Coast HP5R Queries

I dug one of these out of the cupboard yesterday … does anyone kno if I can charge any 14500 battery in the torch itself or does it have to be one of the ones that came with it?
I guess what I’m asking is whether the intelligent / cut off part is on the bespoke battery or in the torch itself in which case I’m guessing charging any 14500 in it should be OK.

Also for ome reason it not longer seems to work with a standard Alkaline AA in ir or a rechargeable NiMH … anyone any idea what that may be about?

What does the manual say? Its not a dumb question. Some lights can run with several battery types. Even though it may have a built in charger, it cant charge every battery you put in it.

They say to only use the propietary battey but being realistic they would say that firstly because they want to sell replacements (which I don’t think are available any more) for a highly inflated price.
Also if you happened to buy a really cheap quality battery that may catch fire and they’re santioned using 3rd party ones they may theoretically have a liability so makes sense on both counts to suggest only using their batteries.

My question may be better asked if I said putting manufacturers recommendations to the side … in theory, using a quality 14500 is it safe.

For starters, are you certain the problem is with the power supply (cell)?

If the light doesn’t work with NiMh/Alkaline (when it used to) and also doesn’t work with the included cell it would suggest to me that perhaps there’s a problem elsewhere in the light.

Have you a voltmeter to test the voltage of the 14500? Should read somewhere between 3 to 4.2V.

On your original question, one would assume the light has a built in charging circuit… However, a cheap and nasty solution would be to rely on overvoltage cut-off on a BMS attached to a cell… Which would be bad.

Yes, sorry, I didn’t make it that clear … I was using a 3rd party 14500 which worked fine and hence why I was asking if I could charge it in the torch … although I found out today 1 of the 2 that came with it still charges.
That said it’s’ too early to know if it’ll hold a charge and last or it’ll have a very short runtime as it hasn’t been used for 5 years.

I’m trying to make a torch available to the Mrs for dog walking, if she can just plug it in and it charges she’ll be fine with it and save me having to buy another one.

Tha Alkaline / AA was just an observation as i was trying to test it and found it didn’t work with them and should … but again i haven’t used it for 5 years and can’t remember if I ever used one with it before.