Alkaline in zebralight?

[jzmtl]

How does alkaline cells perform in zebra lights? I remember reading even on high the current is only a tad over 200ma, so would alkaline be able to cope with it, or is runtime going down the crapper like when used in fenix lights turbo mode?

Also, is Q5 versio worth the extra $10? Seems the only improvement is lumen count, and that's probably unnoticible over the flood beam anyway.

 

[DonShock]

I just did a quick set of battery current measuremnts on my Q5 Zebra for the High, Medium, and Low:

Energizer 2500 mAh NiMH cell: 1.19A, 0.13A, 0.03A
Duracell Alkaline cell: 1.19A, 0.11A, 0.03A
Energizer Lithium cell: 1.19A, 0.10A, 0.03A

I recall hearing somebody mention that alkalines were good performers up to about 1A of current draw. So I don't think 1.2A would cause an excessively short run time.

As for the Q2 vs. Q5, I only have experience with the Q5. If a decent low is of concern to you, I would stick with the Q5. It's already pretty low, really only suited for near pitch black use. The other reason to go with the Q5 would be for a little better throw. The light level falls off pretty quickly with distance. But if you are going to use it for working at arms length or within just a couple feet, the Q5 on high is very bright at those distances so the Q2 would probably work fine. I've been thinking of picking up a second one for work and it'll probably be a Q2 if I do.

 

[jzmtl]

Huh, that's strange. High on zebralight is only 66 lumens, 1.2 amp sounds a bit high. I remember measuring P3D turbo and it was a bit over 1 amp.

 

[DonShock]

You have to remember that's battery current. There's no way to measure LED current without disassembling the light. The P3D is 2xcr123 cells for a total of 6 volts. 6V at 1A means it is using 6 watts of power total. The Zebra is only being fed with a single 1.5V AA. So 1.5V at 1.2A means only about 2 watts of power. The P3D will be brighter because it's drawing more power.

 

[jzmtl]

Right, forgot about the voltage issue.

 

[CandleFranky]

Also, is Q5 versio worth the extra $10? Seems the only improvement is lumen count, and that's probably unnoticible over the flood beam anyway.

I took the H50-P4 without Q5. You can hardly see a difference between 50 and 66 lumens. But in a Fenix P3D, I would prefer a Q5. :huh:

 

[GaryF]

It runs 2hrs 20 minutes on high with a 2700 mAh NiMH battery, so a draw of 1.2 amp seems about right. I'd expect an hour or so on an Alkaline. Medium and low should be pretty good on alkaline, very close to the NiMH runtimes of 19 and 84 hours.

I've done an actual runtime on a 2000 mAh NiMH on medium at 14 hours, which is in line with the 19 hour manufacturer claim on 2700 mAh batteries, so I think the manufacturers runtimes are realistic. But I confess to never trying my own runtime on the high or low levels.