if i replace them weekly are alkines safe?

[raggie33]

duracells give my zerbra the most lumens. im still worried id end up where i cant charge battiers .so if i replace them weekly should i be safe?

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Alkaleeks are a gamble. I haven't found a single brand that doesn't leak, even the ones that are supposed to be leakproof. The longer they are in your expensive light, the more opportunity for them to possibly leak. If you use them, then remove them, and store the light empty, there is less of a chance they will leak. I would not store them in a light for any length of time, unless you really hate your light and want to throw it in the trash.

 

[ven]

I would use Sanyo eneloops or similar, cheaper after a short time , safer and will perform better over the duration used with less sag on higher modes. Any alki battery can leak, new or old. Not a risk I would take IMO.

 

[ledbetter]

I would check them daily and as someone already said, leave the light empty until you plan on using it.

 

[bykfixer]

If ya gotta ask……ya probably shouldn't.

I'm perfectly comfortable using alkalines in many electronic devices in my home including flashlights but no Duracells. Some say that brand is ok but the leaks I've had have mostly been that brand.

If you opt to use them make sure they are a brand made in the US.
For best results Do Not Buy Them Online!!

Walmart stores sell US made Rayovac and Energizer. Don't know the origin of duracells there because I skip over those.

 

[Poppy]

duracells give my zerbra the most lumens. im still worried id end up where i cant charge battiers .so if i replace them weekly should i be safe?

yes

 

[raggie33]

its so weird how much duralcell is in my zebra far as amps available. not sure on run time yet but it lets my zebra shine as bright as it does on a eneloop

 

[vicv]

Why the need to use alkalines? It will not be brighter. Alkalines sag horribly under load. Especially the high load of a bright flashlight. Go on https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/CommonAAcomparator.php and compare any alkaline to an eneloop. It shows a discharge graph and what the cells are doing. This is at 1A it gets much worse the higher you go

 

[Lynx_Arc]

No, you aren't totally safe but likely the fact that you are essentially by replacing batteries daily cutting down the time a battery can do damage by leakage to 24 hours any leakage should be minimized and most likely easily cleaned up. The problem is even if a battery leaks at all the chemicals can damage plating on contacts enough that you have to recoat them with something else or over the years continually fight corrosion on the contacts. If the leakage happens to flow towards the electronics it can cause damage and it may be hard to clean up anything that seeps into there. The good thing is alkaleaks tend to be more of a powdery pasty mix that is not as easily flowing into everything.

The bad news is if you are drawing a lot of power from alkaleaks the internal resistance of the cells can increase the amount of heating that the cell experiences and at some point it is likely that the temperature could affect the sealing of the cells themselves either causing them to vent or leak.

In other words..... regardless of what you do you can only minimize the risk of leakage, not totally eliminate it entirely. I've had alkaleaks that I didn't check for a month that had leaked in that time and ruined a cheap light for good. I wasn't worried about the light as it was an old LED light that I rarely used that I've replaced with a better one.

IMO using alkaleaks in anything hard to get to the contacts to clean up after a possible leak and too expensives to get replaced is gambling for sure. There is no "safe" brand, and now that Rayovac is owned by Energizer we can figure that perhaps the two brands will start "leaking" the same in the future instead of one being perhaps a less leakable (likeable?) leaky leaker.

 

[raggie33]

its brighter for sure ive tested and retested this

 

[vicv]

Sorry my friend you need new nimh then. Did you check with an integrating sphere or lux meter? And even if it is brighter, is it worth having to replace the cell every week regardless if it's full or dead or anywhere in between? And risk a leak?

 

[raggie33]

sorry i was unclear i mean brigther then other brands of alks and litium aa battery

 

[vicv]

Lithium AA should definitely be at least as bright as well. Oh well. I still wouldn't use alkalines unless you really need to. But up to you. I just don't like throwing batteries away all the time

 

[klip88]

Freaking alkaleaks man never again only in shoddy kids toys. To me lithium seems to give me the brightest/highest voltage output for AA I guess everyone's miles vary

 

[dc38]

At higher operating levels that most LED's are regulated at these days, lithiums seem to be 4-5 times the cost at 4-5x the sustainable juice. Do you have some old alkaleaks you want to use up or something?

If not, you're not really losing any value if you can source lithium primary versions of whatever cell you're running. Bot to mention, lithiums are MUCH lighter.

 

[uk_caver]

For someone concerned about possible outages without charging facilities, for a light they regularly use (or one they want ready for instant use), I would have thought that keeping NiMH in the light long term and having other cells ready to reload in case of emergency would make sense.

 

[Poppy]

alkalines have an initial voltage of 1.5 volts. Eneloops fully charged are 1.2 volts.
Initially alkalines with their higher voltage will be brighter but only for a relatively short period of time. Under load, they quickly drop to below the 1.2 volts the eneloops will maintain for a longer period of time.

OTOH, alkalines will last longer but at a miserably low (essentially unusable) level of light.

 

[idleprocess]

alkalines have an initial voltage of 1.5 volts. Eneloops fully charged are 1.2 volts.

Yes, but no.

Hot off the charger NiMH is ~1.45V, settling down to ~1.3V open-circuit voltage.

A fresh alkaline cell will measure something like 1.6V open-circuit with 1.5V being "still good" open-circuit voltage.

Under any significant load, alkaline cell voltage will sag below NiMH's ~1.2V loaded voltage.

 

[alpg88]

Simple solution, keep your zebra empty, until you are about to use it. treat it like a gun and an ammo, lol

 

[Olumin]

If I recall correctly raggie has quite a few alkalines in store he once acquired at low price.

I am not as fickle as many others here regarding the use of alkalines & in my personal experience they are fine to use in most devices. Ive not had many leak, even when stored over years. That being said the risk of leakage is higher in high-drain devices. Even considering this you should be fine using them & there is no need changing them every week (simply a waste of good batteries).
I would however recommend checking on them every week or so, or in the case of more expensive lights, to only install the cells in the device when needed & to otherwise store them separately.

Edit: Also, since Zebras have some parasitic drain, I would recommend locking out the tailcap when not using the light. This will minimize leaking as a result of over discharge.