What lights do you use to drain old batteries?

It always seemed like a waste to me to throw away alkalines or even lithium primaries that still had some juice. I replaced the batteries in my wireless mouse today and the dead cells still had .91 volts each. I put them in AA to C holders and then in C to D holders and put them in my 4-die SMJled fulton anglehead and they are putting out a decent amount of light. They'll probably run for a day or two like that.

What ligts do you use for your old batteries? I'm currious about cr123 batteries too (ive got a few that measure over a volt.)

carbine15 said:

It always seemed like a waste to me to throw away alkalines or even lithium primaries that still had some juice. I replaced the batteries in my wireless mouse today and the dead cells still had .91 volts each. I put them in AA to C holders and then in C to D holders and put them in my 4-die SMJled fulton anglehead and they are putting out a decent amount of light. They'll probably run for a day or two like that.

What ligts do you use for your old batteries? I'm currious about cr123 batteries too (ive got a few that measure over a volt.)

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I have multi led lights that uses AA and AAA sized batteries and they drain them down to .5 V or lower. Its great. For 123 batteries, I use dorcy super 1 watt.

Have fun.

this question has been posted many times...

ARC LS First Run with dat2zip mad max (MM) design will support 1x AA and guarantee to drain CR123 dead.

it's amazing that ARC LS first run is still the few production lights made that will support CR123, 2x AA and 1x AA.

cy said:

this question has been posted many times...

ARC LS First Run with dat2zip mad max (MM) design will support 1x AA and guarantee to drain CR123 dead.

it's amazing that ARC LS first run is still the few production lights made that will support CR123, 2x AA and 1x AA.

Click to expand...

I did a search for threads with the title including "old batteries drain" and came up with nothing.

• The INOVA X5 is very popular for draining cr123s. The one with the red LEDs is safer for this purpose as it is a one cell light. Don't take it too far if you're using a multi cr123 cell light.
• Old Infinities are great for draining AAs.
• ARC AAAs are vampires with AAAs.
• Pak-Lites will draw down 9Vs pulled from smoke alarms so far that after about 125 hours of runtime the individual cells blow out the bottom of about half of mine. The Rigel MIL-Starlight Mini gets a lot out of used 9V batteries, too.

Here's one thread on the subject:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=93343

I drain my AA's in my Dorcy cool blue, AAA's in an ebay light, 9 Volt cells in the PALight

everybody says the dorcy 1 watt will drain cr123's dry

I use my Milkyspit MC2. It is so efficient at draining old cells, that I exclusively use "dead" cells in it. Currently, I have cells that came out of my A2 that had about 25% life left(would not light incan anymore). I leave my MC2 on every night while I sleep as a bedroom "night-light", and my cells last about a month! That is 25% cells lasting a month of being on roughly 8hrs. every night! Do a search for MC2.....it's an awesome creation and will come in handy next time the power goes out

The taskforce 1AA does pretty well with AAs and I used the 2AAA insert on a cheap 3LED rubber flashlight set I bought awhile back sawed the adapter down to 1 cell.
A warning about draining batteries.... if you drain them too low chance of leaking increases dramatically and could really mess up or ruin nicer lights.

The Dorcy "Cool Blue" that Torch Boy mentioned consumes only 50mA from fresh cells and less as they drain down. That's an easy load for old AA cells. The Princeton Tec Impact XL uses 100mA from fresh AA cells.

Lynx_Arc said:

..
A warning about draining batteries.... if you drain them too low chance of leaking increases dramatically and could really mess up or ruin nicer lights.

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That is the reason I discard alkaline cells when their voltage falls to about 1.2 volts or less. I used to run them lower.

Any cheap unregulated light can drain 'em dry. I think Eternalights will also suck the last life out of AA's.

Gerber Infinity Ultra - I love dim lights, especially in the middle of the night, but I always give up before the cell does and put something less dead in before I fall down the stairs or something.

cr123A = inova T1, when the T1 quits then Dorcy 1 watt..which believe it or not still drives the LED for more than 20 minutes before calling quits [tells you alot about the T1's regulator doesnt it , once the Dorcy calls quits the cells transfered into a custom battey holder thats connected to a nite-ize module, ran even lower and then vacuum sealed in stamp collectors bags]

since most of my lights run on cr123As...the rest is really of small quantities

AA = Inova X1
2AAs = Fenix L2P for night patrol around house / take showers with
4AAs = Streamlight PP4AA Lux I use to take showers with
9V = Paklites

Honestly, I don't use flashlights enough to really drain a lot of batteries.

I do have a lot of lights and other appliances that use batteries, and often they "expire" long before they are exhausted. As I have them usually in devices I consider somewhat "critical", I'll usually set any alkies aside when they reach 1.5 volts in lights and 1.45 volts in radios. (I check em all every 3 months for voltage and leaks.)

I then give them to the GF's mom's foster kids for use in their do-dads. Little kids really go through the batteries, especially AAs, Cs and Ds.

They love me.

John