Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *with pics and graphs*

[nuggett]

Re: Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *2nd night test findings ad

Kennyj, seery, js,silverfox,bwaites,
I just want to say thank you for your time and effort and expense getting this information out.
I have a new M6 still on its orginal batts, with batterystations on stand by.

 

[seery]

Re: Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *2nd night test findings added*

Many of the Titaniums were so hot when coming out of the M6 battery carrier
that they couldn't be touched.

A few were bubbling on top???

Have a few close-up pics of the bubbling that I can email someone if they would
post them for me. Still haven't figured out how

JimH - Looking at your tests seems to explain it all. SF told me the "slightest"
variance in beginning voltage would cause thermal shut-down due to uneven
draw on the cells. Nice work and thanks.

 

[prof]

Re: Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *Need help posting my pics*

Have you tried www.tinypic.com for posting?

 

[SilverFox]

Re: Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *Need help posting my pics*

Hello Jim,

Great testing...

It looks like there is a consistency problem with the Titanium cells. I just checked some of mine and they are showing open circuit voltages in the 3.3 V range.

It looks like the ZTS tester would be a good thing to have if you have an M6...

Tom

 

[nethiker]

Re: Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *Need help posting my pics

Great info here guys. I'm really surprised at the variance found in the Titanium cells. I'm certainly not going to chance running more Titaniums in a multicell light until more info is available suggesting it's o.k. Right now it definately looks like it may be a risk.

:goodjob:

 

[bwaites]

Re: Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *Need help posting my pics

ZTS tester? What is that?

Bill

 

[SCblur]

Re: Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *2nd night test findings added*

Here are some pictures that Seery took.

Many of the Titaniums were so hot when coming out of the M6 battery carrier
that they couldn't be touched.

A few were bubbling on top???

 

[Longbow]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm all done "chewing" Titanium hype!

 

[bwaites]

Interesting!!!

I've never seen the "soap bubble" look on a vented cell.

Bill

 

[OutdoorIdiot]

I've recently been a bit concerned about loading ANY brand of batteries into my M6 with HOLA, then running it flat-out.

The M6 has always heated up my batteries like no other flashlight I have.

And recently, I've noticed on CPF some people say that they have been checking their new 123 batteries and finding some "duds", even with the SureFire brand.

So I've been worried about getting a dud 123 mixed in with the 6 that go into the M6.

I haven't got a ZTS tester, but I have got a reasonably good multimeter. However, I've forgotten how the whole electronics thing works. The built-in battery-test modes on it are just for 1.5v and 9v.

Can anybody here suggest a safe way, using a A/V/O meter, to ensure that all the batteries they put into the M6 are at least equal-voltage?

 

[Ringer]

Re: Surefire M6 / New Titanium 123's / Results / Not good *Need help posting my pics

ZTS tester? What is that?

Bill

It's a farily popular and inexpensive tester for various types of alkaline , metal hydride and lithium batteries. http://www.ztsinc.com/products.html

A search on ZTS should yield several threads about them.

 

[lebox97]

yup, I just ordered one...

ZTS offers 10% off to CPF'rs (look in the dealer thread - for ZTC)
but found these guy's a tad cheaper w/o a discount...
http://www.greenbatteries.com/batterytesters.html
:rock:

 

[seery]

There are are a few more observations we made between the Titaniums and the
OEM SF's.

(1) After the Titaniums were removed from the battery carrier, the bottom
had a slight dent or dimple on every battery. The SF's were only surface
scuffed.

(2) We weighed 20 batteries of each. They were both very consistent in weight
with the Titaniums averaging 245 grains and the SF's averaging 257 grains.
Weighing was done on two powder balance beam scales.

(3) The "oozing" was in a few of the Titaniums. Not a single SF showed this.

(4) Upon removal of the batteries from the battery carrier, the SF's were
always the same temp (as close as we could "feel"). While the Titaniums were
always mixed from just warm, to hot, to absolutely scorching.

 

[lebox97]

just curious:
did you buy the "matched" sets of three - or the loose ones?

I am using the matched in three sets and no problems thus far... but I also don't run my M6 till the bats go dead either -

it is becoming obvious that a tester, and matching up batteries (ANY brand) for use in multi-cell high amp lights should be mandatory? :goodjob:

 

[seery]

97 - I bought the matched doubles, triples, and singles. The singles come
packaged as four.

Hope this helps.

 

[OutdoorIdiot]

it is becoming obvious that a tester, and matching up batteries (ANY brand) for use in multi-cell high amp lights should be mandatory? :goodjob:

That's what I'm thinking. I've always been careful to use fresh, same-expiry-date, same brand batteries in the M6. But given the reports of duds recently, and this thread, I'm beginning to think that that isn't enough.

I'd rather not spend out on a battery tester, given I have a multimeter, but if that's what the techies here recommend, then I'll consider it.

 

[JimH]

Here are the results of 20 Titanium CR2's that I received this past Wednesday. Doesn't look too good. Observe how little you can tell buy just looking at the voltage. I'll send the bad ones to Silver Fox for more testing.

 

[OutdoorIdiot]

Observe how little you can tell buy just looking at the voltage.

Thanks for pointing that out. Dammit, I thought that was all we needed to do to be safe!

Forgive my ignorance, but how are you determining the remaining life?

[Edit: I know you are using a ZTS tester, but I don't understand how they measure the remaining life!]

 

[JimH]

Forgive my ignorance, but how are you determining the remaining life?

See posts #71 and #72.

 

[OutdoorIdiot]

Sorry, JimH - just edited my previous post as you were posting that. I don't understand the science behind how it's doing it - that's what I meant!