Brand new Eneloop in headlamp completely dead :( What happened?

[RobF789]

Hello!
New user here. I've read in the past many threads in this forum, got excited and decided to buy a nice MC3000 charger and 4 AAA Panasonic Eneloop batteries (the white ones, 750mAh) for my brand new mountaineering headlamp (Black Diamond Storm 375).

I was super happy with my headlamp, carried with me in a small pouch in my backpack all the times, and used it 3-4 times at most (last time I've turned it on, around September, it still marked full batteries). Then came the winter, and in the past couple of months I hadn't used it at all (just carried for safety reasons in my outings). The weather has been very warm this winter in the Alps (except a couple of outings around -10 C and one at -16 C, the rest was in the [-3, 5] C range). I unfortunately hadn't been able to do many outings either (maybe 10?).

Last weekend I have been checking all my equipment and took out my headlamp to check on the batteries. Tried to turn it on, no way. Weird. Had I broken it in a fall (almost impossible, it was very well protected in the pack, and I hadn't taken huge falls... but ok)? Took 4 random batteries, tested it again, the headlamp worked perfectly.
"Ok, the batteries are dead, weird but let's take my MC3000 and charge them". And there's the point where the mystery comes. 2 of the batteries were almost empty (couple of dozen of mAh left). The other 2 could not even be detected by the charger!! :sigh:
I've even tried one of these cheap battery indicators that flash some LEDs to indicate the power level, and not even the red (empty) light turned on..........

Does anyone have an idea about what happened to my batteries?

I've just ordered 4 new Eneloop Pro (black), but I'd lie to figure out what happened, since being with a dead headlamp in some of my mountaineering outings could make for an interesting day... (and the idea of having excellent charger, batteries and headlamp was exactly reliability...)

Thanks a lot for your suggestions!
Rob

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Hello!
New user here. I've read in the past many threads in this forum, got excited and decided to buy a nice MC3000 charger and 4 AAA Panasonic Eneloop batteries (the white ones, 750mAh) for my brand new mountaineering headlamp (Black Diamond Storm 375).

I was super happy with my headlamp, carried with me in a small pouch in my backpack all the times, and used it 3-4 times at most (last time I've turned it on, around September, it still marked full batteries). Then came the winter, and in the past couple of months I hadn't used it at all (just carried for safety reasons in my outings). The weather has been very warm this winter in the Alps (except a couple of outings around -10 C and one at -16 C, the rest was in the [-3, 5] C range). I unfortunately hadn't been able to do many outings either (maybe 10?).

Last weekend I have been checking all my equipment and took out my headlamp to check on the batteries. Tried to turn it on, no way. Weird. Had I broken it in a fall (almost impossible, it was very well protected in the pack, and I hadn't taken huge falls... but ok)? Took 4 random batteries, tested it again, the headlamp worked perfectly.
"Ok, the batteries are dead, weird but let's take my MC3000 and charge them". And there's the point where the mystery comes. 2 of the batteries were almost empty (couple of dozen of mAh left). The other 2 could not even be detected by the charger!! :sigh:
I've even tried one of these cheap battery indicators that flash some LEDs to indicate the power level, and not even the red (empty) light turned on..........

Does anyone have an idea about what happened to my batteries?

I've just ordered 4 new Eneloop Pro (black), but I'd lie to figure out what happened, since being with a dead headlamp in some of my mountaineering outings could make for an interesting day... (and the idea of having excellent charger, batteries and headlamp was exactly reliability...)

Thanks a lot for your suggestions!
Rob

Your headlight seemingly has high 'parasitic drain,' which means it draws some current even when it's off.

Chris

 

[PapaLumen]

Or maybe it got turned on while in your backpack?

 

[RobF789]

Your headlight seemingly has high 'parasitic drain,' which means it draws some current even when it's off.

Chris

I think not -- I had kept it with batteries inside for 3-4 months and they didn't get discharged... (before that I was used to carry the batteries in a separate bag for this same purpose. However, this headlamp is IP67 so I've thought that they were better off inside the headlamp than outside...). I might try to keep them outside, though the bulk of 4 batteries is not that welcome... Thanks for your suggestion!

 

[RobF789]

Or maybe it got turned on while in your backpack?

It has a locking feature -- you have two buttons on the top, unless you press the two of them for 3 s (and it is not easy even with fingers!) you get at most a small blue led blinking once or twice, marking that the lock is on, but it won't turn on! (soooo coool )

 

[peter yetman]

That's were your power is going then.
P