Stocking up on 123's

Ok well I have searched around and came up with a bit of confusion and even called several places....

I am starting to collect several surfires and will have a battery hungry M6 soon MMMM.....20min runtime lol

Well I have another 12 (surefires) pack on order form LLbean and which comes to about $20. I am looking to buy these in a large quantity maybe 72. I called battery station (their brand) and they said they are great and now made in USA and will be just as good as the surefires in my M6. I have read about older ones losing capacity over time and venting and ideas if these new ones are like that?

Then I called optics HQ about the titanium cells for $1 they told me it wouldnt be too good of an idea for the M6 or multiple cell high drain lights. Can anyone reassure me on this as its tempting at $1 a piece (bad idea)?

Also which would you go for:
Battery station brand $1.25
Surefires about $1.60
Titanium cells $1

Thanks for the help

An alternative would be to look up mods for the M6 so that it runs off 2 AW C Li ions - an economical solution for the M6 when driving a HOLA (keeping a couple of sets of SFs for emergencies).

Sounds like you need to invest in some rechargeables.

I dont think I want to go rechargables for this, I do have rechargables for my e1e and e2d with the HO bulbs adn they just arent for me the e1e has a nice wow factor for being so small and powerful incan but the runtime isnt great on either and the e2d is not really brighter then the surefire 60lm bulb and the surefire bulb gets me alot more runtime...Greg

I would prefer to use 6 rcr123As and a LF lamp for that kinda brightness for that long a duration

but purely on the topic matter here
Surefire cells have been rather inconsistent in tests on the ZTS, which was my first experience with surefire cells and its been on for awhile [YMMV]
Someone here ran a test on M6 runtime using titanium cells and the duration was significantly lower than surefire cells
I admit I'm biased against battery stations so I don't elaborate on my opinion
I've been using Streamlight cells from lighthound for awhile. its performance is on par with Surefires in the M6 and about $0.49/cell cheaper :twothumbs

what about battery junction?
they have cells for $1 each

I think they are the same cells that opticshq has and they dont really recommend them in high drain lights like the M6. Has anyone used these cells in the M6?

Illum_the_nation said:

I would prefer to use 6 rcr123As and a LF lamp for that kinda brightness for that long a duration

but purely on the topic matter here
Surefire cells have been rather inconsistent in tests on the ZTS, which was my first experience with surefire cells and its been on for awhile [YMMV]
Someone here ran a test on M6 runtime using titanium cells and the duration was significantly lower than surefire cells
I admit I'm biased against battery stations so I don't elaborate on my opinion
I've been using Streamlight cells from lighthound for awhile. its performance is on par with Surefires in the M6 and about $0.49/cell cheaper :twothumbs

Click to expand...

I had a set of streamlight cells and half of them were dead after a month or two of no use and I had 3 in my g3 w/p91 and after a few minutes of use I set the light down turned off and the light was dead when I went to use it again.

97t-bird said:

I had a set of streamlight cells and half of them were dead after a month or two of no use and I had 3 in my g3 w/p91 and after a few minutes of use I set the light down turned off and the light was dead when I went to use it again.

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mmm, did you check what their expiration dates were?
what method do you test them with?
I've bought and used over 30 cells with no problems so far...:candle:
the G3 it sounds like a normal occurrance as my G2 w/ P60 had the same issue [before it left on a long term loan]
the resistance of the filament increases as it cools...so a set of used batteries normally cannot light the lamp can when its cold, but when its hot yeah, at least for a couple more minutes.
Surefire xenons are pretty discriminating in terms of cell condition.

Hello 97t-bird,

The Titanium CR123 cells are not to be used with any light that drains them in under 1 hour. They are not designed for high discharge rates.

Tom

SilverFox said:

Hello 97t-bird,

The Titanium CR123 cells are not to be used with any light that drains them in under 1 hour. They are not designed for high discharge rates.

Tom

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Do you happen to know about the made in usa battery station cells? I am lookig for a pretty much definative answer as it is looking to be those or a bit more money for the surefires....Thanks

Illum_the_nation said:

mmm, did you check what their expiration dates were?
what method do you test them with?
I've bought and used over 30 cells with no problems so far...:candle:
the G3 it sounds like a normal occurrance as my G2 w/ P60 had the same issue [before it left on a long term loan]
the resistance of the filament increases as it cools...so a set of used batteries normally cannot light the lamp can when its cold, but when its hot yeah, at least for a couple more minutes.
Surefire xenons are pretty discriminating in terms of cell condition.

Click to expand...

I found a old one in my pile of dead batteries they had 1107 stamped into between the - and + and that instanced happened the last week of july as I was on vacation and some kids were shining a cheap red laser pointer at the hotel from the boardwalk and I lit them up from 4th floor.....:wave:

97t-bird said:

Do you happen to know about the made in usa battery station cells? I am lookig for a pretty much definative answer as it is looking to be those or a bit more money for the surefires....Thanks

Click to expand...

I think the jury is still out, since they've only been selling their USA made cells for a few months. If what they say is true, they should hold up as well as any USA made cell, which is about as good as we can get. I bought a couple dozen and will let you know how well they hold up over the months.

My BS CR123 cells from China did suffer from quite a variable degradation over the years, after ZTS-ing them recently.

Hello 97t-bird,

At a 2.5 amp draw, the new BatteryStation CR123 cells tested very similar to the SureFire cells. I did notice that they did get hot though.

I ran 4 cells and each test was terminated near the very end by temperatures above 140 F. The SureFire tests only had 2 of the 4 tests terminated on high temperature.

The best cells, so far, at this draw have been the Duracell Ultra and ProCells.

Tom

SilverFox said:

Hello 97t-bird,

At a 2.5 amp draw, the new BatteryStation CR123 cells tested very similar to the SureFire cells. I did notice that they did get hot though.

I ran 4 cells and each test was terminated near the very end by temperatures above 140 F. The SureFire tests only had 2 of the 4 tests terminated on high temperature.

The best cells, so far, at this draw have been the Duracell Ultra and ProCells.

Tom

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Well it looks like I will go ahead and order a bunch of the baterystation cells then as long as they will run in the M6 without shuting down and have majority or the runtime the surefires get.........So i should expect very close results between the two not to kick a dead horse just want to make sure. If you can back me up on my understanding......Thanks

Hello 97t-bird,

Let me put it this way. The M6 is designed at the cutting edge of a CR123's ability to produce power. In continuous runs, everything related to the battery is strained at its maximum. Any inconsistency in any cell in the battery pack will be more pronounced when using this light for its maximum runtime. These, normally slight, inconsistencies will cause problems when the light is used at its maximum capability.

In a life or death situation, when I was depending on getting the full runtime from an M6, I would use Duracell CR123 cells.

In normal use, where the light is not run to the point where the batteries heat up (i.e. non continuous runs), the SureFire and BatteryStation cells should work just fine.

Tom

SilverFox said:

Hello 97t-bird,

Let me put it this way. The M6 is designed at the cutting edge of a CR123's ability to produce power. In continuous runs, everything related to the battery is strained at its maximum. Any inconsistency in any cell in the battery pack will be more pronounced when using this light for its maximum runtime. These, normally slight, inconsistencies will cause problems when the light is used at its maximum capability.

In a life or death situation, when I was depending on getting the full runtime from an M6, I would use Duracell CR123 cells.

In normal use, where the light is not run to the point where the batteries heat up (i.e. non continuous runs), the SureFire and BatteryStation cells should work just fine.

Tom

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Thank you...You have cleared up everything pretty well. So I guess it will be the battery station batteries for me I cant see my self ever needing to have the M6 especially with the HOLA turned on or need it for its entire runtime have to many other lights that would get jealous and want to be played with......Greg

The Titanium brand had a good showing in the 2A test last year or in 2006, IIRC. Is the problem with an M6 the even higher (insane?) draw of the MN21 LA?

Any info regarding the new Panasonics made in the USA?

Thanks.

louie said:

I think the jury is still out, since they've only been selling their USA made cells for a few months. If what they say is true, they should hold up as well as any USA made cell, which is about as good as we can get. I bought a couple dozen and will let you know how well they hold up over the months.

My BS CR123 cells from China did suffer from quite a variable degradation over the years, after ZTS-ing them recently.

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If you trust Rayovac CR123A cells, then the new Battery Station CR123A cells should be fine. If you look at the date code table Battery Station lists at the bottom of http://www.batterystation.com/cpf3.htm, you'll see that the cells are actually Rayovac cells. That's where the "RAYOLITESHUM" date coding comes from.

MorePower said:

If you trust Rayovac CR123A cells, then the new Battery Station CR123A cells should be fine. If you look at the date code table Battery Station lists at the bottom of http://www.batterystation.com/cpf1.htm, you'll see that the cells are actually Rayovac cells. That's where the "RAYOLITESHUM" date coding comes from.

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Haha neat, never noticed that.

I've heard rayovac doesn't actually make their own 123a cells either, is that true?