18650 aw batteries??
- Thread starter J-FRAME
- Start date
There is a possibility indeed to have a short. I already encountered such an event with my Wolf Eyes M90 Rattlesnake.
I saved some unprotected(!) 18650s from an old NP-1 battery. By cutting them loose, I cut the wrapping, but thought: "I can test them for now, I wanna see how bright this monster can be!"
So I put them in.... with these Wolf Eyes lights, the body is connected to the POSITIVE pole of the outward battery, and this is, where it went wrong. After switching it on, it was soooo dim, I didn't trust it. Well, it was running from only ONE battery as the other got shorted!! In this case, I quickly realized it, the battery was quite warm already! I don't wanna know what could have happened if I had decided to put the lamp aside.....
Bottom lime: BE CAREFUL in this!! Don't trust on a single, ordinary piece of Scotch tape to insulate the cells... try to find something better! Serious accidents and/or venting with flames may occur from a short on these cells, putting everything surrounding the cells afire INSTANTLY!!
Even if it may be a pity, you'd better get rid of these damaged cells, and buy some new ones. You won't buy a new home for $12,- not even for $24,-
Timmo.
I saved some unprotected(!) 18650s from an old NP-1 battery. By cutting them loose, I cut the wrapping, but thought: "I can test them for now, I wanna see how bright this monster can be!"
So I put them in.... with these Wolf Eyes lights, the body is connected to the POSITIVE pole of the outward battery, and this is, where it went wrong. After switching it on, it was soooo dim, I didn't trust it. Well, it was running from only ONE battery as the other got shorted!! In this case, I quickly realized it, the battery was quite warm already! I don't wanna know what could have happened if I had decided to put the lamp aside.....
Bottom lime: BE CAREFUL in this!! Don't trust on a single, ordinary piece of Scotch tape to insulate the cells... try to find something better! Serious accidents and/or venting with flames may occur from a short on these cells, putting everything surrounding the cells afire INSTANTLY!!
Even if it may be a pity, you'd better get rid of these damaged cells, and buy some new ones. You won't buy a new home for $12,- not even for $24,-
Timmo.
I don't think I'd get rid of them -- you could get some heatshrink tubing, or use Kapton or electrical tape, instead of tossing them.
Also, it depends immensely on the light you use them in -- if you only use them in single-cell lights, with the tube negative, the worst that could happen is to have the light come on via battery-tube contact instead of the tailswitch. In multi-cell or tube-positive lights, the battery could short, with potentially catastrophic results. But obviously, if you have one light they're unsafe in, you really want to make them safe, because you will put them in that light some day by accident.
DM51
Flashaholic
Please post in the correct place. I'm moving this to the Batteries section.
So I took the scotch tape off and have one layer of electrical tape just on the bad spot now. Its about as thick as the coating but make installing and removing the battery a chore as you have to use something to push it in and out. Also I have regulated it to spare use only and put it in a spares tube as a emergency only deal as I m worried about the tape getting pushed off when I do recharges.Im using a new 18650 now in my EDC
