Protected 14500 cells ill advised for Nitecore D10 and DI?

Hey guys,
I was told that I shouldn't run Protected AW 14500 or any other protected 14500 Li-Ion cells in my Nitecore D10 or my defender infinity.

Is the above true?

Or can it be done? I know that Nitecore says that you can. But is there any possible reason why I was told not to use protected Li-Ion in those 2 specific lights?

And if it's alright to use protected cells in those lights will AW protected 14500 cells fit in the D10 or the Infinity? Like are they are too long? and is the nipple to short to make contact with the heads. Both lights have the XP-E R2 in them.

Any advise or information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Luke

No problem at all with protected 14500. What you have to watch out for is length; most of the TrustFire/UltraFire/etc... are too long, whereas AW cells are just right.

The AW fit but makes the PD hard to press on my D10 SP and cause me problems like accidental lock out and other little weird things. It is wonderful and feels great on Energizer lithium and really it's plenty bright. I could trim the battery spring down but it's a camo version with trit installed so I'm trying to keep it as original as possible.

I was thinking maybe I should look into getting an extra piston or spring but I guess because I have no issue with brightness on Energizer lithium I have not been to motivated to search for them.

Cutting the spring half a turn or so (that no turn lies on another one anymore when its compressed) helps in the D10 for better piston action.

The gain in brightnness is a tiny little one however, you get a more runtime with the 14500 though...

Thanks guys.
Li-Ion is one confusing subject. Well to me that is
So I really do appreciate the help. :thumbsup:


I don't EDC the D10 tribute version (shelf queen) so I'm not to worried about them being to long. But down the road if I decide to, it's good to know that I can just cut the spring down if I need to.

So I should be cool with running AW 14500 (the ones that 4 sevens carries) in those lights (mostly the defender infinity) with out any major problems right?

clintb said:

No problem at all with protected 14500. What you have to watch out for is length; most of the TrustFire/UltraFire/etc... are too long, whereas AW cells are just right.

Click to expand...

I had some ultrafire's in them before and they fit just fine. So as long as the AW'S are not any larger then I should be fine right?. Or are these batteries always a crap shoot in re-guards to size and QC?

I have no problems running Ultrafire or AW protected 14500 cells in my DI. The brightness increase over NiMh makes it well worth it. No need to mod springs or anything.

Been carrying and using my NDI for almost a year using 14500. The longest that I continously use NDI is about 30 minutes and it sure is hot. I do agree with previous posters that big difference in output between using 14500 with eneloop, is quite significant, so in terms of runtime, I think it's worth-it to use 14500.

Thanks guys,
I feel much better about making the purchase now. lovecpf

14500 UltraFire and TrustFire brands both work peachy in my D10 Tribute. No difference in piston feel over Eneloop that I can tell. Zero difference in brightness or heat with the D10, but 50% longer runtime over Eneloop.

Here's a beamshot time lapse video I made of an UltraFire 14500 head to head against a Rayovac 4.0 NiMH.

I have a D10 Tribute and a D10SP, as well as several AW 14500's and a couple of Trustfire blue 14500 cells. The Trustfire cells are a bit longer and while they'll fit, there's not enough room for the piston to move with them in there so I can't change modes or turn them off. All of the AW cells fit in both lights and provide adequate piston movement for proper functioning. I haven't tried any other 14500's besides those two, nor do I have an NDI to test them in, but the blue Trustfire cells seems to work fine in all my other lights that aren't piston drive.

I don't usually run 14500 cells in my D10 lights though because I don't see that much of a brightness difference. D10's are impressively bright on NiMH or NiZn, brighter than any other 1xAA light I have on the same batteries. I tend to save the 14500's for the other lights that benefit a lot more from them. Just my $.02 though, YMMV...