Drilling vent holes in all of my lights in case of battery vent

After seeing what has occured to others and taking to account the DX trustfire protected 2500 mah 18650's I use, I have decided to do this so that my lights do not turn into small frag grenades in the case of malfunction. Opinions? Also, I was wondering where I could find headphone jack/ charging port rubber covers/plugs, so that I can maintain some water resistance and still have the plugs fly out in case of a vent.
Thanks ( other people also use my lights so I would feel responsible if something were to occur)

I think the best advice is to first off use a decent quality battery and get rid of the trustfires.

Lol I havent had issues so far, but some of the pictures in the battery forum are a wake up call.

Use AW batteries in conjuction with a DMM and monitor your usage. If still not confortable with lions then use primaries.

you could just remove the O rings.

unless they're cheap dx lights, that's craziness...

duro said:

unless they're cheap dx lights, that's craziness...

Click to expand...

They are DX lights and a couple of custom mags. I wouldn't do it to a $60+ light. My most expensive production light will be the FandyFire xm-l thrower off of DX that I still have to buy and even it is only ~$47. Also, if I can find the little flap covers I am looking for, it will not look too bad. It will just look like a rechargeable light.

I'll admit, duro, that on the surface it may seem like a crazy idea, but if you spend some time reading over in the "Flashlight Electronics, Batteries Included" section of CPF, you'll soon discover some eye-opening and scary threads that might cause you to rethink your position.

In fact, we've had many discussions on CPF about this very idea, building in some kind of waterproof one-time use rubber vent for added safety on lights using lithium-ion cells.

Of course, if you use a quality protected rechargeable battery correctly, and maintain and charge it correctly, then the chances are very low that you'll have a problem..... but...... with these newer high capacity cells coming on-line, the potential for a serious event happening should something go wrong becomes exponentially higher.

Even the most fastidious CPF member isn't perfect, and all it takes is one mistake to start a chain of events that could lead to a very bad day for somebody.

I like the idea of removing the O-rings, but of course, you'll loose the water resistance, and that, after all, is what the OP is trying to avoid.

Of course, this is the reason many CPF members have gotten away from lithium-ion cells and opted for the safer and easier to find AA primaries and NiMh cells, and with the addition of many new lights designed for high output using these safer cells, it sure seems to make more and more sense.

Personally, I'll be interested in following this thread and see what gyani comes up with.

I would weigh the cost of replacing the batteries with a higher quality cell against that of ruining all value in the lights you own. Let the least costly route win.

Although (and please don't fault me for assuming), if you are using DX lights and crappy cells it would lead me to think they they potentially have bad voltage cutoffs and you are using a junky charger which improperly charges the crappy cells to 4.2+ volts thus ruining them faster.

If I am incorrect then forgive me, but if I am correct please find a nice 1/32" bit and drill away.

Lol yup, crappy charger. You think 1/32" is big enough? I was thinking 1/8". Lol

Well I guess what you could do is to drill a small hole as mentioned 1/32" and plug it up with some of the rubber of a pencil eraser. You would have to make sure it was a tight fit but it should serve some water Integrity.

1/16 and fill it with black RTV

Why not just use LiMn IMR cells? They are Li-ion and do not vent with flames.

Drilling holes would be unnecessary if you used good-quality cells instead of DX junk.

If a Li-Ion cell vented inside a light, a 1/32 inch dia. hole would not be large enough to vent the gas. In fact I doubt if 1/16 or even 1/8 inch would be large enough. Think of a firework going off - it would behave very much like that. If there's a large enough hole, you'll get flames and sparks shooting out; if the hole is too small, it will blow anyway.

It is not just the cheap cells that worry me. For example one guy had a surefire with surefire primaries literally blow his house door off. Also, I would rather have sparks and flames shoot out than having my family or me get hit with shrapnel, blowing of fingers or causing eye injury.

This is where checking them and not creating a super high discharge rate comes in as well. Past venting is traceable to some fault and being aware of those helps in preventing a dangerous situation. Since those first posted episodes, I've not used a 2X cell arrangement but that is just me.

In just about every case documented where a cell or cells blew, the user was doing something very unwise, and pratically asking for trouble. For example, when Li primaries blow the reason is usually because the cells were mismatched (one full, the other partly discharged) etc., etc.

There are numerous threads in the Batteries section listing how to treat cells, and plenty of excellent advice there on what to do and what NOT to do with them. As long as you follow the advice there, use good quality cells and treat them properly, you won't have a problem.

Drilling little holes won't solve anything. If the hole is too small, it won't be able to let the gas out fast enough, so it will still go off with a bang.

Surefires line of commander series incandescent rechargeables come with the hole in the bezel to let gases escape, but those are nicad powered lights, quite a different story with lithium ion.

Kevins LambdaLight designs have a thin white adhesive plastic disk on the tailcap. It effectively seals out moisture, yet will harmlessly blow open if a cell vents.

Not a bad Idea IMHO.... but it should not be seen as an effective solution to poor quality cells, or using them irresponsibly. The biggest mistake I have seen is to inter-mix new cells with old depleted ones.