x105 battery life

It seems my brand new x105 looses power fairly rapidly...although I only tried duracall alkalines so far.  I estimate I operated the laser for a total of 15-20 min, on and off probably 60-70 times, while trying it out. After that, the beam strength dropped considerably...appearing to be abot a 5mw strength.  NOVA estimates a 2-3 hour life, which seems way off... Anyone else see this in the x105? or similar situations? Or could it have power issues?  At first it performed perfectly (igniting caps and matches and such).... .....any help?

I've had bad results with Duracells before so I'm going to try and blame the batteries. Go get a pack of Energizer Max's and then give us your results.

On alkalines my old X105 could only light matches for a max of 5 minutes, then the power would drop and it would begin mode hopping. The best batteries for your X105 are eneloop rechargable batteries, they last much longer than alkalines, and they are rechargable!

styropyro said:

On alkalines my old X105 could only light matches for a max of 5 minutes, then the power would drop and it would begin mode hopping. The best batteries for your X105 are eneloop rechargable batteries, they last much longer than alkalines, and they are rechargable!

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My X105 seems to have "killed" my lithiums fairly quick. Starting to look like my DX30.
Are the Eneloops safe (i.e. no chance of damage)?
Does Nova back up the warranty if you use these with a X105?

Eneloops are nimh batteries with some very good advantages over regular nimh batteries.

They will not damage your laser and Nova will honor the warranty no matter if you use alkaline, lithium primary, or nimh batteries.

Duracell batteries are horrible for the X-105. When I got my X-105 and used fresh Duracells I couldn't light a match or anything. Then I popped in some Eneloops and now the laser is working wonderfully.

I used regular Duracells by the way, not Ultras.

My X105 drains lithiums in about 30 minutes of total use, NiMH in about 20, and alkalines in about 5. Well, not completely drained... just to the point where it no longer lights matches.