nevertheless I find these numbers interesting. Please check for yourself these calculations if they are aproximating the real life runtime of this module in an 4 D cell MagLite.Main Review:This is worth the investment. Although to expensive for a single bulb, this is the way to go. The bulb module was more expensive than the Xenon 4 D MagLite itself I bought new from Walmart. There is one issue: sometimes it does not light up when the button is pressed half way in or fully switched on. It just does not light up. I dont know why that happens. It happened to me today already 4 times while using it at night. So it's not reliable for an police officer or in an military situation where the light is critical. With the Xenon bulb that brandnew MagLite never had an issue and with the same brandnew batteries. It's definatelly the LXB525 LiteXpress module what causes this. Hence it looses some satisfactory points but since I use it only privately I did not rest a star. I will keep updating this review once in a while. I claimed that already at the manufacturer since I believe it is an manufacturer defect. We will see if the manufacturer replaces this one in warranty (yep, he has shipped an replacement by now 13.01.2022. Awesome, thanks buddy!). Otherwise this is by far better than the MagLites which come from factory with LED bulbs installed. Specially the light colour is the best in the industry. It must be between 4000 Kelvin and 4500 Kelvin according to most scalas found online. It is the most awesome colour temperature I have yet experienced. It is an normal warm yellowish-whitish sunlight light without being to yellow and without the normal blue annoying colour temperature Maglites which come from factory with LED installed and allmost all other LED lights come with. Other flashlights are in the range of 6500 Kelvin which is way to blueish and gives an unnormal sense. This colour temperature is however not nearly as yellowish as the original Xenon bulbs where this MagLite came with. This LXB525 has the optimal colour temperature IMHO being that somewhere in the range of 4000 Kelvin to 4500 Kelvin. Its an nice normal copy of the sunlight. Awesome! Other than that it works when it lights up. The 525 Lumens are not that impressive but this bulb changes focus. So the "donut problem" of the MagLites is allmost gone and disappeared. It can be way better focused as the factory built LED, incandescent and Xenon MagLites ever could. It throws not so far on 525 Lumens (high setting) as the 168 Lumen LED MagLites do since it has a broader flood light instead of an beam focus. This LXB525 has rather an enfasis in flood light and thus reaches to about 80 Meters far but the best is to use it up to 50 Meters where a very good broad aerea is shined on and lighted up. It will reach 100 Meters but then you will not detail everything at that distance but at 50 Meters everything is lighted up. Because this module scatters more the availlable light lending for a better every day use where a bigger aerea is lighted up. Thats a huge positive and I like it specially combined with the 4500 Kelvin light temperature. I take this one all day over the 168 Lumen MagLite factory LED light. The MagLite does not get hot and just barely warm on high modus (525 Lumen) in an hot air environment. I shined the low setting of 55 Lumen for about 20 Minutes continuously and the light head got barely feelable warmer (again in an hot environment). So there is absolutely no danger for overheating or damaging the Flashlight. MagLite did not recommend me using these since its from a third party manufacturer which is not authorised by them. But hey, LiteXpress makes a better product as MagLite itself regards this bulb. I hope just it lasts as well the 30000 hours promised. Definatelly it is temperature controlled. Sometimes it stuck as well on the lower mode when switching - so thats an issue of this module. On 55 Lumen (low setting) one can walk safely on known paths and streets and thats light enough to do most tasks. On the 55 Lumen setting one can read books easily and have it in use as an lantern or candle for extended times and power outages. I use these with the Eneloop D to AA cell adapters and the Eneloop AA NiMH rechargeable batteries. It works with them. These Eneloop batteries cut off power when they are down to about 1.1 Volts on other flashlights. I believe this module will work reliably with NiMH rechargeable batteries since I used it only with them till now with success. However I have not yet emptied an charge of these Eneloop NiMH and thus can not say how long the batteries will last with this LiteXpress module. Installing the module is easy: just unscrew the retention screw, take the Xenon lamp with base out and throw in the LXB525 LED using the included aluminum retention screw. The original MagLite retention screw is to short so the included one is way longer, from aluminum and works very well. I put a slight film of Vaseline on the outer side of the LXB525 metal body and contact as well on the thread of the aluminum retention screw as per recommendation of MagLite Manual. Vaseline is the standard to lubricate threads of these flashlights as is stated in the MagLite manual. That prevents rust, galling up and ensures propper electrical flow. On high 525 Lumens this module lasts me about 1.5 hours of continuous shining with 4 x AA Eneloop NiMH rechargeable batteries using Eneloop D to AA adapters. This uses more power than the 168 Lumen MagLite which comes with an LED installed from factory. But thats expected since it emitts about 4 times more light and with an much much improved lighting experience which is way comfortable that the original MagLite LED bulb which must have around 6500 Kelvin and blinds like crazy when shined on objects. This LXB525 module has a way better focus adjusting system than the MagLite with it's original bulb (LED, incandescent, Xenon) has. It's more a flood light with an non blinding spot in the middle which lights up a broad aerea. You will see at 100 Meters something with 525 Lumens but this module is best used at 50 Meters or tops 80 Meters. Thats since it's more a flood light instead of a beamer, so it's ideal for every day use. The low setting 55 Lumens is best used for known streets and paths where you can be sure no dangerous critters ar luring in the woods or grass like snakes. You will see perfectly with the 55 Lumen setting and that is specially usefull in candle mode in power outages. The colour tone of this module does not blind the flashlight wearer when shined onto objects at 525 Lumens so this is a big plus. One can shine it onto water surfaces and not be blinded except a few angles. So I find myself using this allmost allways on 525 Lumens since it is such an comfortable light without blinding for the human eye. This is an vast improvement over the factory LED MagLites. The flashlight does not get hot at all. I lighted it up for 45 Minutes continuously (525 Lumens) and just barely one can feel it gets slightly warmer but not even close as warm than the original Xenon bulb this 4 D MagLite came with. It gets exactly as warm as does the 3 D MagLite with factory 168 Lumen LED - so allmost unnoticeable.This is not recommended for LEO's (Police, Military) since randomly the module does not light up when the switch is pressed. But for an private person it works reliably enough if you are willing to fumble a bit around pressing back and forth the switch till it lights up.I recommend these but make sure you get an replacement from the manufacturer if you get an defective one.

Just installed and performs as described. Excellent light and easy installation, just watch the short video provided. I have a 4 D battery 15 year old Mag lite.

Very easy install. A fantastic upgrade for my ml300 incandescent mag lite.

I had an incandescent bulb. This had a very impressive improvement. It has to be about 10 times brighter and it is white light now. Highly recommended.

The LED upgrade was easy to install after watching the video in the product description and is much brighter than the original Xenon bulb in my MagLite.

Running this in a 3 C battery incandescent classic Maglite S3C015 that I have converted to run with two 21700 Protected lithium ion batteries for a nominal 7.4 volts and 8.4 volts maximum with fully charged batteries. Light output on high mode is approximately 10x that with the light in stock configuration which was rated at 45 to 53 Lumens depending on incandescent bulb installed and the stock battery configuration. The light is both brighter and slightly lighter in weight. Low mode on the LED is similar brightness to the original incandescent configuration light.

I purchased one and checked it out, then I purchased two more. That pretty much sums it up! I really like the two speeds, and I prefer its slightly yellow-ish beam. Great value for the price.

Had an old 3 cell maglight I gave to my done to keep in his truck that wasn’t very bright so I ordered this, changed bulb and was so dull I just bought him a new led flashlight. Disappointed