ever had a CR123a (or any lithium) fail due to age?

Thinking about swapping out the batteries in my lights, but as a cheap bastard it's hard to take out unused batteries that still show a shelf life of 5+ years and replacing them with new batteries. Most these lights have less than 5 minutes of runtime on them as they're just staged indoors and checked monthly for function but never really used.

Just talking about CR123a lithium or AA lithium, not rechargeable, low self discharge rechargeable or generic alkaline cells.

So couple of questions for discussion:

1. do you rotate your staged lights?
2. if yes, do you do it by date, or date on the batteries, or something else?
3. ever had a non-expired battery fail?
4. ever had an expired battery fail?
5. lights in harsh places (like cars that get heat/cold cycled a lot), do you rotate them more frequently?

$20 bucks worth of streamlight CR batteries will let me rotate every light I own, but again, I'm cheap. Or thrifty. Or have a battery fetish and hate wasting any. No wait, I'm environmentally friendly and don't want to waste them. There, much better.

W.R.T CR123 only,
1. yes
2. ~2 years
3. no
4. never kept them long enough to expire
5. dunno - staged lights are in my house.

My EDC batteries last for 4-6 months of light daily duty and whenever I open a new box of batteries (about 2 years) I move the old ones from my HD shotgun into my EDC light and use them up.

Had a bad batch of Surefires that nobody wanted to do anything about. Using Streamlight and Energizers now. I dont change out lithiums unless they dim or die. You can check voltage with a meter. I changed out my hunting light batteries every season. Panasonic 123's suck as do tenergy. Have a cheap headlamp my sis gave me last xmas. It had two Ultrafire 18650's in it. I messed with it a time or 2 in a year. Strapped it on the other night to go under the house to do some freeze proofing. To my amazement it lit up and ran for the 15mins i needed it to. Recharged the batts and now it's 10X brighter. I found the best way to be prepared with 123's or any batt for that matter is to carry spares.

I am always impressed with the battery life on CR123's.

I had a huge pack of sure fire and panasonic 123 left from the Army. Just down to the last 4 or 6 Surefire. Supposedly have a ten year shelf life. I try to buy them at Lowe’s when I have a gift card because I also get 10% off there and they’re cheaper than Sportsmans Warehouse

Amazon also offers the CR123 batteries in their Amazonbasics lineup. I bought some for my smoke detectors. Not sure how they compare...anybody else messed with them?

1. yes.
2. i write the Install Date on the actual battery. 3 year rotation.
3. no.
4. no.
5. no. i do rotate more frequently for those that are used frequently.

#Jayneneedsahobby

#richpeoplesproblems

#IgotsomuchmoniesIcanjustswitchoutgoodbatteries

#mywifeneedstoapprovemypostsonthegunforumsoidontgetmadefunof

#ifyouwerelookingfordeerandburglersoutsideenoughthiswouldntbeanissue

I found your thread :O) There is my reply!

jimmyjames8 said:

Had a bad batch of Surefires that nobody wanted to do anything about. Using Streamlight and Energizers now. I dont change out lithiums unless they dim or die. You can check voltage with a meter. I changed out my hunting light batteries every season. Panasonic 123's suck as do tenergy. Have a cheap headlamp my sis gave me last xmas. It had two Ultrafire 18650's in it. I messed with it a time or 2 in a year. Strapped it on the other night to go under the house to do some freeze proofing. To my amazement it lit up and ran for the 15mins i needed it to. Recharged the batts and now it's 10X brighter. I found the best way to be prepared with 123's or any batt for that matter is to carry spares.

Click to expand...

Huh.. I just check the Surefire batteries in my truck carry and "sure" enough... they're dead. I just put them in this summer....

Some devices have a "parasitic draw". Think of it as an app running in the back ground all the time. I have a point and shoot camera that had some sort of time and date thing running even when the camera was off and it drew down the batts. I found out I could toggle off that option in the menu. No more parasitic draw on the camera. I have one of the last 6P Surefire flashlights made and it is also an NRA badged item. I put an aftermarket head in it, a Malkoff I think but for whatever reason it seems to eat 123's a whole lot sooner than any of my other 123 powered lights. Not sure what's going on there. I keep a Surefire EDC light in my GO BAG with a set of spares. I need to check them to see if still good. If I buy anymore SF batts I'm going to keep the receipt.