Do the newest SF B90's hold a charge?

Do the newest SF B90\'s hold a charge?

Has anyone had the newest SureFire B90 rechargeable packs long enough to see if they will hold a charge for more than a week or two? I am so disgusted that unless I have put a fully carged battery in my 8NX within 3 days, it's useless.

I just received 2 new battery packs, lot # CL09.

I have 4 battery packs which won't hold a charge for a few *days*. My old Streamlight Stinger, with a 4 1/2 year old battery pack, will hold a charge for *months*, and still give me 45 minutes of good bright light. I like the lighter weight and nice grip on the 8NX, and the tail switch, but without a decent battery pack, it's a $100+ paperweight. And of course I had to go and order a $23 spare lamp for the 8NX, before I realized the battery packs were worthless.... Arghh! I just want the light to work the way it's supposed to! SureFire has been working on this problem, I know, but the fact is I've had a very expensive light for 2 months now that simply doesn't do what it should!

Re: Do the newest SF B90\'s hold a charge?

I'll move this over to batteries...It's been talked about alot...

--dan

Re: Do the newest SF B90\'s hold a charge?

Quickly, the B90's have a badd cell (or more) in them. A battery pack is only as strong as the weakest cell in the pack. The bad B90's have a "reversed" or partially shorted cell. This can happen under several different circumstances, and I really do not think it's a manufacturing defect at the cell level.

I received two replacement packs (for my B90's labeled CK-43) that were labeled "CK-35." As far as I can tell, these are about three years old, but work fine.

--dan

Re: Do the newest SF B90\'s hold a charge?

Originally posted by dano:
Quickly, the B90's have a badd cell (or more) in them. A battery pack is only as strong as the weakest cell in the pack. The bad B90's have a "reversed" or partially shorted cell. This can happen under several different circumstances, and I really do not think it's a manufacturing defect at the cell level.

--dan

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">If I follow you, then the problem isn't the packs, or the individual cells, but 'something else'??

The only other factor would be a bad charger. As you say, one of my original battery packs, at the ripe old age of about a month, has a dead cell. I've *never* seen a sub C, or Sub D, cell fail in a short time (less than *years*), in my Stingers, or Magchargers. I generally expect a nicad in my Magchargers or Stingers to last 4 or 5 years. (I date them when they are new, and I do get the life span I now expect. The Magcharger battery packs do last a year or so longer than the Stinger packs, according to my observations.)

They are in the charger all of the time I'm not using them, and I think that does shorten the life a little, but it's nice to grab a fully charged light, right off the charger, as Streamlight, and MagLite designed their rechargeables to be used.

So is SureFire's relatively new 2 hour charger causing the problems? (Or new to me, I should say, since I don't know how old it is; but my impression is that it's a relatively recent introduction...)

Re: Do the newest SF B90\'s hold a charge?

Well, for what it's worth I tested my 10X after setting a week and it still had about a ~75% charge.

Re: Do the newest SF B90\'s hold a charge?

I don't think it's SF's charger, as I been charging several B90's and generic (homemade) B90's during a test/eval thingy I'm doing, and I haven't had any problems, though the packs do get quite warm.

SOMETHING is frying a cell in the packs...It could be a manufacturing glitch, and assembly glitch, or some sort of cycling problem...

--dan