General Info
Will the Light for Life be Damaged if Left on the Charger?
First of all great question by Steve. He asked, Although many products claim to have batteries with no memory effect, if left on the charger, they can often lose much of their capacity. Will this be true of the L4L?
The charging system knows when to charge and when not to charge. Almost the entire time the Light for Life is left on the charger it will not be charging. It charges so fast and efficiently it doesn’t have to charge all the time. The Light for Life never trickle charges, which is what most chargers do when batteries are left connected to them. This elevates the temperature of most batteries and results in degradation. Also, the memory effect has to do with chemical changes taking place inside a battery. Since advanced capacitors do not undergo a chemical reaction, they do not have memory effects.
Once again, keep those questions coming! Thanks again Steve.
Differences between a Battery and Advanced Capacitors?
Hey Everyone! This next answer will require for me to put on my scientist hat.
What are the differences between a battery and advanced capacitors?
A battery stores energy through a chemical reaction. The flow of electrons (i.e. electricity) causes an oxidation/reduction reaction to occur between a metal and an electrolyte. This reaction effectively stores the electrical energy by forming a new compound. When energy is taken out of a battery, the chemical reaction goes the other direction. Of course since nothing is perfect, this process does not store 100% of the energy going in nor release 100% of the energy going out. Extreme temperatures dramatically effect this reaction resulting in poor battery performance. Also, this reaction gives off heat which increases the temperature of a battery resulting in low performance or reduced life. Every time this reaction takes place a battery looses its ability to transfer energy. After about 500 to 1000 cycles a typical battery needs to be replaced.
An advanced capacitors does not store energy through a chemical reaction.
The electrons that enter into an advanced capacitors get stored in tiny pores that exist in the carbon material on each electrode. The carbon material is like a sponge storing electrons through millions of nooks and crannies. Because the electrons are not converted into a chemical compound, they are quickly stored, and there is very little degradation. In fact, an advanced capacitors can be cycled 50,000 times without loosing more than about 20% of its original energy.
Remember to keep those questions coming and make sure you pre-order you Light for Life Flashlight!
Welcome to the New Light for Life Blog!
Hello, everyone, I’m Tom and welcome to the new blog we created specifically for the Light for Life UC3.400 Flashlight. Over the next few weeks I want to use this blog as a way of communicating with everyone about the flashlight and the technology behind it.
Before I do that I want to tell a little about myself and how I got started with this project - After 10 years in Sales and Marketing with one of the most recognized brands in the world, I met Dan Costa, CEO of 5.11 Tactical. He told me about a product that 5.11 was developing that would “change the game” in it’s category and invited me to join the team to help to bring the product to market and here I am!
Feel free to ask anything within the comments and I can not wait to share more information about this exciting project.
One Lasting Thought:
It’s one thing to look at a product and make some improvements to what the competitors are doing. It is another, to have a technology, that exceeds what anyone thought was possible. This flashlight does that.
