I recently came into possession of an old but new-in-box Halogen MagCharger circa 2005. It came with the charging cradle and cords, and a NiCD battery.
I called Maglite and asked them if it would be a good idea to replace the battery due to its age, and they said that the MagCharger rechargeable battery packs were only good for about 3-5 years and not to use it.
So, I'm looking for modern battery options to power this light and have found four options so far. I would love to hear some feedback and recommendations from people who have more experience. I don't expect to use this light often, only rarely when needed.
Option 1, is buying a new 6v NiMH 3.5ah battery from Maglite for about $30. This option would obviously work with the stock charger, and should provide long runtime between charges. However, I expect this battery pack would have a high self-discharge rate, and an overall short battery life since most of its time it would have to be left on the charger in order to be ready when needed.
Option 2, is buy an aftermarket NiCD battery, but I don't see any real advantage or disadvantage to this over an OEM NiMH battery (other than NiCD memory effect, which may or may-not exist depending on who you ask).
Option 3, is buy 3aa to D cell adapters and run the light off of Eneloops. Scouring the forums, I have found some differing opinions of how many Eneloop cells to use with a MagCharger. Some say use 5 cells to get exactly 6 volts, and others say use 6 cells for 7.2 volts and overdrive the bulb for more brightness. Some say this will shorten the bulb life or even cause an instaflash, others say it is perfectly safe? Any opinions? Other than figuring out the ideal number of cells to use, this setup has some apparent advantages. Mainly, Eneloops have a low self discharge rate, so the batteries stay charged and usable while off the charger and can be ready when they are needed. Also, they can be recharged thousands of times, which means long overall battery life. The downside I can foresee, is a limit of 2000mah, which means shorter runtimes between charges.
Option 4, two 32650 or 32700 LiFePO4 batteries. The only issue I am having with this, is finding a smart charger that charges batteries that large, AND supports LiFePO4 chemistry. Also, I cannot find protected LiFePO4 batteries, and wonder if that is as important as with Lithium Ion batteries?
That is all. I know it's a lot of questions, and I have tried to search the forums for answers before posting a new thread. A lot of the threads that cover this information as it pertains to the MagCharger are very old, and usually the links within them that claim to have all the answers I need don't work anymore.
Thanks again, cant wait to learn what others have found to work for them.