I've been following the forums for a while now, and have noticed a peculiar addiction amongst the lumen junkies. Caught a bit of it myself, and ordered an Arclite. Very impressed. I've never seen an led with such an output.

However, most of the lights that are currently in my kit are either AA or AAA Maglites. Tough, dependable, and batteries are readily available.

My issue regarding the techno lights focuses on run times and battery availability. In a kit, how many different battery types are you going to pack? I can see the wisdom in packing lithium, due to shelf-life. But having to pack exotic batteries that will not power any other bit of kit seems foolish. To my way of thinking, similarity of battery type throughout ones gear (flashlight, SW radio, GPS, etc.) would be a goal to strive for.

Ah, we discuss this about once every ten weeks or so. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Some people swear AA only, others AAA only, some go AA and/or AAA only. Me, I carry AA, AAA, and a few CR123s, and maybe in a few weeks, I'll be adding an A23 or two, to my BOB. There is some gear I need to EDC that just doesn't run on AAs, and I prefeer to have the option of a pocket sized search light. And if I'm lucky, I'm getting a glo-toob for Newtonmass.

How many and what kind of weight are we talking about here? Everybody has their favorite toys, excuse me, gear. But it seems to be a violation of the KISS principle to have to pack and check expiration on 3 or 4 different types of batts.

What brought this to mind was a number of postings in the K&M match case thread regarding special battery storage.. Just struck me as an opportunity for Mr. Murphy to get involved and FUBAR the situation.

Try to avoid too many battery types but you don't have to be super-strict about it. I'm guessing your Arc is an AAA, great little light. The battery lasts quite a long time and spares take up very little space, so if you have mostly AA stuff, but your Arc AAA and a spare AAA or two, it's no big deal.

If you want to go all AAA, that's doable (Arc AAA flashlight, PT Rage brighter backup, Garmin Geko GPS, any number of AAA-powered radios and FRS/GMRS handhelds, etc). AA is even easier and AA's last longer, but AA stuff is bigger.

Used to be that all the cool flashlights used CR123A's, but not so much any more. The Fenix L1P uses a single AA and does about the same thing that most of the 123-powered LS lights do. It's the most popular light on CPF right now (CPF= www.candlepowerforums.com , where the flashlight buffs hang out). So now I think you can avoid 123's. The one thing I know that uses them that there's not an obvious substitute for is the MSR Miox water purifier, but not many people use those.

Worst of all is proprietary battery packs like most cell phones use. A spare is a good thing. There's also a gizmo available that lets you power a cell phone from an AA, at least for a while.

I have gear that uses CR123's, AA's AAA's and A23's
I have weeded out the D cells from carry, but I sometimes carry some adapters to go from AA to C and D cell.
I dont find the multi battery type as much as a problem.
My EDC light is a SureFire E1e with the LED Head, kept in a maglight pouch on my belt with a spare 123 in the bottom of the pouch. I also have the SureFire spares carrier which holds 6 CR123's, and since buying Glowtubes I keep an A23 in the spot of the spare lamp in the centre.
I have 2 different sized battery cases made from Pelican Micro cases with different amounts of batteries that I throw in depending on what activity I am doing.
I also keep a Mini Maglight and a Solitare Maglight stashed in different kits as back up lights, so I have AAA and AA backup.
In theory it would be nice to standardize on 1 battery type, but the world doesnt seem to work that way, an this way gives me some added flexability.

For my bag of tricks, 1xCR123, 4xAAA, 6xAA. For my BOB, 4xCR123, 4xAAA (the almost-EDC graphing calculator can stay behind!), and 12xAAA, along with the BOT's cells. Right now, they are ziplock packed, but I'm thinking of getting a small Pelican or Otter case and cutting a custom foam spacer for it.

And I never feel like I have enough AAs. Paranoia, no doubt, as the only things I carry that need them are MiniMags which will soon be LEDed, and a tiny radio.

Check Sears for the foam. They have two good size sheets (16 1/4" x 22 1/4" x 1/2") of high density foam for organizing tool drawers.

Here's an old post, made just for you! :-)

AA or No Way?

-john

Must have missed that one, but it's dead on point!!

Thanks,

Gerry

I currently carry a huge variety of batteries. The Garmin GPS uses AA. My Zipka+ headtorch uses AAA. My Surefire U2 uses 123s. My Orb Raw uses CR2. My Photon Freedom uses watch batteries, I forget what type. My phone uses a weird manufacturer-specific battery and so does my camera.

I'd like to use standard batteries, but I'm not really willing to compromise other factors to do so. My camera, for example, is tiny and the battery takes up about half of its volume. I'm not going to EDC a bigger torch than the Orb Raw, and I don't know of another in that size that's as bright, and the type of battery is a big part of the reason for its small size. Likewise the Photon. You can't get a U2 that runs on AAs. And so on.