best rcr 123 for a quark mini

i know they say not to but i think im going to venture down that road.......
whats the absolute best for the quark line up?
and just curious as to why rec 123s only have about half the mah of reg batteries?
will it actually cut the runtimes in half ??

tx for the help.........

I use the Tenergy 900mAh (HA!) 3.0volt RCR123s in all of my 123 lights and they work great.

They are a standard LiCO battery with, what appears to be, some diodes in the bottom to drop the output voltage to 3 volts. I have had mine for over a year and charge them every night. They still work great but the runtime of my EDC has dropped to roughly one hour.

I like the Tenergy cells as well, the LiPo cells are apparently very good too, but I haven't found any difference in practice.

If you want 3.7v cells though, good bet would be AW cells... they're expensive, but good quality.

As for runtime, yes, you will have shorter runtimes, but recharging them costs cents, instead of buying a cell which can cost a lot (here, can cost up to $10-$11 each) Output will be higher, and if you do toast the light (which I did to a mini AA) then they aren't hugely expensive to replace (under $40, cheaper on marketplace)

Use AW Lifepo4 for more safety, otherwise, for a pocket rocket, AW IMR. 300-500 lumens, depending on fV of led.

Quick sidetrack, has anybody used RCR's in a MiniX yet?

nodoubt said:

i know they say not to but i think im going to venture down that road.......
whats the absolute best for the quark line up?
and just curious as to why rec 123s only have about half the mah of reg batteries?
will it actually cut the runtimes in half ??

tx for the help.........

Click to expand...

I recommend Trustfire.

tolkaze said:

Quick sidetrack, has anybody used RCR's in a MiniX yet?

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I do (with AW R123s). Gets hot very quickly on max, but oh boy, is it bright. :devil::candle::devil: Easily 400-500 lumens with a fresh cell.
No problems with the LED so far (I don't run it for more than 2 minutes on max at a time).

roadkill1109 said:

I recommend Trustfire.

Click to expand...

Uhm... No. They will sag like mad under the load the Mini's put on them. AW IMR are the best way to go. On a MiniX, the lower FV results in....something like 500-700 lumens?

srfreddy said:

Uhm... No. They will sag like mad under the load the Mini's put on them. AW IMR are the best way to go. On a MiniX, the lower FV results in....something like 500-700 lumens?

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whats fv and are u serious about 5 to 700 lumes ?

nodoubt said:

whats fv and are u serious about 5 to 700 lumes ?

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Yes on the lumens. fV is the voltage that the LED needs to get a certain drive level. So, since XML forward voltage is lower than XPG, and the lithium ion direct drives the Mini, the led will be getting the voltage of the cell. As the XML will have a higher drive current for a given voltage than the XPG, the XML will be brighter than the XPG. (I think thats right)

I did run my MiNiX on AW RCR and it took a slightly longer time to get hot compared to the MiNi 123 R5.

pjandyho said:

I did run my MiNiX on AW RCR and it took a slightly longer time to get hot compared to the MiNi 123 R5.

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How was the output?

nodoubt said:

[...] and are u serious about 5 to 700 lumes ?

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Since I get an estimated 400-500 lumens from a normal AW LiIon, 500-700 is entirely possible when using IMR cells. For a few seconds, as long as the LED is cool and the battery still full.:nana:
Note that this is not safe, though. Forget a Mini X 123 with an IMR cell on your desk on max and you may have your own little Fukushima right in your living room.

Connor said:

Since I get an estimated 400-500 lumens from a normal AW LiIon, 500-700 is entirely possible when using IMR cells. For a few seconds, as long as the LED is cool and the battery still full.:nana:
Note that this is not safe, though. Forget a Mini X 123 with an IMR cell on your desk on max and you may have your own little Fukushima right in your living room.

Click to expand...

I don't think its possible to get away with leaving one of those on.....

I am using LiFePO4's in my miniX with no issues. It doesn't get really hot, and is just a tad brighter than it is run on primaries, (maybe 300 lumens?) They are only 500mah but, I am really happy with these batt's (mine are coming off the charger at 3.33V everytime.)

srfreddy said:

How was the output?

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It is very bright definitely but I can't be too certain if it is somewhere in the ballpark of 400 to 500 lumens as Connor has described. It felt more like 300+ lumens. I may have to try it on some IMR cells later tonight. It is now 1:30pm in Singapore as I write this.

tx for the help guys , looks like aws imr are the way to go......
what charger should i get ?

Probably the 4sevens one, if you ever want to get Lifepo4, it can charge those too.