Anyone using the Tenergy 3v 900mah rcr123as

[RedAlert]

I just got these in today and charged the first set up. Took a little over 5 hours. I decided to test them after the charge, and both showed 4.13v ! I know Tenergy says they will be charged to 3.6, but immediately drop to 3.0v in under 12 miliseconds. 4.13 is way over 3.6! Is this normal? And are these things even protected?

Here's the kit I got

Tenergy 4 Pack RCR123A 3V 900mAh Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery with Smart Charger

The batteries are not blue though, they are silver with a blue stripe, like in the picture with them still in the package.

Are these things messed up?

 

[Up In Vapor]

They used to be blue but silver is the newer style. 4.13 is a perfectly normal reading for one of these at full charge. They are protected...will not discharge over 3 volts and will stop working if charge falls under under 2.5 volts. Over AND under voltage protection...here's the specs at Tenergy's web site: Tenergy Official Site - Tenergy Li-Ion RCR123A 3.0V 900mAh (Item Number: 30201)

Hope this helps!

 

[Quick1]

I'm using those. bought 2 kits so 8 batteries. I've cycled through them all about 4 or 5 times now. Seem to have picked up a bit. They last me more than half a day. They do seem to take longer to charge. I think the maybe the charger backs off or it's just because of the diode that they are slower. Takes maybe 2.5 to 3 hours before the LED starts to go orange on it's way to green I usually pull them off then and they're well over 4.1v.

They need to be under load for the the voltage regulation to kick in so if you just put a volt meter they're going to show the charge of the cell.

The first set I got were bad. Actually I'm thinking maybe it was the charger. They all worked Ok out of the box and then after the first time I charged them one of the pair went flat in about 1 hour and the other was full. So I charged them one at a time and the second usage it only lasted about 10 minutes and worse the next time... All 4 seemed to do it so maybe it was the batteries. Anyway I RMA'd them and the charger. Called them, they e-mailed me an RMA form and a prepaid shipping label. So no cost to return them. The next week they e-mailed that they didn't find anything wrong with them so they just credited my credit card for the full amount. The customer service person just said I could just try ordering another set and try it again to see if it was bad batteries the first time (and it wouldn't be any problem to RMA them again if it didn't work out).

I called back and got put through to a tech guy 'cause I wanted to know if maybe they wouldn't work stacked the way we use them or something like that. He said they should work. He did say they were going to a new charger for those that was a full dual circuit. No idea if that's what I have now. They only have 1 led so maybe not but they both work just fine.

 

[jasezero]

I have about 10 of them....6 blue color and 4 silver. So far they have all been holding up well. They take a few cycles of charging to get to their full potential.

 

[NoMansFriend]

Hey guys, sorry to bump an old thread. But I purchased a set of these batteries for my new Omega, and they arent working. I charged up the batteries and fired up the device. It fired long enough to blow one small cloud of vapor and then cut off, after that it doesnt fire at all. No vapor whatsoever.

I did notice that these batteries are smaller in diameter than the LifePO4 RCR123a's, the PO4's are 17mm and these are 16, not sure if that makes a difference or not. Im hardly a battery or electronics expert, but Im thinking that the protection circuits are defective and cutting off power.

Has anyone else had any similar issues with these batteries? Im thinking I should have just ordered the regular LifePO4's that most people use in these devices. But when I ordered, I figured I would go with the "safer" option and get the protected batteries.

My new Omega is working just fine with an 18650 and a LR-atty, so I doubt anything is wrong with the switch or the device itself. Its gotta be these batteries. It also fired with 2 18350's, which was way too intense and I actually popped an atty trying that (doh!). I like it at 3.7v but I already have a 3.7 device and didnt really purchase the Omega for that purpose.

Any suggestions let me know, thanks!

 

[Quick1]

I'm using those in my Omega (and my SB) with no problems. Including using them with 2.2 ohm 510 attys.

Short story:
The first 4 w/charger were bad. Don't know if it was the batteries or the charger. RMA'd them. Very nice. You call, they email you a pre-paid shipping label. Short time later got an email with one or two lines "We didn't find anything wrong. Maybe they aren't right for your application. We have fully refunded to your CC.". I wanted to try to find out why so I ended up talking with an engineer there and we didn't figure anything out. Support lady says "you could order again and see if they work". I say "can I RMA them if they don't the second time?". She says "Sure".

So I ordered (2) more packages of 4 each w/charger. All eight and both chargers work perfectly. I seem to get between 6 and 8 hours out of a set (run time got longer after I had recharged them a few times). They do take about 3 hours to charge.

Long Story:
I originally ordered 4 with a charger. They came charged and seemed to work fine the first time. 3 or 4 hours? Then I recharged them and they only went maybe a couple of hours. Back on the charger and it showed a green light in about 10 minutes... Checked the voltage and they were up there around 3.9v. After that they would only go a few puffs before cutting off. The IC cuts them off at about 3.188v I think. Did some diagnosis and it seems 1 would go all the way down and the other would be fine. That caused a problem charging them in pairs since the (almost) fully charged one would cut off the charger and it's a single circuit charger. Tried charging them singly with only 1 in the charger at a time. Tried mixing them and tracking whch one was on top in the PV. No joy. Called them for an RMA. --See Short Story above

The engineer there said they had a new charger for these which has completely independent charging circuits for each battery but he didn't know when they would be shipping with the new chargers. I didn't get the new ones but that was over a couple of months ago. The ones I have work fine.

 

[Quick1]

I must be getting alzheimer's... Just noticed I said pretty much the same thing just 3 posts up. Doh. (heh, it was 2 months ago though)

 

[cddz]

I think you are......