Lithium primary question...

[piper]

Hello all,

I have a Noma Cree light (plastic body) with a lithium primary in my car. It was great in the winter (gets quite cold in Montreal) but now the change of seasons will bring some very warm temperatures to a car parked outside.

Is it a problem to leave a lithium primarry AA in the car? It's in a closed compartment at the top of the dash.

There are othe compartments, would it be better somewhere else?

What type of AA would be best to be left in a hot auto interior?

Thanks,

Piper

 

[rushnrockt]

I am assuming you are talking about Energizer batteries. Here is the data from their datasheet:

Operating/Storage Temp: -40°C to 60°C (-40°F to 140°F) both Ultimate Lithium and Advanced Lithium

Datasheet for reference: http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l91.pdf

So in summary: you are fine as you are with the battery and the placement.

I have a MagLite 3AA battery (black) that is in the middle of my dash and even Alkaline batteries survive our hellish summer. Not that I would really recommend that, as the temperature gets beyond 60C

P.S. Operating Temp for an Alkaline from Energizer: -18°C to 55°C

 

[Battery Guy]

I concur with rushnrockt. The Energizer lithium AA batteries are great for in car flashlights.

The only thing to keep in mind is that these batteries (any battery actually) will age faster when stored in a hot car, so if this is an emergency flashlight it is a good idea to replace the batteries yearly. I typically pull the batteries out of my car flashlight annually and use the old batteries for another application around the house.

Cheers,
BG

 

[piper]

Thanks for the info. I'm glad I guessed right!

 

[Dontreadonme!]

I was searching for the answer to this question and found this thread. The only difference to my hot car question would be this, I live in Arizona and in the summer it can reach 120F degrees outside and probably between 140-160F degrees inside a car in direct sunlight. I just bought my first "real" flashlight recently, Fenix PD31, and will be running Surefire CR123s and eventually 18650's. Seeing as these batteries are Lithium as well as the batteries the OP mentioned, will my batteries be ok in a very hot car, or is there a different type of battery that handles heat better? My new PD31 will mostly be on my person most of the time, but I may leave it in the car periodically, and I will be getting more lights in the future that could have the same battery configuration and be left in the glove box all the time.

 

[45/70]

......and will be running Surefire CR123s and eventually 18650's. Seeing as these batteries are Lithium as well as the batteries the OP mentioned, will my batteries be ok in a very hot car, or is there a different type of battery that handles heat better?

Hi Dont. The CR123A cells you refer to are lithium cells. 18650 cells however, are not really "lithium cells" per se, they are lithium-ion cells and are a totally different chemistry (eg. they contain no metallic lithium, only lithium ions). As such, one of the differences (among many others) is that they do not hold up to high temperatures nearly as well as lithium cells. This is also true at the other end, although to a lesser extent, they don't work as well in cold temperatures either.

Anyway, for extreme use in adverse temperature conditions, I would stick with lithium primary cells. They don't leak, as alkaline cells do (particularly important at high temperatures), and offer superior performance under both extremes, compared to any other common chemistry cell.

Dave