Arc AAA gets stuck on

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cave dave

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… Or Pop goes the Arc AAA

I was doing some extreme run time tests to see what the end of the battery life looked like.

So I put in a used battery in my Arc LE. When I started the test at 9:00 pm the light was already in moon mode (like I said the battery was dead) Left it on all night got up a couple times and the arc still put off enough light to maneuver around the house and use the can even at 5am.
By morning in a bright room you could see a glow coming from the LED. You could look right into the LED and see the bond wires and the glowing die. I went into the bathroom and shut the door and enough light was coming out to see my feet. So I brought the light to work.
I didn't dare turn it off because I know that once you do it won't come on again.

About 10:00am I picked up the light and to check it when all of a sudden the die just stopped glowing as I watched. (Good thing I didn't blink)

Well I figured I had better take the battery out, but the head wouldn't budge. I tried harder and it still didn't move. So I wrapped the head in electrical tape and used a leathermann tool. With considerable force the head broke free. As I finished unscrewing the light by hand just as the O-ring cleared POP!! it made a sound like a tiny champagne bottle.

My guess is the battery outgassed and the internal pressure got so high that the threads were locked into place.

I inserted a new battery and nothing. I thought I had killed the light. When I got home I noticed the nub in the bottom looked kind of dirty, I think the battery leaked a bit. I used a small piece of scotchbrite and a pencil eraser to clean it (the eraser alone was not enough). And it now works again. The only lasting problem was that I scratched the head of my LE with the leatherman (even with the layer of electrical tape).

Conclusions:
Don't leave your light on for 18hrs, and hope it doesn't accidentally turn on without you knowing.

Gransee is very conservative about the run times. If he used the same statement of "usable light" that Black Diamond does then I would say that the light would last about 15 hrs.
 

hotfoot

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Can you say, \"Durian\"?
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cave dave:
I didn't dare turn it off because I know that once you do it won't come on again.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I had a little (unintended) runtime test with my CPF just today - it activated accidentally in the cargo pocket of my pants and was on a 3/4-used battery. I don't know how long it was on but it was on moon mode when I finally took it out of my pocket and noticed that it had been left on. I turned it off for a second, then turned it back on again - no light this time. Ok, batt's dead - and I left it on. My CPF is on my carkeyring, so when I was driving home later that night with the keys dangling from my steering column - all of a sudden, my Arc burst back to life - bright too! Gave me a shock at the wheel. Switched it off at the next red light and couldn't get it to come back on again. Got home, trashed that AA and my CPF is good as new again with a new alkaline. Funny.
 

bcwang

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Funny, the same thing happened to me last week. Put a pretty much dead alkaline cell to see how low I could get the battery. After having it on from morning til night, it finally gave out. So I unscrewed it a little to let the battery recover. A few hours later, I decided to test it again. So I turned on the light, and it was bright, but it was pretty hard to turn on. So I started unscrewing it to lube the o-ring, and as it just about came off it went "Pop!". I was then holding the head in my right hand and body in my left. I heard this fizzing sound, and it was from the left. So I dump out the battery and what do you know, the whole bottom half of the label was wet. I looked inside and the bottom of the barrel was crusted with some white coating.

So I guess trying to completely drain a battery isn't good for it. I think what caused the head to become tight was the chemicals, liquid or gas, coming up and reacting with the rubber or removing all the lube. It was prety tight, I thought it was strange that all of a sudden it had gotten so tight. I thought I was gonna break the o-ring trying to turn it.

Luckily, the light still worked. I tried cleaning it but it doesn't seem to come off. I tried alcohol and q-tips, napkins stuffed into the tube. It's just stuck on. But I still have contact so it's all good. My o-ring seems stained with something, maybe the battery liquid.

Strange thing was, after all that stuff came out and the battery was already dead from being on so long, that it came back on with so much intensity after waiting a couple of hours. Guess alkalines can really be used a lot if you give it time to recover. I once drained till death and let recover, an alkaline quick a few times. At the end, after it stopped working completely, I had a voltage of 0.074 Volts. I was surprised I could get it that low. I wonder at what voltage the arc aaa finally cuts out. I do notice too if you turn off a dim light, sometimes, it won't come back on anymore til the battery recovers quite a bit.

I'm wondering if the alkalines would leak if they were not enclosed in a sealed compartment. It seems kinda bad that they would leak the way they did. I'm sure people leave electronics on all the time for days or maybe months, then find it dead. But I'm sure they don't want to find the battery completely ruining the device.
 

JollyRoger

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Aug 21, 2001
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A couple of my ARC's do a better job of "starting" on "dead" batteries than others...
Small variances in the ciruits?

Anyways, try spinning a pencil eraser head on the bottom to get out the battery acid crud....keep spinning the eraser so it gets worn down with a little hole in the middle (where the negative contact on the ARC AAA battery holder is wearing it)....keep doing this and you should have a clean bottom.

My favorite ARC LE has a hard time starting on really "dead" batteries, but my CPF edition starts really well on "dead" batteries....can't decide which one I like better....
 

dark star

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I had similar experiences with an Infinity- battery leaking and outgassing after being left on a long time.
 

snakebite

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what brand of battery was this that leaked and outgassed?
will let you all know if the stock duracell does it as i am running one till it goes out and am getting tired of waiting
smile.gif
 
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