Are the Titanium CR123A's any good?

[Brian321]

I prefer duracell over any other brand of CR123A's but would like to stock up incase of emergencies and dont want to spend a fortune on batteries. Has anybody used these? Are they worth buying ALOT of them?

Link if needed:
http://www.batteryjunction.com/tpen-tcr123a-.html

 

[paulr]

What's your idea of "stock up" and "a lot"? If you're really burning through 123's in large numbers, consider rechargeables, bigger batteries, etc. If "stock up" means relying on the supposed 10+ year shelf life of lithium batteries, it's not as trustworthy as some people seem to think. 123's can and do (not always) go stale on the shelf. Buying 1000's of them without a schedule for using them is not that great an idea.

Me, I gave up on off-brand batteries years ago and haven't regretted it. I use a dozen or so 123's a year and the price difference is maybe 50 cents a cell, so I consider the total extra expenditure to be affordable.

The whole concept of keeping tons of batteries around for emergencies is overrated anyway. If you look at the many real-life stories around this board about flashlight usage that happened during actual emergencies, the total battery consumption during them has not been that high, especially for small batteries like 123's. You should have some spare batteries and some low-powered long-running lights, and some higher powered lights for short-duration usage. If you expect to need high power and long duration, you wants a recharging system that you can power with a vehicle or generator or a deep-cycle SLA system etc. If you find yourself stocking up on enough batteries to run your lights for a 3 month outage but you don't also stock enough food and water for 3 months, your planning is confused.

 

[Brigadier]

I used Titanium CR123's in all my lights until I switched to rechargeables. But I do use them for back up and in some lights that don't get much use, and in my SureFires[6P's and M2] as I don't like to stack RCR's often.. Also, my sons' Fenix P2D's run on them. We use Fenix P3D's powered by the Titaniums at work and they perform admirably. No complaints.

 

[Brian321]

What's your idea of "stock up" and "a lot"? If you're really burning through 123's in large numbers, consider rechargeables, bigger batteries, etc. If "stock up" means relying on the supposed 10+ year shelf life of lithium batteries, it's not as trustworthy as some people seem to think. 123's can and do (not always) go stale on the shelf. Buying 1000's of them without a schedule for using them is not that great an idea.

Me, I gave up on off-brand batteries years ago and haven't regretted it. I use a dozen or so 123's a year and the price difference is maybe 50 cents a cell, so I consider the total extra expenditure to be affordable.

The whole concept of keeping tons of batteries around for emergencies is overrated anyway. If you look at the many real-life stories around this board about flashlight usage that happened during actual emergencies, the total battery consumption during them has not been that high, especially for small batteries like 123's. You should have some spare batteries and some low-powered long-running lights, and some higher powered lights for short-duration usage. If you expect to need high power and long duration, you wants a recharging system that you can power with a vehicle or generator or a deep-cycle SLA system etc. If you find yourself stocking up on enough batteries to run your lights for a 3 month outage but you don't also stock enough food and water for 3 months, your planning is confused.

Very good info, Although i have plenty of AW rcr123's that i use for my everyday needs, By alot i mean a few hundred. I would start using the batteries when they got close to the exp date and replace them with fresh ones. Plus i like haveing extra batteries if i dont have time to charge the rechargeable's(becuase i only have 1 charger) and im going to do activities(hiking,caving,etc.)

 

[paulr]

The exp date of 123's is usually 15 years out. You're really planning to buy 100's of 123's and sit on them for 12+ years before using them? Put the money in a good mutual fund instead .

I'd go for much lower quantity. Figure out how many you actually use in a year and how often you're willing to buy additional ones, buy enough in each order to last til the next order, plus have enough spares for emergency/unexpected requirements and cycle the spares through your regular usage. I usually buy 6 or 12 123's at a time, once or twice a year, and I don't even use any rcr123's. Think also of having some AA lights around, since AA cells are easy to scrounge, and fast multi-cell nimh chargers are readily available. E.g. Energizer has a popular fast charger that can charge four AA's in 15 minutes from 12 volt vehicle power. With LSD cells like Eneloops it's trivial to keep charged cells around.

 

[dano]

This should be moved to the correct forum.

Anyways, I'd suggest avoiding any of the Chinese made 123's, and stay with either U.S. or Japanese origin cells.

There's been too many instances of the Chinese origin cells blowing up.

 

[skyfire]

i have a some titanium cr123a, only used 1 so far, i keep them as back up, because i use rcr123a cause i use my lights nightly for work. it seems ok especially for the price. i think your getting good, not great cells, at great price.

batterystation.com offers us "CPF members" 50 x cr123a "made in the USA" for $60 shipped! it comes out to be $1.25 each i think. and theyre 1500mah now. and the cells are dated i believe.