HELP!! AA Battery Question

I am new to higher end flashlights. I just purchased a Nitecore EA41 2015 Edition.

Can I use the 14500 Batteries in it?

The chinese directions say "Banned"? Does that mean do not use 14500 batteries?

Considering they are twice the voltage of AA then yes I would not use them if "Banned" in any language!

Unless you need to let the smoke out for some reason?

And Welcome,spend a little time here reading up on the basics too.

14500s have nominal voltage of 3.7 V. It's more than three times the nominal voltage of NiMH (1.2 V) and over twice the nominal voltage of AA (1.5 V). Using 4 connected in series sums up to 14.8 V (instead of the intended 4.8-6.0 V) which, I'm afraid is enough to fry the circuit in the flashlight. Trust the manual and don't try them.

Just get some eneloop pros.

Yours is a tough question that I would not have understood a week ago myself. But, hey!, I never heard about this forum until a week ago. The answers above seem fairly complete. You may get a few more, however, by posting this message in the forum specified in the Announcement sticky above:


Hope you enjoy new flashlight.

No you cannot use 3.7v 14500 cells.

Yes, Eneloop Pros are the best, 1.2v NiMH rechargeable.

A close second place is Duracell Rechargeable "Duralock" NiMH green/copper,
which can be purchased at nearly any local store.

"The chinese directions say "Banned"? Does that mean do not use 14500 batteries?"



Of course not! - Forget all about VOLTAGE! - It is not important at all...

How could anyone think that the Manufacturer actually knows anything about their own lights?

It's your first post on here Chris, so gotta cut you some slack...

Please read up some more here - 10hrs or 100hrs, and you will have the/your answer.

Not trying to be mean - I mean Really! - DO NOT USE 14500 batteries in this light!!!

Thanks,

-Chuck

Gosh that would be ugly considering there are 4xAA batteries. Don't do it brother and welcome to CPF.

edit.

On a side note how would that disaster play out. 4.2 volts fresh off the charger x 4 at 800 mAh for 16.8 volts when the switch is (don't do it!) pressed. Would we get a fire or just a fried light?

Fried light. - The batteries are the 'over-spec', not the light.

The batteries will think nothing of it.

-Chuck

Obviously, one of our moderators got into the manual and banned the 14500s.

Yea,

That's probably all it is

-Chuck

Generally 14500 can only be used in AA based lights in the 1 x AA configuration. This is because some 1 x AA lights allow higher input voltage (ie ZL SC52, Quark AA, Armytek Tiara etc....) and properly regulate. Additionally even the drivers that are "boost only", ie meant to bring the 1.2-1.5V up to the LED voltage will usually just pass the higher battery voltage of the li-ion direct to the LED which produces a direct drive situation. This tends to be close enough to the LED forward voltage that it will drive significantly more aggressively than stock but can be manageable if you are intelligent about heat management and runtimes. This would includes lights such as the Quark AA mini.

I don't know of any multi-AA lights that can tolerate the higher input voltage of the li-ion cells.