Safety Discussion; It’s NOT “just a flashlight” anymore!

In the past, failures of "flashlight etiquette" (eg, shining a light into the eyes of another person) were annoying and sometimes pretty uncomfortable but in general couldn't be considered particularly hazardous. Similarly failures in maintenance and/or handling might have created an awful mess as alkaline batteries leaked or even popped and might have even created a small fire hazard; but were not generally thought of as much of an overall danger.

As we moved into common off-the-shelf multi-cell CR123 based lights it started to become more apparent that some serious consideration needed to be given to the risks of carrying batteries that were more energy dense and ran at higher voltages.

Now we are seeing more COTS (common-off-the-shelf) lights that are capable of 3,000+ Lumens some of which put all of that light into a very intense focus and are powered by individual cells or sets of batteries that pack in energy capacities of 3,000mAh, 9,000mAh, or more and I am thinking that maybe we need to revive conversations about safety where these "illumination tools" are concerned.

It's NOT "just a flashlight" anymore

There are a lot of lights out there now that, in my opinion, go well beyond "flashlight" and into the same category as power-tools. The risks and hazards are not quite the same as operating a lawn mower or a chainsaw but a number of the current crop of super- lights do have the potential for serious and permanent direct injury to self or others due to retinal/sight damage, burns, and explosive injury from catastrophic failure. Studies done on a –single- 18650 cell show just how much energy is stored there, now multiply that by 3 or 4, packed in an aluminum canister, and you have a potential pipe bomb of impressive proportions, or at least something you REALLY wouldn't want to be holding if it let loose.

Measuring Energy Release of Lithium-ion Battery Failure Using a Bomb Calorimeter (PDF)
https://www.fire.tc.faa.gov/pdf/TC-15-40.pdf

Now I'm not advocating that people should have to wear safety goggles, gloves or other such nonsense but I genuinely believe that we have reached the point where it is irresponsible to hand a super-light to a kid or uninformed adult without some kind of basic safety lecture.

Some examples of what is bouncing around my head with regards to a safety reference;

• Why shining a light into eyes is actually hazardous (it can actually do permanent retinal damage)
• Why it is important to remove and examine the batteries if you drop the light (especially w/ 18650 cells) and what to look for.
• Why good quality cells are important (don't make your light a hand grenade)
• Lights can get hot enough to burn and/or cause fires
• What to do with a "runaway" light

I look forward to your thoughts and input!


EDIT: A couple more topics....

• How you can be signaling for help to some one a long way away and not even realize you are doing it
• Caution regarding boats on the water, aircraft, motor vehicles, and cyclists.

These 'exploding' or combustible lithium batteries we hear in the news, has it been shown that C123a batteries do these things also? I always thought that lithium batteries were more stable than alkalines, or was that just in the corrosion department?

d2eux said:

These 'exploding' or combustible lithium batteries we hear in the news, has it been shown that C123a batteries do these things also? I always thought that lithium batteries were more stable than alkalines, or was that just in the corrosion department?

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lithium-ion are way more dangerous then alkalines..... alkalines just basically can leak

d2eux said:

These 'exploding' or combustible lithium batteries we hear in the news, has it been shown that C123a batteries do these things also? I always thought that lithium batteries were more stable than alkalines, or was that just in the corrosion department?

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It was learned a while back that if two CR123 Primary batts were severely unequal in charge that could cause problems and failures. I had some pop in a SureFire 6P ages ago and I was really glad I wasn't holding it when it happened. There was an instance not too long ago with an 18650 cells blowing a cops flashlight apart in his cruiser and that one allegedly left shrapnel all over the car along with burns and a chemical cloud. I've seen some badly mishandled 18650 go critical and run-away in the vaping community (I don't vape but I live near a shop).

It's a lot of energy and I think some basic safety training is becoming increasingly important.


I confess that I cringe when I see someone just throw a higher powered cell on a table, or drop it on the floor and then stick it back in their light or vape without even a cursory inspection.

With lithium-ion widgets and their derivatives, always use protected rechargeable cells when running them in series and never run mismatched CR123As in a light, if you're using primaries.

Finally, li-ion isn't an arena to cheap out on. Buy cheap toilet paper, or beer, if you have to save a few bucks.

Chris

zespectre said:

It was learned a while back that if two CR123 Primary batts were severely unequal in charge that could cause problems and failures. I had some pop in a SureFire 6P ages ago and I was really glad I wasn't holding it when it happened. There was an instance not too long ago with an 18650 cells blowing a cops flashlight apart in his cruiser and that one allegedly left shrapnel all over the car along with burns and a chemical cloud. I've seen some badly mishandled 18650 go critical and run-away in the vaping community (I don't vape but I live near a shop).

It's a lot of energy and I think some basic safety training is becoming increasingly important.


I confess that I cringe when I see someone just throw a higher powered cell on a table, or drop it on the floor and then stick it back in their light or vape without even a cursory inspection.

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Ok, that does sound serious. Let's say you only have 3-4 lights with lockout mode, and keep your 123A cells in them under lockout mode when not in use. This should not affect them, correct?

I only buy surefire 123As, don't mix old and new, and use the light only when I have to.

zespectre,
This is a great subject to bring up, with several aspects worthy of discussion.

I don't trot out my lights that often for other people to handle, but when I do, I always do a brief safety lecture. I am tempted to create an analogy to safe firearms handling (1. Always assume every flashlight is loaded with fresh cells, until you have the chance to check it yourself. 2. Always keep it pointed in a safe direction, away from any eyes. 3. Always keep your fingers away from the switch until you are ready to turn it on). If I were (hasn't happened yet) to consider loaning out my Convoy S2 UV light w/pass filter (no visible light), along with clear plastic protective goggles, it would have be someone that I knew and trusted (I would know whether or not they had children and/or pets, and whether or not there were any irresponsible people around.), and the safety lecture would be about three times as long. Here's a legal nightmare question (in the U.S., at least): If you loan someone a very bright flashlight, and you don't give them a safety lecture (or you do, but there are no witnesses to this, and they deny it), and said recipient damages their own or someone else's eyesight, could you be held legally liable? I don't want to think about that one.

Learning a little something about lithium cells (both primary and rechargeable Li-ion) is so very important. I agree completely that 'scrimping' on the cost of Li-ion cells and charger is a recipe for disaster. We had the beginnings of a house fire in this area several years ago. I never heard all of the details, but the user was a vaper, and I am very confident that he made "economical" choices when he purchased his supplies. Fortunately, he was present when events unfolded. The Li-ion cell blew up on the charger, throwing flaming bits of material onto the bed, which caught fire. The fire was extinguished. Do not allow li-ion cells to charge unattended. Always buy the best quality charger and li-ion cells that you can afford. If you can't afford the best, perhaps it would be best to wait awhile so that you can save up a little more. I am not saying that there aren't any comparable brands in terms of Li-ion quality, but I have only bought "AW" brand Li-Co (protected) and LI-Mn (IMR) in the past (and on one occasion, Panasonic). I have heard a rumor here that AW is no longer producing batteries. The next time I decide to purchase some Li-ion, I'm not looking forward to how much research I'm going to have to do here to feel comfortable buying another brand (sigh). I started with an Pila IBC charger, and now I use an XTAR VC4 model. I'm sure there are other good choices. If you are purchasing this stuff for the first time, get yourself comfortable, use the search function, and start reading threads. It might take more than one evening. Read the "horror stories" thread here on CPF.

They no longer ship Li-ion cells by air because of some in-flight fires. I am assuming that the cells were sloppily packaged in bulk, and that enough cells were available to jostle/vibrate around until some sort of complete postive end-to-negative end circuit was able to manifest, and thermal runaway began it's process. The lesson from this is: store/carry primary and li-ion cells in a way that prevents them from being able to do this.

If you use multiple primary or li-ion cells in series in a light, have a multi-meter on hand to check their resting voltage when they come off the charger, and you might just want to pull lights off the shelf every once in a while to check voltage. Some cells might drain faster than others. I have a personal arbitrary total voltage variance of .03 volts involving all of the multiple li-ions I am using in a light. Other people might allow less, some might allow more.

Ooph. This is why I roll with eneloops.

I've been pretty strictly about li ion care and handling for a long time. The Emisar D4 triggered similar thoughts to yours recently. I was thinking, man, this thing is so awesome bright... but I'm under the impression they only take unprotected cells, I've read at least one report of the thing draining a cell completely dry (not something I want to do), and then there's the whole "it lights stuff on fire" thing. As an enthusiast, the light makes me giddy, and I might pick one up just for the giddy factor. But I'm thinking I'm crossing it off my "buy it to carry and use" list, I think it might have passed my threshold of "how big a consequence can a small mistake have?".

gurdygurds said:

Ooph. This is why I roll with eneloops.

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It's why my family lights are all AA nimh. Even on nimh the lumen output has gone up significantly.

I keep the lithium cels for myself. Only AW cells and surefire primaries.

gurdygurds said:

Ooph. This is why I roll with eneloops.

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Likewise. All my lights have more than adequate output with simple NiMH cells.

1. Once something gets out into the wild anything is possible.

2. Things I do NOT go cheap on.

a. Repelling rope.
b. Self defense ammo.
c. Lithium ion batteries.
.

The more I think about this, the more I think that from this point forward, any light that doesn't have reverse polarity protection is going to be a FAIL in the "Real World Reviews".

They're not too many lights without that. Maybe a Malkoff 1XAA which doesn't use lithium ion (I think). My old Fenix L2D-Q5. Really nice light. Like the Olive and smooth lines but no polarity protection so never got fielded much. Way too easy to make a mistake cold and wet in the wood.

Good thread.

Thank you.

You should see all the stories about RC cars/helicopters/drones that have adopted multi-cell Lipo packs. Even though kids are sometimes closely monitored by adults, the chargers are complex, battery connector varies, wire gauge varies, and then actual of electronics have to be configured with low voltage cut off that's appropriate the for the number of cells. All this of course assumes you're not picking an undersized battery for your use.

common practice is to charge a multi-cell lipo in a fireproof bag, outdoors. Some even inside of cement cinder blocks. But at least it's not a pipe bomb in your pocket or hand.

Woods Walker said:

They're not too many lights without that

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Respectfully... there are a fair number of lights I've reviewed, especially in my "Gangnam style" reviews [search it] that not only have no polarity protection... some of them don't even indicate polarity on the unit.

Now admittedly most of those are "charge in the light" types that people wouldn't regularly remove the batteries but from a safety perspective I think the point still stands. No polarity protection = poor score!

Am I making a mistake by keeping a surefire Kroma with a panasonic protected 18650 on my night stand next to my head every night? Now I'm getting a little nervous. Would two surefire cr123as be safer?

Lumen83 said:

Am I making a mistake by keeping a surefire Kroma with a panasonic protected 18650 on my night stand next to my head every night? Now I'm getting a little nervous. Would two surefire cr123as be safer?

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There's a better chance that the Chinese space station de-orbits next week and falls on your house, than there is the Pannie blowing up in your light while you sleep.

Seriously.

Chris

Lumen83 said:

Am I making a mistake by keeping a surefire Kroma with a panasonic protected 18650 on my night stand next to my head every night? Now I'm getting a little nervous. Would two surefire cr123as be safer?

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Dont worry, it should be fine. Charging them in the charger is when you need to be at your most cautious.

Or if there is a sudden physical shock like dropping it down a flight of stairs or something then it's just smart practice to pull the battery and examine it to make sure nothing got damaged