Battery Life

I know the shelf life of 123s are 10 years in storage. What about if they're in a flashlight? I'm just wondering if I keep batteries in a light that is seldom used, will they discharge quicker?

Thanks!
Laura
(yup, another female Flashaholic!) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

only if the flashlight is draining it for some reason.
OR
if you store the flashlight in a location where the temps would be different , compared to where you would have stored it , if it was not in the flashlight.

ex: 125* car in the hot california sun.

you potentially can check a flashlight for any drain it might have with a OHM meter, or a nice new set of batteries . the likelyhood that a flashlight drains your battereis when not on , is low.

and of course if you turn on the light, then indeed the batteries would be discharged faster. but i am sure you knew that

I forget the exact specs, but the manfs claim that cells will still have 80-90% of their rated capacity at the end of their shelf life. The biggest variable is probably temperature and it goes without saying, usage. Popular opinion says that once the cells are used (chemistry activated), it does slightly affect the shelf life.

Usually a light that's not used often is one that's put away or stored for emergency use. Some here have suggested changing out the cells in such lights every two or three years with new cells and using the older cells in your everyday lights.

And welcome to CPF!

I might add the caution that you never want to mix old and new cells in a multi cell light...

Tom

Thanks, guys! I feel lots better about leaving batteries in my flashlights now...