Manker MC13 Ultra-Throw Flashlight Review

The Manker MC13 Ultra-Throw flashlight is a tiny light with many emitter options (white/color) and massive throw! It can have an 18650 or 18350 body, and has an interesting user interface, too! It’s part of the “Muscle Combo” from Manker. Read on for testing!

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Manker MC13 Ultra-Throw Flashlight Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the official product page.

Versions

There’s just one body (as in, “Black only”) but as you’ll see in this review, there are two sized bodies: 18350 (default) and 18650 (additional purchase).

But there are options for the emitter.  They’re all Osram, but white, green, red, yellow, and blue can be had.  Really this is more choice than we usually see….  Impressive!

Price

Base price is $52.95, and all emitters are the same price.  The price jumps to $64.95 with an 18650 tube (which I completely recommend.)  I paid less for this because I was an early adopter and bought the Muscle Combo.  I’m not sure if those are available still, but I fully recommend the combo.

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Short Review

I love this light.  It’s fantastic.  I loved the E14 III, and I love the MC13 as much for many of the same reasons, and one completely opposite one:  the throw is incredible.  The build is great, the user interface is great, and I love having the combo.

Long Review

The Big Table

Manker MC13 Ultra-Throw Flashlight
Emitter:	OSRAM KW CULNM1.TG (1mm^2 )
Price in USD at publication time:	$52.95
Cell:	1×18350
Turbo Runtime Graph	High Runtime Graph
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (mA):	?
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	950
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	626 (65.9% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	237.2
Claimed Throw (m)	760
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	3380lux @ 6.098m = 125687cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	709.0 (93.3% of claim)^
All my Manker reviews!

 

Manker MC13 Ultra-Throw Flashlight
Emitter:	OSRAM KW CULNM1.TG (1mm^2 )
Price in USD at publication time:	$52.95
Cell:	1×18650
Turbo Runtime Graph	High Runtime Graph
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (mA):	?
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	950
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	523 (55.1% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	241
Claimed Throw (m)	760
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	3910lux @ 6.062m = 143684cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	758.1 (99.8% of claim)^
All my Manker reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer:  Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.

What’s Included

• Manker MC13 Ultra-Throw Flashlight
• Manker E14 III Quad Flashlight
• Lanyard
• Charge cable (USB to USB-C)
• Spare o-ring
• Manuals

Package and Manual

Again, Muscle Combo packaging.  If you buy only the MC13, it’ll likely be different.

The lights ship like this – very close together.  They don’t mar each other, though.

Since there’s so much copper in the E14 III – exposed, uncoated copper – this light is in a sealed package.

Build Quality and Disassembly

The 18350 is the marketed way this light exists, so from here down I’ll basically show that option first and the 18650 body second.  Since I got the Muscle Combo, the 18650 tube was part of my package, but you can purchase it individually and separately too.

There’s minimal branding, but it does include the model and BLF, and a serial.

The threads on both tubes are anodized, lubed, and smooth.  One thing you’ll notice when putting the head on this light is that it seems to cycle through the modes…. I haven’t figured out a way to avoid this.  It’s a little annoying.  More than a little.  Clicking the switch doesn’t seem to change this.

Like the E14 III, the body has ridges, but no knurling.  This is probably one thing that makes the light very attractive to me!  I don’t dislike knurling, but also sometimes there’s not much point.

Both the head and the tail have springs.

Here you can see the inner sleeve.  Since this light is a tail e-switch light, there has to be a power supply to the switch at all times.  This sleeve accomplishes that.

There’s something about this light that just appeals to me.  It looks “right.”  It looks like a flashlight.  It holds like a flashlight “should” hold if there is such a thing.

Size and Comps

• Size: 90.75mm(3.57″) length x 41.7mm(1.64″) head dia. x 25.8mm(1.01″) body dia.
• Weight: 108.6g(3.83 oz) w/o battery, 136.7g(4.82 oz) w/ battery

If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here (usually the third photo).  If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll show that here, too (usually the fourth photo).

Neither 18350 or 18650 are “better.”  They both are exceptionally comfortable to hold and use.

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+.  Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple.  A very nice 18650 light.

And here’s the light beside my custom engraved TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light.  I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats.

Retention and Carry

Each body has its own clip.  Not only that, the clips are different.

The 18350 body has a single-screw clip, which in itself is pretty unusual.  The clip fits into a slot, so it won’t twist or wander.  And there’s a hole in the center which allows for removal.  It’s actually a special star-shaped screw so…. not sure what tool you’ll need for that!  I don’t think it’s Torx.

The 18650 body clip is just a standard friction fit variety.  It’s nicely finished though and provides great ease of use.

This clip only fits on the tail end, so bezel down carry only.

Clip hug!

There’s also a lanyard hole on the tail end of both bodes.  The lanyard hole is the same on both bodies.

Power and Runtime

With the default 18350 body, the MC13 runs on a single 18350 cell.  Since both ends have springs, various 18350 cells should work just fine.

I should note that some of the kits do ship with a cell.  Mine did not.  There was an option to select “with cells” and I didn’t select that option.

The cell is installed in the usual orientation:  positive terminal toward the head.

Here are some runtimes.  The sawtooth below is just very active thermal management (apparently, despite us not seeing any real change in the temperature readings).

Below Turbo, the output is extremely well regulated.  The drop-off toward the end of the run isn’t to “off” but just to some very low output. It might as well shut off though – at the level it steps down to, it’s not usable for much of anything.

Since I have the combo, I also have the 18650 tube.  The cell of course still is installed the normal way.

Here are runtimes for the 18650 body, too.  We see practically the same exact profile as above, just a longer duration.  Notably, the output with this 18650 was slightly better.

Even though I didn’t order cells with my kit, I still received the charge cable – USB to USB-C.

Modes and Currents

These data points are taken from the 18350 setup.

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	950	35m	523	–
High	450	45m	291	–
Middle	240	1h47m	139	–
Low	120	4h50m	50	–
Moonlight 5	–	–	–	–
Moonlight 4	–	–	–	–
Moonlight 3	–	–	–	–
Moonlight 2	–	–	–	–
Moonlight 1	0.5	82h	–	–

Because of the e-switchness of the tail, I am unable to test the current for any mode.

Pulse Width Modulation

There isn’t any PWM to be seen.  It’s possible the lower modes aren’t even being picked up by my sensor, though.  They are very very low.

For reference, here’s a baseline shot, with all the room lights off and almost nothing hitting the sensor.  Also, here’s the light with the worst PWM I could find.  I’m adding multiple timescales, so it’ll be easier to compare to the test light.  Unfortunately, the PWM on this light is so bad that it doesn’t even work with my normal scale, which is 50 microseconds (50us). 10ms.  5ms.  2ms.  1ms.  0.5ms.  0.2ms.  In a display faster than 0.2ms or so, the on/off cycle is more than one screen, so it’d just (very incorrectly) look like a flat line.  I wrote more about this Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight and explained a little about PWM too.

User Interface and Operation

There’s a single tailswitch on the Manker MC13.  This switch is an e-switch and has very low action.

Don’t forget that there’s a tritium slot in this switch!

The action is very low, and the switch is clickable from any part or angle.

Here’s a UI table!  The user interface is a bit unusual…

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	Memorized mode (LMH only)
Any	Double Click	Turbo
Off	Hold	Memorized Moonlight mode (one of 5 “moonlight” outputs)
On	Click	Off
On (Moonlight Group)	Hold	Moonlight cycle (lowest to highest)
On (LMH Group)	Hold	LMH cycle (lowest to highest)
Any	Click 4x	Lockout (noted by 3 flashes of emitters)
Lockout	Click 4x	Unlock to LMH group (Mode Memory)
Any	Click 3x	Strobe group (Strobe memory)
Strobe Group	Hold	Strobe advance (Strobe > Beacon > SOS)

I’ll be honest, the graphic provided by Manker is hard for me to process.  But it seems to work fine.  It’s very unusual for the Moonlight to be set up like this, and all but the lowest two don’t really seem like “Moonlight” to me.  Would I change it?  It’s novel, that’s for sure, and I really don’t hate it.  It’s like direct access to two separate groups at almost all times, instead of having to switch between them.

The UI on the MC13 is the same as the E14 III.

LED and Beam

There are some choices, as I mentioned above, but I opted for the white emitter.  This is an Osram KW CULNM1.TG (1mm^2) emitter, and of course fantastic for throw.

That emitter is behind a pretty standard TIR optic, often used in this type of light.  It’s a great setup and works quite well.

Here’s a better idea of why this flat white emitter is such a great thrower.  More “normal” emitters are the same size (ie the whole emitting area) of the square to the farthest right below.  That is, around 3.8mm or so – in fact, these are often called 3535 emitters (a reference to the pad size).  The larger the emitting area, the less throwy an emitter will be.  So bigger emitters which have a 5050 pad, are by nature less throwy.  But on the flat white, the pad is still around (“around” only – not exactly.  I think the pad may be a 3030 here) the same size as on other (common) emitters, but the emitting surface is much much smaller – 1mm square!  So this approaches a “point source,” and gives great throw.

The TIR helps, of course.  But the emitter lifts the heavy weight for throw.

These beamshots are always with the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure.

As I’ve said above, the lower modes of moonlight, are positively remarkably low.  I can look straight into the light and turn it on to the lowest mode of moonlight, and just barely discern that the light has come on.

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

I keep the test flashlight on the left, and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right.

I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

Conclusion about the Manker MC13 Ultra-Throw Flashlight

What I like

• The look.  Very flashlighty!
• 18650 and 18350 support
• Tritium slots!
• The muscle combo was a great deal, while available.  And still a great choice!
• Throw is fantastic

What I don’t like

• Output is much (much) lower than claimed.
• The User Interface is very unusual
• Yellow emitter temperature

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Notes

• This light was provided by me for review. I was not paid to write this review.
• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org.  Please visit there for the best experience!
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