Lights-Fantastic

hightech

Challenging The Big Guys

Gene Malkoff didn’t start out to bea flashlight innovator, but as he told me, “We live out in the sticks and I needed a flashlight to help me keep the coyotes out of our pet chickens. It seemed everything I tried was inadequate, at least in my opinion, had poor battery life, no ‘throw’ to the beam or just plain didn’t work when I needed it. Out of frustration I did a lot of research and spent many thousands of dollars, fi nally discovering high performance LEDs and the related technology needed to make them really perform.

“If you live in the country, you know it’s tough on equipment, and unless it’s built tough, things break down constantly. With that in my mind, I build our lights for the long haul, with thick-walled housings, as few parts as possible and with designs as simple and robust as I can. I also make them highly shock-resistant and with a high level of thermal transfer, which adds to their long life and performance.”

It’s not often a guy gets frustrated with a product then goes ahead and designs his own versions — with most outperforming some of the competition — and then actually gets them to market. Malkoff Devices is made up of Gene and his wife and a few sub-contractors who make some parts to his exacting specifi cations. He explained, “I just want to make an honest living making something useful for others. I hate it when I’m lured into buying a piece of garbage, so I refuse to sell garbage. If you buy one of my lights or drop-ins, tell me if you like it or if you don’t. I’m always interested in making them better, stronger, more powerful and more reliable.”

Now you have a feel for the man behind the products, and his passion for quality and reliability. What Gene does is manufacture a limited line of proprietary high-end, LED-based flashlights (like the two pictured) and also offers unique, true drop-in light modules. These modules replace the factory light modules in some SureFire and many MagLite models. You simply unscrew the head, take out the old module, drop in the new one, screw it tight and turn on the switch.

Be prepared to be amazed when you do it.

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