SF 9AN in your Collection or EDC?
- Thread starter Manila
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guncollector
Enlightened
Manila,
Do a search on "B90 battery" or "Surfire B90", before investing in a 9AN.
The 9AN is powered by Surefire B90 NiMH batteries have no appreciable "shelf-life". That is, when you take a B90 off the charger, you've got about a few days to a week before the charge completely self-discharges.
To my knowledge, Surefire has not fixed this problem.
This is a major weakness of the entire Surefire 8/9-series rechargeables, and explains why Tigerlight, Streamlight, and Magcharger take home all the "Lummies" awards--and Surefire is barely mentioned.
HTH
Do a search on "B90 battery" or "Surfire B90", before investing in a 9AN.
The 9AN is powered by Surefire B90 NiMH batteries have no appreciable "shelf-life". That is, when you take a B90 off the charger, you've got about a few days to a week before the charge completely self-discharges.
To my knowledge, Surefire has not fixed this problem.
This is a major weakness of the entire Surefire 8/9-series rechargeables, and explains why Tigerlight, Streamlight, and Magcharger take home all the "Lummies" awards--and Surefire is barely mentioned.
HTH
Bravo25
Flashlight Enthusiast
The biggest consideration for me was that I can recharge the Stinger with the battery still in. Didn't have to take it out to charge it.
Topper
Flashaholic*
I have two of them and I use them often. I do not think they hold a charge anywhere near the B65 batteries that I run in a couple of G2's and a 6P. They will go dead rather quickly in about four days. Maybe a modder could make an adapter to run 123's in one. I am not aware of other brand of recharge batt's that would fit.
Topper
Topper
guncollector
Enlightened
I have made my own B90 battery out of Sub-C cells.
See this link to "Help with Sub-C Surefire transplant". Sub-C's are the 3 cells that each B90 battery stick is made up of.
See this link to "Help with Sub-C Surefire transplant". Sub-C's are the 3 cells that each B90 battery stick is made up of.
Topper
Flashaholic*
guncollector , thank you for that link I read over it twice and making my own is not a safe option /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif I am curious as to wether leaving the B90's in the charger longer would help I have noticed that they get quite warm when in the charger but left one in last night and let it blink all night and most of the day, it was not warm at all when I pulled it about an hour ago. I will let it sit A week in one of my 9AN's and see.
Topper /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Topper /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
jln
Newly Enlightened
Just to argue the other side. I have an 8NX that goes more than a week on a single charge. In fact its probably really 2 weeks since I charge the dead one and put in a new one at the same time. The new one runs for a week or more than when it dies I put the charged one in that has sat around for more than a week and that runs for at least a week.
Size15's
Flashaholic
SureFire's B90 battery sticks have been fixed for many months now. I have two 9AN's (one BK (HABK) and the other HA). I do not have any need for a "dutylight" which is what the 9AN is designed to be - heavy use on a nightly basis.
If I was in the market for a flashlight for duty use, on nights I would use the 10X if I was allowed. If not I would use the TigerLight. For daytime duty use I would carry either the Pila GL4 or 9AN. I do not have a GL4 but I've heard very good things.
My current experience tells me to use the L7. It is not yet on public release so it is not an option right now.
However, by the time I need a small dutylight SureFire will have rechargeable LED models. Quite what formats the models will take who can tell?
Al
If I was in the market for a flashlight for duty use, on nights I would use the 10X if I was allowed. If not I would use the TigerLight. For daytime duty use I would carry either the Pila GL4 or 9AN. I do not have a GL4 but I've heard very good things.
My current experience tells me to use the L7. It is not yet on public release so it is not an option right now.
However, by the time I need a small dutylight SureFire will have rechargeable LED models. Quite what formats the models will take who can tell?
Al
Topper
Flashaholic*
Hi Size15s, Both of my 9AN's have been purchased in the last four months. How long did they sit on the shelf? Beats me. I do not think I would consider buying a led light that was using a B90 as the Battery. I will state once again the I have had good results with the B65 Batt's from SUREFIRE
Topper
Topper
madecov
Flashlight Enthusiast
I have the 8NX with B90's. The latest set I received from SF seem to hold a charge for about 3 weeks without any major issues. Last set I ran went for almost 35 minutes after 3 weeks of sitting. I do prefer my GL4R as a duty light though
Topper
Flashaholic*
Hi madecov, I admit the term "latest set" scares me a bit and I do like the 9AN alot. I am glad that you are having good results with your B90's The same for jln. I wish I could state the same.
Topper
Topper
binky
Flashlight Enthusiast
I only have an 8NX not 9AN but since the b90's really are a big issue with these and they're the same, here's my experience to add to the pile:
I bought my 8NX maybe 1.5 yrs ago (I say maybe because I have a terribly bad sense of time). The batteries I got were definitely bad ones. I waited until it looked as though Surefire had them fixed for real (that was after Ron/guncollector built his oh-so-cool Frankensticks), called up to talk about it and the support rep volunteered to send me 2 replacements no charge.
My replacements work as advertised, and hold their charge for weeks. I now edc my 8nx again, and with confidence that the batteries will work as their supposed to.
I dunno, maybe I'm lucky or maybe Surefire really has fixed the problem. Since I've never been lucky enough to win any lottery in my whole life (other than this one, perhaps), I'm going to optimistically support the position that Surefire has really fixed the b90 battery issue. Of course YMMV. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I bought my 8NX maybe 1.5 yrs ago (I say maybe because I have a terribly bad sense of time). The batteries I got were definitely bad ones. I waited until it looked as though Surefire had them fixed for real (that was after Ron/guncollector built his oh-so-cool Frankensticks), called up to talk about it and the support rep volunteered to send me 2 replacements no charge.
My replacements work as advertised, and hold their charge for weeks. I now edc my 8nx again, and with confidence that the batteries will work as their supposed to.
I dunno, maybe I'm lucky or maybe Surefire really has fixed the problem. Since I've never been lucky enough to win any lottery in my whole life (other than this one, perhaps), I'm going to optimistically support the position that Surefire has really fixed the b90 battery issue. Of course YMMV. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
For rechargeable, it's hard to beat Pila in terms of size/brightness, not to mention runtime due to its li-ion battery. My 9AN has been moved to the bottom/back of my drawer for quite sometime. However, I admit that I like the look of 9AN more than G4R although G4R is brighter, smaller, whiter beam and longer runtime.
Since you have M3, you could simply get Pila bat (and spares) to run it at the expense of runtime. M3 couldn't use the 168a bat that is 80% more capacity like G4R though.
Unlike 9AN, 10X has a pretty white beam. If you prefer SF and found a way to carry the 10X, it might be a good choice.
It's too bad that L7 doesn't work on 9AN. Or else, my dusty 9AN might have a new life🙂
Hopefully, SF would develop li-ion based rechargeable light soon. By then, many of us would go broke🙂
Alan
Since you have M3, you could simply get Pila bat (and spares) to run it at the expense of runtime. M3 couldn't use the 168a bat that is 80% more capacity like G4R though.
Unlike 9AN, 10X has a pretty white beam. If you prefer SF and found a way to carry the 10X, it might be a good choice.
It's too bad that L7 doesn't work on 9AN. Or else, my dusty 9AN might have a new life🙂
Hopefully, SF would develop li-ion based rechargeable light soon. By then, many of us would go broke🙂
Alan
madecov
Flashlight Enthusiast
Don't let the fact that I said "sets" scare you. I called Surefire every 2 months until they got it fixed. The problem seems to be fixed and my B90's (CM-17 lot) work very very well.
I have the 9AN415HA and about 10 B90's. On average they hold
the charge 3 to 7 days with enough left for some good run time. If I let them sit around for 2 weeks or more they will run the light for about 5 min then it's over. If I use them with in 2 days of being charged I get 35 to 40 min of run time. My light is probably 18 months old and other than
the B90's short shelf life I like the light a lot.
the charge 3 to 7 days with enough left for some good run time. If I let them sit around for 2 weeks or more they will run the light for about 5 min then it's over. If I use them with in 2 days of being charged I get 35 to 40 min of run time. My light is probably 18 months old and other than
the B90's short shelf life I like the light a lot.
symes
Enlightened
I went through this same debate - liked the look of the 9AN because of rechargeability and the twin level option and of course SF quality...but I was nervous about having to charge outside the body because I knew it would end up failing the "too hard test" and thus it would not perform when I needed it most...
I am a big SF fan and have many of their lights, M2, M3, M6 (recently) E1e, L1, A2 etc... so I am not biased against SF at all....but for my duty carry I use a Tigerlight and keep either the L1 or A2 in my pocket for low level use...
The Tigerlight isn't quite built like an SF, but for this use, it is an awesome product. You get lots of light (I rate it somewhere between M3/225 and M6/250 for output and penetration but others will know the numbers for sure) for managing "encounters" and I can spotlight something in the woods 200ft away without a problem. Run-time for me is just over an hour and charging is easy. (you can get spare batteries for the Tiger, and I have one, but I found it too fiddly to change on a regular basis, so I'll just keep the backup until the first one dies...).
kind regards,
Simon
I am a big SF fan and have many of their lights, M2, M3, M6 (recently) E1e, L1, A2 etc... so I am not biased against SF at all....but for my duty carry I use a Tigerlight and keep either the L1 or A2 in my pocket for low level use...
The Tigerlight isn't quite built like an SF, but for this use, it is an awesome product. You get lots of light (I rate it somewhere between M3/225 and M6/250 for output and penetration but others will know the numbers for sure) for managing "encounters" and I can spotlight something in the woods 200ft away without a problem. Run-time for me is just over an hour and charging is easy. (you can get spare batteries for the Tiger, and I have one, but I found it too fiddly to change on a regular basis, so I'll just keep the backup until the first one dies...).
kind regards,
Simon
