Battery Management

[spectrum]

How do other divers manage their light batteries? I'm talking about alkaline C-Cells.
My wife and I each have PT Shockwave LED lights, and PT TEC 400 back-ups. We have separate day lights so that the TEC 400 are truly kept fresh as back-ups.

We have a number of dives on the Shockwaves and they are going strong. I have the batteries out for the winter but they could go in anytime for a dive or trip.

*I could check the batteries for full voltage and certainly discard then as the first sign of discharge.

*I could keep diving them and plan to replace them when they do start fading, knowing I have an adequate back-up with me.

*I could chuck my batteries, start logging hours of burn time and just replace the next set at 75 of expected life.

Knowing that an item of dive gear can get lost, rechargables put the lights beyond my comfortable price point. For our diving (so far) I have no interest in the cost 2 cannister lights even though that pretty much eliminates the loss factor.

So my question is how do you folks manage batteries in alkaline powered dive lights. I'm not being a cheapskate I'm just looking for a balance between economy, being an intelligent consumer and having us be safe divers.


Pete

 

[*Floater*]

i use mostly rechargeables, but regradless of what i'm using i check the voltage of the batteries before dive trips and sometimes before a dive if i think there might be an issue. sometimes i bring a light that's running low on a day dive or as a second backup on a night dive when it's not critical whether it burns out or not.

 

[Mark Vlahos]

How do other divers manage their light batteries? I'm talking about alkaline C-Cells.
My wife and I each have PT Shockwave LED lights, and PT TEC 400 back-ups. We have separate day lights so that the TEC 400 are truly kept fresh as back-ups.

We have a number of dives on the Shockwaves and they are going strong. I have the batteries out for the winter but they could go in anytime for a dive or trip.

*I could check the batteries for full voltage and certainly discard then as the first sign of discharge.

*I could keep diving them and plan to replace them when they do start fading, knowing I have an adequate back-up with me.

*I could chuck my batteries, start logging hours of burn time and just replace the next set at 75 of expected life.

Knowing that an item of dive gear can get lost, rechargables put the lights beyond my comfortable price point. For our diving (so far) I have no interest in the cost 2 cannister lights even though that pretty much eliminates the loss factor.

So my question is how do you folks manage batteries in alkaline powered dive lights. I'm not being a cheapskate I'm just looking for a balance between economy, being an intelligent consumer and having us be safe divers.


Pete

Pete,

In a recreational daytime diving situation I just go ahead and use the lights until I notice diminished light output.

In a recreatonal night diving situation I make sure that either my primary light OR my backup light has fresh batteries. I allow the OTHER light to have used batteries of expected good remaining life.

In a technical overhead environment I only allow new batteries in my lights.

The fact remains that batteries are relatively inexpensive and if you are concerned just put new batteries in your dive lights and use the old ones for radios or flashlights around the house or in your car.

Mark Vlahos