Eneloops not working in Headlamp

[mrmandrake]

Hey guys,

I lurk here mostly and a post here helped me decide to get a Quark AA2 but I'm pretty new to flashlights in general.

I have a Black Diamond headlamp that works fine with my Energizer alkaline batteries but when I put in my Eneloops, there is a quick flash and then the LED quickly fades. If I turn off the headlamp and turn it back on, it does the exact same thing. I bought my Eneloops about 2 years ago. Anyone have any idea why this is happening? Thanks!

 

[TooManyGizmos]

~

I think your Eneloops have gone bad and are failing under a load.

Try some new rechargeables .

~

 

[parker2520]

Yea, must be the batteries. After reading your post I tried good Eneloops in my Black Diamond headlamd and they work fine....

 

[45/70]

This may sound kinda silly, but are the eneloops charged up?

Other than that, all I can think of is the cells are not making proper contact in the headlamp. One other thing, if the lamp is a 3 AA and is designed to run on ~4.5 Volts from 3 alkaline cells with a regulator of some sort, maybe the eneloops don't have enough voltage to fire up the lamp. parker2520 pretty much killed that idea though.

Dave

 

[Illum]

if your eneloops has been stored for a long time, they could have gone to sleep and need to be "waked up" using high current discharges [~1A] and a couple charge cycles.

While its not likely perhaps this could be something to try out? certain chargers like LaCrosse has discharge testing abilities that can be used to safely exercise a cell, but the easiest way is to pop it in an AA light, set it to the highest mode, then run it for awhile before recharging. After recharging, repeat the test in the headlamp and see if the results differ:thinking:

 

[Locoboy5150]

If your charger has a refresh cycle function, I'd try using that a few times with those Eneloops.

 

[kramer5150]

Make sure they are fully charged. Each cell should be at least ~1.35V fresh off the charger.
Make sure you insert them correctly.

Start with that and report back.

Its also possible after 2 years of heavy use that one your cells has reached the end of its lifespan.

 

[mrmandrake]

I'm an idiot. I swore I recharged this pair about a week ago so I didn't think that could be the cause. I put in a new pair of Eneloops and headlamp works fine. I went to charge the "bad" pair and now they work fine.

This was embarrassing to post. Thanks guys.

 

[march.brown]

I bought a cheap battery tester off ebay and it works great ... Basically it's a meter with a resistive load built in ... If the needle goes up into the green , the battery is OK ... If it only goes into the red , then it is not OK.

Simple and cheap.
.

 

[45/70]

I'm an idiot. I swore I recharged this pair about a week ago so I didn't think that could be the cause. I put in a new pair of Eneloops and headlamp works fine. I went to charge the "bad" pair and now they work fine.

This was embarrassing to post. Thanks guys.

Gosh! I've never done anything like that! ohgeez

Needless to say, we'll let it slide.

Dave

 

[red02]

I bought a cheap battery tester off ebay and it works great ... Basically it's a meter with a resistive load built in ... If the needle goes up into the green , the battery is OK ... If it only goes into the red , then it is not OK.

Simple and cheap.
.

Any chance for a link?

I'm an idiot. I swore I recharged this pair about a week ago so I didn't think that could be the cause. I put in a new pair of Eneloops and headlamp works fine. I went to charge the "bad" pair and now they work fine.

This was embarrassing to post. Thanks guys.

I almost returned a photon fusion after incorrectly inserting the batteries. I started thinking I got a DOA unit. Then I look at the + + - on the lid and

Its great to know Eneloops will still be going strong after 2 yrs. I honestly didn't expect this.