Many of the latest flashlights and lanterns from Coleman are designed to run on four D cell batteries held in a removable battery holder or to run on the CPX6 rechargeable battery pack. This is a sealed lead acid battery pack which appears to me to be a major mistake on Coleman’s part. Things like Coleman’s LED lanterns and lights are either seasonal in use or are bought for emergency lighting during power outages and sealed lead acid battery technology has problems in both scenarios. Self discharge is fast and if the battery is allowed to discharge on the shelf it dies.
Coleman recommends recharging every two months. How many people will remember to do so on equipment put away for the winter? Based on the Amazon reviews for the battery pack, not too many. This has so far received one star ratings (I hate it) from about 1/3 of all reviewers. Total reviewers so far is about 270. Most bad reviews say something like used it a couple of times, put it away and when I next tried it the battery was dead and would not take a charge.
To me SLA technology for rechargeable batteries is DEAD! The only reason to use it is it is CHEAP compared to NiMH or Lithium Ion rechargeable battery technology. To choose it seems to me to be a major mistake and this is reflected in the bad Amazon reviews from 1/3 of the battery’s customers.
I just bought Coleman’s new 1000 Lumen LED lantern and intend to run it on D cell NiMH batteries. I ordered a box of eight Tenergy Centura D size batteries for it and as these are LSD NiMH batteries I expect to be able to pull the lantern out and use it without a problem during power outages.
We have a couple rechargeable halogen spotlights at Oreilly’s that use 6v SLA batteries and I was wondering if they had any worth to them. [I was considering one as a mod host for a fan-cooled, overdriven MT-G2]. I thought the sealed battery might have use for other projects down the road. Seems as if that’s a negative.
Not sure. It is apparently a three cell pack (6 volt nominal) as one Amazon poster measured it as 6.6 volts fully charged and lead acid technology normally gives about 2.2 volts per cell fully charged. Looking at the lantern base with the D size battery holder removed the two contact springs are readily accessible so any reasonable current source from 4.5V to 6.6V should be easy to hook up and work fine it looks like.
With a proper float charger attached almost full time a SLA can have a decent life expectancy but if allowed to discharge and sit then they fail rapidly due to sulphating and other internal changes. SLA batteries are used in many emergency lights in public buildings and spaces. Even car batteries fail quickly if left discharged for very long. Many of the old spotlights used SLA batteries too but the standard cheap included chargers killed the batteries with overcharging if left plugged in. Unfortunately more wrong ways to treat a SLA battery than right ways and all the wrong ways lead to an early death.
I think many legacy companies go with what they know, so they stay many years behind modern technology, i would never use lead acid, i would use LSD NiMH, it would have higher energy storage and last many years longer than lead acid or lithium
I’ve owned some lead acid halogen lights, and the batteries were a royal pain in the neck, i would never go back to those even if you gave them to me for free.
Remember the Stanley HID0109 Spotlight that Walmart and others carried relatively briefly? Still listed on Amazon. Per posts on CPF it was a disaster as those which sat in distribution and sales for too long were all dead on arrival when purchased due to SLA batteries being used and self discharging followed by self destructing on the shelf. Worse yet the battery was not intended for user replacement. At least Coleman has not made that mistake.
There are much better technologies available and any marketing and engineering groups who choose SLA power are asking for dissatisfied customers and high warranty costs.
i thought about replacing the 12AH SLA bateety in my portable power supply unit, but it would take 50 AA cells at 2000ma to get the same 12v and capacity, and would cost me roughly $ 130.00 in cells to do it. Much more expensive than the $ 35 SLA cell thats in it now.
You don’t have to use eneloop cells, you can wait for a sale and use other cells, too bad you didn’t stock up on enough duraloops at target last fall on clearance
On the plus side good NiMH will last double the lead acid or longer.
How about some of those C and D NiMH out there, they might be more cost effective.
I do wish larger 25-50Ah or more NiMH cells would be built, that patent has now expired but i guess everyone thinks the future is li ion
I actually estimated that price using the AA 2000mah NiMH cells that Ikea has for & 5.99 for a pack of 4. They are probably the best bang for buck deal i coudl find so far.
SLAs used to be good, you know. My older, more expensive lights back then used to keep charge even when left unused for a year or so. Need charging to use, yes, but never die completely.
It’s these last few years that the SLAs have gone down sharply in quality. I guess we can thank cheap manufacturing for that. Even branded batteries are not spared.
Interesting lantern. I wonder how it stays cool. It look like there is a slot for air at the base of the window. If it is, I wonder where the other opening is. The optics looks good. Seems like it wouldn't be too glary and would direct some of the upward light out to the sides instead of straight up into the sky.
Final solution for the garbage cpx6 lead acid pack.
Add a barrel jack and a schottky diode and charge nimh via solar in the d cell pack.
There is a square space in the bottom of the pack near the terminals.
A jack fits in there nicely.
Dremel slots for the leads and solder to corners of the terminals so everything is flush.
Now my fan is actually useful with 2 of these done up and loaded with 10ah d cells.
Can still use alkaleaks but dont connect a charger!
4 lsd high capacity d cells is what these should had from the factory.
It would not be that bad if those lead acid batteries did not die after few dozen of cycles, or had more than half of rated capacity, but due to low cost, and relative safety, they are still used. manufacturer does not really care how a $20-$30 light will perform after a while, chances are people will trash it, and those few who complained, will get a new light, or a refund. but overall, it worth it.
In several devices i had that ran on 6v sla battery i replaced with 5xnimh cells, with same rated capacity, in every case, runtime of the devices increased. my air matrasses pump would not last to fill up 2 inflatable beds, with nimh cells i fill several beds, and still have enough power to deflate them all. night and day difference.
I’ve got a 30+ year old Coleman SLA 4Ah twin 6” fluorescent tube lantern (model 5342-750) that my dad sent me back then.
It always worked, rain or shine until this January when it didn’t turn on and wouldn’t recharge. I went on EBay and bought a replacement 4Ah battery and went online and bought two pair of replacement tubes—one cool white and one neutral.
I was able to get the lantern apart, replaced the battery, get it all back together and it’s still kicking ass. Both tubes work great.
I suspect todays small agm batteries are not as good as older more expensive ones.
I have a 20 year old sonnenschein 7 ah that is still over 6ah at 1a.
Of course i have maintained it properly.
It might suddenly die tomorrow now that i mentioned it.
Made in Germany not China!
