Dropped box of Surefire batteries... ok to use?

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bigfoot

bigfoot

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Go figure, I had just bought a brand new box of 12 Surefire batteries yesterday and while unloading the car they took a drop to the concrete from about 3 feet up after finding their way out of the bag.

I pulled each cell out of the box and inspected it; there are only 2 cells that have the slightest scratch through the side of the cell, through the wrapper. You can see metal reflecting from where the wrapper was cut but there is no deep puncture or anything like that.

I'm curious if the battery experts here think they are still safe to use, or if I should just toss 'em. (Or even toss the whole box? Not sure if the cells can get damaged internally from such a drop.)

Thanks!
 
Hello Bigfoot,

I would recommend that you set them aside for a day or two to see if anything happens. If nothing happens, check the voltages. If all the voltages appear good, use them.

Tom
 
Hello Bigfoot,

Both will work fine with CR123 cells. I happen to have the larger unit, but I was interested in the larger selection of cells that can be tested with it. Several people use the mini and are quite pleased with it.

Tom
 
to bigfoot --


Just a little food for thought . . . .


Let's say the clerk in a store dropped a boxa' SureFire batteries,
just like what happened to you.


Do you think they're gonna':


Toss 'em

- or -

Sell 'em anyway

:devil:


Heck, they wouldn't even have bothered to visually inspect them,
which you did.


Who knows what sorta' treatment the cells have received
on their journey to our homes ? :faint:


Guess SureFire needs to include those G-force shock-stickers in every box. :whistle:



FWIW, and speaking of entirely different battery technology . . . .


I dropped three AA-size NiMH cells onto my concrete floor.
Distance of less than 30 inches. (that's 762 mm)


Two were Sanyo Eneloops, and one was a Duracell 2650 (Japan).


All three were excellent performers before the mishap.


Sadly, the Duracell would no longer hold its charge more than twenty-four hours. :sick:

It has now been tossed into the "Recycle Box".


The two Sanyo Eneloops, however, still rate just fine !

I've logged their "incident" in my NiMH-cell database,

and i keep close tabs on ALL my cells, thanks to my

wonderful Maha C-9000 battery charger/analyzer. :thumbsup:


That charger was a GREAT purchase !

A very wise investment.


Especially coupled with all the great tips and info
from the brilliant and helpful folks on CPF.


Thank you to everyone for your assistance ! :wave:


:twothumbs

_
 
There's a lot to be said for 2xAA lights these days :devil:
 
Good point... the box might have already been dropped on its journey to the store shelf.

Interesting to hear about the Eneloops surviving the fall. I just bought one of the packs at Costco -- they are great batteries!
 
I drop batteries all too frequently...when your using a desk open on all four sides, you'd think the makers of batteries would make them with antiroll devices:candle:

so far so good....I don't notice dents of any kind on primaries, only on alkaline cells C or greater :D
 
Well just ordered the mini ZTS tester. Discovered the 10% off coupon code in the forums, too. That made the deal a little sweeter.

All in all, maybe dropping those batteries was a good thing. Made me finally get a tester!

:twothumbs
 
bigfoot said:
Great, thank you!

I think there is a mini tester in my future shortly. :D
Click to expand...

FYI - I have 2 MBT-1 testers and a mini. They all give consistent readings with each other. Other than giving up some battery type/sizes, the mini can't show a cell with just 10% - after a cell drops below 20%, it reads zero. This probably isn't an issue for most folks, but I just wanted to mention it, in case it is important to you.
 
Thanks for mentioning it -- I don't think it will be a problem for me. Mostly I am looking to check the 123 cells and make sure I am not mis-matching anything. Likewise, in case I drop any more boxes of them...

:ohgeez:
 
DM51 said:
Voltage is not a reliable indicator of a cell's state of charge, except for Li-Ion cells.
Click to expand...

but IF your just checking to see if they have developed internal shorts from damage, and are self discharging, wouldnt any person with a simple DMM and waiting a few days (like silver said) be able to tell if they damaged the cells and got internal shorts in it?

like say right after they got a shipment in and the shipper played basket-package with it, and drive a forlift into it, and dropped it off the back of the truck, they could check them in a few days and see if they are all up to par?
 
Last edited:
VidPro said:
but IF your just checking to see if they have developed internal shorts from damage, and are self discharging, wouldnt any person with a simple DMM and waiting a few days (like silver said) be able to tell if they damaged the cells and got internal shorts in it?

like say right after they got a shipment in and the shipper played basket-package with it, and drive a forlift into it, and dropped it off the back of the truck, they could check them in a few days and see if they are all up to par?
Click to expand...
Sure, if the cell had a serious internal short it would self-discharge pretty quickly, and obviously you would see that with a voltmeter OK once it was dead. It would depend on the damage and the rate of self-discharge. If it was only very minor and quite slow, that would be equivalent to a light load, so you might only notice a slight voltage drop until the cell was just about dead.

My comment was really not so much about that but about voltage in general as an indicator of state of charge, following on from someone else's comment.
 
the reason i ask, is because each of my unused Energypster E2 lithium things reads a voltage that is VERY close to the other new ones
3.3v and 1.8v, now i dont know what the capacity is, but i THINK i know that they havent been used yet or abused.

if they read 1.6 and 3.1 instead totally unloaded still, the only thing i can Assume about them is that they have been used , mabey a little?

so 2 questions.
do other cells like these ones people buy in big bulk hunks , have "uniformity" in thier unloaded new voltage?

and if a lithium read instead 1.5v and 2.8v is there any assumption about its capacity at all?

cause we judge the re-usability of 9v alkalines based on if they are still 8.8 or something, i can reuse them for another day. usually i test by pileing them together and sorting by voltage and tossing the lower third, based on rested unloaded voltage.

My comment was really not so much about that but about voltage in general as an indicator of state of charge, following on from someone else's comment.
right, i knew that it wasnt directally for the original topic of dropping the cells, but it made me wonder about if we can determine at least "new" "used" "dead" even though we cant use it as a guage like li-ion.
 
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I'm a self-proclaimed amateur interms of the chemistry and possible volitility of Li-Ion batteries but, I am hoping these aren't in the same category as blasting caps and C4 and the like!!! :poof: I'm sure they aren't but, every so often I get to wondering with threads/posts such as these! I don't soak mine under water nor use 'em as targets for shooting practice but, dropping a box of them on the pavement sure better not cause some nuclear blast!!!



Karl
 
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