CR123 Rechargeables and charger

ferretray

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Jul 6, 2007
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41
Howdy all. Just bought a Surefire that takes the 123a batteries, and I would like to use rechargeables, as it is a work light.
Would appreciate suggestions AFA a top quality charger and batteries.
TIA, Ray
 

Timothybil

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First, I'm going to assume it is a current Surefire, and therefore LED. If it was an incan, 16340(RCR123) cells would be out due to the voltage difference. A CR123 cell is rated at 3.0v at a moderate current drain. A 16340 cell comes off the charger at 4.2v, and should be recharged when it gets down to between 2.5v and 3.0v - opinions vary. If it is a single cell light you can probably get away with using a 16340 cell. It gets more iffy with two cells. Instead of 6.0v, you start out with 8.4v, a significant difference. One can still find LiFePO4 cells, which come off the charger at 3.7v. Surefire used to sell those themselves, but now you have to find your own source.

I personally have a Surefire G2 and 6P with LED drop-ins, and use a single 16650 cell in each one.

If this is going to be your only need for Li-Ion cells, the Xtar VP2 would work well. It allows the user to chose between 3.7v, 4.2v, and 4.35v charging cycles. I am sure there are other good chargers out there that fellow CPFers will recommend as well. As far as cells, the rule around here is don't by anything that ends in -fire unless it starts with Sure-. Keeppower, Efest, Sanyo, Samsung, Olight, Nitecore are all good brands. In reality, there are only a couple of reputable Li-Ion manufacturers in the world, and the rest buy their cells from them and wrap them with their own logos and info, and many times add a protection circuit to help prevent overcharge, over discharge, and short circuits. There are a couple of good threads at the beginning of this Forum with more information. Member HKJ has the reputation of being the cell guru around here, and his website has reviews and ratings on almost every Li-Ion cell known to man. A very good resource when pondering cells.

A little ancient history here: Back at the dawn of time, there was the CR123A non-rechargeable cell. As the market matured and Li-Ion cells became more mainstream, a rechargeable version of the CR123 appeared, the RCR123 [RechargeableCR123]. As stated, things didn't quite match up, and the RCR123 was not ideal for many uses due to the extra voltage. As Li-Ion cells proliferated, they started becoming available in many different sizes. A standard way of stating the size of a cell was born. Using that standard, the CR123 form factor in rechargeable cells is known as the 16340/16350. Other popular sizes are the 18650, 18500 (two 18500 cells are roughly the same size as three 16340), 14500 (AA), and 10440 (AAA).
 

ferretray

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Joined
Jul 6, 2007
Messages
41
First, I'm going to assume it is a current Surefire, and therefore LED. If it was an incan, 16340(RCR123) cells would be out due to the voltage difference. A CR123 cell is rated at 3.0v at a moderate current drain. A 16340 cell comes off the charger at 4.2v, and should be recharged when it gets down to between 2.5v and 3.0v - opinions vary. If it is a single cell light you can probably get away with using a 16340 cell. It gets more iffy with two cells. Instead of 6.0v, you start out with 8.4v, a significant difference. One can still find LiFePO4 cells, which come off the charger at 3.7v. Surefire used to sell those themselves, but now you have to find your own source.

I personally have a Surefire G2 and 6P with LED drop-ins, and use a single 16650 cell in each one.

If this is going to be your only need for Li-Ion cells, the Xtar VP2 would work well. It allows the user to chose between 3.7v, 4.2v, and 4.35v charging cycles. I am sure there are other good chargers out there that fellow CPFers will recommend as well. As far as cells, the rule around here is don't by anything that ends in -fire unless it starts with Sure-. Keeppower, Efest, Sanyo, Samsung, Olight, Nitecore are all good brands. In reality, there are only a couple of reputable Li-Ion manufacturers in the world, and the rest buy their cells from them and wrap them with their own logos and info, and many times add a protection circuit to help prevent overcharge, over discharge, and short circuits. There are a couple of good threads at the beginning of this Forum with more information. Member HKJ has the reputation of being the cell guru around here, and his website has reviews and ratings on almost every Li-Ion cell known to man. A very good resource when pondering cells.

A little ancient history here: Back at the dawn of time, there was the CR123A non-rechargeable cell. As the market matured and Li-Ion cells became more mainstream, a rechargeable version of the CR123 appeared, the RCR123 [RechargeableCR123]. As stated, things didn't quite match up, and the RCR123 was not ideal for many uses due to the extra voltage. As Li-Ion cells proliferated, they started becoming available in many different sizes. A standard way of stating the size of a cell was born. Using that standard, the CR123 form factor in rechargeable cells is known as the 16340/16350. Other popular sizes are the 18650, 18500 (two 18500 cells are roughly the same size as three 16340), 14500 (AA), and 10440 (AAA).

Thank you Sir. I should of included more info. It is a Surefire G2X LE. I will check out the specifics you posted.
 

ChrisGarrett

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Thank you Sir. I should of included more info. It is a Surefire G2X LE. I will check out the specifics you posted.

What Timothy states is good info, but the problem is finding decent RCR123 3.2v cells of any quality. SureFire markets/marketed the K2 Energy 3.2v LiFePO4 RCR123s and their charger, but even those had mixed reviews.

What I would do for the cheapest amount of money, but still good quality stuff is to buy a couple of Sanyo UR16650ZTA 2500mAh 4.35v cells and get a Liitokala Lii 202 multi chemistry USB 2 bay charger. Charges everything we use up and does it in a safe and competent fashion.

The 16650 is narrow enough to fit in unbored SureFire lights that aren't already bored out for the 18650. The lower voltage shouldn't be a problem and seeing a difference in output should be minimal, if at all. You can get protected cells (no 4.35v charge point), you can get them with button tops, or you can get them naked, which is how they come from Sanyo.

They're near the bottom of page 2:

http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=59_88&page=2

The Liitokala Lii 202 charger is ~$7.00 shipped, so you can get a few of them for not a lot of cash and have backups.

http://www.gearbest.com/liitokala-202-_gear/

This way, you're not in any of this stuff for more than $20, or so.

Good luck!

Chris
 

Bullzeyebill

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Feb 21, 2003
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12,164
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CA
The Surefire G2X will likely be able to use 2X RCR123's, 3.7 volts to 4.2 volts. There are many brands pf RCR123's out there. Do the goggle bar at the top of every page here on CPF to find sources. When Surefire uses two CR123's in their lights, they use a buck circuit, so usually that means 6 to 9 volts will work. One 16650 will work also, and probably
produce more run time.

Bill
 
Last edited:

matt4350

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Sep 24, 2012
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387
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Queensland, Australia
+1 for the 16650. I use Keeppower 2500mah 16650, you should get a good runtime out of these. Nothing wrong with Nitecore's chargers as far as I can see, I've been using one for a while now with no probs.
 

Str8stroke

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On The Black Pearl
I do the same in a G2 body. I use Soshine 3.0 volt cells. Make sure you get the 3.0 volt cells. They make some 3.7's that look almost the same! I probably have 20 of the 3.0 volt Soshines in various Surefire lights. They work pretty well for what they are. It is easy to carry a spare set in one of those two cell carriers.
 
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