I recently bought a new Arc AAA standard and have been carrying it in my pocket with the fresh battery that came with it. A few days ago I decided to do some run-time testing with it, so I took the well-used Duracell procell battery out of my pager and stuck it in, turned the flashlight on, and left it sitting on my desk at work. (Yes, I stuck a new battery in the pager). The flashlight ran at near-full brightness to maybe 1/2 brightness for several hours. At the end of the day I swapped the battery back to the fresh one for carry purposes. I've been doing this every day for several days and for the last couple of days when I stick the depleted battery in, the flashlight comes on at about 1/3 brightness, quickly dims to moon mode in about five minutes, then runs in moon mode for the rest of the day. Amazing.
This morning, about 10:00, I was working and heard a small popping noise. Looked over and the flashlight wasn't glowing. The battery had finally completely died, but I was curious about the noise. I picked it up and started to unscrew the head and it was very stiff and hard to turn. I got a bit more cautious and turned my face away and slowly finished unscrewing the head. When it was almost off, I heard a loud, very sharp pop and felt a small, sharp blast of gas on my fingers. Concerned now, I dumped the battery out, but it hadn't leaked and the inside of the flashlight was clean. The O-ring also appeared OK. I put the fresh battery in and it worked fine. The dead battery has a very small sliver of what appears to be insulation coming out of the negative end, but other than that appears normal.
In retrospect, this was kinda stupid. I know that alkalines outgass when they're nearly depleted and I know that the Arc AAA is sealed for water resistance.
Points learned:
1. Be careful when doing extended run-time testing with sealed flashlights.
2. The Arc AAA is very well sealed! I'd like to know what PSI was inside that thing. The popping noise when I removed the head was very loud and sharp! The guy in the office next to mine came in wanting to know what the noise was. It was interesting explaining it - I think he thinks I'm nuts now.
3. The Arc AAA can run a long time on a "dead" battery if the battery is allowed to "rest" for several hours between use so it can recover.
This morning, about 10:00, I was working and heard a small popping noise. Looked over and the flashlight wasn't glowing. The battery had finally completely died, but I was curious about the noise. I picked it up and started to unscrew the head and it was very stiff and hard to turn. I got a bit more cautious and turned my face away and slowly finished unscrewing the head. When it was almost off, I heard a loud, very sharp pop and felt a small, sharp blast of gas on my fingers. Concerned now, I dumped the battery out, but it hadn't leaked and the inside of the flashlight was clean. The O-ring also appeared OK. I put the fresh battery in and it worked fine. The dead battery has a very small sliver of what appears to be insulation coming out of the negative end, but other than that appears normal.
In retrospect, this was kinda stupid. I know that alkalines outgass when they're nearly depleted and I know that the Arc AAA is sealed for water resistance.
Points learned:
1. Be careful when doing extended run-time testing with sealed flashlights.
2. The Arc AAA is very well sealed! I'd like to know what PSI was inside that thing. The popping noise when I removed the head was very loud and sharp! The guy in the office next to mine came in wanting to know what the noise was. It was interesting explaining it - I think he thinks I'm nuts now.
3. The Arc AAA can run a long time on a "dead" battery if the battery is allowed to "rest" for several hours between use so it can recover.
