Zinc carbon still keeps going and going and going

[KevinL]

Zinc carbon cells can have quite a lot of energy, as I've discovered. My resistored TWOL Lux3 Mag just keeps going and going and going on 4 D cells, current draw is around 30mA. Even at this meagre power level it puts out more light than an ArcAAA or CMG Inf Ultra.. very useful long-burn blackout light.

Even if your cells are almost dead, you can still run for days and days. There's just one catch - a severe color shift into the green side of things when the Lux is underdriven at this level. Not like it's meant to but this makes quite an interesting emergency light and battery eater.

I imagine it'd do a lot better on alkaline, but zinc carbon's staying power has impressed me significantly. Not to mention I get quite a few hours of very good light (350mA-1A current draw), and it's very useable at all of those light levels.

 

[idleprocess]

Re: Zinc carbon still keeps going and going and go

Just keep in mind that carbon-zinc cells have around half the capacity and shelf life of alkaline cells.

 

[Zelandeth]

Re: Zinc carbon still keeps going and going and go

They're also far more prone to leaking in my experience.

 

[paulr]

Re: Zinc carbon still keeps going and going and go

If it's a backup light, just store the cells in the fridge and the shelf life should be fine. I'm not sure if it's ok to use the freezer. The ZC cells might have half the capacity of alkalines but they're about 1/5th of the price if you shop carefully. You might as well also use a 5mm led instead of a Luxeon. Use a separate light for when you want something brighter.

 

[KevinL]

Re: Zinc carbon still keeps going and going and go

Cheap and good is the thing.

I was just playing with 4 of them since I have to use them or have them expire anyway, so I thought I'd put them in one of my high powered lights to see how well they hold up, and like I said, the results are surprisingly good even with Luxeons at 1A. They've powered it for many many hours now before the output has dropped to this level. The light has been burning for days.

Letting them sit for 12 hours and allowing the chemicals to mix a little more seems to bring the cells back to life. What I'm saying is that if ZC can hold out for this long, alkaline should be even better. Useful if you cannot get new supplies of batteries.

 

[evan9162]

Re: Zinc carbon still keeps going and going and go

I think ZC cells are so prone to leakage because the reaction actually consumes the cell body from the inside - so deeply discharging could eat a hole right through the cell can, allowing for leakage.