Scared of my new flashlight batteries! Help please.

B

Brad Greulich

Joined
Feb 4, 2006
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739
So on the weekend I got my first good light. A Fenix PD31. I also picked up a pair of 18650 batteries because I wanted rechargeables and the store didn't have cr123's.

Anyways, the (store owner) told me that ultra fire was the brand of these recomended by the Fenix rep, so I spent the $100 for 2 batteries and the charger.

I did some reading on CPF and found a story about someone who damn near blew his finger off when his 18650's blew up when he turned the light on.
It said he charged them overnight (which I'm not doing as to not over charge) and it was also a mutli-cell light.

Now my light only takes one, I ran one battery dead to charge it (took 8 hours, as it's 2900mah) and now im worried about putting it back in my light.
Is the safety thing only an issue with mutli-cell lights? Should I put a volt meter on my batteries after charging to be safe?

I'm kinda worried because CPF gave me the impression that anyone who uses ultra fire batteries pretty much has it comeing when there light explodes in there hand.
This is really taking the fun out of my new toy, I wanted to know what you guys think. Are the ultra fire haters kinda like the people here who think anything less than a Chris Reeves knife is garbage, or should I get rid of the things, eat my loss and try another brand of batteries?

Thanks for all the help, heres some pics of what I got.

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm42/Edward_the_tall/IMG_1099.jpg

3.7V 2900mah 18650 cell
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm42/Edward_the_tall/IMG_1107.jpg

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm42/Edward_the_tall/IMG_1108.jpg

Sorry for the giant pics! I was using my GF camera.
 
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Pretty common charger, Fenix are decent lights, and that's an AW 18650, one of the best protected Li-ions available. You should have no problems.
 
Yeah, your pictures are huge. :D

First off, you have an Ultrafire charger, NOT Ultrafire batteries.
UF batteries are notorious for "venting with flame."

The good news is that you have AW batteries, which are probably the best on the market. The major explosion risk (outside of overcharging) is mismatched cell voltage, which can happen when charging multiple cells in the Ultrafire due to the lousy circuitry.

I EDC an Ra Clicky, so I figured that I would protect my "investment" by buying the Pila IBC. The Pila, plus 2 dummy CR123s, plus 2 AW RCR123s ran me close to $90, actually.

The Ultrafire will be perfectly fine, but you do need to keep tabs on whether or not it finished charging the battery, regardless of what the charger says. The bays (IIRC) can sometimes "run hot," and overcharge the battery before the circuits say it's charged.

Easy fix: Buy a multimeter, keep it next to the charger setup, and check after ~2-3 hours. If the voltage is at or a little less than 4 volts, then record that time somewhere, and you can use that as a reference to guess how long a partially charged battery will take to finish.

So the short answer: Your batteries are great, but the charger is not. Just keep an eye on the charging setup (physically be in the same room, in line of sight), and use a multimeter to make sure that the batteries are not being overcharged. Other than that, with a one-cell light, there's not a whole lot to go wrong, so you should be fine.
 
antikythera said:
Other than that, with a one-cell light, there's not a whole lot to go wrong, so you should be fine.
Click to expand...

Thats the part to focus on, Brother Brad.

When more than one rechargeable is used, a fully charged cell can begin to "reverse charge" an empty cell, and bad things can result. Like venting of gases or explosion, and/or fire.

But once your 18650 is off the charger and in the light, there is no need to be concerned.

I'm a hard core light freak, even more than I am a knife kook, and I will not use multiple Li-ion lights.
 
Like someone said above AW Cells are probably the most well regarded protected LiCo cells on the market. The protection circuit in the cells should keep them from being an issue even if the charger tried to over charge the cells.
 
If it worries you, just charge the batteries until the light turns green on the charger, and take them out.
You don't have to babysit it, or act like it's the end of the world if you leave them overnight, and they overcharge by a tenth of a volt. If your life revolves around a freaking battery, you've got bigger worries.
Before I started using the Pila IBC, I got several years of service, and probably over a thousand of charges out of AW Li-ions that got run to full discharge, and then overcharged to 4.35V on an almost daily basis, and were still 85% compared to new ones at the same current draw.
 
You have AW cells which are highly recommended, the internals of the cell are made in Japan and then the wrappers and stuff are assembled in China. Whereas Ultrafire cells are made completely in China(I think).

Checkout CPF and look at the guides to using Li-Co cells, if used correctly it can be more safer than using primary CR123 cells.
 
Babysit the charger. Only charge it on a non-flammable surface. I would not worry about using them in a non-high draw ligh like yours.
 
$100 is a lot for two batteries and a charger. If I were you, I'd return them and buy a pair of AW's (probably $30 shipped) and a charger (probably $20 shipped).

The funny thing about that is that the Ultra Fire chargers are the name to go with. =\
 
Doughnut said:
$100 is a lot for two batteries and a charger. If I were you, I'd return them and buy a pair of AW's (probably $30 shipped) and a charger (probably $20 shipped).

The funny thing about that is that the Ultra Fire chargers are the name to go with. =\
Click to expand...

This jumped out at me too... I'd consider returning the charger & batteries, and getting them online. My UltraFire charger was about $15 and the rechargable cells were about $8/ea.

That said, I used some no-name rechargeable cells with the Ultrafire charger for a year and a half with no issues. Only reason I'm not using them now is I haven't gotten around to digging through storage to find the charger!
 
Great! Thanks a lot for the help guys! I'll still becareful not to over charge them, and I was checking every hour or so to make sure the nothing was getting hot. I guess I'll get a multi-meter just so see where everythings at.

I dont think I'll return what I got, as I got everything in Toronto (which is long, nasty drive form the boondocks). Also, I'm used to paying more for everything up here in Canada.
I'm just happy im set up with good stuff and dont need to worry about blowing off a thumb lol.

BTW, the PD31 is a great light. It's a limited run, better in pretty much every way, (as far as I can tell) and the same price as the PD30 ($75). Which was the light I was planning on getting. I lucked out to find it at the Canadian knife makers guild show, Tax free too. :D

Thanks a lot again everyone!
 
I'm no doubt old fashioned but I just don't like small rechargeable batteries! I do have some of the new AA types up to 2400 MAH, also the 'no other choice' rechargeables in my Nikon and Canon cameras but I've yet to use any of them that hold up over time.

For flashlights, I will no longer have any that won't function with standard batteries, i.e., Ds, Cs, AAs, and AAAs. My favorite light currently is the Argo headlamp by Streamlite. These are true little 4 ounce gems with three brightness settings and they'll 'burn' up to 30 hours on low using 3 AAA batteries. On high, about 2.5 to 3 hours continuous burn, they put out a nice combo spot with some flood lighting out to 60 yards or more which is plenty for me. I now have two of them in the house and one in the glove box in each of my three vehicles. They have become indispensible for doing any sort of car repairs, gun smithing, and so on. A great little light and AAAs are plentiful and economical.
 
Doughnut said:
$100 is a lot for two batteries and a charger. If I were you, I'd return them and buy a pair of AW's (probably $30 shipped) and a charger (probably $20 shipped).

The funny thing about that is that the Ultra Fire chargers are the name to go with. =\
Click to expand...

Still too expensive... AW sells 18650s for 9 a pop and the charger for 10....
 
AW sells that 18650 for $17.75 each, and the Ultrafire charger for $18.50 shipped.
 
Well prices change... But week i bought 6 of them for 9 each from him, and saw the chargers for 10 each. Which is what they were MONTHS ago when i bought from him and YEARS ago when i bought from him. Never seen them over 10 each direct from him.
 
That is alot of money to spend on batteries and a charger only to worry about fires.

Return the unit and batteries, and buy standard nickel hydride rechargeables and a standard charger for a whole lot less. Duracell has AA batteries with a 2600 milli amp hour rating which sounds very close to the capacity of your lithium batteries.
 
Bufford said:
That is alot of money to spend on batteries and a charger only to worry about fires.

Return the unit and batteries, and buy standard nickel hydride rechargeables and a standard charger for a whole lot less. Duracell has AA batteries with a 2600 milli amp hour rating which sounds very close to the capacity of your lithium batteries.
Click to expand...

Except for you can't use AA batteries.... 1.2vnom vs 3.8vnom. And there different dimensions.
 
Bufford said:
Return the unit and batteries, and buy standard nickel hydride rechargeables and a standard charger for a whole lot less. Duracell has AA batteries with a 2600 milli amp hour rating which sounds very close to the capacity of your lithium batteries.
Click to expand...
And put AA batteries into a light that will take 2X CR123A/1X18650 cells?....:confused:
 
I don't buy fancy flashlights that cannot use standard batteries for the fact that standard rechargeables can be used in many other devices. There are times when I need to swap out batteries to power something else and am in a situation (at the remote cabin)where I need batteries but don't have any spares.

Rob peter to use Paul. If the light is dead I can steal the batteries from the remote for the TV. One cannot do that with flashlights that use non standard batteries.:)
 
OwenM said:
Pretty common charger, Fenix are decent lights, and that's an AW 18650, one of the best protected Li-ions available. You should have no problems.
Click to expand...

What he said! :thumbup:

Don't drain the battery until it's dead. The light should have some sort of a low power warning. Usually in the form of a weird blinking sequence.
When you notice that it's time to recharge.

Take the battery's out of the charger as soon as they are done charging and you'll be fine.

I like to keep the charger within sight so I can see when the light turns green.

This is what works for me.
 
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