I love the power and endurance of modern flashlights. While not as nuts, (nuts as my kind of crazy nuts! Lol) as some here, after all, you are talking to a guy who spent all his 12 year old birthday money to buy a flashlight that can reach across the river. That was half a century ago….
I want to buy a few Sofrin SP36 as emergency lights for the cars. Great flashlight, but here is my problem….
I am concerned about the safety of the batteries. They will be permanantly left for the life of the cars. Yes, I will recharge them but, I also go abroad for extended periods and if my wife has to use them, i cant be absolutely sure they will be charged, or discharged properly. Or if something happens in life and can’t get yo them or forget about them, I don’t want to lose cars that are worth thousands of times more then the flashlights.
Am i overly concerned and there is no problem?
Does the problem go away with protected cells? Even if the left to self discharge?
Should I stick to aa cell based flashlights? (Tn4a or SF11)
Hey Spartans, nice of you to be concerned about your wife’s safety while you are not around. Without wanting it to look like a lecture: this is about the last light I would consider. IMHO the innocent are capable to create greater disasters with plain household equipment than a trained team of MacGyver and the Expendables
The SP36 is a dependable and versatile light when in competent hands but unless your wife is a quick learner I would refrain from high powered lights and stick to smaller lights with inherent safe batteries and a simple UI.
The AA based lights you mentioned sound much more appropriate for the tast. And put in some low self discharge (LSD) cells, like the white Eneloops.
If you take the time to teach proper safety, you’ll answer at least part of your question. I know that people have and will perform stupid acts that make you wonder how we as a species are still alive on this planet, BUT, think of all the complex things that we can accomplish. Getting a driver’s license, getting through school, running a household, using major appliances…these take some thought and care, just like safely using a li-ion flashlight. If you take the time to train and teach, you’ll know if anyone in charge of the vehicle is capable of being responsible.
That said, being out of sight and out of mind happens with stuff in a glove compartment. Weather (both hot and cold) can also be rough on your light. I like the idea of a USB rechargeable light for a car because newer cars have the ability to plug in and recharge. I choose to keep my Sofirn SC31 in my car because it’s not too powerful for anyone I’d hand it off to. It doesn’t get hot enough to burn and it’s simple to operate. The battery that came with it isn’t as good as my other cells so I’m not all that worried about reduced life living in a car. I’m pretty good about checking and maintaining my stuff so it’s on my mind often. I live in a dark area (no streetlights) so I use the light all the time and can see if it’s running low.
Maybe someone can chime in about the heat and cold of life in a car and it’s affect on a li-ion cell. I don’t have any scientific information to share. I recall a few threads in the past about it but nobody came to a definitive answer.
Never charge LiIon batteries when they are cold.
I would also not leave them in summer in my car when it is 30-40 celsius outside. The inside of a car can heat up to lot higher temperatures when left in the sun.
I avoid rechargeable cells in car lights and pretty much exclusively use the Energizer Lithium AA. I suppose CR123A would also be fine except that finding replacement cells in an emergency can be tricky.
I agree with Henk4U2, the SP36 is not the emergency light flashlight. If not AA primary light, than a CR123, which can easily produce 200+ lumens (if you really need it) or can run for a very long time in low modes in an auto emergency. Hard to imagine one needing it for more than one night. CR123 can be stored for many years and come out working great, no recharging, and decent energy in a small volume.
Also, the SP36 has electronic switch, which means it will slowly self discharge itself unless you unscrew the tail cap (or the head), so again, not the greatest design for a light that you are going to leave sitting somewhere for months or years.
Well….so much for a super light in the cars. Worse, the grid in my area is very reliable and the only real potential use is in the car and when I check on my buildings.
I have Fenix TK45 in all the cars and I usually recharge them once a year or as needed. It’s not Arizona hot where I live, but still gets between minus 10 and plus 100. Never even gave the TK45s any thought for safety. I use them even in the coldest weather and they work. Always use nimh rechargeables on everything.
Unfortunatly, there is no massive improvement over what I have. Although the SF11 and tn4a look tempting.
Oh well….still going to buy the SP36 or q8 so as to give my dumb friends a chance to blind themselves! Lol
Okay, generally speaking, Li cells in flashlights in cars is, to me, a recipe for disaster. Hot summer days cooking them, cold winter days freezing them… think of Li cells as puppies, that you don’t want to leave them in cars 24/7.
So… either stick with AA cells where you can stick in some eneloops, eg, a 2×AA SP13 is quite nice, as is a 4-cell TK4A, or even a nice SP10A/TK05 single-cell organism. They’re bright enough for emergency use, as you don’t necessarily need to light up the ISS from the ground.
Failing that, a light that can take a pair of CR123A primaries, such as the SP32Av2, MH20, etc., are all options. Those cells can survive hostile environments, and when spent, just toss ’em and reload with new. You can even keep a spare set in a ziplock™ baggie.
Lastly, if you don’t mind alkaleaks kept OUTSIDE the lights, I’ve gotten some Luxpro lights from Amazon with Vipon coupons, and they’re pretty nice as emergency lights. And you can always pocket some spare alkaleaks, also in something leakproof, in a jacket pocket or just “refresh” them every coupla months or so in the car. The 2×AA one is quite nice, and there’s a 4×AAA one that gets pretty surprisingly bright with fresh cells.
But bottom line, I’d still avoid Li rechargeables doing standby duty in a hostile environment like a car.
Whatever batteries you use are going to suffer from cooking inside the car on a hot summer day. But they’ll work. They’ll just slowly lose capacity and their internal resistance will increase.
If you don’t mind swapping in new batteries every couple of years, go with whatever battery you want, including lithium-ion or Eneloop.
If you use rechargeables (Eneloop or lithium-ion), charge them up every few months, to make sure the light is ready-to-use.
I think Lightbringer’s idea of using alkalines, but keeping them separate from the light to prevent leak damage, is probably the cheapest option. Not the most convenient, though. You can probably leave them in the light, and they probably won’t leak, but make sure to swap in fresh ones every year or you’re asking for trouble.
I can give you my solution; the flashlight is lithium, 18650 (a Nitenumen NE01) and is inside a thermos; so, during the day, he does not have time to warm up, which comes in the evening and at night he does not have time to cool down too much, which comes in the morning.
It works for me because the 24-hour day has a certain temperature range; it’s not good where for 24 hours we have intense cold or intense heat, but usually there is an excursion between day and night.
In practice, the thermos causes a delay in adjusting to the outside temperature and this delay does not cause the internal temperature to reach the extremes.
For test insert in the Thermos a thermometer that has the memory of the highest and lowest temperature; so you can adjust yourself if it’s a good solution for you.
It was one of the top 3, particularly since it has more lumens but i dismissed it because it’s too much of a thrower.
IMHO……In an emergency with the car, the floodier and brighter, the better.
Since the SF11 is not on Amazon.ca or .com, it looks like the tn4a gets the nod.
Some people have mentioned eneloops. I have those and recently revamped half my stock with IKEA 2450s. With all my devices on rechargables, i have over a dozen batteries full and on standby. I have to, the TK45s take 8 each.
Absolutely agree with this. For decades, I’ve managed thousands of employees in manufacturing environment. KISS (keep it simple stup*d) was and is the ONLY way to go.
Plus it would be the height of arrogance and a white lie if I claim I never forgotten what I ask other to “not to forget”.
