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| Peace through superior firepower  |
https://www.surefire.com/sflfp123-batteries/ Surefire states upfront that "LFP rechargeable batteries have significantly less run time than their disposable counterparts." Anyone here have experience with them? | ||
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| Member |
I have a few surefires and some other off brand rechargeable 123 and they do not last nearly as long as the disposable ones. Use a single battery 123 every night for my dog walks and around the house. I get 2-3 nights out of one before recharging I wanted to buy more surefires but cheaped out and went off brand and so far they have held up ok. I also use the two battery 123 equivalent in a green light i use for pig hunting that do pretty good. That thing puts out the light for a very long distance and will get 1-2 hrs of continuous use. For my self defense related lights I keep and use disposable batteries in those and use them up in my every night use lights when i need to use them up. | |||
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For real? |
I was using one and some streamlight rechargeables. They both offer less run time because of the mah rating. I got about 40 mins out of the surefire in my tlr7sub. this one  with the streamlights, i was getting about 32 mins out of my tlr7hlx. i have 3 of them and keep them charged. i will try the streamlight rechargeables next in my regular tlr7a and report back. Not minority enough! | |||
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| Peace through superior firepower |
I don't intend to use them in WMLs, just handheld flashlights. | |||
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| Member |
I use lots of them in non critical uses around the farm, the lights I take to walk the dogs at night for example. And when we have power outages and I sprinkle the house with older surefires that are retired so you have something nearby to use. For this they work well since I don't care too much about runtime and I get what I need done when they are exhausted using my other surefire flashlight which has traditional cells. But the life is distinctly shorter and the shutdown quite distinctly faster. For a non critical use they save a lot of batteries. I would never use them in something that I consider critical like the surefire I carry with me at all times. “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” | |||
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| Peace through superior firepower |
Yes, for example, I keep an old 4Sevens flashlight by my bed as a task light, takes a pair of 123s. This kind of thing would be my intended use. | |||
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| Member |
I tried them in a headlamp and was not impressed. I was lucky to get an hour of runtime. Same lamp would get 2-3 hrs with disposable. | |||
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| For real? |
It's the low mAh ratings of the rechargeables that leads to the low run times. I don't have any single cell 123 lights but I think I have a Surefire 6P equivalent. When I get to work tomorrow night, I will charge up my two Streamlights and grab two new 123s and leave the light on all night and check run time. Oh wait, the Surefire turns off due to heat. I will find another light to time. I have some Fenix and Olights that might work with two 123sized batteries. In the lightsaber building community, we have been searching for small rechargeables with high mAh ratimgs to increase runtime. Not minority enough! | |||
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| Member |
I have two pairs. One has a higher voltage rating than the red lettered one shown above. It is a white barrel with black lettering and a gold stripe. I’ve experienced no difference between the the two as far as run time. Like others have said, I use them in non critical applications, scattered around the house…. like when something rolls beneath a shelf or when the cat swats something into furniture oblivion. | |||
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Member |
They work, but as others have said the runtime won't be great. Surefire lists them at 1.44 watt hours, which doesn't really compare well with the regular 123A batteries or more modern rechargeable batteries. A light with 2 of those has just under 3 watt hours of juice. The same light with regular 123As would have 9 watt hours, and it will be similar in size to a light that takes a single 18650 or 21700. Current 18650s have almost 13 watt hours of power, and 21700s are sitting at 22 watt hours. So compared to the rechargeables you linked you would get about 3x the runtime from regular 123as, 4x the run time from an 18650, and 7x the runtime from a 21700. "The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford, "it is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them. They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates the government they want." "You mean they actually vote for the lizards." "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course." "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?" "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard, then the wrong lizard might get in." | |||
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| Left-Handed, NOT Left-Winged! |
18350 is the single-123 size rechargeable that is otherwise similar to the 18650 double-123 size. Unfortunately you need a light designed for it, like with the 18650. Surefire shows 1100 mAh for the 18350 and only 450 mAh for the Rechargeable 123. Disposables are 1550 mAh so you're talking less than 1/3 the life. I am upgrading some single 123 lights to those that can take the 18350. Most of my dual 123 lights are already 18650 capable. | |||
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| For real? |
I think the mAh rating is the capacity. I lost the surefire battery which is rated at 450 mAh. I have a cheap $1 Titanium Innovations battery rated at 1600mAh. The one I am using was manufactured in April 2022. It's been in my locker with another 49 batteries. My Streamlight rechargeable is 850mAh. I'm going to use a 1 cell Olight S1R light set to turbo mode. I stuck in the $1 battery at 5:40pm. the light is still running at 10:40pm. I charged the Streamlight and will swap it in when the non rechargeable battery runs out. I keep all my 123A cell flashlights loaded with regular batteries and they've held up for years in the cars rarely being used. I'll report back better run times later. But it seems it's probably best to just run primary batteries for long term storage.  Not minority enough! | |||
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E tan e epi tas |
You may want to try running a 16650 rechargeable. This will fit In the space of 2 CR123’s. The voltage will be lower but your runtime should be greater at the expense of some brightness. For example. I run 16650’s in my Surefire tacticians. On two CR123s they output about 700 lumens on fresh cells. The 16650 is more like 550-600. In my tests I get 2 solid hours of great output and 3 plus hours still putting out around 20 lumens. These may not work well in every application but I have been using them to good effect in most all my 2 CR123 lights. https://www.amazon.com/KeepPow...9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1 I use XTar chargers with 2-4 bays but I have these in travel bags and they work just fine and they are cheap. https://www.amazon.com/Battery...er%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-3 "Guns are tools. The only weapon ever created was man." | |||
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| E tan e epi tas |
Yea the mAH is basically the capacity in milliamp hours. Also if long term storage or extreme temps are involved I’d stick to primaries. I’d also stick to them for things like weapon lights just to be sure. "Guns are tools. The only weapon ever created was man." | |||
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| For real? |
We got inundated with calls starting at 00:30. The light was still on when I left. I just got back to station (01:35) and the light is off. So the primary battery lasted over 6 hours. I've been using the SL-B9 in the TLR-7HLX. I haven't tested max run time on it yet. I'll plug it in the Olight now and turn it on. I buy the TI regular batteries in 50 or 100 pks from battery junction when there's a sale and a coupon code. Once they ran out of TI and sent me 50 Energizers. These last and I have a bunch, but I'm always looking into rechargeables for lightsaber building. lol The Streamlight lasted almost two hoursThis message has been edited. Last edited by: Chowser, Not minority enough! | |||
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| Member |
Beware of voltage of CR123a-sized rechargeable (RCR123a). The 'direct replacement' have low capacity due to the battery chemistry used to match the voltage of CR123a. You'll find various types of Li-ion that offer higher mA-h, but at a higher voltage that might make your light let the magic smoke out. FWIW, I gave up on RCR123a a long time ago & just use surefire or streamlight non-rechargeable in those lights. Any light I buy new (rare these days as I have plenty), gets rechargeable but Li-ion- either AA size or 18650, etc. | |||
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