Experiencing Horrible Runtime with Tenergy Primary 123s

[youreacrab]

Bought a batch of Tenergy batteries a few months ago. I realized that I was exhausting my Tenergy's way faster than my other brand cells in my P2D so I set up this test.

Turns out I'm baking through some of the Tenergy 123's in 5 minutes time. What a joke! I wish I remembered where I bough these, I'd try to get my $$ back.

Left: Fenix L2D @ Turbo on Eneloops
Right: Fexix P2D @ Turbo on Primary 123s (Tenergy compared to Titanium)

Pic 1: L2D at 0 minutes; P2D New TENERGY at 0 minutes.

Pic 2: L2D at 5 minutes; P2D TENERGY at 5 minutes.

Pic 3: L2D at 5 minutes; P2D New TITANIUM at 0 minutes.

Pic 4: L2D at 10 minutes; P2D TITANIUM at 5 minutes.

Both lights were fan cooled. I repeated this procedure with 4 different Tenergy Cells: 2 were worthless within 5 minutes; 2 were OK after 15 minutes so I took them off.

Anyone else share my experience with these cells?

 

[mdocod]

across the board, "off-brand" cells like Tenergy, Powerizer, Ultrafire, Superfire, Crap-o-Fire, SpriderFire, TrustFire, not-so-trustFire, poopfire, bungfire, etc etc have inconsistent capacity, inconsistent internal resistance, inconsistent state of charge, a high rate of DOA, a high rate of premature failure, and nice pile of complaints and testing to back it up. This applies to primary cells, li-ion cell, NIMH cells, ETC ETC. This is not to say that there aren't a number of NAME brands out there that have produced lousy cells in various categories coughenergizercoughnimh.

Around here, we tend to suggest finding a good online deal one some well known name brand, or well respected brand USA made CR123s.

check out the batterystation brand cell if you want some "off-branded" cells at a reduced price that happen to be made in the USA and seem to perform up to other cells standards that are also made in the USA.

Look for good deals on RayoVac, Duracell, Panisonic, Streamlight, Energizer, SureFire, Sanyo, (a I missing any other USA made cells?) on the internet.

If you want a compromise, the titanium brand CR123 cells really do seem to be pretty decent overall, now available from batteryjunction. Available for $1 or less per cell and will probably beat the pants off of any tenergy/powerizer branded cell.

 

[Mr Happy]

Just a thought: if you take one of those crap Tenergy cells and leave it to rest for a few minutes and then try it again, does it come back to full brighness?

I've tested some cheap CR123A cells on a 1 amp load and they would start out good but within a few minutes the voltage would sag horribly just like your picture. However, if I rested them for 15 minutes they would recover and do the same thing over again.

My suspicion is that some cells are not designed for continuous high loads. However, if they are used for intermittent loads (like, for example, camera flash), they might work out a lot better.

We have to remember that powerful flashlights are not the application CR123A cells were ever intended for. If a given manufacturer does not sell them "for flashlight use", we can't necessarily say they are not fit for purpose when they don't work so well in that application.

 

[youreacrab]

Just a thought: if you take one of those crap Tenergy cells and leave it to rest for a few minutes and then try it again, does it come back to full brighness?

I've tested some cheap CR123A cells on a 1 amp load and they would start out good but within a few minutes the voltage would sag horribly just like your picture. However, if I rested them for 15 minutes they would recover and do the same thing over again.

My suspicion is that some cells are not designed for continuous high loads. However, if they are used for intermittent loads (like, for example, camera flash), they might work out a lot better.

We have to remember that powerful flashlights are not the application CR123A cells were ever intended for. If a given manufacturer does not sell them "for flashlight use", we can't necessarily say they are not fit for purpose when they don't work so well in that application.

youre right, it will start off in full brightness then sag down again maybe within a minute or two

 

[dano]

Just to add...123 size cells were never designed for constant load. They were designed to give a high-amp immediate discharge in camera flashes.

I also recommend NOT using any Chinese made 123 cells.

-dan

 

[signal 13]

Just bought three Rayovac 3V 20 packs from www.botachtactical.com ... $19.95 per 20 pack ... after shipping it averaged out to about $1.17 per battery...probably going to order some more in the near future!

http://www.botachtactical.com/rarl3liba10.html