Traveling with canister lights

[nereas]

You have obviously bought the wrong light. My can lights have been dropped, banged, etc, and still work just fine.


To the OP, I've flown with my can lights several times. I have yet to have TSA even ask to open the canister. It's the regs they usually swab. I always tell the x-ray person there is dive gear in the bags. I then talk diving with the swab guy.

It sounds like you probably have one of the older models, which weight a ton, and can be dropped. However I bet your filament is easy to break, even so.

Mine is modern and ultra light weight, probably less than 2 lbs even with the battery. And no, for $100 bulb replacement, I would not want to bounce it around like a basketball.

 

[S. starfish]

I've generally not had too much trouble traveling with my can light as carry on, it usually causes some interest but gets past. The one exception was when I was flying through Montreal, I was switching from international to domestic so I had to go through security again and they tried to confiscate it. In the end I lost the battery because i "could short out the electronics on the airplane with [my] battery if had two wires with me". According to the security personnel this wasn't an issue with laptop batteries as you can't remove the battery from a laptop - they were idiots. Since then I have taken to wrapping my can-light in a towel and packing it in a hard side suitcase, so far no issues.

So yea, carry on works until you meet that one special security officer. Checked baggage works until your bag gets lost of horribly abused.

 

[TSandM]

The only time I've had trouble was when I made the mistake of putting the batteries in carry-on. They were almost confiscated. Carrying the light heads and putting the canisters and batteries in the checked luggage has been without issues, but we do have the Airspeed Press labels on the batteries.

 

[ArcticDiver]

... Lithium batteries are the only ones that aren't allowed in carryon or loose in baggage anymore.

Actually, it is the reverse. Certain lithium batteries are not allowed in checked luggage. Check the AS or TSA web sites. It is a fire hazard situation. But, I don't think any dive light batteries are in the "not in checked luggage" category.

I usually carry my cannister light, including batteries in my carry-on and have had a problem only at one airport with one agent. But, I have checked it also and also usually with no problems.

As you can tell I fly more than I like. Now TSA has their act pretty well together and there are no problems except for the random agent, or if you happen to get stuck going through the line when a training session is going on. In the latter case, you will discover why it pays to get to the airport Early.

 

[Dive-aholic]

I keep my canister empty, which I carry on.

And the removable battery for the cannister I stick inside of a sock, and put it into my checked luggage.

I gather from some of the other posts here that not all cannister batteries are removable. Too bad! The modern ones are.

My batteries are removable, but they stay in the canister. I've never seen a need to remove them and pack them separately and never had a problem with TSA by carrying them on with me.

It sounds like you probably have one of the older models, which weight a ton, and can be dropped. However I bet your filament is easy to break, even so.

Mine is modern and ultra light weight, probably less than 2 lbs even with the battery. And no, for $100 bulb replacement, I would not want to bounce it around like a basketball.

Incorrect assumption. I've never weighed my light, but it doesn't weigh all that much. Weigh 10 rechargeable batteries and that's the bulk of the weight. Yes, the bulbs are expensive to replace, but the construction of most of these lights is pretty heavy duty. I don't bounce my light around, but sometimes $#!t happens.

 

[nereas]

The only time I've had trouble was when I made the mistake of putting the batteries in carry-on. They were almost confiscated. Carrying the light heads and putting the canisters and batteries in the checked luggage has been without issues, but we do have the Airspeed Press labels on the batteries.

Exactly!