Klarus XT 11 Battery length concern

Hi , fellow XT11 owners , I am a little concerned about using a 70mm 18650 battery , the reason is the inside battery compartment measures approx 71 mm, leaving very little spring tension with a 70 mm battery,
My XT11 came with a battery from the dealer, same colour as the Klarus box with a K-01 marking, but they probably don't realize the length tolerances inside.

My thoughts are over time the battery compartment springs will loose tension as they are no doubt squashed flat out, anyone else have the same concerns?

I can understand your concern. I just did some measuring and if you truly have a 70mm battery, that sure is a tight fit. I think you should be fine seeing as the XT11 has springs on both ends.

buds224 said:

I can understand your concern. I just did some measuring and if you truly have a 70mm battery, that sure is a tight fit. I think you should be fine seeing as the XT11 has springs on both ends.

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Lets hope so that's a $100 light, might get a 67mm battery instead, probably no protection though?

I tried my XT11 with Sanyo and Samsung 2600mAh protected and I can't screw fully,tight the tailcap. XT11 is meant for flat-top protected (or unprotected) battery.The spring at the head takes some space and I think it is not fully functional when is fully pressed,can't take more movement of the battery.

The EagleTac 3400 mAh 18650 battery measures 68mm in length, is protected, and works fine in my XT11. It has been reviewed on different flashlight forums and has always been rated as a safe and good battery. It's not expensive either - in Europe I can find it for roughly €15/€16.

The K-01 is supposedly a Klarus 2200 mAh battery - even though the name "Klarus" strangely enough does not appear on the battery packaging or label. I'd be surprised if it didn't work in the XT11. I have never seen an independent review on this battery and 2200 mAh won't give you great runtime so I'd go with a higher capacity 18650 anyway.

Labrador72 said:

The EagleTac 3400 mAh 18650 battery measures 68mm in length, is protected, and works fine in my XT11. It has been reviewed on different flashlight forums and has always been rated as a safe and good battery. It's not expensive either - in Europe I can find it for roughly €14.

The K-01 is supposedly a Klarus 2200 mAh battery - even though the name "Klarus" strangely enough does not appear on the battery packaging or label. I'd be surprised if it didn't work in the XT11. I have never seen an independent review on this battery and 2200 mAh won't give you great runtime so I'd go with a higher capacity 18650 anyway.

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Thanks,
was thinking I need a spare anyhow, the big problem is I'm at the tip of Africa , so shipping cost a fortune unless I do a big order of sorts.

I have a Redilast 3400 mAh 18650 in mine and have used Callie's Kustoms 18650s before without problems in it as well

Dirtbasher said:

Thanks,
was thinking I need a spare anyhow, the big problem is I'm at the tip of Africa , so shipping cost a fortune unless I do a big order of sorts.

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If the 2200 K-01 battery you got from the local dealer works fine, just ask them if they have the K-02: it's the 2900 mAh Klarus battery and Klarus released a Panasonic cell so it should be reliable: http://www.klaruslight.com/content.php?id=1&lge=en
The K-02 is 68 mm long as the K-01 but it was released way after the XT11: it would have been a major oversight by Klarus if this battery didn't work with what is probably their best-selling flashlight!
You can see a picture of the K-02 below: it looks like the 2200 mAh but is blue instead of yellow. I have seen on retailer website that they will be releasing a 3100 mAh battery with Panasonic in the coming weeks too.

If instead you'd have to order the Klarus batteries from abroad too than you are better off getting EagleTac or Redilast batteries. There are a couple of Asian retailers - Fastech and HKequipment come to mind - that ship worldwide for free and have good deals on batteries but keep in mind that it can take weeks before you get whatever you bought.

Thanks for the replies,
so in all I'm right to try and get a smaller battery, will order from fasttech when I need something else again, at the moment I unscrew the tail cap a few turns when the light is " off duty ".
Run time is not an issue as I never use the light for more than a few minutes, it is used as our walk in the dark defense light.

If the K-01 one works fine, I'm not sure you should worry to get a shorter battery.
Another battery you might find in South Africa is the Fenix ARB-L2 18650 battery: it's a 2600 battery and manages to maintain a high voltage for longer than a 3400 mAh - thought runtime is obviously shorter.
I can tell you for sure that it works fine with the XT11 because I have used it without problems. ledfiretorches.co.uk in the UK sell both the Fenix 2600 and Eagletac 3400 at very decent prices, offer a CPF discount, and I think they ship to international destinations for 7.95 British pounds - not as cheap as free shipping but you won't have to wait a few weeks if you need new 18650 batteries.

Labrador72 said:

If the K-01 one works fine, I'm not sure you should worry to get a shorter battery.
Another battery you might find in South Africa is the Fenix ARB-L2 18650 battery: it's a 2600 battery and manages to maintain a high voltage for longer than a 3400 mAh - thought runtime is obviously shorter.
I can tell you for sure that it works fine with the XT11 because I have used it without problems. ledfiretorches.co.uk in the UK sell both the Fenix 2600 and Eagletac 3400 at very decent prices, offer a CPF discount, and I think they ship to international destinations for 7.95 British pounds - not as cheap as free shipping but you won't have to wait a few weeks if you need new 18650 batteries.

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Thanks, we have a local gadget store that specializes in Fenix, they might have stock.

I've just stripped an old 3 cell laptop battery , and there are 3 x 65mm 18650 cells in there and the 65 mm cell fits the XT11 perfectly, these are also flat sided cells and to my surprise even showing 3.7 volts the XT11 powered up , got them running a charge on my Nitecore i4 charger, will see how well they work after a full charge.
I think I'll be stripping lots of laptop batteries in future.