Titanium CR123A longevity

jefft · Dec 16, 2007

There recently was a thread on older BatteryStation cells and their (lack of) longevity. Sort of belies the whole purpose of having a 10 year shelf life. Well, I didn't have any old BS cells (have new ones since they're currently manufactured in the U.S.) but I do have a boatload of Titanium CR123As that I bought from AmondoTech when they were still in business. Out of 80 123As, and 2 dozen CR2 cells, 60% of the 123As weigh in at 10% on the ZTS, the rest don't register at all. _None_ of the CR2 cells register, either. These cells were purchased 1-2 years ago. In contradistinction, the Surefire, Panasonic, Duracell, Streamlight, and PentagonLight CR123As that I have all show 100%. (and some are several years older) Annoying.

Zenster · Dec 17, 2007

On a whim, I just ordered a couple dozen of the Amondotech Titaniums from Battery Junction.
I knew going in that these would be the "leftover" stock from Amondotech and therefore I don't expect them to be "fresh".

I thought I'd give it a shot and see if they are as good as cracked up to be so buying these older cells intrigued me and would give me a frame of reference for future battery stocks that I buy.

I intended all along to use them up in my everyday flashlights rather than to hoard them for emergency use down the road, but I'll check each one before using, and I even intend to drain a few on my RC cyclers and see what capacity comes up.

For my dedicated emergency stash, I generally stay with Panasonics bought from a high volume seller to insure freshness.

DM51 · Dec 17, 2007

If you have any doubts about these cells, and especially if they read inconsistently in your tests, you should avoid using them in multi-cell lights.

half-watt · Dec 17, 2007

DM51 said:
If you have any doubts about these cells, and especially if they read inconsistently in your tests, you should avoid using them in multi-cell lights.

DM51 has a good point. the problem for some of those Titanium cells is that one can, as i have done, order them in spot welded stacks of two or three cells - supposedly pre-matched for internal resistance prior to selecting for use as a serial stack.

so, without separating the cells, how can one tell if those supposedly matched cells are still matched? hmm...

jayflash · Dec 17, 2007

The New Titanium stacks I got a year ago are only shrink wrapped and not welded.

Art Vandelay · Dec 17, 2007

Do the Titaniums look like the ones here?
http://www.batteryjunction.com/tpen-tcr123a-.html

If they do they are the old formula.

The new Titaniums have he exact same color text (yellow) for both Titanium and CR123A Lithium. The new ones also say PTC protection and do not recharge in big letters right beneath Titanium Pow Power.

Source:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/titanium_123a.htm

ps
I use Titaniums and BS batteries and I have never had a problem.

LED61 · Dec 18, 2007

Sometimes the titaniums need to run a minute or two on a 1 amp draw to¨"wake up" the chemistry.

I don´t know why but these cells have the peculiarity of displaying dead characteristics in the ZTS when in reality they are not.

To give you an example, I stored 100% capacity titaniums 1 year ago and a few days ago pulled some out. I tested them in the ZTS and zippo, nada. Then, I used them in an A2, fired up the incan lamp and it would only light up yellowish. That´s the A2 warning of weak cells. Well after about a minute or two the lamp came in full brightness and after four minutes use the cells were back up to 80%

Strange but true. That being said I´m not going to buy Titanium cells anymore.

Zenster · Dec 21, 2007

One thing I'm not sure about regarding batteries in general...

It has been proven that the biggest danger of exploding CR123's comes from running a pair of them where their charge is more than 25% different from each other, e.g., running one with a 95% charge paired with another at 70% charge or less.

What I'm curious about is; if I take basic voltage readings of each cell at rest, and I pair them up based on similar voltage readings, is that enough to make sure that similarly charged cells are safe to use together?
Or should a load be applied to each cell and take a reading at that point?

Most of my CR123 lights are x2 batteries, but I can always burn up the odd charged batteries safely as a single in my L1, so getting best use from all my batteries is not an issue.
I just want to make sure that paired batteries are safe when I use them in the x2 flashlights.

Thoughts?

LED61 · Dec 21, 2007

Zenster said:
One thing I'm not sure about regarding batteries in general...

It has been proven that the biggest danger of exploding CR123's comes from running a pair of them where their charge is more than 25% different from each other, e.g., running one with a 95% charge paired with another at 70% charge or less.

What I'm curious about is; if I take basic voltage readings of each cell at rest, and I pair them up based on similar voltage readings, is that enough to make sure that similarly charged cells are safe to use together?
Or should a load be applied to each cell and take a reading at that point?

Most of my CR123 lights are x2 batteries, but I can always burn up the odd charged batteries safely as a single in my L1, so getting best use from all my batteries is not an issue.
I just want to make sure that paired batteries are safe when I use them in the x2 flashlights.

Thoughts?

It is impossible to tell the remaining capacity in a cell by its open circuit voltage alone. It is better to use a ZTS meter for capacity.

Zenster · Dec 21, 2007

LED61 said:
It is impossible to tell the remaining capacity in a cell by its open circuit voltage alone. It is better to use a ZTS meter for capacity.

Any idea how much load the ZTS imparts? I'm guessing it would take much, as long as it's the same for each type of battery so that the comparison between batteries would be fairly accurate.
I'm thinking maybe just 200ohm or so.

It would be easy to configure a load rack and just attach some leads to a good multi-meter.

SilverFox · Dec 21, 2007

Hello Zenster,

I believe it is a pulsed 833 mA load for CR123 cells.

Tom

Titanium CR123A longevity

jefft

Enlightened

Zenster

Enlightened

DM51

Flashaholic

half-watt

Flashlight Enthusiast

jayflash

Flashlight Enthusiast

Art Vandelay

Flashlight Enthusiast

LED61

Flashlight Enthusiast

Zenster

Enlightened

LED61

Flashlight Enthusiast

Zenster

Enlightened

SilverFox

Flashaholic

Similar threads

Latest posts