L35 HID Battery defect, does yours have it?

[ntalbot]

In short:
I bought a lightly used L35.
If you charge it and do a runtime test same day you get 1hr 40min.
If you charge it and let it sit for a few days, you get about 50 min. Lithium polymer should not loose its charge that fast, right?

So I take the battery out to look at it, and this is what I found:
There is a weird solder blob on the battery:


Here is a close up:


The battery looks a bit cracked (maybe heat damaged?):


Inside the battery compartment this is what you see:


So there is a weird third contact inside the battery compartment that has no corresponding contact on the battery, except a blob of solder. It looks like a spring or a machine screw with a blob of solder on it.

I sent the L35 to batteryjunction and they said the extra contact inside the battery compartment is normal, but the solder blob on the battery is not. They are charging it today and will let it sit for 5 days and then do a runtime test. I am pretty sure they will replace the battery if there is a problem with it.

If you have an L35, please take look inside and at the battery and tell me what you see. I would especially like to hear from anyone with a brand new L35 that has not been used yet: Can you get a clear picture of that third contact? Is it a spring or just a machine screw? Does it have solder on it? Does your battery have solder on it?

This whole thing is really weird. I have a theory, but I would like to hear from other L35 owners before I put it out there.
Neil

UPDATE: BatteryJunction is replacing the battery with a new one! Thank you Matt and Jeff!

 

[ntalbot]

Re: L35 HID Weirdness - pics

Double post.

 

[ntalbot]

Anyone?

 

[kramer5150]

???
no replies?

OK I'll take a stab. In a multi-cell pack all it takes is 1-2 bad cells to bring down the total capacity of the entire pack, depending on how the cells are wired.

BJ had a warehouse fire earlier this week. I think you should try and contact them for a status update on your RMA.

:thumbsup:

 

[dudemar]

If the battery doesn't have a blob of solder on it in its stock form, I would try to get a replacement battery.

 

[Patriot]

iirc, this light uses a 3 x li-po pack and I don't think it can run on only two cells because that's only about 8V. So, it's all three cells or nothing which makes it's difficult to guess about the problem. My only guess is that it may have a draw that's there all the time but starts pulling the battery down after it's charged. A few days would be enough.

 

[ntalbot]

If the battery doesn't have a blob of solder on it in its stock form, I would try to get a replacement battery.

Batteryjunction said that stock batteries don't have the solder blob on them.
My hunch is that the thing that looks like an extra contact in the battery compartment is actually a machine screw that is too long and which protrudes unintentionally into the battery compartment. I think that on a long run the machine screw heated up b/c the other end of it is close to something that gets hot. The end of the screw that is in contact with the battery got hot enough to melt through the battery and contact some solder inside which then melted and formed the blob you can now see in the first 3 pics. Some of the solder stayed on the end of the machine screw, as seen in the last pic.

 

[forexer]

Batteryjunction said that stock batteries don't have the solder blob on them.
My hunch is that the thing that looks like an extra contact in the battery compartment is actually a machine screw that is too long and which protrudes unintentionally into the battery compartment. I think that on a long run the machine screw heated up b/c the other end of it is close to something that gets hot. The end of the screw that is in contact with the battery got hot enough to melt through the battery and contact some solder inside which then melted and formed the blob you can now see in the first 3 pics. Some of the solder stayed on the end of the machine screw, as seen in the last pic.

I think this is the case. I see melted plastic that the blob is on. What did you think go so hot that it could melt the solder?

 

[ntalbot]

I think this is the case. I see melted plastic that the blob is on. What did you think go so hot that it could melt the solder?

Maybe the machine screw goes through something that is part of the heat sink for the bulb? I don't know. I'll call BatteryJunction soon and try to get some resolution to the problem.