A close call with Energizer AAA Lithiums

[kosPap]

well is there anyone that thinks that there won't be any problems with the AA & AAA primaries?

Happened to me this afternoon. Had a 3xAAA headlamp that takes the batteries in a cylidrical carrier. I thought I try the lithiums. So I load them up, insert them in the headlamp and get not light. I remove the carrier and measure it with the multimeter.
3.6 V? "why does it measures only two?"
and at that moment I touch one of them and it is HOT. You could hold it but still hot. Within 30 seconds?

Out of the three thsi abttery had been used before for very short intervals. And was meaured at 1.6V instead of 1.8V!

Gusy I cannot know what happened, but take care.
(And waht will happen when the average folk start shoving them in their elcheapo flashlghts and expensive electronic appliances?)

stay safe all, kostas

 

[WildChild]

Like it has been said many times, particulary with lithium batteries... !!!NEVER MIX NEW AND USED BATTERIES!!!

 

[Marduke]

Like it has been said many times, particulary with lithium batteries... !!!NEVER MIX NEW AND USED BATTERIES!!!

+1, I have yet to see lithium primaries misbehave when treated properly.

 

[paulr]

What does this have to do with the battery chemistry? It sounds like the carrier shorted out one of the cells. That can happen with any type of cell.

 

[Curious_character]

What does this have to do with the battery chemistry? It sounds like the carrier shorted out one of the cells. That can happen with any type of cell.

I've done that a couple of times with NiMH AAA cells in one of those carriers. Burned holes in the plastic wrapper, and the cell was way too hot to touch. In at least one case, the spring in one compartment had bent over to touch some other conductor. That seems to be an easy thing to have happen, so now I take care when installing cells to make sure the springs are compressed straight and not bent out to the side under the cell.

Actually, I have very few lights with this kind of compartment. I've replaced most of them with an 18650 or 18500 and series resistor.

c_c

 

[kosPap]

hmm will have to see on this again 9carrier shorting). Indeed this thing is stupididly cheapy in the similarly priced lights. I avoid them too, but sometimes one has to go cheap for some applications (3rd inline headlamp for car)

thanks for the heads up all, Kostas

 

[altis]

Petzl specifically recommend you do NOT use lithiums in their Tika headlamps.

More details here:
http://en.petzl.com/petzl/LampesNews?News=159

 

[James S]

I have a couple of carriers too and it's real easy to put the lid on wrong, or put a battery in wrong and basically hard short 2 of the cells. IF thats what happened, then you're lucky you noticed before it got burning hot. It only took me about 10 seconds to realize something was very wrong when I did that. Oops! In my case they were NiMH cells.

I pretty much only use lithiums in single cell lights because they last so very long in them. But for lights which I use it's far too expensive to supply with lithium primaries. I always have a few in the bottom of the pack as backup. And with their long shelf life they will always be waiting there for me, but I dont use them daily.

 

[Wyeast]

I had this happen to me years ago when the Energizer AA Lithium primaries first started showing up. Happened at a jobsite in my light. I remember the light was shining weakly all of a sudden (I had been using it a while, so no flipped cells), and I pulled out the batteries to discover 1 of 4 being awfully hot.

Tossed them in the bin and never really trusted them ever since.