My friend's Maratac aaa lens shattered.

LeeDeaton

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 8, 2009
Messages
22
Location
Oregon
So me and my friend were hanging out watching TV, and out of nowhere we hear a pretty loud pop. Sounded like somebody sat on a balloon. After some investigating, she finds that it was the lens on her Maratac aaa that I gave her a couple christmases ago. I couldn't tell if it exploded or imploded, but her pocket was full of little glass (polycarbonate?) shards. There was an alkaline battery in it, but it looked to be in perfect shape. I even put that same battery back in, and the light still worked.
Anybody know why this would happen randomly like this? And since it seems that countycomm's website is down for a while, who am I gonna call?
 

TooManyGizmos

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Messages
3,079
Location
Died Nov. 2015
~

Hmmm , did she recently fly on a commercial jet at a hi altitude ,

with extremely hi cabin pressures ?


Also , be aware , flashlights EAT batteries , which gives em GAS , just like US .


Flashlights TOOT TOO .

~
 

beerwax

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 12, 2011
Messages
447
if it was from internal pressure i wonder if it had a pre-existing weakness in the lens then the pop wouldnt have been so loud , and if there was no weakness the pressure would be huge. i reckon the oring would have to be dry to hold that kind of pressure (or really stiff from being swelled by something). interesting. wonder if its repeatable.
 

LeeDeaton

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 8, 2009
Messages
22
Location
Oregon
Nope, no planes no submarines, no hyperbaric chambers or anything of any kind, just standard sea level pressures. She was in all the same places I was (where I took my maratac, which is just fine). And if it was a pressure increase caused by a bad battery, wouldn't there be a noticeable failure of some kind on the battery itself? It seemed in perfect shape. The o-rings aren't dry or stiff or anything either. I'm really baffled by it. I did notice that a small part of the o-ring on the outside of the lens was popped out and was pushed down into the reflector part of the light, which I thought was weird if it was an explosion of some kind.
 

RedForest UK

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 28, 2009
Messages
1,365
Interesting, this happened to someone else a while back I think, I remember a long discussion on it. In the end I think it was agreed the Alkaline cell used vented gas and the glass lense was the lowest resistance exit for all the pressure.

Alternatively, was there anything else in her pocket that sitting on could have simply pushed through the lense and broken it?
 

ragweed

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 31, 2009
Messages
711
Location
USA
Either Lithium or NMIH cells should be used if you don't want this to happen again. Alkaline's will vent or leak on you.
 

BoarHunter

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Feb 7, 2009
Messages
150
Is she HOT ? That could explain PRESSURE buit up :)

Otherwise gas ? I mean gas produced by thebattery of course !
 
Last edited:

LeeDeaton

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 8, 2009
Messages
22
Location
Oregon
The only other thing that was in her pocket was a pack of gum. And I don't think that broke it. Will the battery show any sign of venting if that was indeed the problem? I assumed there would be some sort of defect on it somewhere, but I didn't see anything wrong with it.
 
Top