Any Duty / Battle grade RCR123's on the market yet?

[Wangstang]

I asked a year or so ago if there were any Lithium RCR123's on the market that would be safe for use in a light that would see use on patrol in both freezing and scortching hot environments. The response I got was that there were no good RCR123's on the market that could be trusted to not blow up on charger and that they were at a higher risk for venting issues than the non rechargables.

I'm hoping that something is out there now based on the increased RCR123 posts I've read. Can you advise?

Thanks
Wes

 

[old4570]

Its that dual battery thing ..

Try a single 18650 flashlight , or if you need a EDC go for a single CR123A .

Flashlights being what they are , they will never be trouble free 100% of the time .. Plenty of expensive lights bitting the dust on this forum . I even had 2 bad clikies on my L2's [ fixed now ] .

Combat light ? just go with your gut , and buy a single cell light that meets your needs ...

If your going to be swimming with the light , then something rated water proof might be the go .

An old military trick : Slip the flashy into a condom , tie of the open end , VIOLA - waterproof flashlight

But - go single cell - not dual cell = all the CR123A problems seem to stem from unprotected or dual cell set ups , so if you buy protected cells and run a single cell flashy , then thats about as combat ready as its going to get .

 

[VidPro]

i dont think Li-ion are that much higher risk (than a primary), untill you add in the extreeme conditions. and even then most of the "risk" would be loosing the battery itself, and reliabilty.

the li-fe-po batts can handle conditions better than the li-ion and still be "safe" , problem is the capacity isnt so great, just depends on the need, the ability to carry and change a spare, and how screwed you would be if you ran out at inaproprite times, Because of the capacity.
and still they dont like to be fully discharged, so being in series wouldnt be so good, just Depends totally on where your light would cut-off at.
the li-fe-po is closer to the voltage of the primary, most are unprotected so there is a decrease in parts and pieces that can go wrong in rough conditions.

if it has been that long since you wondered about li-ion as the rechargable, mabey try a li-fe-po at home, and see how it works out.

if your in the middle of an actual battle, or your life is at stake, a Doller or 2 for a throwaway battery is Nothing spend that on the first 10 bullets :laughing: and a million on the first smart bomb.
I am saying even as a great lover of rechargables, if i was going on patrol or "duty" or whatever you want to call it, i would use a good primary, even if after i got off duty i went right back to rechargable. BECAUSE , they have much more capacity, there is no cut-off on the battery itself, they are lightweight, and less total parts, less to go wrong.

Also, when it comes to good and bad, either neither or both, there can be low quality junk of any of them.

 

[Wangstang]

I am saying even as a great lover of rechargables, if i was going on patrol or "duty" or whatever you want to call it, i would use a good primary, even if after i got off duty i went right back to rechargable. BECAUSE , they have much more capacity, there is no cut-off on the battery itself, they are lightweight, and less total parts, less to go wrong.

Also, when it comes to good and bad, either neither or both, there can be low quality junk of any of them.

I'm looking at rechargeables for two reasons:
1) I can easily consume 20 Surefire 123's a month at work, and I can hit the 40 a month number if it's really busy. That's not cheap and it's a lot of dead batteries to put through the recycling process.

2) It would be nice to only need a charger and maybe 3 sets of rechargables(6 batteries) on hand and not a mega pack of batteries I need to buy batteries in.

Thanks
Wes

 

[matrixshaman]

Check AW's new IMR batteries using LiMN chemistry in the dealers area of the CPF Marketplace. His quote: "Safe chemistry LiMN 3.7V rechargeable battery is now available in R123 ...... These cells can handle high amperage and is safe to use in series / multi-cell applications" Other sizes also are available but I jumped on the 16340's (RCR123's) for a couple high current draw pocket rockets.

 

[mdocod]

Hi Wes,

I would personally seriously massively recommend just skipping the whole RCR123 concept and going straight to an 18650, given your requirements I would do the following....

1x18650 SF compatible body. (FM, Leef, solarforce etc)
1xZ41 tailcap. (absolute reliability, no questions asked here, regardless of body choice).
1x stainless steel SF P60 compatible bezel.
1x MalkOff M60 LED module.
1x Pila IBC charger.
2x (or more) IMR18650s from AW (one for flashlight, one or more spare on charger etc....).

This is unconventional in that most would opt for the protected 18650s with higher capacity, but in this application, reliability is more important, and the IMR (LiMn) chemistry cell is going to be better, less components to fail. Protected LiCo cells have one major fail point and that is their PCB. The IMR cell is unprotected but is a safe chemistry that in this sort of configuration really won't need a PCB all that bad as you will see major dimming before any significant over-discharge has taken place.

With the M60 and a single LiMn 18650, you won't get 100% output, but rather, something close to it on a freshly charged cell, with steady diminishing output to about 50% of initial over several hours. Dimming at the end will be on tap to let you know it's time to change the cell, but there should be plenty of runtime on tap to get you to a safe battery change time between encounters.

This recommendation is purely aimed at your needs and will seem strange to most... All costs considered, you'll pay off these pieces parts in a couple-few months as compared with using CR123s.

This configuration is 100% backwards compatible with just dropping in CR123s as needed if needed. You may opt to run CR123s when weather drops a ways below freezing as the IMR cell will suffer more performance loss in really cold temps.

-Eric

 

[Curt R]

Wangstang: All of the Law Enforcement lights from Peak LED Solutions are made to use both primary and rechargeable batteries in the Night Patrol and First Responder lines. The NP lights have variable outputs up to 400 Lumens and the FR lights up to 1000 Lumens. More info on the Peak sub-forum here on CPF.

Curt

 

[Benson]

I asked a year or so ago if there were any Lithium RCR123's on the market that would be safe for use in a light that would see use on patrol in both freezing and scortching hot environments.

Depends how freezing your freezing temperatures are, but Li primaries might still be better -- AW's IMRs are only rated for operation to -10 C, while Lithiums are good for something like -40.

 

[Wangstang]

To bring an old thread back to life....I ended up getting a few solarforce protected rcr123's and solarforce protected 18650's. Some of my older surefire lights won't take the 18650's but the batteries have all held up to what I've asked of them

That said...they are approaching 3+ of use and I'm in starting to watch the market for replacement options.

Any new advice?

Thanks
Wes