Took apart a dead Energizer lithium 9v battery

I had a completely discharged Eveready lithium 9v battery so I decided to open it up to see what was inside.

It was surprisingly easy to get it open. The metal foil wrap peels off to reveal a battery holder with three exposed, unlabeled CR14250 (1/2-AA sized) cells that I believe are Lithium-Manganese. Each cell is rated at 3.0 volts. They're obviously wired in series. There is no protection circuitry, just three cells in a holder.

From what I've read, Lithium-Maganese is a fairly safe chemistry with no highly reactive or toxic compounds in them. One of their big selling points is a wide operating temperature range of -40F to +140F. Apparently this battery chemistry is used in a lot of medical and safety equipment.

I'll post pics once I get an issue straightened out.

The regular old alkaline 9 volt has 6 little cells in her.

thermal guy said:

The regular old alkaline 9 volt has 6 little cells in her.

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Yes that was interesting the first time I opened one up. I think the first 9v battery that I disassembled contained 6 generic looking rectangular packages and a later one contained 6 AAAA cells. I was also surprised to find 4 C cells inside a 6v lantern battery. Later on I found a lantern battery adapter with user replaceable C cells.

If they are less than 1/2AA you could use 2 in series to have a 6V AA sized cell. Isn't that what CR123s are made of or maybe coin cells.

Lynx_Arc said:

If they are less than 1/2AA you could use 2 in series to have a 6V AA sized cell. Isn't that what CR123s are made of or maybe coin cells.

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Hmm, yes I could. They are the same diameter.

PhotonWrangler said:

Hmm, yes I could. They are the same diameter.

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You would mod a 1AA light to LED with an appropriate dropping resistor inline perhaps. My early LED mods to incans used 3 or 4 cell hosts and resistor. I took incan flashlight bulbs that burned out and broke the glass and gutted them and soldered 5mm LEDs in the 4 or 4 LEDs with a resistor in the base of the bulb soldered one leg to the top of the bulb. You could even use 4 of these in a 2AA light to get 12V. Not sure that they batteries can manage a high current load though.

Discovered this a while back as well and made a note of it JIC. Allthough they're not rechargeable these 14250 sized primaries fit my DQG Slim (1/2) AA!

Yes, this is exactly what I found also. Thanks for the pic, pc_light!