I replaced the H10s i had with K10s. Haven’t had any problems with them, nor did i have problems with the H10s but did it to stay safe.
I find myself using the F15 in my d3aa, and NiMH in the KR1AA. Granted, I have turbo disabled in the d3aa.
Definitely the H10.
I had something similar happen last year. I noticed a light that wasn’t on was almost too hot to touch. Opened it up and dumped out the VERY hot H10 cell.
Fortunately, the cell eventually cooled down after which it was non-functional. I think the internal PTC triggered and prevented the cell from exploding.
It’s good advice to get rid of any newer H10 cells. They have problems.
Those self-destructing cells are scary. I’m glad I don’t have any.
Would be nice to have some newer 14500 cells though. Some recent models have 1400+ mAh capacity. And that’s more than double the energy in the Eneloops I’ve been using…
- 1400 mAh * 3.6 V = 5040 mWh (li-ion)
- 1900 mAh * 1.25 V = 2375 mWh (Eneloop)
Plus, these boost lights should be a bit more efficient with li-ion since it doesn’t have to boost as far.
So I could be getting more than twice as much runtime per charge, with a newer battery.
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My Vapcell F15s say “1500 mAh” on the side. No idea how accurate that is, but they seem to work well.
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Yup. I’ve heard they measure about 1400 mAh in practice, so that’s the number I used. Total energy should be somewhere around 4600 to 5500 mWh, depending on the shape of the discharge curve and how deep you discharge it.
For Eneloop, HKJ has several tests. Looking at the model I have, he measured about 2380 mWh.
The numbers are all pretty approximate, but the overall gist is still the same – a recent li-ion 14500 holds about twice as much energy as an Eneloop, and would greatly increase the time between charges. I should maybe get some sometime, but I have this whole pile of Eneloops waiting to be put to use…
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Hey P,
Did your orange trit ever come in? How’s it look?
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The Vapcell 14500 1500mah cells actually has discharge capacities of around 1500mah measured on my Xtar charger. But if you run it at higher amps, then Im sure you won’t get 1500mah but I usually use my 14500 flashlights on low modes.
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I did! I personally love it. I leave the aux leds off, even on low they’re too bright for me, so the tritium is a wonderful option that im glad to have.
Some people have complained about the brightness, but it is what i would expect from tritium. Low compared to the aux, but perfectly visible in the dark or near dark. Here’s a picture I took when i got it in. It’s a little hard to tell what’s going on, but its fresh night sights on a pistol on the left, a luminox watch on the right, and the kr1aa in the middle.
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Nice! That definitely looks much brighter than my pink ones, lol…I’d wager the pinks I got are less bright than the Luminox…Thanks for sharing!
I know we discussed the brightness of the green trit I got in mine. Initially I was disappointed. But it does the job. With dark adapted eyes I can easily locate the light sitting on my dresser from maybe 10 feet away.
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Yeah, I remember your problems with the pink one now. I really hate that yours ended up being so dim.
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mine doesn’t, lol…probably just a bad choice in color on my part. Pink might be one of the dimmest colors available
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Two of my KR1AAs, each with different emitter, were ordered with Vapcell H10 batteries. Both H10s seemed to drain quicker than expected. One definitely quicker than the other. I removed that battery from its flashlight. Unloaded, it measured 2.5 V. I waited a few days, for the weekend, so I could babysit both H10s as I charged them for the first time. The battery which sat out was now down to 2.2 V unloaded. Both batteries took a 500mA charge current just fine and ended at 4.2 V unloaded. I switched batt / light combos. After about two weeks I got very similar results; with the drain following the battery.
Two related notes. The Wurkkos 900 mAh 14500, in a third KR1AA, shows no sign of premature discharge. Also, an older blue 800 mAh 14500 from a FW1AA, in a fourth KR1AA shows no sign of premature discharge.
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Later production H10s have a very high rate of self-discharge issues. These cells should be discarded.
Here’s a blf post from a couple months back
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Not to pile on, but it sounds like you have cells from the later production H10s. These are bad, and potentially dangerous.
I recycled the H10s and got some F15s and K10s (Listed as “replacement for the Vapcell H10 flat top”.) from our friends at ILLUMN. Appreciated that, “Battery purchased in a set of 4 receive a plastic case.”.
At least there was likely a single batch that had problems… but not even all of those.
Yes, use caution, but I think that if they don’t show unusual self discharge or heating during charging, they are probably fine. I have something like a dozen H10s and they are all fine. The newest, though, are from over 6 months ago.
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I just received my v3 KR1AA in brown and love it. One issue and not sure if I just need to factory reset it to see if that resolves it, is when in smooth ramping mode, double clicking to ceiling (turbo is disabled), it will not ramp down. Only solution is to turn light off or 3C to switch to stepped ramping and then it will step down. I tried setting the floor higher and lower and setting the ceiling higher and lower but it always does this with the 2C ceiling, and only on smooth ramping. Anyone else ever have this happen?
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