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Reviewer's
Impressions:
So you love your 123a powered light. It's super bright,
lightweight, and sees a lot of use. The only problem
is the frequently short runtime. It's always good to
have a few spare batteries around. From a safety standpoint,
however, having loose lithium batteries rolling around
in your desk, briefcase, glove box, luggage, or backpack
can be a bit hazardous. Since lithium batteries are
designed for rapid discharges of relative high currents,
a shorted battery can overheat and cause a fire! It's
best to have these little power cells contained in a
manner that prevents any possibility of them shorting
out. Even better would be if that same containment system
could carry a spare lamp for your light.
Surefire, maker of some of the best 123a powered lights
available today, has polycarbonate spares carriers designed
for their larger lights that hold 6 cells and a large
lamp assembly. But what about those folks that use the
smaller "personal" lights like the E2e, E1e,
or A2? For these folks, they have created the SC3. Designed
to hold the E1/E2/E1e/E2e/A2 lamp assemblies and four
spare batteries, this is an excellent accessory for
anyone with one of the aforementioned lights. Of course,
it's a great battery carrier for any light that takes
4 or fewer batteries, such as the L4, L1, or lights
from other manufacturers as well.
In the hand, with the batteries and lamp assembly inside,
the carrier has an extremely solid feel. Abuse should
not be a problem for this case. The strong polycarbonate
construction can take a beating. The lamp assembly is
held securely in place by gripping ridges inside the
lamp holder and pressure from the lid. It should not
be affected by drops and impacts. The fact that it is
a smoky translucent gray means that you can see quite
readily if it is full or not, and the O-ring keeps the
environment out so your lamp and batteries stay clean
and dry.
The included lanyard is very good quality and allows
the carrier to be attached to the wrist or tied to your
gear.
Load it up, toss it in your pack or glove box, and
forget about it until you need it! You'll be glad for
the spares when the time comes and you can always have
peace of mind that those lithium cells aren't rattling
around looking for stray metal objects to cause them
to short out.
UPDATE Dec '03: We have it on good authority
that the lanyard shipping with production models of
this carrier do not come with the lobster-claw style
clip shown in this review. A production change was apparently
made and the clip is just a standard little squeeze
clip which has got some folks upset. Personally, I don't
see that this makes any difference as I wouldn't buy
one of these just for the little lanyard clip, but for
the overall utility of the carrier which is excellent.
+ + + Pluses: Water resistant,
Impact resistant, Translucent case allows for easy viewing
of contents
- - - Minuses: Must remove lamp
assembly (if inserted) to get to the batteries
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