2012 Battery test/review summary

[tobrien]

The "Official specifications" are the sellers/manufacturers specifications, they are not always correct.

The protection circuit has 3 key values:
Over charge cutoff voltage (probably around 4.25 volt)
Over discharge cutoff voltage (Somewhere between 2.00 and 3.00 volt)
Over current cutoff current (Somewhere between 3 and 15 ampere).

The only value I test this time around is the "Over current cutoff current" and it was different on callie and intl-outdoor.

got it. i was taking the manufacturer specs verbatim/as gospel

 

[HKJ]

I have posted the full comparison on my website, it includes more than 100 charts.
There is one set with all batteries, and 3 sets with low, medium and high capacity batteries.
There is also discharge capacity to a couple of other voltages and a few other charts that is missing in this summary.

 

[HKJ]

A status update on the battery test:

Left pile is "to do", middle is "testing" and right is "test done".

It will be some time, before I am finished with the battery test. And my charts with discharge curves for all batteries will be completely unreadable.

 

[Helmut.G]

You could make a transparent graph for every tested battery and put a page on your website where the user can select the batteries he wants to see, then overlay the corresponding images.
I'm not sure if that works however, just an idea.

 

[HKJ]

You could make a transparent graph for every tested battery and put a page on your website where the user can select the batteries he wants to see, then overlay the corresponding images.
I'm not sure if that works however, just an idea.

Interesting idea.
I could probably generate transparent background easily enough, but the curve would be the same color on all the charts, i.e. it would not be possible to see what curve is what battery. To avoid using to much space on the server, it would probably be best to use this type chart:

Then I only need one chart for each battery.


There is also some work doing the code, either server or client based.

 

[Helmut.G]

I hadn't thought about the colors, that could be a problem.

png-graphics require ridiculously little space, you shouldn't have to worry about that.

 

[HKJ]

I hadn't thought about the colors, that could be a problem.

png-graphics require ridiculously little space, you shouldn't have to worry about that.

Space is not a big problem, but there is not reason to waste it.

One way to do it would be to generate two sets of charts one with background and one color scheme and one without background and another color scheme.
This way it would only be possible to compare two batteries at a time, but that is probably enough (I could also generate 3 sets with 3 different color schemes, the 3 batteries could be compared, etc.).

 

[U235]

Great info, thanks for your hard work HKJ. Btw, do you have a list of what's in the "to be tested pile?"

 

[HKJ]

Btw, do you have a list of what's in the "to be tested pile?"

Not a full list, but it includes some AW, RediLast and UltraFire. There is also a "unknown" manufacturer that send many different batteries (Some of them are in the tested pile).

 

[ChibiM]

Absolutely Amazing... HKJ... thanks for posting this!
Thats a great amount of work, and very useful for many people who want to compare different cells, in different price segments..

We really appreciate all this effort!

 

[HKJ]

I have worked with the idea above from Helmut and think it has given a good result (Helmut did help a bit with it).
Now it is possible to this kind of comparison:

The full comparator can be found here.

 

[HKJ]

The UltraFire 4000mAh and all the 18xx0 Keeppower batteries are now included, both in the above bar charts and in the full comparison on my website.
It might be necessary to press F5 to update the charts.

 

[dmprok]

[SIZE=+3]Battery test/review summary[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+2]18650 battery charts[/SIZE]

Thanks for awesome charts! It would have been real great if you could have sorted all your charts from highest to lowest performing battery, that way I can see immediately which battery is right for me.

 

[Changchung]

Hi HKJ, what you do with the batteries after test it? Keep it or send it back to the sellers? Just curious...


SFMI4UT

 

[HKJ]

Thanks for awesome charts! It would have been real great if you could have sorted all your charts from highest to lowest performing battery, that way I can see immediately which battery is right for me.

That would not really be possible. Each chart show performance at more than one current and the best battery is not the same at each current.
This also means that you cannot find a single "best performing" battery, because it depends on application.

Hi HKJ, what you do with the batteries after test it? Keep it or send it back to the sellers? Just curious...

I keep the batteries and use the more extreme sizes when reviewing chargers and flashlights to find their limits on battery size.

 

[Changchung]

That would not really be possible. Each chart show performance at more than one current and the best battery is not the same at each current.
This also means that you cannot find a single "best performing" battery, because it depends on application.



I keep the batteries and use the more extreme sizes when reviewing chargers and flashlights to find their limits on battery size.

Let me know if you want to get rid of some of them...


SFMI4UT

 

[flippflappy]

First post here and A noob to all this battery stuff. Most Likely purchasing A sunwayman Tc40cs, Which batteries and which charger? Any and all advice appreciated. Thank You.

 

[HKJ]

First post here and A noob to all this battery stuff. Most Likely purchasing A sunwayman Tc40cs, Which batteries and which charger? Any and all advice appreciated. Thank You.

A good battery is one based on the NCR18650A cell, this means just about all 3100mAh batteries. You can get them from AW, RediLast, Callies and a lot of other sources.
For a charger the 4Sevens and Pila is probably the best, but the Xtar WP2 II can also be used and it is not as expensive.

 

[flippflappy]

thank you very much HKJ. I have also been debating on purchasing a skilhunt defier x3, xml. what batteries would you suggest for this light?

 

[HKJ]

thank you very much HKJ. I have also been debating on purchasing a skilhunt defier x3, xml. what batteries would you suggest for this light?

Looks like it needs 2x18500. The selection for this size battery is very small, AW has one and I have tested one from Keeppower. The Keeppower is good, but I do not know where you can get it. The AW is probably also good.
With the extension, you can use NCR18650A based batteries and will get twice the runtime.