Untrue...Panasonic does private brand for others, but they are not all the same mA hour rating...not quite identical...you can check the specs online & verify this. However, the quality seems to be there.. I buy mine from either Amazon, Battery Junction, or (locally) Lowes (Surefire brand). I will never buy Titanium or other Far East brands again due to quality control issues.
There is a number of budget brands but all domestics are made by the same manufacturer more or less. Surefire does not make 123 cells, they are re-wrapped Panasonics. Look up Panasonic 123 on Ebay, then lookup SF123A, it's the exact same cell but note the price delta.
See my earlier post (post #10). This gives info on the differences in specs between brands. Note that Panasonic & Surefire share the same spec but others don't.
It's really simple. Buy domestic brands. Don't buy foreign brands. As to where, a popular online auction.
Not sure why I would waste time with online auctions when the everyday Amazon price is as cheap or cheaper. as is Battery Junction. But yes, when it comes to 123's, buy domestically produced ones....but choose one that will give you 1550 mAh........not all US made 123's have that capacity....that's the other takeaway.
Work supplies mine. It is the main reason I got a fenix e15 .Work supplied that too. We have hundreds of remote temperature sensors and dozens of I.R. faucets that run off them so we always have them
Obviously not everyone goes through enough batteries to justify it but for me it makes no sense to buy 'em anywhere but Battery Junction. Free shipping on orders over $50 makes it a no-brainer! With hazmat regs it's over $10 to ship a single lithium battery so I stock up. Their prices on AA are superb as well so I just make big orders periodically. They also have a rewards program which saves even more. I've got at least three dozen lights that use CR123A batteries save on I always keep a good stash on hand,.
Rob's post is referring to shipping/mailing.... please reference where the nickel-based battery chemistries are restricted. The USPS seems just as concerned with lithium primaries as it is with lithium ion secondary. https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2012/pb22336/html/updt_004.htm
ebay, usually look for vendors that have high ratings over choosing the vendor with the lowest price.
The USPS info you linked has nothing regarding restriction of nickel based batteries. If you read this, it explicitly says both lithium and lithium ion batteries are ok for mailing in the U.S. They are only prohibited internationally and lithium primaries cannot move by passenger aircraft. Primaries are limited to 5 lbs and lithium ion to 3 batteries per "mailing".
In the context of this discussion (ie, shipping/mailing) I'm just trying to clarify what you mean when you said lithium primaries are NOT hazmat, yet nickel chemistries ARE? Of course the lithium chemistries are ok for mailing domestically - after all, we are buying them from a mail order companies like batteryjunction. The point is that lithium batteries (both primaries or secondaries) - are considered 'hazardous enough' for shipping/mailing, that the USPS has more restrictive packaging requirements for them, yet I can find no similar restrictions on nickel chemistries. As another example, have a read through the CPF 'Smoke and Fire' subforum... see how many fires/explosions are caused by lithium batteries (primary or secondary) vs by nickel batteries.
All batteries can be dangerous & the more energy they pack, the greater the issue when something goes wrong. As to the aspect of what is hazmat & not, it oftentimes has more to do with quantity & shipping mode. I'm retired now but during my work career in transportation operations, we had a Safety Department, whose job it was, in part, to determine what had to be transported as hazmat, what had to be placarded & what did not. The weight of the shipment often determined whether a product had to be placarded as hazmat. In terms of NiMH batteries, under certain circumstances they are hazmat: See link to prba info below-section VI, last paragraph as an example: http://www.prba.org/wp-content/uploads/Overview-of-Battery-Transport-Regulations.pdf Under normal circumstances at the consumer level, most of this is irrelevant, but hazmat regulations are a big reason many think we as a nation are over-regulated.
I shouldn't have used the term 'hazmat', but Priority is a no-no as it sometimes goes by air. Regardless of the specific regs, large orders of batteries are typically expensive to ship. BatteryJunction ships for free if your order is $50 or more, and they happen to be a terrific vendor to boot. Thus far I have made about fifteen orders with them and my experiences have been uniformly excellent. They have a great selection of flashlights, too.
ebay here in Europe and we pay about 2 bucks per piece, shipped for Panasonic or Duracell. If we buy them over the counter we pay over 4 bucks...
This issue resolved itself two weeks ago. It turns out I can get free Energizer 123s from my company, along with assorted tools and PPE . No one ever bothered to show me the steps until a veteran coworker showed me a work around to the system.
I buy Panasonic or Surefire from either Amazon or Battery Junction. I never knew about the Surefire and Panasonic connection, but now it seems to make sense. For me, both have performed consistently good and better than other primaries.
