Selfbuilt, out of the picture shown with the Duracell CR123A, which of your flashlights do you find the best overall for daily use? I am trying to decide which light to go with (that has a clip for front or back pocket carry). Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thanks for the great review.
Battery questions are most appropriate in the flashlight electronics/batteries included subforum. But since you asked ...
I posted a couple of comparisons of various brands of cells back in 2009 - one on
CR123As specifically and one
shoot-out more generally (but also includes CR123A data).
Since that time, I have continued to test batteries, and have come to the conclusion there is little runtime difference between equivalent batches of all of the made-in-the-USA brands. There are a couple of good made-in-China cells sold by USA-based companies that have nearly as good performance (see that first review). I would avoid all other cheaper China-made batteries, due to lower capacity and safety concerns.
On that latter point, I have also had some limited experience suggesting that the PTC safety circuits of made-in-the-USA cells trip earlier than the quality made-in-China cells - see this
discussion thread. It is debatable which of these conditions is "preferable", but I would personally recommend erring on the side of caution and sticking with the USA cells when possible. I would note that there are vendors here who sell USA-made batteries for not that much more than the cheaper China-brands.
