Battery arrangement rant..

[AMD64Brunette]

The one type of battery style I don't like..even in a high-end light like a Surefire or Elzetta.

Is a 3 battery arrangement. (3 AAA headlight, Petzel Tikka,etc.)

You end up buying 4 batteries,and then not using one of them.

Anyone know why this type of light became popular?

I much prefer 1-battery lights. (Hugging my Zebralights..)

 

[Toulouse42]

Not really my field but its to do with voltage. 3 x 1.5 Volts is cheaper/easier than adding electronics to get the voltage you want. 3 x AAA batteries is the most pointless IMHO. Having said that, I do have a 3 x D cell Maglite. I agree that 1 battery lights are my favourite.

 

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

Single cell gang forever here.

Thank god it's such a popular format, because these very 3xAAA requirements were my biggest annoyance back in the days of early LEDs. I only adopted EDCing a light once easily rechargeable ones that you could plug directly to the outlet came along.

 

[Kestrel]

3xAA works well for four strings

 

[MidnightDistortions]

Yeah 3 cell arrangements can be annoying. Prefer 1, 2 or 4 however if you buy the 16-24 packs then it's not a big deal. 4 or 8 packs it can be a problem then you're left with 1 or 5 cells. It can also be problematic when you want spares.

Another perspective here is more often a 4 pack of cells won't be equal in capacity due to manufacturing imperfections and cause lights to dim slightly as one cell is discharged before the other cells do and you end up with a weak battery getting weaker due to it being overdischarged. Packs of 10+ helps as they'll have more cells that will match closer to one another. [Note: you need a analyzer charger for this]

 

[snakebite]

I doubt package size means anything as the batches are huge.

 

[aznsx]

I have a Malkoff MD2 and Elzetta Bravo. The reason I didn't go with an MD3 or Charlie had nothing little to do with the number of cells required, but primarily the length of the lights for my practical carry.

 

[RWT1405]

I never found my SureFire 9P's to be any problem

All the SureFire batteries I have bought over the last 30 years came in boxes of 12, seems easy enough

Perhaps I'm missing something?

Doesn't really seem that difficult to me..........

 

[geisto]

Definitely annoying but figure you should buy more than one pack since you want to have charged cells ready to go. I am more annoyed at the AAA format with it's low capacity compared to AAs. Got myself a 4x AA PrincetonTec headlamp....yea it weighs more but it also has more lumens/runtime.