wow, im pretty new to sb and i have to say each day i come to love it more and more. there are so many people, with so much knowledge to give, from so many dif. backgrounds. and this allows the ready to formulate a greater understanding.... or sometimes shows the reader how ignurent they were to the complexity of the issue. kind of like you guys just made me feel... but dont get me wrong im greatful for the advice. i now know that i have alot of research ahead of me to figure out what i really want.
thanks
Logan
Logan, once you make your choice, just charge up your battery and then go diving with your light. Dive with it until it goes out. Then add up the dive times, and that will give you your total burn time per charge. It will be somewhere in the range of several hours.
Watch the clock as you recharge the battery, and that will give you your total charging time.
You don't need to be an Einstein with an EE degree.
It only takes about 2 or 3 hours to recharge my Sartek LIon batteries. That's about the same time as my X-Scooter NiMH batteries. Each night, after diving, I recharge everything, 2 NiMHs and 2 LIons, to be ready for the next diving day. You get into the routine after a few dive trips, and then the first thing you do when you get back to shore and your motel room is plug in all your rechargeable batteries, before you go out to dinner, and before you ever start rinsing your gear for the next day. And most live-aboards also have an electrical socket in your cabin as well, so that you can recharge off their boat's generator, which is normally always running.
And my 21w HID burns for over 2 hours, which is more than 2 dives, for me, normally. Even so, I always bring an extra fully charged LIon battery with me in my gear bag, in a water-proof container. Just in case I want to do 3 dives, or more.
My suggestion is to get an extra battery, when you get your light. But one charger should be enough, since these batteries normally charge fairly quickly. LIon (Lithium Ion) batteries look like a small blue tube of toothpaste, with wires coming out of it. The charger looks like a pack of cigarettes, with wires coming out of it. Connect them, then plug into a wall socket, and you're in business! They are all very light weight, easy to carry in your gear bag, and very light weight in the water as well, unlike the past days of alkaline or lead-acid batteries.
Don't buy a heavy obsolete light. You would hate that.
