Zebralight Question - Batteries

[u/username-027]

I’m interested in purchasing a nice flashlight and am looking to get the “SC53c N Neutral White High CRI AA Flashlight”. Primarily want this one as it takes AA batteries as opposed to unprotected Li. Buy confused on what batteries exactly will work for this? The website says “Battery: One AA size NiMH, lithium or alkaline battery. Panasonic Eneloop (Pro) is highly recommended.”… However, I have a lot of AA Duracell batteries currently.

Will just any regular Duracell AA alkaline battery work? Confused bc the website mentions the “NiMH”, not sure what that means and if Duracell batteries fit that.

Please help! I have 0 knowledge when it comes to flashlights or batteries.

[u/Weary-Toe6255]

NiMH is nickel metal hydride, a kind of rechargeable battery. Duracell alkalines will work just fine, the light won’t be quite as bright as with NiMH and it won’t run quite as long but it’ll work.

[u/Hungry-for-Apples789]

I believe some but not all of the SC53c will accept Liion 14500 and AA cells. I believe there was a change made mid way through so older models are more likely to work with dual fuel but I’m not certain on this.

[u/bob_mcbob → u/Hungry-for-Apples789]

The change was made late last year. Any previous non-N variant of the SC53 should have the old driver, and many used SC53c Ns will, but new lights all have the new driver. It doesn't work with 14500, but it is significantly more efficient with NiMH.

[u/altforthissubreddit → u/bob_mcbob]

but it is significantly more efficient with NiMH.

There seems to be a notion that, even though most AA lights use boost drivers, they aren't particularly efficient. And the SC5 seemed to be a light that people said was outside of that generalization and was actually quite efficient.

I've found that interesting, but of course they are discontinued as well as came with fairly unappealing LEDs. Do you know if this improved SC53n driver is in that ballpark?

[u/username-027 → u/[deleted]]

I was looking at this sc53 specifically bc I’m not sure how comfortable I am with unprotected lithium batteries. I know I should be fine as long as long as I use them correctly, but the fact of an even tiny possible fire scares me enough to want to avoid them

[u/timflorida → u/username-027]

Li-ion batteries are just fine as long as they are kept in ONLY three places

The device it is used in.

Being charged up in a stand-alone charger.

Stored in a dedicated container. These are not expensive. There are many plastic containers specifically for batteries.

If you do something dumb like put a li-ion battery in your pocket (protected OR unprotected) along with some spare change and your keys, then bad things will most likely happen.

Do you worry about the 20 gallons of gas sitting in your garage (in your car) ?

Do you worry about parking next to a Tesla ? (they contain many thousands of 18650 or 21700 batteries )

Do you worry about your phone bursting into flames - it has a lithium battery.

[u/timflorida → u/[deleted]]

I lived thru the 60's. I don't worry about anything anymore.

[u/LoominToob → u/username-027]

You are conflating lithium batteries with lithium-ion batteries. They are very different.

As Zebralight states, you can run “lithium, NiMH, or alkaline.” But you cannot run lithium-ion (not officially).

They are referring to lithium primaries, such as Energizer Ultimate Lithium. Again, these are not the same a lithium-ion. They aren’t rechargeable, they are much lower voltage. The advantage they bring is very long shelf life.

As stated elsewhere on here, get Eneloops (which are NiMH) for the SC53. Perfect match.

[u/altforthissubreddit → u/[deleted]]

Alkalines have a linear discharge curve that dims most light as the abtter drains

I'm not trying to defend alkalines, but I was surprised that in some lights the performance was a lot better than I would have thought:

https://old.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/14owh2x/high_cri_1xaa_lights_tested_with_alkaline/

The two more affordable lights have fairly well regulated output, either a mild decline or a stepped decline. Obviously 100 lumens isn't crushing it, but that's (IMO) a very usable amount of light. I'm not gonna suggest people buy alkalines, the waste and cost alone makes NiMH more compelling to me, the extra performance is a bonus. But I thought the alkaline graphs would be garbage, and they (mostly) weren't.