Tag Archives: batteries

CR123, AA batts, and desert hermit logisitcs

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FriendOfTheBlog(tm), Joel, had himself a bump-in-the-night encounter a few weeks back that I mentioned here. I mentioned it because it underscores the utility of weapon-mounted lights and how, in some circumstances, they are just what the doctor ordered.

What I didn’t mention was that I gifted Joel one of these so that he could light something up without pointing a carbine at it, if he needed to. We all know the rules about not pointing a gun at anything you don’t want to destroy, so I figure that a high-capacity-intensity flashlight would be handy for when you’re not sure that whatever is out in the dark is something you want to be pointing a loaded gun at.

Anyway…

There was a comment in the post Joel made about how, given his hermit location, finding CR123 batteries for this light, in case its rechargeable batteries zonked out, would be a difficulty and he would be better serviced with the dirt-common alkaline AA-batts. I politely disagreed because, in my experience, every Home Depot, hardware store, gun store, and supermarket carries CR123 batts.  But..I’ve been wrong before, so I’m open to the possibility that perhaps my experience in the matter differs from what that experience would be if I lived in Joel’s neighborhood.

But the crux of the matter, really, is this: is a device that runs on CR123 batts a liability over a similar device that runs on AA-batts? In terms of price? In terms of availability?

One of the points brought up in the comment was that AA batts were cheaper than CR123. This is quite true. But, as I pointed out, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. AA alkaline batteries are cheaper than CR123 lithium batteries. But when you compare AA lithium batteries to CR123 lithium batteries, there is a niggling difference in price. A quick perusal of Amazon showed Energizer lithium AA’s and lithium CR123’s being pretty close to each other in bulk price.

The scarcity issue may have some merit, but CR123 batteries are easily ordered in bulk from Amazon during a time of non-apocalypse, and because of their lithium construction they can be stored longer than alkaline batteries with less self-discharge. (And, I am told, lithium batteries tend to puke all over themselves much less than the alkaline batteries do.)

The advantage to the AA-batt is that if you run out of lithium AA’s for your device you can, usually, still use the dirt-common AA alkalines….assuming its not eight years after the apocalypse when they’ve all self-discharged or leaked into a pile of crud.

All of this underscores that for your battery needs you need to think about things like this. I standardized a long time ago on three battery sizes – AA, D, CR123. Almost every device I could possibly need….headlamps, flashlight, gun sight, weaponlight, radio, freezer alarm, etc…can be had running off one of those types of batteries. Some devices, like a high-intensity weapon light, have power requirements that can’t be met with anything except a CR123. While there are weaponlights out there that will run on other battery sizes, it seems like they usually don’t have the same level of brightness intensity unless they make up for their non-CR123 power requirement by using a much larger quantity of batteries. (In other words, instead of using two CR123, it may need six or eight AA’s.)

Then there’s the matter of rechargeable devices. More and more stuff is of the USB-charger variety. The flashlight I sent Joel, for example, has its rechargeable battery charged through USB. I rather like this feature because it means in a pinch I can charge it from anything that would charge a cellphone….a small solar panel, a battery pack, etc, etc. But, as we all know, rechargeable batteries have a limited amount of duty cycled before the battery starts to no longer hold as much of a charge. This is mitigated a bit by the fact that the package I sent Joel has a spare battery and should, I would think, last probably the rest of his life. But even if the batteries died an ignoble death, the light can still run off CR123’s…which brings us back around to a few paragraphs earlier.

The person who commented on there being a disadvantage, in Joels case, to the CR123 batteries has a valid point – resupply is definitely a concern. But, in my opinion, that potential risk or failure point is mitigated by the the CR123 being able to be long-terms stored meaning that a supply of them purchased now should take care of things. Also, for what I was looking for – a compact, handheld light with tremendous brightness – wasn’t as readily available in a non-CR123 version while still meeting the compact requirements.

Anyway, some food for though there.

 

Battery check day

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Battery check day. I’ve got my list of items around the bunker that I keep batteries in at all times (things like flashlights, etc.) and today is one of the scheduled days to go inspect them all to make sure nothing is in the process of crapping the bed. Since I’ve instituted this program I have not found any batteries that have self-destructed or were in the process of self-destructing. But….it’s a half hour every few months, so why not check? It’s a heck of a lot cheaper to throw out a couple suspect D-batts than it is to buy a new LED MagLite.

Thus far, the biggest culprit in crapped-the-bed batteries has been Duracell batteries. I have yet to have any issued with lithium batteries, by the way. For absolutely critical gear, and gear that gets exposed to great temperature swings (like being left in a vehicle) the lithiums are the way to go.

Do it today, guys. Spend just a few minutes checking your flashlights and radios to make sure your batteries aren’t destroying your electronic geegaws.
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In admin matters, someone very generously sent me an Amazon gift card the other day and I’d like to take this moment to thank them. If you feel I provide high entertainment value (or even middlin’ entertainment value) please consider tossing a little something my way.

 

Lithium AA batts at CostCo

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If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that my experience, and the experience of pretty much everyone else reading, has been that at some point your Duracell batteries are going to crap the bed and ruin your device. To prevent this sort of thing, I’ve instituted a pattern of checking the batteries in all my devices on a regular basis in order to catch these things before they do irreparable damage.

An alternative to this sort of thing is to use lithium batteries. It seems that the leaking issue doesn’t occur with the lithium batts nearly as often as with the others. The problem, of course, is that lithium batts, while being awesome, are not cheap. As it turns out, Costco, which is often the source of the troublesome Duracells, is also selling bulk packed lithium AA batts.

At eighty-five cents each, that’s a rather large discount from the 4- and 8-packs that you see at the cash register of your local supermarket.

I was checking the batteries in my gear the other day and discovered that the rechargeable Eneloops that were in my ICOM R6 (highly recommended) were deader than Biden’s nomination possibilities. They apparently just self-discharged over time. Disappointing, but thats why I make sure to carry extra batteries with my gear. Since CostCo is make the lithium batts affordable, I’ll swap those into the R6 instead of the rechargeables. (And also into the spare battery carrier that I keep in my Bag O’ Tricks).

So far, I have not experienced any problems with the lithium batteries but I’m not foolish enough to just assume I never will. So…regular gear inspections will continue, even if the item in question has lithium batts in it.

Battery inspection day

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‘Tis battery inspection day. Back around the beginning of the year I made a list of all the devices I leave batteries in during the year and decided that every month I would inspect each device to make sure the batteries hadn’t crapped the bed.

So far, so good. :::fingers crossed::: Haven’t come across any that are startingt o go bad.

Yeah, it’s kind of a pain to run around thehouse hunting down a half dozen flashlights and radios to open their battery compartments and check them out, but when a good LED MagLite is twenty bucks all it takes is catching one set of batteries early in the act to pay for itself.

So…if you’re like me and are tired of throwing out Maglites that had batteries go bad and weld themselves to the inside of the tubes…. go check your battery devices today.

Battery inspection and generator run

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Well, its the first of the month. Two things I gotta do today – battery checks and generator run. I decided that every month Im going to check he batteries in the devices that I leave batteries in. Ideally, this will be frequent enough that if a battery does crap the bed it won’t have time to really do the horrible corrosive damage that usually occurs. We shall see.

Generator run is just a good idea. Haul it out every other month or so, run it for a half hour under various loads, clean it up and put it back in storage. Simple.

Yeah, sometimes its a pain in the ass but its one of those things where a lousy thirty minutes of minimal effort will save you a metric buttload of headache further down the road.

So, I’ve got about a dozen devices on my checklist for inspection, and then a half hour on the generator. Nothing sexy about it, but this sort of thing is what you do when youre a survivalist.

Battery storage stuff

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So the general consensus, it seems, is that leaving non-lithium batteries in a device for any appreciable length of time is a recipe for trouble. As I mentioned earlier, on the devices that I do leave batteries in, I’m instituting a periodic inspection schedule to make sure things don’t spiral out of control.

But, really, the solution is to not have batteries in the device until such time as that device is needed. Makes sense, right? The problem is that anytime you have two items that need to be combined together to be effective, and you keep those two items separate from each other, you introduce a potential point of failure. The very easy example is keeping a loaded magazine separate from the gun.

So, to my way of thinking, the solution is to keep the batteries separate from the device to avoid damage, but near enough to the device as to be available for immediate use. So, with that in mind….

What we have here are, essentially, shotgun-shell holders for batteries. Here’s the link to the manufacturers information, and, of course, I just snagged ’em offa Amazon:

The shotgun shell analogy is pretty accurate. There are two tabs, such as youd fend at the end of a magazine tube, that hold the batteries in place. They’re quite secure. The more astute of you will notice that this thing doesn’t provide any environmental protection…that is true. But what it does do is give you a secure storage for batteries that can be lanyarded to your device of choice.

You could argue, I suppose, that you simply keep the lantern and the batteries in the same box in storage and that obviates the need for this sort of thing. True, but preparedness is about removing or mitigating as many potential problem points as possible. For me, having the batteries lanyarded to the device gives me the virtually the same benefit of the batteries being left in the deivce but without the attendant risk.

No doubt the poverty-preppers will say that the same effect could be achieved with a small plastic bottle scrounged from the kitchen garbage and a little duct tape. May be. But my career goals have hit the point where I can insulate myself from future risk without resorting to using garbage. When its oh-dark-thirty and the power goes out in a blizzard, I don’t mind having spent ten bucks for the security of having the batteries where I need them when I need them. :::shrug::: Your choice.

If you really wanna go full Burt Gummer, the guys over at County Comm have battery safes that will do the PERFECT job but be prepared to pay a bit more than what you might feel comfortable with. I actually use the County Comm ones to keep two lithium AA-batts in my Bag O’ Tricks.

Anyway, thats the direction I’ve decided to go in in regards to not keeping batteries in devices while still keeping the batteries close at hand. YMMV, but to me it seems a good solution.

Battery stuff

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The consensus is pretty much universal: unless youre using lithium batts, your batteries are going to crap the bed and cost you your device.

Ii mention this because I just had to take two sets of slip-joint pliers to open the tailcap on a mini MagLite and you can imagine what the inside looked like. Fortunately, mini Maglites are not terribly expensive. But what if it was my GPS? Or my pocket radio? Or some other piece of expensive gear?

A while back I actually managed to catch a battery disintegration in progress.

It seems pretty clear that some sort of inspection is going to need to be performed on a somewhat regular basis for these items that have batteries left in them long-term. But, it also means I need to come up with a way to keep batteries at hand for when I don’t want to store them in the devices. Lets take the Siege lanterns that pretty much every one of you bought a few week back. Those take three D-batts. If I’m not going to keep them in the light, then i need to keep them nearby and I need to keep them protected. (And isolated from each other.) Tall order. Best thing I’ve seen thus far is this. Doesn’t seem to offer much elemental protection though. What I’d really like is something like this, but sized for D-batts. Is there such a thing? Dunno. I suppose the PVC minded might be able to create some sort of ‘cigar tube’ that holds three D-batts but I’d prefer a ready-made solution. In the meantime, while I quest for such a thing, I’m thinking a quarterly inspection schedule is going to have to be instituted..which means I need inspection tags for the devices. More work.But…whats it worth to have your gear work when you need it, right?

A quick addition to Evernote and I’ve got a checklist and a reminder to check batteries quarterly in..uhm..lets see….15 different devices.  We’ll see if this reduces the incidence of destroyed Maglites.

AA battery case and pouch

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Battery standardization is kind of an important thing. When I need batteries for my flashlight, radio, or other geegaw, the last thing I want is to discover I’m out of the battery I need but I have zillions of the batteries I don’t.

For my general needs, it’s just three battery sizes: CR123, AA, and D. End of story. Sometimes it requires a compromise when one product might use one of those batteries but another, better, product might use something like a 9-volt or C-battery. In cases like that I usually fall on the side of logistics because even if the product is a bit better, when the batteries fade and it’s non-functional it will be a lot less than ‘better’.

For stuff that I carry around in the Bag O’ Tricks there is no room for argument – one battery size. Period. Full stop.

For that task, I go with AA lithium batts. They are expensive, yes. The advantage is that they are far less vulnerable to temperature, and they tend to keep their charge over time. The problem is, how to carry spares. I used to just take an Altoids tin, line it with plastic, put tape over the ends of the batteries, and  store ’em that way. Cheap, but there are better ways. A fella handed me a Maxpedition catalog years ago and they had this little guy:

It has been my absolute first choice for storing spare batteries in my gear. It keeps them separate from each other, protects the important ends, and conveniently splits apart and is colored to help differentiate dead from live batteries. (Whys ave the dead ones? Might be rechargeables that you want to save for later recharging.)

I’ve used this thing to carry around my spare AA batts (and it’ll carry CR123 batts as well) for years and can’t think of a problem I’ve had with it. I keep it in the nylon pouch as an added measure of safety and security, but the plastic sleeve by itself would seem to work fine in a tucked away pocket on your gear.

The things I carry in my bag that need those batteries? A couple small LED lights, a small AM/FM/SW radio, and the very small and very useful ICOM R6 receiver. All of those run on AA’s and therefore I only need to keep the one type of battery in my bag. (Also means that, in a real crunch, I could swap batteries as needed between devices.)

While the pouch has MOLLE webbing to let you mount it to your gear, I find it more useful to carry it inside my gear. Why leave it outside your bag to get banged around?

As I said, I’ve used this sort of thing for carrying around spare batts for years and haven’t had a single problem with ’em. Recommended.

Link to two TSP podcasts on backup power

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Someone in comments pointed out this link to me and it was worth sharing:
http://www.battery1234.com/

Its a page with two episodes of The Survival Podcast on the subject of emergency backup battery systems. I listened to both episodes and was quite pleased. Lots of information and lots of very specific information…names are named. Yeah, everything the guy discusses is linked to on page and available off Amazon, but I thought the content of the two articles was so good that who was I to begrudge the man a chance to make a few bucks off his links?

I listen to TSP on and off…Far too much permaculture and gardening content for me. Not saying its not important, just saying that it gets boring after a while. Anyway, the two episodes at the link were, in my opinion, quite good and I recommend them to anyone who is still behind on getting some sort of backup/emergency power system in place.