Rechargeable Batteries for my Surefire L4

Hi All,

I am looking into buying rechargeable batteries for my Surefire L4 with a McGizmo 2 Stage Tailcap at 22 ohm. I am planning on buying from J.S. Burly's, but I first want to do some research, so following are some questions I have. And I apologize if they are real basic, but I do not know much on the topic.

1) It is my understanding that the batteries I would want are the Pila 168S. Is that correct? Or would I be better of, if such a thing existed, with two 123 A rechargeable batteries?

2) If the Pila 168S is indeed the battery I should buy, is the BC2 AC Charger the charger that works with those batteries? And if not, or if there are 123 A rechargeable that are better suited, what is that chargers name?

3) Is the BC2 Charger, if that is the correct one, able to work both in a house and also serve as a Car Charger? If not, does such a Charger exist?

4) How many batteries can be charged at once, and how long does it take for a full charge? I think, but could be wrong, that I could charge two batteries at once, and the time frame would be two and a half hours.

5) Aside from my Surefire L4, would these same batteries be compatible with my Surefire E2e? And if not, what type would be ideal for that light?

Thanks in advance for the information, and if there might be anything obvious that I left out, please feel free to let me know. And if I end up coming up with any other questions, I too will post here.

Happy Holidays,
John

to answer some of your questions?
1 yes you need the pila or wolf-eyes 168S that cell fits the l4 and the L5. The 168A fits in the U2 only or bored out battery tubes.
2 Yes the BC2 charger is the one to use but it only works on ac.
3 yes a DC charger is available.
4 Two batterys about 3 hours
5yes it would fit the e2e but not have the correct voltage.
And No you can't use 2 rechargeable R-123 cells in the L4 or the L5 do to the fact that they use a boost converter and the foward Vf of the batterys would be 8.4 vdc and is higher than the Vf of the LED and would have it in direct drive and could dammage the LED.

Clifton,

Thanks so very much for the in depth answers. I appreciate it very much, as without this forum, I am unsure where I would turn to find out these answers.

Having said that, I have a couple more questions for the time being on the E2e, as I think I have all the insight I need on the L4.

Is there a way to set the voltage, on the same charger for it to work with both the L4 and the E2e?

Is it a simple matter of getting different rechargeable batteries for the E2e? If so, what is that type of batteries name?

And if a total new charger system is needed, what type of rechargable batteries would be needed for the E2e, and what type of charger would go with it?

Sorry for all of the questions all.

Happy Holidays,
John

Hi John,
You cannot set the voltage on the charger because the voltage is up to the battery chemistry (in this case lithium-ion) and those are 3.6v (a bit higher when fresh of the charger).

There are currently no rechargable batteries for the E2e.
However, some people have been experimenting with a custom adapter that can take the strion bulb (3.6v) and that would work with the pila.

Sixpointone:

I want to buy some of these from JS Burleys too, but they only have the batteries listed on their site now. They used to have AC and DC chargers listed but not any longer. I tried emailing JS Burleys but no result so far.

Do you know of any other charger that will work with these things?

If you can get a bulb that runs off 3.7 volts you CAN use the pila 168s in an e2e. I have an adapter (handmade) that allows me to run a streamlight strion bulb in my e2e. It works great. I am in the process of making a few mroe of them when, but am waiting on parts to arrive.

You can make your own with a dead e2e bulb and a bi-pin socket. The socket is the hard part to get.

In any case, the pila 168s setup is THE way to go for the L4. Runtime will be about an hour, whereas runtime on regular throw-away cells will be about an hour and 15 minutes.

It does get a little hotter on the pila cell, but nothing to worry about.

For what it's worth.... pila makes a surefire-compatible bulb so you can use their cells. I'm not sure which light(s) they are for though. This is a decent solution, but I'm not crazy about it though. You still have to buy $20 bulbs. The adapter I have allows me to use cheap $6 bulbs.

cliff,
I have been wanting to buy the same rechargeable's from Burley's also but he shows out of stock on the AC charger. I just ordered from Bugoutgearusa.com. He is another dealer in Pila's and advertises in the Dealer section of this forum. Some items are currently on sale now.
I am hoping that JS Burley gets the 4.2 volt R123's in stock again.

NotRegulated:

Much obliged for that info. I just sent off an order to them also.

Hi All,

Thanks again for all of the help.

And NotRegulated,

I appreciate finding out about Bugoutgearusa.com, as it ends up they are not too far from where I live. I have placed an order with them, including a home and car charger.

Happy Holidays,
John

Glad I could help.

I have also have good luck ordering batteries and charger from light-edge.com