Is this normal when using AA To D battery adapters

[mountaindewer]

Bare with me, because i'm new to these adapters. I recently purchased some of those battery adapters. the first time i ever used them was last week, when the electric went off, i used them in my aerator pump that i use to keep minnows alive when i fish. It takes 2 D's, and i didn't have any, so i thew in some duracell alkalines, and it ran perfect for the 6 hours the electric was out. Just a little bit ago, the batteries in my 2D LED maglite died, so i thew in the adapters with 2 duracells as before. I checked them when i put them in, and they both registed 1.5 volts. The light ran good for the 30 minutes i used it straight. after that i took them out, and i noticed the plastic shell of the adapter was kinda hot. I pulled both batteries out and they were hotter than the pits of tartarus. I checked them on a tester, and both were zapped to 1.2ish volts and took at least another half an hour to cool down. On the top cell, the negative plate had burn marks. I know for a fact the batteries didn't short out or anything, but was it normal for them to get scolding hot?

 

[Frijid]

Sounds to me like it just got to hot from drawing to much power. I mean an AA doesn't have the MAH that D's do, so sounds like to me you were just drawing to much power from a little cell. Sorta like hooking up a 454 engine to the transmission of a yugo, and expecting the transmission to stand it.

 

[StarHalo]

You're exceeding the amp handing of the battery carrier; cheap plastic carriers usually max out at 1 amp, going over that risks fire.

 

[mountaindewer]

Hmm, looks like I just need to stop being cheap and buy some D's. Can't afford having a fire. Even though they worked good on a minnow pump, i'll still probably not use the adapters then in that case. Hope it didn't do no damage to my maglite

 

[StarHalo]

Get some NiMH Ds, much better output and much cheaper over time.

 

[Etsu]

You're exceeding the amp handing of the battery carrier; cheap plastic carriers usually max out at 1 amp, going over that risks fire.

That might explain why the adapter contacts were hot, but wouldn't explain why the battery cells got hot themselves. I think the issue was too much current draw from the alkaline cells, and their internal resistance heated them up. I would try using some NiMH AA cells, which should be able to handle current much better.

What is the lumen output of the Maglite? If it's under 150 lumens, I doubt it's drawing more than 1 amp from your cells. If it's over that, then yeah you might want some better adapters.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

According to this thread you 2D magLed may be trying to draw over 1A from the batteries
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?328584-Using-AAs-in-a-Maglite-LED-2D
and some of the cheap AA to D adapters may have high enough resistance in them to add into the mix. I would suggest you try two new AA alkalines in your adapters with the tailcap off and measure current draw with a meter on the 10A scale and see what you get then compare with 2 nimh AAs and see if the current is the same and/or brightness is different. I'm guessing you have several problems of which all have been discussed.
According to the graphs on this page HERE starting at about 0.25A for every 0.25A you increase the load on alkaline AAs you drop runtime in half from about 8 hours/0.25A to around 4 hours/0.50A to 2 hours/0.75A, and then finally about an hour at 1A. This would suggest about half an hour at 1.25A current if possible from alkaline AAs for them to sustain such currents and deliver any sort of a decent voltage. IMO when you get above 0.75ma alkaline AAs should be avoided because the working capacity has dropped below most nimh AAs to 1800mah or less.

 

[mcnair55]

Not had a problem myself but will monitor next time i use my d cell light ,just thought that will be tonight on that power outage day thingie.

 

[mountaindewer]

Thanks everyone for all the replies! I'll take star halo's advice and buy some NIMH D's for when i use the maglite. Shame eneloop doesn't make any rechargeable D's. Reason i bought the adapters was for mainly power outages. Like i said, when i used my small portable fish pump for minnows, that i use to keep my fish tank in my house with a fresh air supply. I ran the adapters on them with 2 AA's, and they didn't get hot, and worked good, for several hours and never got hot. But it apparently doesn't draw as much as my LED maglite does, so i may just save the adapters for small drain stuff, like the air pump or a small radio. I found the package for my mag, and it said 134 lumen. I didn't buy the adapters that were like eneloops or the other adapters. The ones i bought were from Rite-Aid, so that may explain another reason....

I know from just half an hour use, they were zapped to 1.2ish volts, so it didn't zap them pretty fast! lol

 

[StarHalo]

Shame eneloop doesn't make any rechargeable D's. Reason i bought the adapters was for mainly power outages.

Three AA Eneloops is 6000 mAh, one Tenergy D NiMH is 10,000 mAh, more capacity in the same amount of space, much better for runtime.