CR123 Rechargeable Batteries – Is this Possible?

[Kevin Babione]

A couple of devices I carry use CR123 batteries (UV water treatment and headlamp) and I’m trying to move away from disposable to rechargeable batteries as much as I can.  What’s always held me back with the CR123 batteries is the significant difference in the mAh on them.  I typically carry the disposable Panasonic brand (1550mAh) and the “biggest” CR123 (I think the number may be 16340) rechargeable batteries are the Trustfire at 880mAh – almost half of the juice of my disposables.

I was poking around on AliExpress and saw these:

Is this possible?  Could they really be 2800mAh?  I was hoping to find rechargeable batteries that were close to my disposables, but never expected to find “better.”  Is there a way to test them and get a mAh number?  Rex?

I’d love some thoughts and suggestions.  Thank you!

[Jerry Adams]

I tried rechargeable CR123 batteries in my Steripen but got only a couple treatments before it said they were discharged

If I was going to do a Steripen again, I’d get the model that had an internal Lithium battery that can be recharged

But, maybe buying a new one is worse for the environment than just buying disposable batteries?

[Bonzo]

But, maybe buying a new one is worse for the environment than just buying disposable batteries?

Depends on a lot of things, that: development, manufacturing, packaging, handling, transport, stocking, sales, usage, disposal, etc, etc.  Environmental impact is incredibly hard to calculate with precision; if you really want to err on the side of caution, however, the safe bet is to simply consume less over the long run.

[YoPrawn]

Honestly, if a rechargeable L-ion battery in 16340 size is claiming to have way more than 700 mAh, they’re full of it. It’s just not possible to go higher without a major advance in battery tech, IMO.

I have that same sized battery for my headlamp. I use Fenix 16340 batteries, which are pretty much as good as they get in that size. One important factor for me is that the batteries exhibit extremely low levels of parasitic discharge on their own. I can let them sit for months and they are still close to where they were left off in terms of power retention.

Nitcore batteries are also very nice. And both Nitecore and Fenix offer them with mini-USB ports on the batteries themselves for charging, so one doesn’t even need a charger for them.

[Kevin Babione]

@Johan – You captured my thoughts (and fears) exactly.  The “biggest” 16340 I’ve found are these:

And I’ve seen the ones with the mini-USB ports…That’s really handy.  I’m less worried about my headlamp than I am my UV water treatment.  As Jerry mentions, it is much less forgiving when it thinks the batteries are low.  I’m tempted to spend the $24 to get eight of the batteries and the charger to try them.  I could bring a pair of new Panasonic batteries as backups on my next trip in case they’re really 400mAh batteries in disguise…

[YoPrawn]

Is that a reputable brand though? If the main battery players are stopping at 700 mAh, then anyone that is not a big player is probably lying about their mAh. Even 700 mAh is pushing it for that sized battery.

With the mini-USB ports, you can keep the battery topped off all the time. This is why I like them with my mini 500 lumen headlamp, as I can top off the batteries so the lamp is always ready to put out full output at any time I need it. With easy-topping off, it’s possible to get away with going to less mAh and actually come out in a better situation.

[Kevin Babione]

As often happens on AliExpress, I found the same 8 16340 batteries (again, listed at 2800mAh) with a charger for $13.67 delivered.  They should be here in 6 weeks or so…I’ll report how they perform when I get them.

[Marcus]

Im 50/50 on ali. The stuff that works is great and like 50+% cheaper than the US. the other 50% of things ranges from junk to less-than-satisfactory. But with something like a battery, physical energy density is the limiting factor here and I highly doubt some cheapo battery on aliexpress has incredible, industry leading technology. So that 2800mah is just a BS number. But they may still be as good as the other name brand batteries. Only way to tell on AE is to buy it and find out. Please report back

[DWR D]

The other potential problem with batteries is getting a bad one that catches fire or explodes…. I stick with the name brands…

[YoPrawn]

Yeah, I’m not sure if OP was wise to buy no-name batteries like that, considering safety issues as well. I tried to warn OP, LOL. It’s just not possible for a rechargeable battery that size to have that much energy with current tech.

The only way it could have that many mAh is if the base voltage was massively less than 3.6 volts.

[Jerry Adams]

If you’re talking about Steripen, they consume a lot of power so the rechargeable CR123 batteries don’t work (that is, only one or two pints treated per set of batteries).  You have to get the non rechargeable ones.

In my very limited experience, but others reported the same.

[Kevin Babione]

Actually, I’m not talking about the Steripen…I use a discontinued product called the AquaStar Plus.  It’s basically a 6″ UV tube (powered by 2 CR123A batteries) that screws on top of a Nalgene.  It does a liter of water in about 80 seconds and will do 60-80 liters on a set of batteries.

Here’s my issue:  I do a trip with fresh batteries and I only do 20 liters of water.  A couple of weeks later (on the next trip) the unit either tells me that the batteries are dead to start or it does 1-2 liters and then I have to replace the batteries.  So basically I’ve been using the disposables once and then throwing them away no matter how much life I think they may have in them.  With rechargeables I’d like to simply charge them before the trip (like I do with my other devices) and be done with it.

[Jerry Adams]

I had the same experience with steripen

you have to remove the batteries after a trip.  They slowly leak while being stored so they’re discharged by the next trip

also, assume those batteries won’t last long, so carry another set of unused batteries

[Jerry Adams]

I was in the return window and I bought it from REI.  I just decided it was too much hassle, returned it, and switched to a Squeeze.

But a lot of people are happy with steripen

If they ever develop a unit that uses an LED rather than quartz bulb, it would require less power so would be better

I wonder if anyone has done that already

[BlackHatGuy]

Kevin, I have a Fenix 16340 with the micro-usb on the battery itself. Don’t think I’ve ever used it. Unfortunately I only have one, but I’d be happy to send it your way if you’d like.

[Rex Sanders]

A few thoughts:

Wouldn’t be surprised if the AliExpress listing at 2800 mAh is the total for four or eight batteries – meaning 700 mAh or 350 mAh per battery, more-or-less reasonable.

Checked nitecorestore.com – mostly because the have a bunch of weird battery powered stuff. They have 16340 batteries in three varieties:

– Rechargeable 650 mAh
– Micro USB rechargeable 650 mAh
– Lithium single-use 1300 mAh

Kind of surprised the Micro USB rechargeable has the same claimed capacity as normal rechargeable, though Fenix has a similar pairing at 700 mAh. I expected the Micro USB port and recharging circuitry to take away precious storage volume from the small battery, reducing capacity.

Even the Lithium version spec is less than half of 2800 mAh, and lithium single-use batteries often win on energy density.

Battery design involves many tradeoffs between capacity, longevity, power, safety, and other factors. Might be able to get incrementally higher capacity coupled with poorer specs elsewhere. But not 4x.

As others have said, highly doubt that the world premiere of breakthrough rechargeable battery density would be on an inexpensive AliExpress listing.

“We Don’t Trust Manufacturers’ Product Specs. You Shouldn’t Either.” Wirecutter.

And mAh are a terrible way to compare battery capacity, because everyone plays games with battery voltage. Plus rounding in the direction that favors their product.

YWhMV – Your Watt-hours May Vary.

— Rex

[Jerry Adams]

there’s another spec, maximum current a battery can deliver

I think that’s the problem with the rechargeables

[Kevin Babione]

@RubMyBelly! – I really appreciate the offer, but I’m okay.  I’m holding out a 10% hope that these will work in my AquaStar.  If they don’t I’ll stick with the disposables.

@Rex – My first assumption when I saw this was exactly that:  The unit will charge 4 batteries at a time for a total of 2800mAh.  But the photos of the batteries actually show 2800mAh printed on their sides.

At this point it’s almost a fun game…Me against AliExpress.  I’ll let everyone know who wins.

[Sam Farrington]

This is why I went to simple Petzl 400 lumen  head lamps with the Core rechargeable batteries (though the mid setting is all I need).  Haven’t counted the recharges, but each battery lasts at least a year of several nightly one hour dog walks per week.  Just in case though, I carry a 2d Petzl fully charged, but only had to use it once.

On Friday nights, some of the town roads are visited by folks returning from local watering holes, so need to be able to grab the second lamp out of the pocket and switch it pronto with the drained lamp.  No time to fiddle with batteries when cars are coming by fast.  Currently, there are far fewer cars about.

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