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There have been reports about multi-cell Lithium battery powered lights "exploding" when one of the batteries dies, and the remaining cells continue to drive current thru the dead battery causing overheating. I was NOT trying to knock LD, as I am quite happy with the unit mounted on my rifle. IMO a battery related failure is NOT the fault of the light maker at all, rather you should have contacted the battery company, assuming the cells were fresh and from a reputable company. Duracell for example warrantees they will replace/repair devices damaged due to defective batteries. WHAT BRAND OF BATTERY WAS INVOLVED? That info would be nice for those of us wishing to avoid battery related problems. Bringing up an issue, then playing "coy" about the manufacture is pointless, unless all you are needing is sympathy. Gear related failure reports are important, and unbiased INFORMATIVE reporting of what happened is needed here. Please let us know what the "manufacturer" says about the damaged light. Paladin |
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Even Surefire can make bad batteries, just not as often. I looked at the batteries in my light, and they were some "off brand" Titanium cells that have IN FACT been inplicated in problems, and were "reformulated" because of them. Glad you posted, so I had to look, and have REMOVED them from service, ironically replacing them with Surefire cells. From my light manufactures instruction sheet: Operate the xxxxxxxx for fairly short periods of time. Turn off the light if it becomes too hot to hold confortably in your hands. The Lithium batteries supplied with the light may pose a fire and/or burn hazard if they overheat. If improperly handled, batteries may leak, explode, or cause personal injury. Paladin |
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Sounds like the lithium 123s go most often... Were all the batteries changed at the same time?...all in the same state of discharge as far as you know? Might find some answers over here...on CPF Glad you weren't injured..no fire started...there is a thread here somewhere on someone almost burning up their kitchen when one of their fl's went tango uniform.... candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=7fbd910854d438fd65f9a6b4ee58c386&f=9 |
Poor pig  ...... oh yea, sorry to here about your light. Definitely contact the mfgr. and see what they say. Keep us posted as to the out come if you could.
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Got my light back from Laser Devices,it appears when I got the light I installed the batteries backwards L/D designed there lights 180 off from everyone else.The tit goes to the tail cap. Obviously the light will work either way as it did for 11 months. So any others as a public service announcement check your L/D weapon lights and make sure you installed your batteries(correctly). At first they wanted 50.00$ to repair the light ,I told them to box it up and ship it back. I called them to make sure they included the burned batteries and Raul had since talked to the President and cleared the N/C repair. And to correct my post the batteries were L/D originals. Now I think I'm going to sell it and buy another Surefire as I have nothing but great things to say about them and there outstanding customer service.When I called them for extra rail covers they sent 3 free! I bet if it was one of my S/F lights it would have been at my doorstep NO QUESTIONS ASKED!  Probably more expense than L/D paid to fix my bulb and lens. If you get good service you mention it to a few people. When you get poor service you tell everyone! |
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If it was a three-CR123A battery flashlight and you loaded one of the three batteries backwards compared to the other two then this type of failure is possible I guess. However, if you loaded them all backwards then I don't see how this could have happened unless one or more of the batteries was faulty, or the flashlight itself contributed to the failure which to me indicates a failure of design which is not characteristic of Laser Devices which has a quiet reputation for high quality products in my experience... I guess (no evidence to support it though) that perhaps the contact was not 'perfect' with the batteries reversed and that the high resistance of what contact there was could have caused a battery (usually it's only the weakest of a group) to overheat as the batteries tried to force current through the light. Normally in SureFire, Duracell and other main brands this would cause the internal resistance to increase and a so-called "Thermal Fuse" or "PTC" (heat is a by-product of internal resistance) to remove the load to the cell, in order to protect the user from a battery explosion. If the battery did not feature a PTC or if the PTC was damaged it could fail in the flashlight causing an explosion. See this thread on CPF if you're interested: http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=115844 To quote CPF Member "NewBie":
Best follow the manufacturers instructions for use and storage of the battery operated product. Additionally, use the battery type and brand recommended by the manufacturer or American-made batteries purchased from a reliable dealer. Al |
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