Handhelds and heat sinking. How hot is to hot?

[jaycob533]

These past couple weeks i have been having tons of fun (responsibly of course) with my new survival laser 1.4w w/the stainless steel host, copper heat sink and copper module.
I've always been pretty careful to follow the duty and when i feel it get warm to the touch i let it cool off. Well long story short is was a fairly hot day out the other day as i was showing off my new laser to couple friends outside. I may have got a little distracted and the host got warmer than it has my whole time owning the laser. I probably didn't leave it on for more than 1 minute at a time but i may have not let it cool that great in between. The host wasn't by any means hot, but it was pretty warm to the touch and i got a little concerned about it later. I'm not exactly sure how well these lasers handle heat (my laser in particular) and what, if any damage i may have caused. How hot do these things get before risking damaging parts? And how much exposure to over heating would cause damage? Its only gotten a little warmer than i was comfortable with that one time so I'm hoping I didn't do anything to bad. I know my question may seem a little broad or general but I'm really just looking for piece of mind. Thanks in advance!
-Jaycob

 

[Wolfman29]

It's fine. These 445nm lasers are incredibly robust, assuming you didn't get a dud (which I assume you didn't!).

That said, still, be careful about duty-cycle. We all overdrive these lasers, and, while we haven't seen any die yet due to long-term degradation, you want to extend your laser's life as long as possible. That means that you should be weary of overheating. Lasers like to be cool. Letting it heat up regularly, while it won't kill it in the short-term, may result in a life reduction from 6 years to 5 years. Really, it's anyone's guess - none have died yet and these have been out for approximately two years.

Anyway, best of luck, and stay safe!