How well do stingers HOLD a charge?

Once fully charged, do the stinger, XP or US hold their charge without being used?

I am trying to convert my house from Mag lights to Stingers (or ultra stingers), so I need some encouragement here.

Right now I have a 3D-Mag on my wall in a ideal location, but it's far from an electrical outlet. So my thoughts are to charge a Stinger light "elsewhere" and put it into a Stinger "cradle" that is not hooked up to anything.

Just sitting without use, how long will the charge last? Does anyone have an idea about the discharge rate?

Thanks

I have gone one month with some (little) use on my US and at the end of the month it seemed like it needed a charge. Very good in my estimation.

I only charge my US about once every week or so, and I play around with it almost every night for a few minutes. It doesn't seem to really need the charge, but I like to keep it topped up for emergencies.

I also whipped some fluorescent orange nylon cord toward the end of the battery tube to improve the grip cuz the tube is a little slippery in my hands. It also makes the light easier to find if it gets misplaced if I use my cobalt blue Inova X5T, generally always on my belt, which really makes the orange cord fluoresce brightly.

Thanks.

Originally posted by Viper:
... do the stinger, XP or US hold their charge without being used?
...

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Viper, do you mean XT, or HP? or both?

I just took a battery that came with my XT. It hasn't seen a charger for 51 days. At the 30 minute mark I began paying close attention to the output. It ran for a total of 34 minutes before becoming a sickly (charge me) yellow. However I think at 30 minutes I would have stopped using it if this wasn't a test. This pack gave me the standard 45-50 minutes when it was tested new out of the package.

Granted this battery is still pretty new, it has a date code of 0206J, with 12-15 charges put through it. It hasn't seen much use since I began using 2 Sanyo 2400 mah batteries. The streamlight pack is now my "oh poop" backup pack.

EDIT: From the Stinger operating instructions manual: The Stinger is designed to be left in the charger continuously when not in use. This will ensure the Stinger is always ready for use, and there is no danger of overcharge.

Oops.

Viper,

What do you mean by "hold a charge"? It is normal for NiCad and NiMH batteries to self-discharge. The old rule of thumb for NiCads used to be 10% in the first 24 hours and 1% every day thereafter, so you can see that after a month off the charger, any light using these style batteries will be well below a full charge.

Despite what manufacturers say, constant charging without use is to be avoided, so I pull my batteries off the charger if I don't expect to be using them soon, and then top them up weekly or immediately before a planned use.

HTH,

GR

I agree with GPS Rider's sentiments regarding leaving it on the charger indefinitely. If the US charger had a 20mA charge mode, I'd probably keep it on the charger forever, but the 180mA default slow charge rate is too high, IMO, to leave it on 24x7.

The US I have can keep its charge for at least two weeks and still provide 20-30 minutes of bright runtime before one of the cells begins to discharge.

- Brian

Originally posted by bmsmith:
... If the US charger had a 20mA charge mode, I'd probably keep it on the charger forever, but the 180mA default slow charge rate is too high, IMO, to leave it on 24x7.

- Brian

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">mea culpa. Maybe I should have mentioned that I don't keep them on the charger indefinitely.

T-Rex,

I wasn't contradicting your post (well, not intentionally, anyway ), I just wanted to recommend the best way to care for the batteries.

I agree that if a typical usage pattern includes regular usage, it's no problem to leave the light on the charger for several days or even weeks. I have seen plenty of guys at work leave their StreamLights on charge for extended periods and they still work fine. However, I have found that leaving rechargeables on charge for extended periods without use will shorten their lives or even completely ruin the battery.

GR

The Fast charger is "smart" meaning it switches to trickle mode after the charge is full. I don't know if the standard chargers have that feature or not; I can leave my UltraStinger on the Fast Charger for weeks without any problems.

Ratso, do you know what the trickle charge rate is on the fast charger? If it's a low enough value (say less than 100mA), I'll go buy the fast charger and leave it plugged in. Hmm.. maybe one of those weekly timers could work instead... program it to charge for an hour twice a week or something and automatically turn off the rest of the time. Would this work or be practical?

And I didn't mean anything against you T-Rex, nor do I mean to give the impression that I know more than Streamlight regarding their flashlights. But I've killed many a cordless phone battery before its time due to leaving it on the charger all the time.

- Brian

Jeez peeps. You sound like you're talking to my wife. Enough with the apologies already.

Contradict, oppose, argue, whatever. I'm not that easy to offend. I realized I quoted Streamlight saying it was ok to leave the light in the charger. I neglected to mention that I don't follow that advice.

Going completely off topic. (I think this needs it's own thread.) I stumbled upon the following: the 20 watt lamp used in the SL-35XTM is rated at 450 lumens or 35.8 Mean Spherical Candela.

Originally posted by GPS Rider:
Viper,

What do you mean by "hold a charge"? It is normal for NiCad and NiMH batteries to self-discharge. The old rule of thumb for NiCads used to be 10% in the first 24 hours and 1% every day thereafter, so you can see that after a month off the charger, any light using these style batteries will be well below a full charge.

Despite what manufacturers say, constant charging without use is to be avoided, so I pull my batteries off the charger if I don't expect to be using them soon, and then top them up weekly or immediately before a planned use.

HTH,

GR

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I'm glad I read this. I hardly ever use my US and it just sits on that charger day after day. I wish you were wrong, because it's just another thing to think about in my presently hectic life. But you seemed pretty sure.

PS What is that great looking four-wheeled monster in your profile?

Brightnorm