A couple of questions about Coleman CPX rechargeable battery pack

[picklenose]

Hi all.

I recently bought one of the Coleman LED lanterns that comes with the 6 volt CPX 6 SLA rechargeable battery pack. I am by no means an electronics whiz so my knowledge of these kinds of things is pretty rudimentary.

I have noted that many people say this type of battery doesn't like to be ran down too much or spend too much time in storage unused. I was hoping to keep it around for emergencies so I gather I need to find a way to keep it reasonably close to fully charged.

Problem is, I don't know exactly how to go about that. Should I leave it plugged in all the time? Should I just charge it once a week? The information contained in Coleman's own instruction sheet that came with this thing are very vague.

Does anyone have real world experience with this battery? How quickly does it self-discharge if not hooked up to the charger?

I don't know how "smart" the charger that comes with it is but when I charge it, the battery itself gets a little warm (but nowhere near hot) during charging. Once the light turns green, the battery pretty much becomes cool again and seems to stay that way. I was guessing that means it would be safe to leave it plugged in? Or no?

Please forgive my ignorance. I have tried looking for these answers and have only succeeded in finding a few guesses and a lot of technical talk that makes my head spin. I'm just trying to figure out how to keep this thing charged and maximize it's lifespan.

TIA

 

[GreySave]

I have had a number of lanterns and power packs with lead acid batteries for years. Just charge it once per month and you should be fine. It will not self discharge that much in 30 days to be a problem. That said, I have found myself moving away from rechargeable and back to primary powered lanterns lately, mainly because the charging becomes an annoyance (Especially when you have several to charged) and the battery will require replacement every 3-5 years (generally) even if not used. Hence a good primary powered lantern (Rayovac Sportsman Extreme, Eveready, etc...) are making more sense to me these days. I have two of the Coleman Quad lanterns and have had very poor luck with those so I no longer recommend them as primary powered lanterns.

 

[gearhead1972]

I have probably the same lantern, I have had it for about 2 years now. The battery pack has very little self discharge, I really couldn't tell you when I last charged it before Hurricane Sandy, I ran it every night for 8 days for a few hours without recharging. a top off once a month should work.

 

[picklenose]

I have had a number of lanterns and power packs with lead acid batteries for years. Just charge it once per month and you should be fine. It will not self discharge that much in 30 days to be a problem. That said, I have found myself moving away from rechargeable and back to primary powered lanterns lately, mainly because the charging becomes an annoyance (Especially when you have several to charged) and the battery will require replacement every 3-5 years (generally) even if not used. Hence a good primary powered lantern (Rayovac Sportsman Extreme, Eveready, etc...) are making more sense to me these days. I have two of the Coleman Quad lanterns and have had very poor luck with those so I no longer recommend them as primary powered lanterns.

I have probably the same lantern, I have had it for about 2 years now. The battery pack has very little self discharge, I really couldn't tell you when I last charged it before Hurricane Sandy, I ran it every night for 8 days for a few hours without recharging. a top off once a month should work.

Thanks a lot for the input guys! Sorry it took a while for me to acknowledge. I kind of forgot about this thread and just noticed your replies.

 

[Richwouldnt]

Revival

The CPX 6 battery pack is of very limited capacity per the manual I downloaded for it and as noted in other posts it is sealed lead acid technology. It is 2.6 Amp hours capacity at 6 volts nominal or 15.6 watt hours. In comparison a set of NiMH high capacity D cell batteries are 10,000 mAh at 4.8V nominal or about 48 watt hours. If current draw is low enough Alkalines can be better or worse than the NiMH batteries as far as true capacity goes but in lantern use they will typically be worse in high current draw lanterns. Due to voltage droop at higher current draw the alkalines may last the longest but at much reduced output for most of their operating life. Remember that claimed run time is typically given to a 10% or lower light output. I remember reading that one LED lantern had a listed run time to the point that output was only 1% of original. To me run times for battery operated lights should be to 50% of initial brightness or worst case 25%.

Once discharged a battery such as the CPX 6 SLA battery needs to be recharged as soon as possible as a SLA battery left discharged self destructs relatively quickly. This is true of ALL lead acid batteries pre what I have read.

 

[martinaee]

I have had a number of lanterns and power packs with lead acid batteries for years. Just charge it once per month and you should be fine. It will not self discharge that much in 30 days to be a problem. That said, I have found myself moving away from rechargeable and back to primary powered lanterns lately, mainly because the charging becomes an annoyance (Especially when you have several to charged) and the battery will require replacement every 3-5 years (generally) even if not used. Hence a good primary powered lantern (Rayovac Sportsman Extreme, Eveready, etc...) are making more sense to me these days. I have two of the Coleman Quad lanterns and have had very poor luck with those so I no longer recommend them as primary powered lanterns.

For my Streamlight Siege I just bought 6 LSD Tenergy Centura D cells. From what I read they basically behave like Eneloops but with much higher capacity. Should be a good solution as they are pretty high capacity but won't lose power fast at all.

I'm guessing it's cheap to make those lead acid packs? It seems like it would be better to make pre-made packs filled with AA lsd NiMh cells and somehow control the desired output/voltage.

 

[Richwouldnt]

IMO it depends on current draw. The new Coleman CPX-6 1000 Lumens lantern is listed in one review as drawing measured circa 4 amps on high from NiMH D or alkaline D batteries. Unless made up into something like a 4S4P pack a batch of AA batteries would not have the capacity for the needed current and even semi reasonable run time. The high capacity LSD D NiMH batteries at 8000 mAh appear to me a more viable solution either used with the standard CPX-6 D battery holder or made up into a rechargeable battery pack. If kept charged for emergencies then the 10,000 mAh non-LSD versions might be even better.

Per my understanding the SLA battery is by far the cheapest to make but as noted above the Coleman one seems to have minimal capacity and per the Amazon reviews a high failure rate.

 

[recDNA]

I forgot to recharge my cpx6 sla battery pack because I haven't used lantern in months. I turned on the lantern and it did light but was not full brightness so now I'm recharging my battery back. Still red light after 18 hours. I popped it in lantern just to make to make sure it isn't dead but lantern did light to full brightness.

My question is how long do I charge this thing before I give up hope of a green light? I've read of people going 40 hours but there must be some point of diminishing returns where I am no longer doing the battery any good? Obviously I should have charged it more often but that ship has sailed.

 

[Poppy]

With a digital volt meter, check it's voltage. 6.33 volts should be full charge.
maybe it won't take a full charge anymore.

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to your question.
You might also want to measure the voltage of it with the charger connected. Then some one may be able to answer you about a question regarding... can you over-charge it?

 

[recDNA]

It finally stopped and I got the green light. 6.5 volts. I also found the directions. Couldn't find it on the Coleman site but it was stashed in a drawer. It says you may recharge for a week straight! That said 20 hours was nuthin. I have the voltage but no way to know if I still have full capacity.