LED flashlights are an excellent tool to have around the house, in your car, or even when you’re camping.
Why?
They’re much brighter than other types of flashlights and they last a lot longer on one set of batteries because they consume less power.
However, many people wonder why their LED flashlight drains batteries even when it is switched off and not in use.
Why does this happen?
In this blog post, we’ll explore this topic in depth so you can make sure that your LED flashlight isn’t draining your batteries while it’s not being used.
Why Do LED Flashlights Drain Batteries When Off?
Batteries left inside LED flashlights get drained even when they are powered off and not in use because of what is known as “parasitic drain”. Most LED Lights need a constant power supply in order to record when the switch has been pressed. This constant power is what leads to “parasitic drain”.
How to Prevent Parasitic Drain
As we noted in the previous paragraph, the most common cause of complete battery depletion even when not actively being use is parasitic drain; the constant power required by the electronic switch to detect when the switch is being pressed to power ON/OFF the light.
So how do we prevent parasitic drain?
One of the best ways to combat it is to remove the batteries from the flashlight when storing your LED flashlight for an extended period of time or if it will not be used for more than a month.
This will completely stop this drain on your battery power and should be a good practice for all flashlights, regardless of whether they are LED-equipped or not, electronic switch or mechanical switch.
Conclusion
It’s important to note that even if you store your flashlight in a safe place and the switch is OFF, the batteries will still get drained due to “parasitic drain”. Hence, it is important to think about the long-term implications of powering off your LED flashlight.
You may not need them for now, but they could be a lifesaver when disaster strikes and power grids go down.
If you don’t want this situation to happen again in the future, we recommend removing the batteries from your flashlight if it won’t be used for more than one month so that parasitic drain doesn’t occur.