So I was cheap and bought Battery Station batteries and thought all this crap about cheap 123 cells was ridiculous.  I have used boxes of them and they all worked great.  

I was down to my last 6 123 cells and had 2 in my Gladius that were only a day or two old.  I noticed the light would only light up in tactical mode and none of the functions would work.  The light was also kind of dimmed.  This usally menas my flash light was nearly dead but these were fresh batteries.  I finish what I was doing and left the light on the table, off.  The next day I found that the light would not turn on.  I opened the tailcap and a HORRIBLE smell came out  of the light.  I popped out the battteries and let them sit seperate and sure enough it was the batteries that had the smell... and it was AWEFUL.

I assume this is some kind of venting feature to prevent an explosion in the cells?  What is it that is making that aweful smell?  Is it dangerous?

I only have the fresh lights in my Gladius and 2 spares of the BS batts left but will switch to Panasonic on my next batch.

were these the new or old style BS batteries?

It's not hype.

Poorly made batteries can literally put your life or the life of others at risk.

a. Create a fire hazard

b. Blinded by flying debris

I have photo evidence of both sent to me by end users who experienced battery meltdowns and subsequent mini flashlight explosions as the result of using Chinese crap.

In one case the flashlight burned bedding material and scorched the ceiling. (The tailcap launched)
It was a Surefire C3 that had bad batteries in it.




Here is a Scorpion that suffered from bad batteries




Let me make it clear.  It was NOT THE FLASHLIGHTS, it was bad batteries.

I have other Police bulletins and reporting the same thing.

Quoted: were these the new or old style BS batteries?

I bought them new less than 1 year ago... I assume these are new style.

What is the gas that is released when these batteries go bad?  It was REALLY nasty smelling.  I am concerned it might be poisionous or something as I had a headache for like 2 days.

I posted a thread a while back about some BS cells that exploded in my flashlight.  The pic is of the old style batteries.

www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=20&t=357671


The last post, suggests getting a liver panel done as the fumes are bad news.    Dont know more than that, maybe someone else does.

Quoted: Quoted: were these the new or old style BS batteries? I bought them new less than 1 year ago... I assume these are new style. What is the gas that is released when these batteries go bad?  It was REALLY nasty smelling.  I am concerned it might be poisionous or something as I had a headache for like 2 days.

Where are they made?
BatteryStation has switched to USA-made CR123A batteries. I hope yours don't have 'made in the USA' on them.

The chemicals released by a faulty CR123A battery are nasty and can be very hazardous indeed.

cut'n'paste from a CPF thread on CR123A batteries:

Thermal degradation may produce hazardous fumes of manganese and lithium;
hydrofluoric acid;
oxides of carbon and sulfur
and other toxic by-products.

Potential leakage of dimethoxyethane, propylene carbonate and lithium trifluoromethane sulfonate.
http://www.duracell.com/oem/safety/pdf/2003_9.pdf

(Hydrofluoric Acid is definitely not something one should even think about messing around with.)

(Alot of these byproducts are just as nasty as what comes out of a Li-Ion rechargable cell.)

These were old... Made in China.

Quoted: These were old... Made in China.

Thanks for letting us know.
I suggest you contact BatteryStation and make preparations for disposing of all the made in china CR123A's you have.

This thread just reminded me to check my lights for BS batteries.  I had thrown away my stock, but forgot to check all my lights.  Sure enough, I found a few marked "Made in P.R.C."