Close call with a Surefire CR123 in an EX10

My wife complained about her EX10 kept shutting off, and that the light was very hot. I touched it, it was blazing hot, and immediately went outside, unscrewing the top as I went, and dumped out the Surefire CR123.

The top was buldging a bit, but I'm sure if it had remained in the light longer it would've blown. I pitched that Surefire battery.

Are EX10's known to have shorts in them somehow? I'm wary of primaries. I think I'll stick with my protected AW's. Funny how the only problem I've had so far was with a single cell light.

-Ed

Phew! That must have been quite scary, and it could have been very nasty. You acted well and promptly to prevent a very unpleasant incident.

You make a good point about the advantage of a protection circuit in such circumstances, and that does make an interesting argument against primaries. However, this must surely have been a problem with a short in the light, as you guessed, so the cell is not really to blame.

It's the first time I've heard of such a problem with one of these Nitecores, and unless there is an obviously loose component or wire you can actually see inside there that could have caused it, I feel you should return the light straight away, so the exact cause can be determined.

Wow, glad you were able to act on that before something nasty happened. Like DM51 said, get that light checked out.

Barring a battery problem (which is highly unlikely given the manufacturer involved and the volume of cells they produce), this has to be an issue with the light somehow.

Single cell incidents with quality CR123A primaries are extremely rare.

I did a quick CPF Google search and only turned up one thread about an incident with an EX10, but the OP didn't specify whether the BS battery was one of the problematic ones or one made by the same company that makes the SureFire cells.

Take a look at post #4 in the linked thread - that seems very similar to what occurred with your light.

Well, I just received a PM today from another member reporting a similar incident with an IMR16340 :

my nitecore ex10 smoked and made the whole light smell funny

The thing to do would be to test the light. If it still works then the light probably just got turned on full by accident and got too hot and it heated the cell. If the light does not work, then it is likely an electronic failure of the light that cause an excessive current draw and damaged the cell.

It is possible that the cell was damaged as well, so don't totally rule that out before collecting more information.

Generally the single cell lights are safer, and the chemistry used in them is much safer as well so a failure will be much less nasty than Li-Ion. They can of course produce a lot of heat and could possibly cause a light to explode apart. But it would not typically be a firey explosion with this type of cell, just a couple very large projectiles. Was the light difficult to open?

Great to hear everyone was safe and you knew to act quickly.

I had a similar thing happen to me with my Nitecore D10 R2 using Energizer Lithium primaries I picked up from walmart. AAs of course.