Batteries used on QMiniAA?

[Hen]

Hi, are there any other batteries that can be used with the QminiAA light instead of the traditional Alkaline AA?

 

[carrot]

Sure, you can use:
Energizer Lithium (L91)
NiMH rechargeable
NiCd rechargeable
NiZn rechargeable

Don't remember if you can use Li-ion 14500 rechargeables, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could.

 

[Hen]

Sure, you can use:
Energizer Lithium (L91)
NiMH rechargeable
NiCd rechargeable
NiZn rechargeable

Don't remember if you can use Li-ion 14500 rechargeables, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could.

Are NiMH rechargeable batteries the best for this light? Are they long lasting and efficient comparing to the others you mentioned?

I think someone said it in LED section that the Li-ion 14500 should not be used.

 

[bobisculous]

I use NiMH Eneloops in my QMini AA. Seems to work very well. Just recently joined this eneloop bandwagon and really seem to like it. Both for my lights and other electronic devices. Great for my GPS as I always seem to forget to turn that off.

From what I read, 14500's get the LED too hot as there is not proper heatsinking for it. Some do it (4sevens says don't do it) and get away with it, as long as they use high output mode sparingly.

 

[jonnyfgroove]

Seems like the L91s or the NiZn rechargeable cells would be good options to get the claimed 90 OTF lumens.

I've been carefully using protected 14500s since day one, and so far so good. The medium on 14500 is extremely useful IMO, and lasts 3+ hours IIRC.

 

[vali]

You can use 14500, but not safely because if you dont cool it you can overheat the led. The light is too small :whistle:

The best rechargeable cell if you want to use it safely and want a lot of lumens should be the NiZn ones. MiNis use a voltage regulated circuit, opossed as current regulated most premium lights use. That means you will have more light using more voltage and as the cell is depleted the brightness go down.

I currently use Eneloops on it, because I dont have NiZn and dont care about maximun brightness. I only want a useful light, wich the MiNi is.

 

[Dr Rockso]

Is there a significant difference in runtime between an alkaline AA and an Eneloop? The cheap price of AAs (at Costco for instance) makes it seem like you'd be hard pressed to actually save any money going with a rechargeable.

 

[carrot]

Is there a significant difference in runtime between an alkaline AA and an Eneloop? The cheap price of AAs (at Costco for instance) makes it seem like you'd be hard pressed to actually save any money going with a rechargeable.

Yes, performance on alkalines is poor compared to performance on NiMH/Eneloop, on all high power lights, not just the MiNi.

 

[NutSAK]

The cheap price of AAs (at Costco for instance) makes it seem like you'd be hard pressed to actually save any money going with a rechargeable.

How cheap are alkalines at Costco?

Assuming you can charge an Eneloop 500 times, per use cost would be about $ .006 per cell. This would not include the cost of charging, however.

I think I would be hard pressed to find an alkaline with a per use cost anywhere near that figure.

 

[skyfire]

i use energizer lithiums L91 in my nitecore D10, and my mom's quark mini AA. brightness to me seems the same as an alkaline, but runtimes are much longer. best reason to stay away from alkalines, is the chance of it leaking.

 

[RedForest UK]

Eneloops can last for up to 5 times as long compared to an alkaline battery, when you throw in the fact they hold their charge just as well and can be recharged practically as many times as youll ever need then they really come up trumps :thumbsup:

Also, many of the cheap dollar store alkalines arent even alkaline, they could be zinc-carbon or another weaker chemistry, if they are labelled 'heavy duty' then they are probably not even alkaline.

Eneloops will offer you much greater capacity and performance in general as they hold their voltage longer than other cheap primary chemistry batteries as well..

 

[carrot]

IIRC, it's $10 for 48 AA's at Costco. Similar pricing on AAA's.

 

[Dr Rockso]

IIRC, it's $10 for 48 AA's at Costco. Similar pricing on AAA's.

Something like that, and it usually takes me 2-3 years to go through a box of those. Maybe I just need more flashlights...the only AA lights I have are AA mini-Mags, all my good lights are CR123.

 

[noisebeam]

Something like that, and it usually takes me 2-3 years to go through a box of those. Maybe I just need more flashlights...the only AA lights I have are AA mini-Mags, all my good lights are CR123.

At the rate I use my one 2xAA L2D I would use 11 per week.

I also like knowing that I am at max capacity before heading out, if I used non-rechargeable I would have a box of half used ones sitting around waiting to be used for non full capacity applications.