EDIT:
Look these holders over real good. I found one later, that would have shorted out my batteries, because they put the positive spring on the negative end and another where the two ends were rotated, so batteries would have loaded facing the wrong way! Before you load one, check it and make sure it is correct. It's a sturdy holder, but like anything else Chinese, there is either absolutely no checking after assembly, or if there is, they don't know what they are checking, or these obvious and serious flaws would have never gotten out! It's not Gearbest, it's whoever made them, since GB buys them from a third party, you don't know where they originated and I highly doubt GB would know how to check them.
I bought several of these 3xAA battery holders from GearBest. I thought I would show you want I got and discuss them a little, in case anyone else was interested. The price was $4.58 each.
They came in a padded envelope. and some were bagged, some were not, but all were in one piece.
Here's several photos of the holders. They are 3xAA in Series. The contact boards are basic two layer pcb board. The uprights or spacers are aluminum with threaded ends. The plastic end caps are fairly thick and sturdy. The screws are machine screws and take a 2mm wrench. The gold plated springs should take about a max of 3 amps before they start to get weak from heat.
Overall, they are well made and sturdy...
...with one exception. You can see the screws sticking up a little. I found three of them, out of 8 holders, so it is an issue. The reason they stick up is that the aluminum rod is not threaded as far in these, as it is in the others, so the screws can't go all the way in. I did go through and tighten each screw. I did not find any loose, but many were just snug. I am sure that is due to the concern of stripping problems< (from over tightening), found commonly in aluminum threads. On the ones that were sticking up, I was able to tighten them down by holding the rod and using the allen wrench to apply some pressure. Nothing stripped out and the screws did screw down. Basically, the aluminum was soft enough that the screw made it's own thread in the bottom of the hole.
I am still going to rate them as 4 out of 5 stars. For the price, they are 100 times better than the plastic junk ones and these can be modded to parallel quite simply, so they are a great value for the quality. They are sturdy and should last a long time. Just check the screws when you get them.
I am thinking of a group buy on these and I am asking GearBest what price they would do for say 100 of them. I really like them and will use them more for parallel 3x14500 than anything else. I may also use two of them together, to do 6xAA in a Maglite.
Justin
