Happy New Year to all because...

Energizer Introduces World's First AAA Lithium Battery

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Energizer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ENR), today unveiled its Energizer(R) e2(R) Lithium AAA battery, adding to its exclusive line of lithium 1.5 volt cells. It also announced performance improvements to its AA lithium line, now lasting up to 7x longer in digital cameras.* These two announcements put Energizer at the forefront of round cell lithium technology. And better yet, they arm consumers with the world's longest-lasting AA* and AAA batteries in high-tech devices at a time when the use of digital cameras, electronic games, PDA's, audio players and other high- tech devices is exploding. (*Versus ordinary alkaline in proposed ANSI testing. Results may vary by camera.)

The new Energizer e2 Lithium AAA batteries are now the world's longest- lasting AAA batteries in high-tech devices providing more memories, more songs and more messaging than any other battery available. For the consumer, for example, that can mean 160 more hours of paging messages or 400 more flashes. The product is built on the lithium technology Energizer pioneered in 1992. Energizer remains the only battery manufacturer to harness the power of lithium in a 1.5 volt cell.

"As today's high-tech handhelds like digital cameras and MP3 players get faster computing chips and higher-speed digital processing, their thirst for battery power goes through the roof. Energizer recognizes this, and has been extremely aggressive in providing high performance batteries to meet these demands," says Corey Greenberg, NBC Today Show's Tech Editor.

According to ACNielsen Panel Data (June 2003), the dollar sales of lithium AA batteries grew 25 percent versus a year ago and is helping to drive growth in the battery category.

In addition to the power advantages, Energizer e2 Lithium batteries are lightweight, 33 percent lighter than an alkaline battery. They operate well in extreme temperatures. In conditions where alkaline batteries would fail, lithium continues to operate in temperatures ranging from -40 degrees F to 140 degrees F. The batteries have a 15-year shelf life. The Energizer e2 Lithium AA and AAA batteries come in recloseable packaging for convenient storage and travel. The new AAA battery will be available later in 2004 just in time for the holidays when picture taking is at its highest and shoppers are selecting high-tech gadgets.

Energizer, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of primary batteries and flashlights and a global leader in the dynamic business of providing portable power.

SOURCE Energizer Holdings, Inc. 01/07/2004

CONTACT: Jackie Burwitz, +1-314-985-2169, or Harriet Blickenstaff, +1-314-995-3939 x103, both for Energizer Holdings, Inc.

Edited by richard.s on 01/11/2004 19:02:19 MST.

Further to my previous post, I was able to speak with the manager of the retail store which I mentioned. He noted that he had returned about 75% of the Auroras they had sold, less than 1% of the Tikkas, and no Tikka Plus models.

Aurora problems included "just about everything":
-switch button falling off
-switch contact failure
-electronics failure
-housing failure (cracking)
-pivot failure
-internal corrosion (due to the sealed construction, corrosive battery off-gases cannot vent)

They are continuing to sell the PT Yukon and Pulsar.

Edited by richard.s on 01/11/2004 18:23:00 MST.

FYI: BackpackingLight.com will be carrying the new AAA lithium cells as soon as they are released to us for distribution. Next week, we should also receive our first shipments of other lithium round cell batteries, including the AA lithiums already on the market, and for you Black Diamond Ion fans, the lithium L544 BP.

Well you've pretty well nailed it!

When Tekna came out with it's revolutionary lights in the early 80's, I thought we might have finally arrived. Their designs featured a sealed! switchless! polycarbonate! housing with halogen! bulb options, and one unit with a lithium! battery. Wow! (These design elements are still common to this day.) Ultimately though I ended up throwing them all away. One reason was the sealed design did not vent the battery off-gases and the contact surfaces degraded. You could even smell the gases when you opened up the lithium-cell unit, the MicroLith. Tekna upgraded the springs from phosphor-bronze to nickel-plated PB, but this was not a total cure. The bulb mounts were low precision which added to the problems. And the whole circuit was dependent on a spring pushing on batteries pushing on a bulb with a lead (Pb) contact point. This whole experience clearly evidenced that low voltage circuits are very susceptible to degradation caused by small increases in circuit resistance due to poor contact.

Now 20 years hence from the first Tekna lights, we have a lot more reliability due to LEDs, nickel-plated contacts, weather-resistant housings which will vent battery gases (BD, Petzl), and independent mounting and contacts for the supply and load. But new failure modes include cables and multi-mode or power management electronics. And our age-old nemesis The Switch is still lurking and looking to cause trouble. I am however highly impressed with quality of the current BD switches. And if electronics modules can attain high-reliability, then the switch might no longer be a point-of-failure since ideally it will not carry any current.

I'd like to see manufacturers eliminate single-points-of-failure as much as possible. For example:
-use two cables from the battery pack to the lamp head
-independent switches for flood and nav modes
-implement a bypass switch around the electronics module and multi-mode switch(es) i.e. a crowbar or switch-of-last-resort

In the meantime, I'll be carrying two lights on all trips. For example if you need a nav light then a Matrix 2 and a Tikka have a combined weight which is approximately equal to the Yukon HL, but with no SPOFs! And if the primary light is a Tikka or an Ion, then the backup can be a Photon or Pulsar.

While aircraft and navy ships have, for years, used red as an optimum interior light to prevent night blindness, it seems that green is the new color on the block (as noted in the above article). I'm seeing more pilot chart lights with both red and green LED's, and even some tri-color (white is the third) units with a white lockout to prevent it accidentally being turned on.

One more thing -- I have a problem with headlamps in that they're at once in the best and the worst spot for illuminating trail. While it's handy to have them on your head and pointing the same direction you're looking (and they keep your hands free for other things), their flat lighting perspective does absolutely nothing for giving you a good idea of the "texture" of the upcoming terrain. I've found that I "see" the trail a whole lot better if I take off the headlamp and hold it by my side or even away from my body. That gives upcoming terrain features a certain amount of crosslighting and depth. Anyone else tried that?

I bought a Princeton Tec Aurora last year and it is probably the worst piece of gear I've ever used. Mine was replaced under warranty but I threw the replacement into a corner and don't use it.

Problems included:

- the pivot ...] coming loose so that the headlamp hung down and shone into my forehead; the only way to fix this is to carry a micro-screwdriver (I wrapped a rubber band around it until I got home). Petzl's ratchet is a much better design;
- the rubber cover on the switch coming off in the pocket of my day pack, I got the cover back on and then realised that there was a tiny spacer (less than a centimetre long) between the actual switch (buried in the body of the light) and the rubber cover - this took ages to find, even though I knew it was somewhere in the back pocket of my day pack; an appalling, cheap and stupid piece of design;
- the light is advertised as water-proof - not water resistant, water-proof: I stuck it under a running tap and it immediately stopped working. I then spent several minutes cleaning and drying this "water-proof" light;
- the brightness dropped off spectacularly quickly: I have a number of torches and head-lamps and this was the worst I've seen.

The local importer replaced the light quickly once I complained but the point is that this light was out there, on sale, with a number of very serious design flaws. Yes, they addressed the flaws eventually - but not before I spent my hard-earned cash on one. Given the above, and the rock-solid reliability of Petzl torches you can imagine my surprise that the Aurora won your award as the best headlight out there.

P.S. you need to reset your "profanity detector" so it doesn't object to normal technical words

Edited by Arapiles on 05/27/2004 07:12:45 MDT.

Please see comments on my 12/1 posting and Gary Lewis'12/16 posting about holding headlamps in hand while hiking/running. Yes it works much better.

It seems no surprise that most people have overweight packs, because they can't give up the kitchen sink!
I carry two Photon II white led's that combined weigh 2/5 oz., and have never had a problem. Give up the straps, the tiny bit of convenience and save you back! If you do this, You will make it to your next destination before sun down and will not need to walk with a light. If you stick a piece of velcro to the light and then to your beany it becomes hands free!
Shoot, carry 5 Proton II's and you will still be lighter than those 5,6,7 oz. head lamps!

The reason many headlights use 3 * AAA is to get enough volts to power a white LED, which needs between 3.0 and 3.6 volts.
I use a single AA or AAA battery and a micro switch-mode power converter (a few grams). I find about 50 mW of power is enough around the tent. A single AA lasted eight weeks continuous this way.
Cheers
Roger Caffin

I really like the Petzl TacTikka with 3 ‘AAA’ Eveready Lithium batteries (2.3 oz. total). It has a red lens, so night vision is not impacted, that can be flipped down to offer white light when needed.

I also carry the Princeton Tech Eclipse (.4 oz.) as a backup. This 5-position light comes with both a hat visor clip and small key ring clip which are interchangeable. I use the key ring clip to clip it to the drawstring on top of the backpack for ready use when looking for gear.

Now the Lithium triple ‘A’ batteries are readily available at Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, Best Buy, Circuit City and many others. I found Target or Wal-Mart offer a better buy than the specialty stores. They may be here, but I have not seen them here yet.

I used the Princeton TEC that uses 2 lithium CR123, for over a year. I recognize that this is a relatively heavy peice of gear BUT.. It seems all thorns need to be removed after dark, and fun reading happen in the middle of the night.

I have numberous items that use the Li CR123 and though expensive... they are relatively light for the amount of charge they store (charge density). So I carry a couple extra CR123 batteries to replenish one or more items that might get extra use.

I am in the process of re-evaluating all my gear with an eye toward weight saving but this headlight keeps making "the cut" trip after trip. Especially in winter months, having such reliable, adjustable, infalable light... means something to me in the way of problem solving.