C123A batteries

hunterfisher808

hunterfisher808

Basic Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Messages
1,102
These batteries are pretty pricey, so I was surfing Ebay and found some that were as low as a $1.05 each when bought in bulk. These were brands I never heard of. Do any of you guys have any experience with them? Any good? Or is it a "You Get What You Pay For" kinda Deal?
 
the surefire batteries are 1.75 a piece and they preform extremely well. i stick to those because the performance of some of the cheeper ones, like battery center and the chinese brands are lacking.
 
I use surefires in my "Life or death" gear, nothing cheap ever is loaded into that as I depend heavily on it.

Now for my "toys" and crap that I carry and don't really depend on I use either rechargeable 123s or I get cheap ones from DX - http://www.dealextreme.com/

I tend to keep a good stash of the cheapo DX ones for myself and others to use, they tend to dissapear so I like to have the cheapos out and the good ones stashed away.
 
I would highly suggest aginst Dealextreme, its just as bad as ebay if not much worse.
 
Surefires are about $1.75 each, and I tend to stick to those. Some knockoffs don't have an internal thermal short and can really screw up your expensive lights.

I prefer CR123's to AA or AAA batteries due to the resistance against cold and hot temperature extremes.
 
I also stick with SureFire batteries.

Very reliable, excellent performance, and a pretty good price point for C123As.

:thumbup:
 
knifenut1013 said:
I would highly suggest aginst Dealextreme, its just as bad as ebay if not much worse.
Click to expand...

DX is knockoff stuff, if you know that going in it isn't all that bad. I've had nothing but good things happen when I buy from them.

I've gone through a metric assload of buttonlights and out of all that I've gotten only 4 were DOA due to dead batteries however they all came with a spare so it wasn't a issue.

Most of the things at DX are trash and I'll agree that knock-off batteries are nothing but trouble, HOWEVER I've burned through a couple hundered DX 123s and I've yet to have a single issue.
 
After I witnessed a Surefire light getting the end cap blown off of it I don't do cheap batteries! Not worth the risk to me.
 
I typically use Streamlight or no name batteries. Surefires are good too.
 
hunterfisher808 said:
These batteries are pretty pricey, so I was surfing Ebay and found some that were as low as a $1.05 each when bought in bulk. These were brands I never heard of. Do any of you guys have any experience with them? Any good? Or is it a "You Get What You Pay For" kinda Deal?
Click to expand...

I bought 50 CR123 batteries for $48 at Battery Junction. So far, they've done fine, though I haven't done any tests to compare them to Surefire.

Paying less than $1 per battery takes a lot of the sting out of CR123's.
 
Mountainman38 said:
I bought 50 CR123 batteries for $48 at Battery Junction. So far, they've done fine, though I haven't done any tests to compare them to Surefire.

Paying less than $1 per battery takes a lot of the sting out of CR123's.
Click to expand...

Thats the brand I use too (only bought 5 or so, only 1 cr123a battery light) from Battery Junction. Admittedly, not much experience with other brands, but they have a good rep on candlepower forums.
 
--Don't buy Ebay batteries
--Don't buy Chinese made batteries
--DO buy any of the name brands: Surefire, Streamlight, Panasonic, RayOVac; they're all made in the same factory, and there's little difference between them in performance.
 
I have had good luck with energizer Surefire for primaries but I also have a few of the AW protected lithium cells with a charger that I use in my EDC light that tends to burn through cells pretty quick.
 
Josh K said:
Surefires are about $1.75 each, and I tend to stick to those. Some knockoffs don't have an internal thermal short and can really screw up your expensive lights.

I prefer CR123's to AA or AAA batteries due to the resistance against cold and hot temperature extremes.
Click to expand...

You get the same good performance in the cold with AA lithiums, but those can be really pricey. Another upside to lithium primaries is long shelf life.

Day to day I mostly use AA lights with eneloops, but my favorite light and one I expect to make heavy use of in emergencies is a modded Surefire L1, with a stash of 123's. Some of the 'budget' are better than others, I have a small stash of Battery Junction Titanium cells, which are one of the more reputable budget 123's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top