Diving and NiMH

[eternallystarvingstudent]

Hopefully someone can help me. I have a Pelican Nemo 8C...I'm wanting to use NiMH batteries in this thing and I first went out and bought Engergizer NiMH rechargable C cells. P put them in the light and it didn't really work. It would light up if I shake it around or bang it...(obviously neither of which I'd want to do underwater.)

I remembered some dive lights not working well with energizer batteries (UK specifically) so I thought that was the problem. Just yesterday I found a store selling Duracell NiMH C cells and bought those. I charged them up and excitedly (relatively speaking) put them in my light and...nothing...no light whatsoever. I did notice that these batteries seemed a tiny bit wider and were a little bit tight putting them into the light, though they fit just fine.

Are there any rechargeable NiMH C cells out there that will work in my light?

ryan.

 

[daveg1]

Hopefully someone can help me. I have a Pelican Nemo 8C...I'm wanting to use NiMH batteries in this thing and I first went out and bought Engergizer NiMH rechargable C cells. P put them in the light and it didn't really work. It would light up if I shake it around or bang it...(obviously neither of which I'd want to do underwater.)

I remembered some dive lights not working well with energizer batteries (UK specifically) so I thought that was the problem. Just yesterday I found a store selling Duracell NiMH C cells and bought those. I charged them up and excitedly (relatively speaking) put them in my light and...nothing...no light whatsoever. I did notice that these batteries seemed a tiny bit wider and were a little bit tight putting them into the light, though they fit just fine.

Are there any rechargeable NiMH C cells out there that will work in my light?

ryan.

I have never tried them in a light but I have had a simalar problem with a camara. I found that some NiMH cells are just a little bit shorter that others. That seened to be my problem, I don't know if it is what is happing to you.

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

I have a UKE AAA light (no, I don't use it for diving). When the NiMH batteries that I bought from an online distributor wouldn't work, I noticed something interesting.

While alkaline batteries have a raised portion on the (-) end, the rechargables that I bought were flat. Not only that, but the plastic sheath covering the outside of the batteries wrapped around the bottom edge, so that the (-) contact was actually indented. The UKE has a flat contact that worked fine with the raised (-) end of alkalines, but didn't touch the indented (-) end of the NiMH batteries.

My solution was to take a sharp knife and cut through the plastic sheath, all the way around the battery, about 1/16" from the (-) end, so as to remove the plastic that wrapped around the bottom edge. Works fine. Of course, you need to be real careful not to cut the battery casing itself.

Don't know if this will fix your problem, but thought I'd make my experience public

 

[eternallystarvingstudent]

Interesting...I've used NiMH in my Princeton Tec40 just fine but those are AA...I ended up taking back the Duracells because I didn't want to be out $70 if i cut them and it still didn't work...It seemed with the Duracells that they were a touch wider and sat in the light more snugly. Both the + and the - appeared to stick out from the battery...

I did notice on the inside of my light it does say "Alkaline Only" so maybe on that one Pelican has somehow managed to prevent them from working...<insert battery company conspiracy here>

ryan.

I have a UKE AAA light (no, I don't use it for diving). When the NiMH batteries that I bought from an online distributor wouldn't work, I noticed something interesting.

While alkaline batteries have a raised portion on the (-) end, the rechargables that I bought were flat. Not only that, but the plastic sheath covering the outside of the batteries wrapped around the bottom edge, so that the (-) contact was actually indented. The UKE has a flat contact that worked fine with the raised (-) end of alkalines, but didn't touch the indented (-) end of the NiMH batteries.

My solution was to take a sharp knife and cut through the plastic sheath, all the way around the battery, about 1/16" from the (-) end, so as to remove the plastic that wrapped around the bottom edge. Works fine. Of course, you need to be real careful not to cut the battery casing itself.

Don't know if this will fix your problem, but thought I'd make my experience public

 

[jonnythan]

I believe I read somewhere that rechargeables are made that way as a convention specifically to allow manufacturers to keep certain types of batteries from working in certain devices, which could presumably be damaged by the wrong type of battery or discharge curve.

Whether there is any truth to this I have no idea.

How this would affect an incandescent light is beyond me, but you never know