My Friend's 3 Cell Flashlight

Will the battery be conserved, damaged or abused? Is the chemistry long lasting? Will it explode? He told me that the bulb is bright and the flashlight well performing. I will tell about your proposed solutions.

He's consuming two batteries at once for no benefit. Depending on the unknown reversed battery chemistry it could quickly fail it could just simply get warm.

Wow. Really?

Is the flashlight output brighter than his cellular phone screen? What happens when the phone gives up the ghost?

I would think proposals regarding no power for a week would be more welcomed than solutions to this supposed shiner problem.

" What happens when the phone gives up the ghost?" This discussion becomes moot.

You should know better than to question a problem posed by an anonymous poster. I believe this situation is a complete fabrication. How did the AP find out from his "friend" of the power loss; semaphore flags, smoke signals? What crystal ball determined this to be a week long outage? How will our TCIP encoded proposals to save batteries get to the AP's friend?

I agree with you, Doorman. If I was in the warmest province of Canada expecting a week in January without electric power, I would not waste cell phone power and bandwidth asking how to repair a flashlight. I certainly wouldn't argue with the advice I was given either. I might ignore the advice but not argue with it. Preventing plumbing and people from freezing would be my first two concerns.

Yeah. Tractor supply store is running a special on generators right now. I may go pick one up. Oh, BTW they operate on gasoline.

This will depend on the wattage of the bulb and the capacity of the battery(s)....all things considered equal, the change from series to parallel configuration of the batteries should lower output and give less light but for a longer time....If the wattage of the light is higher, but the voltage lower, the results may be same amount of current draw....There is a finite amount of current available, whether configured in series or parallel, that does not change....

Ampoule is 1.7 V - and also 0.5 is printed on the screw and also 0 S RAM.

I would go with an LED superwhite for increased efficiency....

Can he get that delivered by drone?

That far north we use Owls...

Regardless of the wattage of the bulb, there won't be any light output decrease if changing from the current (risky and very un efficient) configuration, to the one that you propose:

Right now the lamp is receiving its rated voltage; two cells in series ≈ 3V, minus one backwards ≈ 1.5.

Since all cells are in series and the load is at rated voltage, you are draining only the current that one single cell can deliver to such load, if you connect all of them in parallel, the load will still be at rated voltage.

However, a change in intensity (actually an increase) would be possible only if the bulb is rated at higher wattage than one single cell can produce, in that case, putting all of them in parallel, will rise a bit the light intensity, but the best part is that, as you said, the lamp will glow much longer.

If the lamp draws a current within the cell's capacity, the best solution is to cut a broom stick to the lenght of two cells, wrap it in Reylod's wrap, insert it in the flashlight and go using one cell at the time.

how nice of you to ask a question for "your friend", perhaps you should tell your friend of this forum do they can speak for themselves, that way it would save you time from relaying questions asked by us of "your friend"

In my opinion nothing will happen with the battery, except that the chemistry inside will work in reverse at a less performance level. The electrodes will do their job in reverse and can handle the current.

The "electrolyte" will get exhausted and contaminated when the + is carbon composed.

I read, don't recharge, don't throw it in a fire but nothing about reversing the battery and dangers involved. The manufacturer however will sell more batteries, since you use the reverse one without getting anything out of it.

Also didn't read about accident reports.

Maybe your friend should invest in a generator. Just tell him not to burn his car for warmth or he may be a victim of reverse Darwinism.

There are many different scenarios:

1. All three batteries are the same type with the same charge.

2. Two batteries are alkaline and one is a regular heavy duty (zinc carbon).

3. One battery is alkaline and the other two are heavy duty.

4. Now we can throw in rechargeable batteries into the mix.

So, without knowing this, we're just guessing at the results. Also, it depends on the orientation of the batteries; alkaline = one forward, two forward, three forward, one backward, one forward and one backward, etc

More info coming?

Wow. Yeah, Doorman sticks with old tech, that's for sure...

Like having the correct replacement flashlight bulbs on hand.

See ya, I'm outta here.

I think this dork lives in Colorado and is testing a new strain of gonja.

See ya in Jamaica next week at the board meeting Doorman.

The reversed battery will get damaged, how bad? Only he will be able to find out as I am sure that such tests are seldom made.

I personally would never do it as the outcome could be not quite what is needed. It demonstrates a certain lack of full knowledge on the side of the user.....if a house fire was caused, he would look pretty sick!!!

There are replacement bulbs with LEDs in them for multi-cell flashlights, they will work in 2 or 3 battery flashlights with no modifications according to the ads..

Here is one for use between 3-4.2 volts from ebay for example:-

High Power LED Replacement bulb

It will give a better light and also longer battery life.

Best of luck.

The reversed battery will get damaged, how bad? Only he will be able to find out as I am sure that such tests are seldom made.

I personally would never do it as the outcome could be not quite what is needed. It demonstrates a certain lack of full knowledge on the side of the user.....if a house fire was caused, he would look pretty sick!!!

There are replacement bulbs with LEDs in them for multi-cell flashlights, they will work in 2 or 3 battery flashlights with no modifications according to the ads..

Here is one for use between 3-4.2 volts from ebay for example:-

High Power LED Replacement bulb

It will give a better light and also longer battery life. You only need to make sure that it has the right sort of case, or adapt it to fit quite easily.....

Best of luck.

WHAT IS A "DYI GUY", someone dying to die? He gives that impression!!

Correct. DYI stands for Do Yourself In.

LOL!

OF COURSE!!

Thanks for the explanation!!!