I am buying my wife an orange Streamlight Survivor LED with alkaline batteries (without the charger) as a Christmas gift for my wife. The idea is that it will be kept in our bar where the most common uses will likely be looking for our horses at night (sometimes they'll stand quietly in a dark corner of the field) or searching for problems with our electric fence at night (sometimes when a large bird lands on the electric wire it gets pushed down and catchs on the mesh fence, which grounds it out).

Anyway, since it gets way cold in the barn, I'd rather use lithium batteries than alkaline batteries, but the Streamlight description specifically lists the Survivor LED as using alkaline batteries. Do you see any problem with swapping out the alkaline AA batteries with lithium AA batteries?

Ken K.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

I'd contact Streamlight to verify whether or not lithium AA's can be used. I have a Petzl Tikka Plus headlamp and Petzl has recently come out against using lithiums with it.

Great Advice. Your comment led me to Streamlight.com, which had this comment in the FAQ:

Q: Can I use rechargeable CR123 batteries in any of the Streamlight flashlights?

A: No. Streamlight products are optimized and the components can be damaged or destroyed by the use of anything other than the recommended battery type. The use of improper or substandard lithium batteries can be especially dangerous.

I guess we use alkaline batteries.

Just out of curiosity, why did you choose the Survivor Light?

It got good reviews on-line and I liked the fact that it can stand upright or clip to the blet and still shine to the side - in case we need it while checking horses at night. I'm hoping it will be more stable standing on the counter in our tack room better than something like the 4AA PolyPro LED, which we already have several of. Another choice would have been a headlight, but they are harder to keep clean in the dusty environment.

Eventually I might buy the charger unit for it too.

That's always a tough question. Like cedfire said, it depends on the light so it's best to ask the manufacturer. From the infosheet I scanned on Streamlight's website for the Survivor, it doesn't prohibit lithiums. However, over at Flashlightreviews.com, a mention is made that Streamlight does specifically warn against using lithiums in this light. I don't know where that info comes from, but without other evidence to the contrary, I would be inclined to heed that warning with this light.

Why can't you use other Flashlights? The survivor is made for fire department personel. It isn't suitable for civilian application because it has a tight beam with little side spill.

I recommend the Pila flashlight. Pila use rechargeable lithium batteries which last over 1hr. it would be sufcient for anyone to check local farm perimeter. Pila light has very good side spill and good center spot beam too. I have wolf eye light which is made by Pila. I intend to buy the new Pila model 550 Lumens. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> because it is powerful portable search light.

We have them at work, I think they are pretty much garbage after a few weeks of hard use. I carry my own Pelican BIG ED or a Koehler Responder (which is the best right angle firefighting light I have used). The Survivor rechargable lights are designed to be stored in their chargers, but the batteries gain a unrecoverable memory very very quickly.

If you are looking for a good right angle light, I would look at the Pelican Little Ed Recoil LED Light. The Fire Store is a great vendor also, I do quite a bit of buisness with them both personally and at work.

I just cannot recomend anyone buy a Survivor, Streamlight makes some other very good lights... this just isn't one of them in my experience.

Ken, now that you've had this light for a couple months, presumably using it in your cold barn, I'm curious if you ever tried lithium AA's in your Survivor LED?

I read a post over on CPF a little while ago that seems to imply that using lithiums are OK, although inefficient. I can't find the post right now, but someone hooked up the Survivor electronics and LED to a test bench and observed what happened as he slowly ramped up the input voltage. Over 4.8V, apparently the Survivor's converter "dumps" the extra current so the LED doesn't get any more power as the input voltage goes up, even up to 8.0V. I assume the extra current is simply lost as heat, which is normally not good, but if you're working in the cold, that may be OK for the LED and the electronics. Besides, as the temperature drops, so will the voltage of the batteries, even lithiums, so excess heat may be even a lesser problem than I'm laying out here.

In its intended environment--fighting fires--I can see how a build up of heat would make Streamlight say that lithiums shouldn't be used, but in your case, this post seems to suggest that you'd be OK. Well, another reason for Streamlight to officially discourage lithiums is because the light is not safety rated with lithiums, so they don't want fire fighters going into harm's way with potentially dangerous lights.

Anyway, take it for what it's worth.

Nope, I've only used alkaline AA's in it per the manufacturer's recommendaion. The light works fine even when cold. The light is stored in our tack room (saddle & briddle storage area) that is normally quite a bit warmer than outside. Its not heated but is insulated so it doesn't see the extreme temps. Its been so cold lately though that even that room is darn cold.

I'm sure the battery life won't be as good as it would be if using lithiums, but regular AA's are cheap.

Ken,

Glad that the Survivor has been working out for you even with alkalines. It would have been a shame if it wasn't performing well and you had to basically give up on the light if you weren't interested in trying lithiums in it.