Many questions on AA batteries!

[SuLyMaN]

Hi guys. Just got my first ever decent torch! (Fenix E21 ftw!)
Got a few questions on them.

1) If I use alkaline batteries, it is said that those batteries cannot sustain high battery drain....Is 150 Lumens considered to drain batteries fast?

2) Will the batteries last for a decent amount of time on the 48 lumens? (E21 rated to run 11hours on NIMH)

3) If I use cheap AA cells ($1 buys me 10 of them - Tigerhead brand of china), is there a possibility of the cell leaking/exploding for not being able to sustain the high drain?

4) Can those cheap AA cells run at 48 lumens without being 'drained' too fast?

Thanks for your inputs. I understand that you may/maynot have an E21 but I assume that the drain with near equal lumens will be more or less the same between different brands.

 

[lightseeker2009]

As I have it, get yourself a set of Eneloop's. Voltage sag is less and the light should be more bright for longer than with alkaline's. Their voltage do drop faster than the Eneloops. And you will do your little part in saving the earth

 

[tandem]

1) If I use alkaline batteries, it is said that those batteries cannot sustain high battery drain....Is 150 Lumens considered to drain batteries fast? YES, you should find that puts a heavy load on the cells and unless they are pretty decent, they should fade quickly at that rate.

2) Will the batteries last for a decent amount of time on the 48 lumens? (E21 rated to run 11hours on NIMH) PROBABLY, see point four.

3) If I use cheap AA cells ($1 buys me 10 of them - Tigerhead brand of china), is there a possibility of the cell leaking/exploding for not being able to sustain the high drain? YES, they may not sustain high drain. NO, they will not likely ever explode - alkalines aren't known for that, YES they could leak in time, it is always a risk with alkalines. Odds of when? Who knows. Maybe never.

4) Can those cheap AA cells run at 48 lumens without being 'drained' too fast? PROBABLY would be ok. Really depends on the cell. Buy some and check it out, keep track of time. It'll only cost you ten cents to do one test!

 

[SuLyMaN]

@tandem: Thanks for the replies!!
Great ones.
When I mean batteries leaking, I meant brand new batteries leaking DURING use (because of high drain?), not batteries left in the flashlight for long periods of time. So is it possible that cheap brand new alkalines leak DURING usage under high drain?

 

[tandem]

I do not know the answer to that. Some heavy users of lights report never having seen a leaky alkaline cell, but it seems almost on a weekly basis we see newcomers to CPF start up a thread lamenting how some alkaline cells have messed up some device. Over the years I've seen two alkaline leaks here at Chez Tandem, one in a cheap flashlight my kids were using/abusing, another in a pocket radio device we'd forgotten we ever had. After discovering the radio after some years we noted some no name brand battery, likely installed in the factory, had leaked throughout the radio and destroyed it.

It would seem to me that if a cell is subjected to heavy drain that it might be prone to leaking more than if never used, if for no other reason than cells being pushed hard can and do heat up therefore some expansion of the casing or innards is occurring.

No doubt there is a lot of information or observations made by CPF members that you can access by using a Google site search, including this discussion from that result.