Best place to buy lithium batteries?

Is there a good online source for lithium batteries for my surefire and Inova X5T flashlights?

cheapbatteries.com

You can get CR123s for $2 each or CR223s (2 123s in a plastic shell) for $2

Plus shipping of course...

That's a very good price. There's gotta be a catch (there always is). Has anyone gotten these and check the date on the batteries? I suspect they are towards the end of their shelf life. Can anyone report on this?

Botach (no flames please) sells the Toshiba CR123A for $30 for 20 (sometimes $25 for 20). They say these are current. No way to tell, as there is no date on the battery ( in English). I've had good luck with these batteries.

CM,
I've never read of anyone here getting old batteries from cheapbatteries. They advertise to be fresh, so I suspect they are. I bought 123's last year for $1.67 ea (shipped) with a 2011 date. There are good deals on the net. TX

Thanks Roy, I think I'm gonna have to give these a try. Should probably work OK in a KL1 since the current drain is moderate.

Thanks for the replies. I'll give cheapbatteries a try. I have had bad luck w/ Botach in the past and there are a lot of threads bashing them so I think I'll pass on them.

Originally posted by txwest:
CM,
I've never read of anyone here getting old batteries from cheapbatteries. They advertise to be fresh, so I suspect they are. I bought 123's last year for $1.67 ea (shipped) with a 2011 date. There are good deals on the net. TX

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">txwest, that's useful information. Now I think I'll have to give them a try

Moved to Electronics/Batteries forum.

I have a surefire 6z.
Thus, it takes 2 123a batteries.
Now I noticed that cheapbatteries has Duracell 223a for $1 each past 100 (not that I'll ever use 100).

However, for someone that has not done it, can I split the 223a and shrink them with little trouble?

I'm assuming that these are weld bonded together with a strap. So, can I just remove them from the 223a housing, fold them inline, shrink wrap them, and drop them in my 6Z?
Will the added height of this assembly cause any issues?

Thanks for you patience,
Jon

Jon,
I haven't tried, but I've read several posts from people the have, & they didn't seem to have a problem. Depending on your light design, you may not need to wrap them at all. TX

What does a 223A battery look like? Is it two 123A batteries side by side or end to end?

Originally posted by carl:
What does a 223A battery look like? Is it two 123A batteries side by side or end to end?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Side by side.

This is a 223.
They are side by side.

Originally posted by txwest:
CM,
I've never read of anyone here getting old batteries from cheapbatteries. They advertise to be fresh, so I suspect they are. I bought 123's last year for $1.67 ea (shipped) with a 2011 date. There are good deals on the net. TX

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Last year I got some "old" Duracells from Cheapbatteries. I bi*ched, and after making a bit of a fuss they sent me fresh replacements. (I returned the originals). Aside from this one incident I've found them satisfactory.

Brightnorm

Can you link me to a post? I'd like to know how to do that safely, rather than winging it.

Edit: Didn't find anything in all the search stuff, so I winged it. Found a problem that may need addressing, in that it's critical that both cells are pushed out evenly or the strip between the two cells should be cut before removing them from the packaging. Otherwise, you run the risk of the solder strip from the positive terminal shorting against the side. Figured that out after one of the cells was a tad bit too warm for what I expected. I've got the two naked cells in my ... naked cells. In my X5, and now I need to make sure that it's not shorting anywhere because I'm used to shrinkwrapped batteries.

There's four more of these on clearance at Publix for $1 a pop, and they expire in 2012 - I think I'll pick 'em up and be more careful next time.

And maybe I'll wrap the cells in electrical tape.