I am very safety-oriented but I think that balanced, protected batteries (of some quality) in a turned off flashlight go boom as many times as a lightning strike kills someone.
On the other hand, I use flashlights with max 2 cells in serial connection. For some reason, I feel that the use of 3 or more li-ion cells in a flashlight (without some protection circuit like the ones laptops use) is much more dangerous than using 2 cells. That's why I am not getting a DRY anytime soon.
Yep, unprotected series Li-ions, not dead yet! I do check voltages now and then. My only real concession is I only use top quality unprotected cells like the Panasonic's and Sanyo. I trust these more than *^%#fire protected cheapo cells and of courses benefit from the increased capacity.
I keep all six of my 18700s fully charged. I'm usually discharging one or two per week through use (ceiling-bounce from a tailstanding L2 w/ XM-L is all the lighting I currently use for showering at night times- easier than installing IP65-rated moisture proof luminaires)
on a side note, is it just me or has BLF become quite spiced with politics over the past weeks...?
What the hell does this have to do with this thread???
I guess reading the video description before posting never crossed your mind either.
"the video starts out slow but picks up, there are 3 curb hits, 1 360, about 6 accidents,3 cars in yards, and lots of cars out of control. Utah snow storm. Even after the drivers were warned not to go down the hill by people at the top and cops."
I have all my flashlights without batteries, and all batteries are in "storage" 3.8V, except for those daily use flashlights (three at this time) that are full loaded (generally I maintain them at 4.2V)
I'm wondering what the most probable mishap is w/ leaving a light loaded.
I suppose a fire (started by something else) would make loaded flashlights a hazard to fire fighters. That's one of the reasons my loaded guns aren't chambered.
Excluding external events, what can happen that would cause battery failure?
yes, still hazardous, but the consequences are unlikely to be as severe
If a 12ga slug is set off by flame while it is in the chamber it could exit the home and kill someone inside the house next door - easily.
If a loose round is set off, the slug hardly moves. The casing might leave a nasty mark if it hits you but it'd never leave the room. If the round was inside the magazine tube of a pump, it'd probably rip the tube open and not go anywhere....
There are lots of videos of li-ions venting flame on youtube. Probably not a big deal to be close to that when you're wearing fire fighter's gear - but if you put that thing inside a sealed metal pipe....
I store my ammunition in a fire resistant safe and my batteries in a steel cabinet.
I keep an ROP with a pair of unprotected 32600s loaded at the back door for dog spotting. As soon as the light is noticeably dimmer, the cells get charged. Rather than balance charging them which is very, very slow, I charge them on two separate chargers keeping a close eye on how much went into both of them. I tend to charge then to 4.1V for this, then balance them up to 4.2. Thus far they are pretty much identical - as soon as differences develop I'l be tossing those cells and putting a triple XM-L in its place for back door duty.