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Rechargeable CR123 Battery Availability - Where have they all gone?!

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geofrustrated
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I've recently bought a couple of the standard Arlo cameras to expand my system - went for these rather than more Arlo Pro's as I want them for outdoors so there's a risk of them getting stolen.

 

When researching them I came across plenty of rechargeable CR123s on Amazon (in the UK).  Most of them came with a charger in a round (carousel type) format - I'm sure people have seen them.  I went online to buy some yesterday as the original batteries are starting to get low, and they all seem to have disappeared from Amazon - there are still plenty of links in google searches to both amazon.co.uk and amazon.com, so it must be a recent change, but the links don't work and you get a "page does not exist".

 

Anyone have any idea what's going on?  I'm wondering whether there are safety issues, or whether Amazon have just fallen out with their supplier perhaps.

 

There doesn't seem to be much available in the UK now.  We can't get the recommended Tenergy batteries here (incidentally, it was a search on Amazon for "Tenergy" that originally brought up all the items which have now disappeared), and the only other ones I've seen with any form of recommendation are the Nitecore ones which, at £6.95 each, aren't exactly cheap - I was planning to buy a set for each camera and one spare, so that's going to be almost £100 with a charger.

 

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geofrustrated
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I've also found the same more links to page-not-found pages on amazon.com from a google search for Olight and Nitecore CR123s, so it seems to be affecting the better known brands too.

TomMac
Guru Guru
Guru

Tenergy was/is the 'approved' 123 rechargeable cells.... ( also go by name 16340 size )

I know you may have trouble , as others, getting them in the UK.  Problem is that there are so many fakes out there that can cause possible issues ( one melted a camera ) that Arlo went out and researched a supplier with a safe battery.

( esp bad ones on ebay here from china )

So do at your own risk is stated by Arlo if not approved...

 

So, while they are the only 'approved' cells, many others will work and are safe IF they come from a reliable dealer.

a couple hints;  ( also go by name 16340 size )

1)No 123 rechargeable cells can phyiscally hold more than about 750mahr of chemistry

2)the cells that work are Li-Ion, 3.7v cells ( NOT 3V or 3.6V ) 123 type cells and run at 4.2V off charge ( ok for Arlo HD )

3) do not use LiFePo types cells

 

Two that seemed to have worked the best ( from memory )

Nitecore 650mahr 3.7 li-ion

Olight 650mAh 3.7v li-ion

 

And don't forget a matching charger for just those type cells

 

Be warned, some 16340/123 cells DO NOT fit as there are variances allowed in manufactor's sizes

 

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geofrustrated
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Aspirant

Thanks for the input, TomMac, and I've seen a couple of the other threads that you've commented on.  I've found the Olight batteries in the UK now at £4.95 so that's a bit more palatable - I'll order four and give them a try.

 

Still interested (idle curiosity...) in why Amazon have taken so many of these products off sale, but even if they come back I might give them a miss in favour of the ones the you and others on here have used.  If I recall the prices of the disappering items correctly then I would have wanted to spend about £50 on them.  The Olights will be about £75 for 12, and a charger, so not so bad.

happydays-ni
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Can you post a UK link for the batteries that you found?

geofrustrated
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These are the ones I've found online, although I haven't actually tried them yet:

https://www.olightstore.uk/olight-rcr123a-lithium-ion-battery.html

 

kilo1
Guide
Guide

I usually use surefire CR123A (lasts months for what I consider moderate traffic [no numbers to quantify this at this time])  currently doing a test run in one my ARLO cameras with surefire LFP123A (https://www.surefire.com/2-pack-lfp123-rechargeable-batteries.html) for a camera thats located in a temp controlled environment . I haven't had the chance to do any recharge cycles with it, but these batteries are easy to find in my area. 

Rajk76
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I recently ran into the same problem as you! Just before xmas I purchased the tenergy charger set and a 2nd set of batteries to cover 2 of my 3 arlo cameras (thinking I would buy another set for the 3rd camera at some point). When I went back in Jan 2019, they were no longer for sale. I initially thought it was because the higher capacity model would be soon released, but that still hasn't happened. In the end I set up an alert on ebay when someone was selling them and managed to get a new set for £32. Still pricey, but had no choice since I had already invested in the charger.