Battery life in cold weather

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Flybum

New member
Rogerthat's post about battery life reminded me that I've been wanting to do a test of my own. With the record warm winter we've been having I finally got a -40 f night that I had a chance to do the test. Here's what I did and what I found.


-40 degrees Fahrenheit ambient air temp.


Night Eyes F6-R gun light(white wrap is camo wrap on halo shield in no way insulating battery or led bulb) and one fully charged 2600 mah rechargeable battery that comes with night eyes lights.

The test-
I started the test out by placing the gun light outside on a saw horse. Halo shield down, so nothing important could be effected by the wood. I left it there for 35 minutes. I turned it on and left it one for 27 minutes (I meant to do it for 25 but got side tracked). Turned off for 5 minutes. Turned it on an left it on for 4 minutes. Turned it off for 15 minutes. Turned on it blinked a few times and shut off after 28 seconds.
Over all time out side- 86 minutes 28 seconds
Over all time off - 55 minutes
Over all time on- 31 minutes 28 seconds
I do think turning the light on and off every other minute over a period of time would kill the battery faster. When the light was on there was noticeable heat and with the battery running also I'm positive it would have taken much longer to kill it.There was no noticeable strength decrease of the light during the test. Well minus when it was turned off of course. The light was always held by the halo as to not change the temp of the battery compartment in any way.
I know this isn't the most scientific test but I think it does show that these lights with these batteries will do quite well in cold weather. I know for me at - 20 below animal movement pretty much ceases. So seeing a light to operate like this at - 40 is just reassurance that it'll work even better at temps that I'll actually hunt it in. Even at -40 you could hunt all night just having two batteries. Keep one next to your body and one in the light swapping them out after every stand or two.
The next chance I get I will have to do two more tests. One solid run of the light and one switching between on/off every other minute. Just to see how long they will go.
Let me know what you guys think. Thanks
 
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I would also strongly suggest in those intense cold environments you invest in lithium batteries. They are the absolute best in those environments across the board.
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Vic
 
These are rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

Update- left the light out side running continuously. At 2 hours 21 minutes and 33 seconds it was still going strong. Went out 25 minutes later and it had finally died. So even being pessimistic and saying it died the second I turned my back at 2h 21 min that's still pretty good in my book for dealing with temps that started at -44 f and warmed slightly to -41 f. But it does show that the more the light is left on the longer it will last.
 
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Vic one reason is cost. At 35 dollars for 12 they aren't cheap up here. Another which is proving to be true again is that they really aren't better. The head lamps I've used them in before switching to a battery pack on a longer cable that can bet kept inside my coat would run about an hour. I just ran a set through the gun light and they lasted 43 minutes 37.01 seconds running continuously with the temp only -35 F. So almost a full 10 degrees warmer then rechargeable a test. A huge diffrence! Now that was from a pack I bought last winter and was left in the truck-So for the sake of knowledge I spent another $35 bucks and am now 23 minutes into the next test. The other thing I've noticed with them is they've died with less then half their charge remaining in the past. Now that was not using this gun light but a head lamp, a couple diffrent hand held light and a few other electronics I've used up here. So then the issue caused is are they worth the weight/confusion. For me seeing how well the rechargeable preform the answer is an easy no. I'm really curious as to how long this current test will last given they are brand new straight from the store. I wouldn't be surprised if they last a little longer but I'd be surprised if they lasted as long as the rechargeable did given my past experience with these batteries operating in the cold.
 
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The second test just ended at 49 minutes 37.18 seconds. The batteries used were the enigizer lithium. The temp did drop to -38 by the end of the last test.
 
Thanks for the review! I have the night eyes headlamp and gun light that uses those same batteries! Dont see many people being out in -40 degrees, as you said animal movment ceases around -20 but its good to know they will last that long. Amazing!
 
Flybum,

Thank you for the testing, We knew our newer generation lights and batteries could withstand extreme cold but had no idea to what degree
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. We had no way of testing them in those type of conditions.

Thanks again!!

Joe
 
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