Comments on: Five Days of Black Diamond — Day 2 — Light for Europe

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:08:28 +0000

Hmmm, have you checked to see that your Tracker actually works in search mode with lithiums?

By: Lou

Lou — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:14:56 +0000

Um, I hate to say it, but I’d still use my spare lithiums in my beacon if my beacon batteries ran out in the field. I’d swap to alkaline as soon as I got home. No one at a beacon company has told me this would be a problem.

As far as I know, the only function that gets messed up by using lithiums is the battery check.

By: Bar Barrique

Bar Barrique — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:58:58 +0000

I have been using a DTS tracker for many years, and, while I have always used alkaline batteries, I was not aware that some other types of batteries could cause the device to malfunction. So, I am glad that this was brought to my attention.

By: Paul Fleming

Paul Fleming — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:45:11 +0000

Clearly not a good idea. The reason I posted was because in the original blog item I was commenting on, which talked about using lithium batteries in Black Diamond’s LED headlamp, Lou mentions that he was carrying an extra set which could also be used as spares in his Tracker. I’m sure many people have considered this and some are currently doing it, so I thought I’d highlight the fact that it causes a problem which is not immediately obvious to the user.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:27:46 +0000

I just finished up a draft for the American Avalanche Association’s The Avalanche Review on the details behind beacon battery power readouts.
Along the way, I started to put something in there about the standard reminder never to use anything other than standard alkaline batteries, but it’s so well known by everyone that I thought it was pointless to repeat…

Out of curiosity just now, I looked through some user manual to confirm that they almost always stress up front that alkaline batteries are to be used:

“The Tracker DTS operates with three AAA alkaline batteries. Use only high-quality alkaline batteries of identical age and brand.”

“Only use alkaline LR03/AAA batteries.” [Pulse]

“Use only 1.5 V alkaline batteries (Type LR03/AAA).” [Opto 3000]

“The ARVA EVOLUTION+ functions exclusively with 4 standard LR03 alkaline batteries.”

“The ARVA ADVANCED functions exclusively with 4 standard LR03 alkaline batteries.”

“Replace three fresh AAA Alkaline batteries 1.5V LR 03 and make sure the positive and negative poles are inserted correctly. Use only brand name batteries. No rechargeable batteries and no lithium batteries.” [S1]

In conclusion:
“I’m not sure what the problem is”
- The main problem is that you’re messing around with life-saving devices without reading the user manual.