You've got $50 to spend on 24 CR123's... what do you buy?

1) 12 Duracell & 12 Surefire
2) 12 Duracell & 12 BatteryStation
3) 12 Surefire & 12 BatteryStation

Your cost including shipping will be $50 regardless of the choice you make.

You want a long shelf-life from these cells... what will your choice be?

I got 24 made in USA panasonic 123 cell from CPF member etc for only $32.00 shipped CONUS. As CPF member Black Rose had mentioned. Panasonic also is the maker of Surefire Cell. so their quality is the same!!:wave:

:shrug: well... that's not really an option in this particular thread, but thanks for chiming in.

You know, if these are the only permutations available , I really don't think it makes much difference. For 50 bucks, your best value would probably be choice #1. I think your performance and shelf life would be fairly comparable across the board, though.

I'll vote for option 3) 12 Surefire, 12 Batterystation, but you already knew that. I have nothing against Duracell CR123A, (I have a pair sealed in pack actually, easy to grab) but for me, Batterystation is.... well we've been there already in another thread, and Surefire is..... Surefire, so my choice is made for me.

There, that's my well thought and explained answer, which ends up as....

"Batterystation and Surefire, just.... cuz".

I voted for option 1.

Why? Capacity - both of those cells have 1550 mAh capacity, whereas the Battery Station cells are advertised as 1400 mAh cells.

In reality, it's not going to make a huge difference.

I went with option 2, Battery Station and Duracell. In the absence of any other real data I looked at the CR123 shootout (which admittedly are small sample sizes). In an emergency you'll probably be using a fair amount of low and medium modes. At .5 Amp draw the Battery Station and Duracell provide the most Watt-hours. At 1.0 Amp and 2.0 Amp draws the most power capacity is either the Duracell or BS. Surefire never manages better than a second (with the third being very close) at the higher draws.

The differences are small but there's not much else that seems to standout. Most measured power delivered trumps the name on the label for me given that they are all reliable, quality cells.

All Panasonics would be my vote if I had that option.

You're going to go to a used car lot and pay whatever they are asking without any haggling or price shopping what-soever. You are going to spend $8,000, Your options are:

A: 2001 Ford Taurus 24V V6 with 68,000 Miles
B: 2000 Toyota Camry CE with 195,000 miles
C: 2002 Saturn SL1 with 120,000 miles

You've found these cars at some various dealers in town and they are all priced at $7,995 on the windshield in massive ink. You figure since you are "smart" you know you can talk them out of the dealer handling "fees" and get them to cover sales tax as well..................................

Do you have a $50 credit somewhere, or are you determined to spend more on batteries than you need to?

24 new Panasonics can be had for under $44 shipped.

I said 12 Duracell and 12 Surefire but if given the option it would be 24 Surefire for $42. Partly cause it is $8 cheaper and also because I am OCD and want them all the same color.

:huh: I really do appreciate the replies, guys. I did want to be specific about limiting the parameters, especially re: cost. :shrug:

I just wanted straight opinion on the specific brands listed, for the specific stated purpose, cost not being a factor.

Adding additional information or changing around the game plan is fine, but as an adjunct, not what I was looking for. Although in hindsight, I should have added Panasonic to the poll! :sigh:

The specific $50 criterion was to eliminate jockeying around due to slight cost variances on this or that source, which is entirely unimportant to me... that is, I wanted the selection to be based purely on the merits of the particular brand's cells, without regard to costs, or better "deals". That's all I was looking for. :ironic:

mdocod... it took me a sec to catch your drift, but I believe what you are implying is that it's just a crap shoot between the choices because any of them may be fine... or not. Correct?

DHart said:

mdocod... it took me a sec to catch your drift, but I believe what you are implying is that it's just a crap shoot between the choices because any of them may be fine... or not. Correct?

Click to expand...

Actually I have to apologize, it was an inebriated sarcastic response. The Point was actually that all 3 of those cars are worth less than $4000, but the dealer would have you think otherwise, and many will fall victim to their scheming.

I realize now where you are coming from Best to ignore than response.

-Eric

Eric... ok... I think I "get it" . Thanks for the clarification as I was a little confused for sure!

You've got a lot of experience in these matters and great insight... I really would like to know your vote, though!

I would buy all 24 of just one brand. I would also buy the ones with the furthest out "use by" date.

Do BS batteries even have a use by date? Don't mix batteries of different brands or different dates.

If you are using batteries in a stock SF light and they destroy your light Surefire will warranty the light easier if you use SF batteries.

BS and Duracell will likely do a warranty replacement as well, but it is something to consider.

cave dave... I would certainly match cells by voltage under load (using my LF3XT) before using two together in the same light and by brand, if possible. But the matching by voltage and age is what's most critical. Generally speaking, I prefer single-cell lights so that isn't even an issue. But I can see why you would recommend all cells be of the same lot and manufacturer if someone wasn't going to match them by loaded measurement and age.

If using mostly in single-cell lights and when in two cell lights matching was to be done by measurement, it would seem to make more sense to mix lots and brands so that if there happened to be a problem with a particular lot, one wouldn't be dead in the water.

I'm thinking I will buy a new dozen each year, cycling older ones out, so that back-up/emergency stock never gets too old. Of course, that means I have to actually USE primaries sometimes! As an AW Li-Ion fan, using primaries is something I pretty much never do. Guess I'd better get on that a bit. :ironic:

If this is of any assistance, I took a chart by SilverFox and added 'place of manufacture' if I could figure it out. It seems like Panasonics (and the various rebranded Panasonics - Streamlight, SureFire, etc) have the advantages of US made quality (edit: made in NC, not Georgia?), nearly the highest capacity, and reasonable cost (I recently picked up 20+ Streamlight cells for $1.35 each, with free shipping @ Lighthound (bought other stuff for an order total over $100). Hope this helps,

If you add the Panasonic, cost still not being an issue, I'd go Panasonic and BS (understanding your motivation for 2 separate lots from another thread.) Panasonic beats the other 3 at .5A and 1A draws and is second only to BS at 2A.

Price may well be the biggest difference. Power capacity is close anywhere below 1A.(The BS really does stand out at 2A) The difference may not even be statistically significant given small samples and no info about the distribution. Adding just one more (or 2 if you mostly see using double cell lights) of the cheapest cells would give you more total power capacity on the shelf for less total money even if the difference is real.

Price no object: Panasonic and BS
Budget buy: (Assuming your time hunting is costly and it will be hard to beat the BS cell prices at that quantity so this is based on BS single cell prices.) BS and SF.

Surefire as the budget choice. That might be a first!


Sometimes the best is the enemy of the good enough.

Good contributions, everyone, thank you.

I understand that Panasonic's North Carolina plant is almost certainly the manufacturer of Panasonic, BatteryStation, Streamlight, Surefire, Rayovac, and probably Duracell as well. Add in the comment about statistical sample size of the test data being so small as to likely have little to no statistical significance.

All that considered together, and it seems reasonable to conclude that battery performance probably doesn't differ significantly, if at all, taken in total, between choosing Panasonic, Duracell, BatteryStation, Surefire, Streamlight, or Rayovac. I think it does make good sense to buy from a few different lots and two or three different brandings just to reduce the possibility of having a problem with the entire stash... given, of course, the awareness and critical importance of proper matching when using two or more CR123s together.

Also, battery retailers commonly used by CPFers will provide expiry dating on cells they are currently shipping, if you ask for it. Not a bad idea so there are no surprises when you open the box. :sick2:

In shopping various sources it looks to me that the lowest prices for cells in the quantity of a dozen or so tend to be for BatteryStation ($1.25) and Rayovac ($1.35) with Panasonic a hair more @ $1.45. I need to remind myself that a 10¢ difference on each of 12 cells is a whopping $1.20! If buying 24 of one brand, the price drops a tiny bit (like 60¢ for the whole order! :thinking , but not really enough to make much difference to most people. From what I've seen, Surefire have been priced a little bit higher, with Duracel quite a bit higher. Shipping charges from one supplier vs. another can make a bit of difference as well with these small (24 cell) quantities. As Kestrell mentioned, if you can mix the cells into a larger order which will qualify for free shipping, that's all the better (if you're going to buy the other stuff anyway!) For me, a price difference of $1.20 or even as much as $5 or more for 24 cells is insignificant when considering the importance of long term reliability of cells which might be needed in an emergency.

I hope this exercise may be of help to others here now or down the road. I know it helped me sort things out quite a bit.

I think that if long term reliability and customer support for your cells is paramount, cost no object, then you stick with something like duracell. They're going to be around in 5 years if you have a problem with the cells. BatteryStation took a major hit as a result of those chinese cells they did carry for awhile. I'm not sure what their long term viability is after incurring the losses involved there. Doesn't matter where you buy your Duracell cells from, you can still support many small business in such a transaction and at the same time know that there's a 1800 number to call to go straight to the source of the cells.