Surefire CR123 Performance Observation

[kelmo]

I was using my E2D last night and the output was still fairly white and bright. I turned it off and when I tried turning it on again nothing. I thought the LA had died so I swapped out the MN03 for a MN02 and nothing. I took the cells and tried to fire a BOG Cree Premium module with them and it barely fired. I had thought the cells were fairly new but it appears my thought was incorrect. This has happened with my E1e except the beam quality suggested failure was imminent. My 9P on the other hand dies a slow painful yellow beam death.

Kiessling had mentioned in another thread about the "sudden death syndrome" of SF batteries observed by others. Has anybody else experienced this?

I remember when I first joined CPF SF batteries were having problems. I shall always have a spare set of cells when carrying my SF incans due to this type of behavior.

kelmo

 

[greenLED]

Happens all the time the e2 lamps (at least with my e2/lamps).

My take on it:

You discharged those cells below the "startup voltage" of the lamp. That means that while the lamp was initially on (at a higher voltage), once you used your flashlight for a bit, the battery was discharged.

This new level of charge was not high enough to turn the lamp on again. Had you not turned the light on, the lamp would've continued to work (and the output decrease) for a while longer.

AFAIK, the "sudden death syndrome" happens when new and unused cells lose their charge while in storage.

 

[Beamhead]

Yes, but I chalk it up to the protection built into the cells. Carrying spares is lesson #1 of CPF.:tinfoil:

EDIT: Greenie posted as I was, I use LED single cell lights and SF cells will just go poof with no warning, other cells you can see visible dimming and or flickering.

 

[Niconical]

I had a strange experience with a Surefire CR123A recently.

Using it in an E1B, it would work fine, but if I left the light alone for a couple of hours, next time I turned it on, it would flicker for a second. It would only do it at the first power up after having been left for a while, so it obviously took quite a while to test this, but I did it repeatedly and it was always the same.

In general use I probably took the battery down to 50% used, but it still kept doing it. Its voltage was as expected when I tested it various times through that, but the flickering continued.

I also did the same tests, leave it a couple of hours, then turn on, but with other brand CR123A, another Surefire cell, and LiFePO4 rechargeables, and it didn't do the flicker, only with this one battery.

The battery in question was the one that came with the light.

 

[labrat]

Yes, but I chalk it up to the protection built into the cells. Carrying spares is lesson #1 of CPF.:tinfoil:

EDIT: Greenie posted as I was, I use LED single cell lights and SF cells will just go poof with no warning, other cells you can see visible dimming and or flickering.

There is no protection built into SF primary/CR123 batteries.

 

[Beamhead]

There is no protection built into SF primary/CR123 batteries.

I beg to differ.

 

[greenLED]

I beg to differ.

And I second the difference (zat'a vurd?)

 

[MorePower]

Yes, but I chalk it up to the protection built into the cells. Carrying spares is lesson #1 of CPF.:tinfoil:

EDIT: Greenie posted as I was, I use LED single cell lights and SF cells will just go poof with no warning, other cells you can see visible dimming and or flickering.

The only protections built in are vents in the gasket to prevent cell explosions, and 2 thermally triggered protections. One is the separator between the cathode and metallic lithium anode, which will melt at elevated temperatures, thus preventing the flow of ions and stopping the reactions which allow current to flow. The other is the PTC, which will increase in resistance at high temperature and effectively shut down the flow of current.

There isn't any protection beyond what you'd find in any other good quality CR123A cell, and if you see a sudden shutdown of a light when using SF cells, you should see the same thing with Duracell, Energizer, Rayovac, Batterystation, etc in the same light under the same conditions.

 

[ampdude]

Lithium primaries will either die a sudden death or a really long slow one. I've never noticed any difference between brands on this little quirk.

Other than that the SF's and Duracells generally last longer and tend to be brighter than the other brands when powering a xenon light. There seems to be less cell to cell production variance with the SF's and Duracells, so both cells (of the same month/batch) tend to die at about the same time.

 

[Kiessling]

It was discussed that the batteries might be low on capacity but still work fine due to the elevated temperature, and upon re-strike later, when cold, won't work any more.

However, a lot more explanations were given, and a consensus wasn't reached IIRC.

Often, one cell would die whiel the second still works, so in 2 cell lights it is worth checking into the voltage of both cells when having such an incident.

I had this with some other cells, too, IIRC, but sonce I only use SF123 for a long time now, those are my only reports.

Typical situation would be a normally working light that is dead when picking it up later. I had a few of those incidents in the last years.

bernie

 

[kelmo]

Thanks everybody.

 

[etc]

Nothing unusual running with SF 9P with Malkoff...

very long tail, running until hit maybe 1/2 lumen of lite.