Run time of two CR-123A cells in P1

After looking at several "shootouts" among brands of CR-123A cells, I was a little surprised to find that the runtime of a Battery Station cell in my Fenix P1 was about 25% less than a Surefire cell. (Or, the Surefire cell ran about 33% longer than the Battery Station cell.) So I re-ran the test with two cells I received just a few days ago. Before I did, I checked the open-circuit voltage of both cells and their reported capacities with a ZTS tester. The flashlight was clamped in place and not moved during the entire test. The results were nearly identical to my original, more casual test.

Before the test, the Battery Station cell had an open circuit voltage of 3.27 volts, the Surefire 3.24. Both tested 100% on the ZTS tester.

Here are the results:



In dollars per minute, the Battery Station is cheaper considering what I paid for each. But for maximum run time, the Surefire is definitely better. I'd be careful about extrapolating this to other lights, and don't know how much batch to batch variation you'd see in the cells. I did get virtually identical results from two Battery Station cells from the same batch, and two Surefire cells from different batches.

This is my first time posting an image. Please let me know if I goofed it up.

c_c

I've said it before...the way the chinese-made cells are able to be priced so low is the way they specify their acceptance requirements to impact yield. This is true for any type of mfr'd product. Higher priced and/or well-known/established brands will tend to have stricter acceptance requirements. To undercut price, the lower priced brands will widen their acceptance requirements to get greater yield which eventually results in lower price (more volume per time, labor, costs invested). This means many of the products from the lower priced brand may not meet the acceptance criteria of the higher priced brand. As long as customers are willing to accept this, it will continue. I'm not saying all low-priced vs. high-priced brands are like this, but this is how mfr'ing is. BS and similar batteries aren't necessarily bad as they'll perform most jobs fine, but they do concede some quality/performance for yield/price.