How strong/safe are these types of cells? Can they be safely charged and used in high drain devices like bright flashlights? Or optics/electronics like my Eotech EXPS, or Lasers/NODS?
How strong/safe are these types of cells? Can they be safely charged and used in high drain devices like bright flashlights? Or optics/electronics like my Eotech EXPS, or Lasers/NODS?
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All Li-ion cells have a listed maximum discharge rate to determine how much of a load they can carry.Originally Posted by theJanitor
For critical use devices, I prefer CR123 batteries or IMR flat top (unprotected) cells. No circuit boards to break or malfunction in either of those.
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There no inherent reason why batteries with charging ports built-in can't be used for high drain applications. Whether or not you want the extra potential points of failures for some applications is the real question if you're going to use them for duty. How reliable such batteries are will depend entirely on the build quality of the battery, but there's no denying that no matter what, it will have extra circuitry that can cause issues.How strong/safe are these types of cells? Can they be safely charged and used in high drain devices like bright flashlights? Or optics/electronics like my Eotech EXPS, or Lasers/NODS?
That being said, the charging ports are merely a feature. Some batteries with them can be used for high drain applications, others cannot, dependent entirely on how high a continuous discharge current the battery can sustain, which AFAIK, is going to be a factor independent of whether or not it has a charging port, though I will note that 16340s in generally have a much lower ceiling on sustained discharge rate (typically around 3A seems to be the max, while 18350s it's pretty easy to find 10A sustained discharge rate), since your primary lithium cells typically have a max sustained discharge rate of 1.5A anyway. So if you slot in a 16340 for a CR123A in a dual fuel single cell device that can also take 18350s (e.g., M340DFT), expect performance closer to the CR123A than the 18350.
The other problem is determining if the thing you're trying to power can handle the voltage; I've only seen li-ion 16340s with charging ports, which typically are outputting at ~3.7V under load (with a 4.2V peak when fresh and at start-up), while primary lithium batteries are outputting at ~3V. Some electronics that aren't labeled dual fuel are able to tolerate that just fine; I've heard (though cannot confirm) that EOTech HWSes are fine with li-ion batteries. That being said, I personally would not substitute a li-ion 16340 for a primary lithium cell in a device unless the manufacturer has specifically stated it's okay or if it's a low dollar item I don't mind having a shortened lifespan. If I really wanted to use a rechargeable, I would stick with LiFePO4 16340, which unfortunately tend to have much lower capacity.
I have a few of the Streamlight 18650 batteries that have a built in charging port. I only use those batteries in “utility” flashlights, so I’m not very hard on them. The direct plug in capability has limited usefulness in my opinion.
My understanding of this technology is that in order to get the most life out of a rechargeable battery you don’t want to abuse it by charging it too rapidly. The charging rate should be less than or equal to 0.5 x it’s capacity. So if your battery is 2600 mAH capacity you really shouldn’t plug it in to a charger that’s putting out 2.1 or 2.4 A. I doubt the battery would explode on you, but you probably would reduce it’s life span.
So I always charge my batteries with a Nitecore smart charger. Since I’m not using the charging port capability, to me it’s not a useful feature, and probably makes the battery more complicated, and maybe prone to failure than a simpler design. I only have a couple of these batteries and the last batch of new ones I bought are all Keepower.
As always, if I’m wrong about anything I hope someone smarter than me comes along to set me right.
CR123 and AA are my concern right now.
My main goal is to reduce the amount of chargers in my gear/pack/travel kit. I have portable power sources, portable solar panels, and relevant cords, but I don't want to add actual chargers to the kit. There's also no guarantee that I'll have access to 110v AC power.
I'm also travelling next month, and I would rather not pack extra CR123 in my kit. If I can just pull the batteries from my surefire, and charge them in the hotel with cords I already have, it simplifies things.
For charging, you could try this so you don't have to find batteries with charging ports: https://www.amazon.com/Foursevens-Re.../dp/B08L6Z6HF5
Not sure if it works with LiFePO4, you would have to reach out to Foursevens to check, but works with NiMH and li-ion.
There are also plenty of full-sized chargers that work off of a USB port, though obviously that's still a larger piece of equipment to tote around.
Last edited by Default.mp3; 02-15-2024 at 12:50 PM.
Thanks, mp3. Those are the types of solutions I'm looking for! I certainly don't want to add a charging "box" to the kit, nor do I want to add multiples of them. I'll inquire if it can do the lower 3.0V cells too
Several of my nitecore chargers use USB power input. Which is nice because I can plug it into my foldable solar panel.
I have a charging cube that has a 1A USB output port and a 2.4A USB port, and I have used that one to charge the 18650s with the 1A port, but it is several years old. I went to buy a couple more to outfit different bags, because of course I have multiple bags and get tired of moving stuff around and trying to remember which bag stuff is in, but all of the new charging cubes I found were either “rapid” with high output, like 3.1A, or “smart” which I don’t really trust.
I can speak to the effectiveness and convenience of the subj chargers. Used one for years to recharge the 123 cells for my work flashlight. The only downsides are 1.) you can only charge one cell at a time (without multiple cords) and 2.) I now wish it had a USB C plug, since my other electronics use them.
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