Rechargeable lights

Internal charging is a godsend for a frequently used light. This time of year, my headlamp gets used for an hour each night when walking the dog. So convenient just to be able to plug the light in as soon as I walk through the door to give it a top-up. Surely, not having to crack open the tail-cap each night saves wear and tear on the springs, o-ring and threads.

I would feel better if someone could test and explain the safety and reliability of built in charging. I only have a couple of Sofirns with this feature. Tested in that the light didn’t get particularly hot and seemed to terminate about where my chargers do so I guess its OK. Get the convenience. However, I feel better about doing it on a charger and knowing what my battery is doing. Also, the smart charger seems to be just easier on the batteries and treats each battery different according to the IR of the battery I assume. Just seems like a better route to me. Always have fresh cells available and always walk the dogs with two lights anyway;-) As I live in the city and don’t want to disturb my neighbors I walk with a low enough level that I go weeks in between swapping batteries unless I do something more demanding. With my Andrul light I just wait until it gets down to 3.7 or so.

If you have access to a multimeter and a USB tester meter like this one, you could evaluate the charging in your own lights.

With those tools, you can measure the charge current, termination voltage, and you can check if the charger never stops (like some cases of the Wuben C3). Depending on how the numbers look, it can give you a bit more peace of mind using the built-in charging when you aren’t able to bring a proper charger.

This is actually what i noticed with my TC12 compared to the KR4. For my frequently used EDC i had peace of mind just knowing i could plug it in after use and it would be fully charged at all times.

I originally preferred non-rechargeable, but my attitude has certainly changed, which is why i think its such a useful feature nowadays.

I find more and more I’m graduating to preferring lights with built-in charging. Got a nice stable of decent chargers and that, but it’s gotten really convenient to just plug a light in. I especially like how Sofirn is putting USB-C in their lights now. Almost all my electronics are USB-C now. Even got a cheapo electric razor which charges via USB-C. Got an SP36 and an SC31 Pro - Anduril with USB-C charging. It’s a type of bliss.

Integrated charging is useful If you use flashlight near power socket and rarely ( back yard bush crafting) :smiley:

I don’t hate on-board charging. But I’m not really a fan of it.

If it adds size and cost to a small light, then I’d much rather they didn’t bother TBH.

I’m also not convinced that all the inbuilt chargers are good ones either.

As for being a ‘must have’. I cringe that people think this way.

Ultimately it is a solution to a problem that probably didn’t exist.

How much do you use the light? 18650’s have tremendous capacity. There should be no need to worry about runtimes. I use a torch daily, although only for short bursts at a time. An 18650 light will last 2-3 weeks before even getting to the point where it needs charging.

Because of the ramping feature i frequently use it as lamp of sorts, whilst working, so an 18650 can be depleted in a day sometimes.

But that was not the original point of the topic. I initially saw no point in rechargeables, but now think its usefulness outweighs the negatives. As a relative newbie i wanted to see what the general consensus was in 2020.

Fair do if you using it a lot. I can see for some the benefit of wanting to plug it in and top it up.

Although for me, I like to swap flashlights when the battery runs flat. So I find I rarely use any of the inbuilt chargers.

I would be able to give more of my lights to friends and family if they only had charging. As long as you have the ability to monitor the charge, I see no negatives to it and feel it is the future. Humans like the path of least resistance. External chargers can have their quirks also. Definitely not foolproof.

yes, i think thats the biggest benefit, for people whos not into flashlights, dont have dedicated chargers, built in charger is very necessary, all they need is a cable outside the flashlight, you cant be asking them to also buy a charger, which is kinda pointless if you dont have spare batteries, so then they also gotta buy spare batteries, and thats just forcing them down this rabbit hole…no no no, you gotta slowly seduce them down here with us lol

Just give any onboard charger a quick test to see whether/not to even use it.

Wait ’til it goes from red to green, then immediately pull the cell and measure the voltage. If it’s 4.20V or lower, great. Any higher, watch out, you probably don’t want to use it and overcharge your cells.

Getting most of the way there in case it’s running low, fine, but don’t let it sit ’til the indicator shows fully-charged.

Eg, my Tacklife goes from red to green at 4.0V-4.1V or so, but keeps slow-charging. So if I pull the plug shortly after it shows green, that’s awesome, as it’ll extend cell life a lot by not stuffing it to the gills, but I won’t leave it overnight, as it might hit 4.25V or whatever (forgot how high it goes).

It’s not a must have for me. I don’t like the cheap rubber flap covering a micro USB port. I would rather do without. On the other hand, if I could get a similar design as the K1 has, I would like to have that on some of my lights.

Zanflare F1. Well, if you can find one…

I would rather have a fast charger to reuse the flashlight after it pulled 15-20Amps, especially with low internal resistance cells used for high current discharges.
When you have multiple flashlights, which some have incorporated chargers, some don’t have incorporated chargers, some have 2A rated ones that overheat after awhile and lowers output power (because often these chargers sit in the air pocket of the head), you are better off with stand alone chargers.
If you go to a remote place make sure you get spare cells with you, then all of the sudden carrying a 2 bay charger does not seems bad.

For who isn’t a flashaholic charging cells outside a flashlight body will seems strange at least or deterring to use a flashlight.

Backyard survival situations are nothing compared to apartment use of long distance searchlights.

Dumb question. Can a battery with USB charging port be charged in external charger?

Pretty sure yeh.

I’ve done that plenty of times with the 18650 that came with my Atactical A1, so I can second that!