Cloud Defensive MCH-Duty Handheld Light

[Casey]

As promised, I gathered up my current crop of handhelds over the weekend and headed to a vacant floor at work that has become my de facto indoor light testing area. I used the same fixed exposure settings to prevent my phone from making everything look the same and I did my best to approximate what I was seeing, but ultimately, I'm still working with an iPhone camera and I'm no photographer, so this isn't a perfect representation.

The lineup:

1. Modlite HOG OKW - 700 lumens / 170,000 candela
2. Modlite HOG PLHv2 - 1,350 lm / 120,000 cd
3. Modlite 18650 OKW - 680 lm / 69,000 cd
4. Modlite 18650 PLHv2 - 1,350 lm / 54,000 cd
5. Modlite 18650 PLH5K - 1,500 lm / 29,000 cd
6. Cloud Defensive MCH-HC-2.0 - 1,100 lm / 71,000 cd
7. Cloud Defensive MCH-HC-DF - 1,100 lm / 80,000 cd
8. Cloud Defensive MCH-Duty-HO-DF - 1,800 lm / 50,000 cd

First, we have a long hallway with the far wall being approximately 65 yards away.

















Both HOGs have no problem reaching the end of the hallway and maintaining a very well-defined hotspot, with the PLH being slightly larger than the OKW. I'm convinced there's next to no discernible difference between the HOG OKW and PLHv2 inside of 50 yards.

The 18650 OKW and PLHv2 also stretch out to the end of the hallway, though with less intensity. The 18650 PLH5K just barely lights up the far wall and it's pretty obvious it's only got half the rated candela of the OKW.

Although rated some 15k cd higher than the 18650 PLHv2, to my eye the MCH-HC-2.0 has less throw than the PLHv2, and the MCH-HC-DF appears to have the same throw as the PLHv2 despite being rated 26k cd higher. I'd like to see some third-party testing for some honest numbers. The MCH-Duty candela rating seems more accurate as far as I can tell; it appears dimmer than the PLHv2 but provides notably more throw than the PLH5K.

Now, for a close-range comparison, here we're looking at 20 yards to the far wall.

















Again the HOGs are very similar, with the PLH providing a tad more spill. What I like about these shots is the open doorway on the left hand side, which really makes it evident how much spill the lights have. The 18650 OKW is such a tight beam that I can't make out anything inside the doorway. The HOG OKW is still a tight beam, but with more than double the candela, there's enough light bouncing around to provide a little bit of illumination into that doorway. The PLH5K is a nice, diffuse beam relative to the others and provides a good amount of light through the doorway.

It still appears the MCH-HC lacks the candela of the PLHv2 and has a less well-defined hotspot, although the MCH-HC-DF is pretty evenly matched (again, despite being rated at 26k cd higher than the PLHv2). The MCH-Duty really blows away all the other lights at this distance. Just look how much light is spilling into that doorway! Candela is important, but lumens do matter.

All that being said, where does this leave me? I'm glad I don't have to pick just one light. If I did, I'd be ok with sacrificing lumens for candela, at least to a point. I heard someone once state that you can make up for a high-candela, low-lumen light by moving the light around, using umbrella lighting, etc., whereas with a high-lumen, low-candela light, there's nothing you can do to extend its reach.

50 yards and in in an indoor setting, I'm partial to the MCH-Duty, if I can get past the overheating issues. Longer distances, give me the HOG PLHv2. I'm really not seeing a need for the HOG OKW in my line of work, and I'm likely going to be selling that one. For EDC, I'm sticking with the MCH-HC—I like the color temperature better than the PLHv2, and it doesn't have the overheating issues that come with the MCH-HC-DF. The PLH5K, I don't really have a use for, but it would be a good fit for a dedicated home defense handgun on a PL350 body, considering the longest shot inside my house is about 12 yards and the spill is welcome in that setting.

Anyway, hope this helps for those on the fence.

[EzGoingKev]

Something I noticed with my MCH-HC Dual Fuel was that it got noticeably hotter than my first-gen MCH-HC. I did some non-scientific thermal testing today. Using an IR thermometer gun held 4-6" away from the light and aimed at the seam where the head meets the body of the lights, I recorded temperatures every 15 seconds for the first minute of continuous operation and every 30 seconds from one to seven minutes while holding the lights in an icepick grip as I would during normal use. Well, I tried to do that, but both the Cloud MCH-HC Dual Fuel and Duty lights got too hot to hold for the full duration of the testing. Orbtronic 30A unprotected cells were used on the 18650-powered lights while Modlite-branded protected 21700 cells were used in the HOGs.



The first-gen Cloud light peaks at 96° and never gets too hot to handle. Although not shown in the data, the MCH-HC Dual Fual peaked at 130° around 1:15 in and must have hit its thermal throttling point because it dropped and then fluctuated between 116° and 124° until enough heat transferred to the body of the light that I had to turn it off and set it down. The MCH Duty took a little longer to peak at 124° around 2:00 in but by that point had also transferred enough heat to the body of the light that I couldn't continue to hold it. For a light marketed for duty usage where one would want to be able to run the light for extended periods of time at maximum output, this is simply unacceptable. Cloud is, IMO, pushing the envelope too much. Put a hot-running light on a long gun where the entire handguard can help act as a heat sink, sure. But you can't do that in a handheld and expect it to work as well.

Predictably, the larger HOGs ran much cooler.

I'm returning my MCH-HC Dual Fuel and leaning toward returning my MCH Duty, as well. I'll take some beam comparison shots this weekend as promised above before I send them back.

I received mine last week.

I tossed a Surefire 3500mAh battery in it and used it for a couple of days. It got hot pretty fast and the battery went did pretty quickly. I swapped in an Orbtronic 3500mAh battery and it has been getting warm and not hot like with the Surefire battery. It makes me wonder if there is an issue with Surefire battery.

[Casey]

I received mine last week.

I tossed a Surefire 3500mAh battery in it and used it for a couple of days. It got hot pretty fast and the battery went did pretty quickly. I swapped in an Orbtronic 3500mAh battery and it has been getting warm and not hot like with the Surefire battery. It makes me wonder if there is an issue with Surefire battery.

That Orbtronic battery maxes out at 10A continuous draw, which may be limiting the output of your light. I'm using 30A Orbtronic batteries which put out much more current. Cloud's branded batteries that come with the lights are rated at 15A. (I had the same thermal issues with Cloud and Orbtronic batteries).

[NH Shooter]

Protected cells have higher internal resistance than IMR flat top chemistry, so they will get hotter than the IMR with the same current draw from the head.

[Tony3]

A vote here for Chinesium. The Weltool T8 TAC is 2180 lumens, 101,000 candela, and only 32mm diameter.

I have the non “TAC” version (it’s UI is good for a search light but not for tac/duty).

The “TAC” UI is primarily single mode but there is a 75 lumen mode that can be accessed.

They run at full power for a timed 3min then step down to a sustained 1,000 lumens.

They can be had with 18350, 18650, or 21700 body tubes.

[underhook]

Thank you for these pictures. I'm struggling with looking at candela and lumen numbers of different light options then predicting how they will perform in my three areas. 5 acre rural property, 2500 sq foot house, city, large office building. Your pictures show clearly trade-off inside a large building.

Chart below is made from the numbers in your table and I added a few of my traditional surefire lights using the specs on their website. I realize there are other factors like reflector and runtime before thermal step down. But this at least lets me visually see how the candela and lumens are balanced between the lights.

My Surefire x300T feels a lot like a OKW and the numbers do align.

[Up1911Fan]

Just ordered one of these with the 4th Sale they have running. I'm happy with my 3 MCH's, thought I'd give one of these a try. It will either go in my nightstand or in my truck.