Rechargeable batteries?

metalhed

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Ok, I'm going to keep swinging at this until I learn to write killer poll questions...the last one blew wind.


FlashlightNews.org Poll: Rechargeable Batteries: Do You Use Them?




Now I know you guys have some opinions on this one, let's hear 'em.



BTW, Mods...I put this here to get a more balanced response to the question than I'd get in the 'Flashlight Electronics - Batteries Included' Forum...most of those guys are already rechargeable battery advocates, ya'know. :laughing:
 

Empath

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The balanced view concern is noteworthy. The battery forum will give a skewed result, if it's participants are the primary responders to your poll. I noted too, that a moderator did move it to it's topical forum of batteries. It's an unusual situation, as far as proper forum selection goes. If placed in the proper forum, your poll targets a partial audience. If in the wrong forum, it targets those you want, but tampers with a basic concept of moderation.

Let's try moving it to the Cafe. You should be able to get a well rounded interest group there, and it's "battery" topic shouldn't hurt nothin' there.
 
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drizzle

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I picked the "Hate 'em" answer even though I don't really hate them at all. I'm just not a heavy enough user right now to justify the extra bother. I have used them in the past and probably will again in the future.
 

metalhed

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I have conflicting opinions about rechargeables.

On the one hand, they appear to be cheaper to operate for frequent use than primaries and are ecologically superior. But...

I wonder whether or not I'll actually see the rated number of cycles from the cells themselves, since I have had cells go bad well before they should. And I wonder whether some consumers (like those here in California) really get anywhere near 'free lumens' after one adds up the intial costs (charger and cells) and then factors in the actual energy used to charge them up (at up to .23 a KWh).

Then add in their limited capacities (although this is changing) and relatively high self-discharge rate, and they actually become kind of a pain in the butt for the average consumer.

Bottom line for me is that I use them wherever I can, and try to look past their shortcomings. I know that the problems with rechargeables will eventually be solved, but I also know it will come at the price of new chargers and cells...and the dance continues.
 

shadowman

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I use rechargeable nimh in some of the lights that i use frequently. For the rest, it's primaries. I do not use lithium ion rechargeables. I just don't trust them despite supposed protective measures.
 

NotRegulated

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For my unmodified lights that use CR123 batteries such as Surefire and Streamlight's TL-3, I have moved to using rechargables for everyday use and have kept the CR123's for backup and extended power needs. I started this when I was working nights and and was a heavy user discharging batteries on a daily basis. I don't work nights now so I need to deliberately make sure I use and rotate my rechargables to keep them from dying.

With all the money I have tied up in chargers and batteries I probably could have bought 100 CR123's. However, I have come to appreciate the performance boost provided by the li-on batteries, particularly the semi-regulated brightness level that doesn't taper off.

All my modified lights use rechargables. My Streamlight Stingers are set up with the FM Pila adaptors and run on li-on rechargables, my 700L's use Pila's, and my Mag85 uses NIMH AA's.
 

Diesel_Bomber

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I voted that I love 'em, everyone should use them. Obviously rechargeables won't work for EVERYONE, but they'd work great for more people than realize it. In the winter I easily burn through a set of batteries A DAY in my EDC. I don't care if they last for a full 1k cycles or not. Usually I can buy nimh rechargeables for very nearly the same cost as primaries; if I get two recharge cycles out of them I'm money ahead. In a long-term disaster, I can come up with an energy source to recharge rechargeable batteries a LOT easier than I could replace primaries. People have posited that it costs me more to recharge the batteries than it does to buy primaries, but that's ridiculous. 2.4ah multiplied by 1.5v gives 3.6wh. 1kwh divided by 3.6wh gives me ~278. Assume the whole mess is 50% efficient, so divide 278 by two, which gives me ~139 recharges per kilowatt hour. 1kwh costs me 12 cents. It costs me less than 1/10th of one cent to recharge a battery. Even at Metalhed's electric rates it'd be about 1/5 of one cent to recharge a battery. I don't see how a person can lose.

Note: I do keep a large stash of primaries around, jic.


Cheers. :buddies:
 

metalhed

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Just a bump. I guess. There are a few more days left to this poll, and I'm kinda surprised at the number of pro-rechargeable votes.

I guess my personal ambivalence about the things is a minority view. The poll (so far) seems to indicate widespread support for rechargeables.


Anybody else like to chime in...and/or vote? :laughing:
 

Zigzago

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I use rechargeables (NiMH AA's) because I prefer to reuse rather than dispose. But I refuse to obsess about whether they are properly conditioned, charged to their absolute maximum capacity, used in perfectly matched sets, etc., etc., etc. Life is too short for that.
 

HayJab

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I use both NiMh and LiIon rechargeables (single cell only with LiIons). My primary reason for using them is so that I always have full battery power and to achieve max brightness with my LED lights. I don't mind the recharging that I do, about once a week. I'll recharge sooner and when needed if some high use warrants it. I use rechargeables for performance reasons, not to save money or to be kind to the environment.

HayJab so states...
 

Sub_Umbra

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About the poll-

Three options are two part questions -- and flip enough to weed out some who would otherwise respond, IMO. As an example, I chose "Love 'em...everybody should use them." Even though I am decidedly NOT an activist on rechargeables and I couldn't care less if others use them. For some reason the author of the poll has added qualifications that actually make it more difficult to participate. Sometimes this tactic is used for political or commercial reasons and the poll has a whole 'nother reason for being than its stated purpose.

Three of the options seem to be way too cute. In two of the options (the first and the last) BOTH parts of the two part questions were too cute to be taken seriously, IMO.

In my (admittedly perhaps distorted) reality map a poll should be composed of questions that should try to be emotionally flat. Flat, simple questions have a better chance of pulling a real answer from the highest number of potential targets. I think that a good poll should try to walk a thin line and try to get just one answer and not make people have to decide on whether or not they should vote at all because they can't find an option where half of it doesn't p**s 'em off.

Having said all that I still think that every poll should have the 'Let's Get Him' option.

I commend you for taking poll writing seriously. It's deep stuff.

About the cells-

I use them in everything I can. I pretty much follow the old CCrane rule of using rechargeables in any device that requires changing cells three or more times per year.

I use NiMHs and NiCads. I have a bunch of them in AAA, AA, C and D. (Well over 100) I start charging when the hurricane is still three days away. With an AM2020 and a c808m I can top off lots of cells in three days. Logistically this make more sense to me than trying to rotate an even larger alky stash than I already have. I went through 'the big crunch' with this system, so I already know it works.

Mrs Umbra and I are bicycle people and that's a big factor. We never run have to run out and buy cells. I'm no Green Nazi but even I would have to think twice about firing up a 3,000 lb car to go pick up some AAs every time I needed some.

I read claims of 500 or 1,000 cell cycles but I would buy them even if I only got 75 cycles out of them. I generally go middle of the road on the price of my cells but I use absolutely the best chargers I can afford and it has worked out very well for us.
 

metalhed

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I have found that writing polls isn't all that easy. In fact that's why I went from a weekly poll to semi-monthly...it's just too hard to come up with that many decent questions.

As far as the phrasing of the questions go, I try to inject a little lightness or humor into them. The fact is that they can never be fully accurate indicators of peoples views, since they aren't random.

I see them more as a curiousity satisfier...an internet version of a 'factoid'. Interesting at best, obnoxious at worst.

Should I drop the polls from my home page? Are they too pointless?
 

Sub_Umbra

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Jeeze metalhed,

I didn't know that was your poll! I certainly would have weighed my words a bit more before I wrote. Some things about me will never change...I'm really sorry for the way I came off in that post.

As to whether you should continue, that would seem to depend on what you want from them and whether you are getting what you want.

If they DO satisfy your curiosity to some extent that would be a plus.

As far as the polls being just one element in a page that may inject a little different tone -- that is a really interesting idea that never would have occured to me. That use of a poll is brilliant. You have obvously considered aspects of polls that whizzed right by me.

I think you should keep going.
 
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