Article courtesy of Short Barrel Sheppard
We use a lot of batteries here at the house. We have 27 AA, AAA, CR123/16340, and 18650 batteries in use just with our optics, weapon mounted lights, handheld lights, and lights in our safes. That doesn’t include general purpose lights around the house, nor things like Xbox One controllers, LED light strings, etc.
I was overwhelmed by information when I made the transition from alkaline / lithium batteries to rechargeables. I quickly learned that there are a lot of scams and shadiness in the rechargeable battery world. You have to be careful about a manufacturer’s claims, and you have to make sure you’re buying from a reputable dealer. I discovered that it’s possible to buy the product stickers used on reputable batteries, and easy to wrap 18650s extracted from dead laptop batteries to make them appear authentic.
I only buy batteries from Illumination Supply. They are a well respected, US-based e-tailer that only sells authentic batteries.
I also learned a lot about “flat top” vs “button top” batteries (the latter have a protective PCB chip that protects from overcharging and polarity mishaps).
Then chargers. If you thought battery manufacturers were shady … cheap battery chargers can be pretty damn dangerous.
So, here’s a video about rechargeable batteries and chargers, from the perspective of a gun owner who had to buy a lot of them to feed safety-related tools and equipment.
Continue reading this article at Short Barrel Sheppard
