Looking for help/ideas on 6 volt lantern battery usage in lights.

[Cegasa Battery]

Would like to keep my job....I am looking for some help from you all please.

I know most flashlights, small equipment, etc have moved to a plug and play version but I would think not everyone wants to be dependent on electricity (which may or may not be available) for everything. Especially say for certain disaster, off grid, or wilderness situations where electricity may not be available. Batteries are at least available and dependable.

I work for and manage a small (here in U.S.) battery company that manufactures non hazardous zinc air batteries. Times have changed a lot over the last 10 years but I think there are still areas where a 6 volt lantern style battery would be useful for. (lights, alarms, etc) The one I have lasts way way longer than the average ones by the well known manufacturers here in U.S. Mine has 45 amp hours as opposed to 7-18 in others in the market.

What equipment still exists for this or where do I find people who don't want to always be dependent on electricity? My job is kind of depending on finding this info. Thank you in advance!

 

[TD-Horne]

I use zinc air batteries in my backup hearing aids. My present ones are rechargeable. Once I open the air port on the batteries their limited life begins. What I want to know before making a suggestion is once they are used for a given period will they degrade when not in use? I volunteer in a disaster relief organization. Once deployed we are likely to be on location for 1 to 2 weeks. We would turn the lanterns on at dusk and off after it's light enough to work without electric lights. Could an Air Zinc battery be expected to perform well in that use? If we were put back into inactive status rather quickly would the batteries we had begun to use maintain capacity or would they degrade having been activated?

Tom Horne

 

[Dave_H]

If you're talking of the consumer market for square 6v lantern batteries used for flashlights and lanterns, they are still out there but not as much as they used to be. I am not up on the commercial/industrial market for these, they tend towards 12v (gel cells etc) for alarms, UPS etc.

Square 6v battery using four F cells 4R25/4LR25 (or not) is conveniently replaceable with an adapter which takes D cells. As several battery vendors already fit D cells with a bottom spacer area, there is no drop in capacity in many cases. Granted, extra contacts could be a liability with rugged usage, or corrosion should the cells leak, but holder is a flexible alternative.

Bottom line, I think the market for these batteries is declining, certainly not expanding.

Dave

 

[TD-Horne]

I'm going to start a different thread in a more appropriate category. Since I want help comparing these batteries and existing old tech lanterns with the available alternatives.

Tom Horne

 

[alpg88]

Unless you start manufacturing those cells in different format, (AAA, AA, C, D) it will be hard to find use for your product, Those 6V batteries are pretty much used in lanterns only, i can not think of any other device that uses those.
I'd like to buy 1 and test it. It may have more capacity on paper, but how it acts under load, what about self discharge rate, and shelf life, how does outside temp affect it, does it leak? all of those are just as important as capacity, if not more,

 

[electrolyte]

The last time I checked, those lantern batteries were horribly expensive compared to D-cells. That is taking energy into consideration. It is likely and economy of scale issue.

I have very warm feelings about the lantern batteries. As small children, my brother and I were given lantern batteries, little 6V incandescent lamps with luminaries to hold them, buzzers, bells, knife switches, and maybe small motors. We salvaged little devices and sometimes made smoke come out of them. We spent hours. We learned about electricity.

 

[N8N]

Is this battery rechargeable? Would it be possible to make a 12V version same size/shape as a typical 12V 7Ah battery? Would it perform better than same? that seems to have a much larger market for security, emergency lights, fire alarm, etc. etc. etc.