Let's talk about the DRIS 1000

[Tracy]

I purchased my first Dive Right in Scuba 1000 lumen light about 9 years ago.
This was my primary light for a couple of years. It was great, it is bright, it burns almost 6 hours, it takes batteries that I can buy anywhere, and it was relatively cheap.
After a few years, I transitioned to a more powerful primary light and it moved to a backup light clipped on my harness.
When I moved into cave diving, I purchased another one as a second backup light.
These lights have been hanging on my harness for several thousand dives. They have been underwater for thousands of hours. They have never flooded, failed to work, or given even the slightest issue.
Until this week.
I was on a two week cave diving trip in Mexico. While checking my backups before the dive, I noticed one was noticeably dimmer than the other. I swapped to a backup backup light and did my dive thinking it probably just needed batteries. I picked up some C cells that night and attempted to swap them out.
Apparently, I had not changed them in several years and the cheap 7-11 branded batteries I had used failed and leaked acid all over the inside of the light. It swelled the housing, and I had to hammer the batteries out of it.
I was fairly certain it was finally done as I couldn't install new batteries due to the swelling.
I spent a few minutes with a round file, knocked all of the high spots off and got the new batteries to fit.
The light turned on and worked perfectly.
There is no other single piece of dive gear I am still using from my original single tank open water days.
The point of this story? Buy this light, it is awesome, and they are great.

Before and after images.

@Dive Right In Scuba

 

[Gill]

Great story. I like my DRIS 1000 also. It has visited the many cenotes in Mexico.

 

[Tracy]

Great story. I like my DRIS 1000 also. It has visited the many cenotes in Mexico.

You can see one hanging on my harness a few hours into Dreamgate last week.

 

[happy-diver]

Noice!

 

[Divin'Papaw]

The point of this story?

Don’t use cheap batteries.

 

[Tracy]

Don’t use cheap batteries.

Eh, I get that, but you use what is available. The 7-11 batteries were purchased at a 7-11 near a boat ramp in south carolina on a trip a few years ago.
My petrel runs on the same batteries that most all the tech divers I know use; whatever was in the hotel remote control the day before a dive when you noticed it was low.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Eh, I get that, but you use what is available. The 7-11 batteries were purchased at a 7-11 near a boat ramp in south carolina on a trip a few years ago.
My petrel runs on the same batteries that most all the tech divers I know use; whatever was in the hotel remote control the day before a dive when you noticed it was low.

I'm pulling your leg (a bit) and also posting as a PSA. Battery selection matters. If you have to use cheap batteries, best remove them after the trip and then put them in again for the next trip. That ESPECIALLY applies to your Shearwater computers. Cheap alkaline batteries (or Duracells) are an easy way to ruin a computer. I use nothing but Energizer Ultimate Lithiums in my Perdix. Yes, more expensive, but they last longer and don't leak. Be very careful with alkaline batteries. If you must use them, don't leave them sitting in your dive electronics.

 

[rhwestfall]

but c-size.....

been looking at these:

 

[Tracy]

I'm pulling your leg (a bit) and also posting as a PSA. Battery selection matters. If you have to use cheap batteries, best remove them after the trip and then put them in again for the next trip. That ESPECIALLY applies to your Shearwater computers. Cheap alkaline batteries (or Duracells) are an easy way to ruin a computer. I use nothing but Energizer Ultimate Lithiums in my Perdix. Yes, more expensive, but they last longer and don't leak. Be very careful with alkaline batteries. If you must use them, don't leave them sitting in your dive electronics.

Outside of my backup lights, nothing sits with the batteries installed. Backup lights are the exception as I never use them outside of a 2 second check prior to every dive.
My computer batteries are usually dead in a week, sometimes a month at a time.

 

[BRT]

Outside of my backup lights, nothing sits with the batteries installed. Backup lights are the exception as I never use them outside of a 2 second check prior to every dive.
My computer batteries are usually dead in a week, sometimes a month at a time.

I own a bunch of DRIS 1000's or their equivelents. The batteries always stay in them. They appear to have no "switch off" draw and only one has swelled the batteries like the OP told of. They also were hammered out and the light continues. I have no interest in rechargeables when I can get the life out of 3 C's that I get with the DRIS 1000.