Red Dot Sight batteries

bigbravehog

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Question: Do I leave the batteries in my red dot sight even during long periods of non-use ? TIA
 
Depends on how optimistic you are, and how much of a pain it is to change batteries. Ideally you would remove them, but if the sight requires rezeroing because it has to be removed to swap batteries I'd be sorely tempted not to and put that sight on a calendar based swap schedule.
 
Does yours take A style batteries, or coin batteries? I've never seen coin batteries leak. I would take out A batteries.
 
I don't understand why you would take the batteries out of the optic for storage. Are you concerned about the batteries leaking or dying? What kind of batteries do you use?
This optic uses a CR3032 battery. Optics are a new item for me and just wanted to be sure I handle and use it properly. Thanks
 
CR3032 and CR2032 have shelf lives of five to ten years.
i inadvertently left a sight on for what i guessed as several months. shut it down when i discovered it on but still using the same battery/optic a few years later. in real life, folks who need quick access...police and the like, keep the sight always active. have no clue what the battery change schedule is. like @C. Stockwell they probably have a set date where the batteries are changed. would seem the smart thing to do.
 
My Trijicon RMR is designed to be always on (I leave it on the lowest setting) and you have to remove the optic to replace the battery which is accessed underneath. My Eotechs and Elcan have switches for on/off. The batteries stay in, but the optic is off until it is needed. Batteries should get switched out annually just to be safe, but I've been known to leave them in for 2 years if they are still going strong. Other than the Trijicon RMR, which may need a zero confirmation after replacing a battery, I'm not sure as I haven't had to replace the battery yet, the optics all allow access to the battery compartment without unmounting.

As an aside, I had an Aimpoint red dot for a number of years. That red dot has a power switch, but is designed to be left on all the time, with a battery life measured in the ten's of thousands of hours. It really depends on your optic. My Eotechs don't have nearly the battery life when left on, so they stay off until needed. All my rifles co-witness BUIS, so it's not really a big deal in an emergency.

Since we're on the topic of batteries, just a friendly reminder to replace the batteries in your tactical lights as well as your optics and to make sure you have additional batteries in case of an emergency where resupply may be difficult/impossible. Nothing like having lots of money invested in an optic or light, only to not have replacement batteries when needed... that optic becomes a paperweight.
 
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i inadvertently left a sight on for what i guessed as several months. shut it down when i discovered it on but still using the same battery/optic a few years later. in real life, folks who need quick access...police and the like, keep the sight always active. have no clue what the battery change schedule is. like @C. Stockwell they probably have a set date where the batteries are changed. would seem the smart thing to do.

Just a side note - a lot of newer optics have "shake awake" and auto-off features. For example, I have two scopes with illuminated reticles. If I put the gun/scope in its case with the dot on, the scope automatically shuts the dot off. I like the feature in case I forget to turn the dot off. And the flip side is shake awake, where the dot turns itself on when you move the gun/optic.

optics don't lose zero if you take out the batteries. If they do, throw it in the trash and buy a different one.

Optics like the Trijicon RMR have to be unscrewed from the gun to change the battery. Not all optics allow for removing the battery without removing the optic from the gun.

The RMR is the antithesis of "junk."
 
CR3032 and CR2032 have shelf lives of five to ten years. Don't take those batteries out unless you're changing it. They don't leak. I change CR2032s once a year on St. Patrick's Day, just to be safe.

This is true. I've seen mobo BIOS batteries that are like 30+ years old, long since dead, but have no evidence of leaking.
 
Optics like the Trijicon RMR have to be unscrewed from the gun to change the battery. Not all optics allow for removing the battery without removing the optic from the gun.

The RMR is the antithesis of "junk."

Well its a shitty design then if you need to re-zero any time you change the battery (unless its a 5 year or better batter). Obviously if you are physically removing the optic from the gun, you will probably need to at least check your zero again. I assumed the readers of my comment were smart enough to realize that.
 
Well its a shitty design then if you need to re-zero any time you change the battery (unless its a 5 year or better batter). Obviously if you are physically removing the optic from the gun, you will probably need to at least check your zero again. I assumed the readers of my comment were smart enough to realize that.
The battery on a RMR is a CR2032, which is, in fact, typically rated to last for five years.
 
Well its a shitty design then if you need to re-zero any time you change the battery (unless its a 5 year or better batter). Obviously if you are physically removing the optic from the gun, you will probably need to at least check your zero again. I assumed the readers of my comment were smart enough to realize that.

RMR is kind of the reference model for the rest of the industry in terms of performance, but I agree, having to remove it to change the battery is not ideal. Luckily it would be a very rare task given battery life expectations.

There's a trend in other manufacturers to make a battery tray that can slide out without having to remove the RDS. I hope Trijicon moves to this in the future, but considering their latest RMRcc does not have it, it might be a while.
 
RMR is kind of the reference model for the rest of the industry in terms of performance, but I agree, having to remove it to change the battery is not ideal. Luckily it would be a very rare task given battery life expectations.

There's a trend in other manufacturers to make a battery tray that can slide out without having to remove the RDS. I hope Trijicon moves to this in the future, but considering their latest RMRcc does not have it, it might be a while.

The Trijicon RMR has a very small profile... more for handguns or as a backup offset optic for magnified scopes. It is a very simple, rugged design, and the battery being accessed underneath means less moving parts or areas moisture could get inside. It is weather proof/water resistant with the proper baseplate installed and as others have said, the battery has a 5 year life. It is/was the standard for CQB optics mounted on top of ACOG's for Army and Marine combat forces and is battle proven in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I'm going to go along with others and say the design is a reference for the industry and an extremely successful product in it's market.
 
I swap the batteries in my optics when I swap the batteries in my smoke/CO detectors. In both cases the cost of new batteries once a year is trivial relative to the importance of the device working when you need it.
 
I swap the batteries in my optics when I swap the batteries in my smoke/CO detectors. In both cases the cost of new batteries once a year is trivial relative to the importance of the device working when you need it.

And remember, you don't have to waste the batteries you take out. You can continue using them for things that are less mission-critical, like the bathroom scale, or the multimeter.
 
The Trijicon RMR has a very small profile... more for handguns or as a backup offset optic for magnified scopes. It is a very simple, rugged design, and the battery being accessed underneath means less moving parts or areas moisture could get inside. It is weather proof/water resistant with the proper baseplate installed and as others have said, the battery has a 5 year life. It is/was the standard for CQB optics mounted on top of ACOG's for Army and Marine combat forces and is battle proven in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I'm going to go along with others and say the design is a reference for the industry and an extremely successful product in it's market.

Not sure why you're giving me the rundown of the RMR as if I didn't lead with "RMR is kind of the reference model for the rest of the industry in terms of performance". All I was saying is that the battery placement could be better. A gasket is a gasket. RMR has a gasket around the entire bottom. What then would be the difference with a gasket around a battery tray?
 
Not sure why you're giving me the rundown of the RMR as if I didn't lead with "RMR is kind of the reference model for the rest of the industry in terms of performance". All I was saying is that the battery placement could be better. A gasket is a gasket. RMR has a gasket around the entire bottom. What then would be the difference with a gasket around a battery tray?

I was actually agreeing with you and supporting your post and providing a bit more info to the poster who thought it was a poor design, that obviously had never worked with it or knew much about it. I know, I could have replied directly to the other poster, but as I said, I was actually agreeing with you.

As to the design, I'm not an product/mechanical engineer, but there is a limit as to how tall a profile the RMR can have given the maximum height of suppressor sights on handguns. There is also a maximum length/width for mounting to a handgun. Adding a moving piece like a sliding battery tray means lower tolerances due to friction/clearances and a larger profile in some dimension. Optics that are designed for rifles can have larger dimensions and don't have those restraints... just my .02.
 
I was actually agreeing with you and supporting your post and providing a bit more info to the poster who thought it was a poor design, that obviously had never worked with it or knew much about it. I know, I could have replied directly to the other poster, but as I said, I was actually agreeing with you.

As to the design, I'm not an product/mechanical engineer, but there is a limit as to how tall a profile the RMR can have given the maximum height of suppressor sights on handguns. There is also a maximum length/width for mounting to a handgun. Adding a moving piece like a sliding battery tray means lower tolerances due to friction/clearances and a larger profile in some dimension. Optics that are designed for rifles can have larger dimensions and don't have those restraints... just my .02.

Got it. Read a little different the first time.
 
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