At a crossroads. Bye bye NiMh? Or maybe not just yet?

[earthlight]

Hello all! Been years since I last posted.

I am at a point where I am reviewing my flashlights and wondering how to go ahead.

Current lights:

• My EDC is about a ten year old Fenix single AA that I have been carrying daily with the keys. And it sure looks like it but it is still not missing a beat! :thumbsup:
• For a headlight I have a one year old Lumonite Compass R (18650) which I love SO much! (And an old Zebralight single AA for backup).
• As an additional light when hiking in the dark I still use my 8 AA Fenix TK45. This one too is about ten years old.
• (And an Olight X6 Marauder for certain uses and a little magnetic single AA Olight as a backup in the trunk).

At the last count I still had some 20+ Eneloops (first and second gen...) and at the latest round of analysis with the Powerex most of them are between 1600-1700 mAh which is not too shabby after years of abuse.

Potential future purchases:

1. I am toying with the idea of replacing the TK 45 with an Olight Warrior X which they say puts out 2000 lumens for a while. Then my headlamp and the hand held would be using the same battery type.
2. Also, I wonder if there are good li-ion powered EDC flashlights I could replace my old Fenix with? Must be a simple twist on, twist off for safety reasons. Or maybe something like the Fenix E18R - I suppose I could untwist the tailcap to make sure.

That said, pertaining to the EDC, I believe NiMh is a very safe chemistry and that is something I appreciete when carrying the thing daily in the jeans pocket. Or is it just the same to get a li-ion powered replacement? After all, I do carry the cell phone daily as well...

In any case, my camera flashes still use AA batteries so I probably will need to get a few sets of fresh NiMhs anyway. Maybe Ikea Ladda? So a NiMh edc would not really be a problem. I would just like more output/better runtimes. Well, a fresh 2450 mAh cell would certainly be an improvement in a new generation single AA EDC.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[Kestrel]

Honestly, with the new-production China-mfg. Eneloops demonstrating inferior longevity & self-discharge performance, I'd rather retain my older Japan-mfg ones as I know they will be good for a couple decades of minimal to modest usage.
I do prefer durability & longevity over capacity, and we really don't know how the China-mfg ones will be holding up after ~10 yrs ...

I do have a set of four new-in-package Eneloops that were made in 2006 - will send them off to someone here at their 20yr mark to see how they've handled their shelf time.

 

[Keitho]

Nice collection. Most "normal" people would look at that collection and wonder why you want to buy more lights. But, not here! Once you make some basic decisions about what you want, the "recommend me a light" subforum would be the place to go to fill out the checklist and get some solid ideas.

For future purchase #1, there are lots of throwers that will be better than a 1-lb, 10kcd, 8"x2.3" beast that can hold ~8Wh of eneloops. First choice to make: 18650, 21700, 26650 = (very roughly) 10-12 Wh, 12-17 Wh, or 15-20 Wh at 45, 71, or 86 g, respectively. That Warrior X is a solid tactical light, but there are throwers that might interest you with different color temps, higher CRI, different beam shapes, different button layout. Emisar's get a lot of love in the recommendations section because they are low cost, and give people a chance to try different beam colors and CRI--D1 or D1S would be starting places if you wanted to try that side switch format.

For purchase #2, there are tons more options that also start with battery choice. I recommend people try something the size of the ZL SC64x or Lumintop FW3a before they discount 18650 for EDC. They are too big for some people, but many others I think are surprised that they can comfortably comfortably clip a light with 18650 runtimes to their pocket. As far as safety, I think the main danger for most people (myself included) is when the cell is outside the light--accidental shorting of any battery isn't great, but a high-current Li-ion cell could do very dramatic things if accidentally shorted by keys, etc. Inside of a flashlight (or a laptop, or a cellphone, or my car, or my toothbrush) I don't give the cell safety a second thought. I think of it this way--maybe a couple hundred people in the history of rechargeable batteries on earth have been injured by pocket fires and laptop fires, and there are thousands of people dating supermodels. My chance of dating a supermodel is orders of magnitude higher than getting injured by one of my devices' batteries, and I can tell you for sure that I am CONFIDENT that I won't be dating a supermodel!

Best of luck

 

[earthlight]

I do prefer durability & longevity over capacity, and we really don't know how the China-mfg ones will be holding up after ~10 yrs ...

Indeed. I agree 100 %. If I end up getting more AAs, I'll make sure they are "originals", at least made in Japan. But I would need to find that one modern & reliable single AA keychain twisty first.

Nice collection. Most "normal" people would look at that collection and wonder why you want to buy more lights. But, not here! Once you make some basic decisions about what you want, the "recommend me a light" subforum would be the place to go to fill out the checklist and get some solid ideas.

Hey that's a good suggestion! Looking at it now, my post yesterday included a bit too much to any attract specific recommendations.

And yeah, some people never realise how much they need a quality flashlight. But I feel that at this point tech has advanced so much as to warrant a new light or two... My keychain Fenix has pretty much zero knurling left and the keyring hole is almost broken as the keyring has eaten trough.

For future purchase #1, there are lots of throwers that will be better than a 1-lb, 10kcd, 8"x2.3" beast that can hold ~8Wh of eneloops. First choice to make: 18650, 21700, 26650 = (very roughly) 10-12 Wh, 12-17 Wh, or 15-20 Wh at 45, 71, or 86 g, respectively. That Warrior X is a solid tactical light, but there are throwers that might interest you with different color temps, higher CRI, different beam shapes, different button layout. Emisar's get a lot of love in the recommendations section because they are low cost, and give people a chance to try different beam colors and CRI--D1 or D1S would be starting places if you wanted to try that side switch format.

Thanks! I will look into these! Too bad I already have the headlamp covered for the next years as that is the one light where I would appreciate high CRI the most. I sometimes do mushroom picking in the dark fall evenings and a high CRI would make a difference. Hehe, better to pick only the ones I know for sure! I remember this one time when there were plenty of cortinarius caperatus (gypsy mushroom?) but also a lot of deadly poisonous young amanita virosa, the destroying angel as it is called. They are typically really hard to mix erroneusly but I suppose it could happen, especially as they were close to each other and if one is doing the picking in artificial light. Hehe, I'm still alive though so the zebralight I used at the time was enough to make the difference.

So, I reason that since I have a floody headlamp, I will go for a throwy handheld and the CRI is not that big of a deal. On the keychain light replacement it would probably be more important to me.

For purchase #2, there are tons more options that also start with battery choice. I recommend people try something the size of the ZL SC64x or Lumintop FW3a before they discount 18650 for EDC. They are too big for some people, but many others I think are surprised that they can comfortably comfortably clip a light with 18650 runtimes to their pocket. As far as safety, I think the main danger for most people (myself included) is when the cell is outside the light--accidental shorting of any battery isn't great, but a high-current Li-ion cell could do very dramatic things if accidentally shorted by keys, etc. Inside of a flashlight (or a laptop, or a cellphone, or my car, or my toothbrush) I don't give the cell safety a second thought. I think of it this way--maybe a couple hundred people in the history of rechargeable batteries on earth have been injured by pocket fires and laptop fires, and there are thousands of people dating supermodels. My chance of dating a supermodel is orders of magnitude higher than getting injured by one of my devices' batteries, and I can tell you for sure that I am CONFIDENT that I won't be dating a supermodel!

Interesting idea to see whether 18650 based lamp might actually work as an EDC! I think Olight too has a model that is not too big, considering. In fact, in case I were to clip it, instead of attaching it to the keys, I would be far less likely to forget and throw a bigger light into the washing machine. But if I clipped something like the Fenix E18R I would surely forget and put it in the laundry. I would love something so small but I wonder how the side switch would fare over the years in the pocket, together with the keys. :thinking:

I think you make a good point about safety. Inside the flashlight it is most likely very safe. Darn, now I need to think this really carefully again. Haha, yeah, I too find it unlikely to be dating a supermodel anytime soon. :twothumbs