'New' battery with Fenix CL25R, but discharged to <2.5V?

I only wrote my first post on here a few hours ago, and it already seems that I'm being drawn into flashaholism very quickly!

So here's #2:

Earlier on I received my Fenix CL25R lantern, which came with a 2.300mAh Fenix flat top 18650. The lantern was sold as new, and came in its original packaging with all the accessories (but not shrink-wrapped). But when I tested the battery with my multimeter, it showed a voltage of 2.48V. When I was lurking on this forum, I came across a number of warnings about batteries that have been over-discharged, and I seem to remember the advice to discard any batteries below a certain voltage.

Is the battery safe to recharge? How could it have become so discharged - could that have happened just by storing it for a certain length of time? Or was I sold a second hand item? The seller was charging a few ££ less than the others on ebay, so I'm wondering if it was old stock (the light came out several years ago), and whether the battery could have degraded that much during that time?

I would mainly like to use the light with a higher capacity battery, but obviously I don't want to just throw away the one that came with the lamp if it has still got some life left in it.

Kind of strange for a new Fenix battery to be that low. Mostly new batteries are in the 3.60v area when new and not recharged yet. Also I think the battery came as a button top, but I can't check mine as I gave mine to my son in law as a spare for him. I use a 3400mAh flat top unprotected Panasonic (NCR18650B) in mine. I would recharge the one you got. It's borderline too low. I'd charge it outside the lantern if you have an external charger. That way its not enclosed just to make sure nothing happens but I doubt anything will.

hiuintahs said:

Kind of strange for a new Fenix battery to be that low. Mostly new batteries are in the 3.60v area when new and not recharged yet. Also I think the battery came as a button top, but I can't check mine as I gave mine to my son in law as a spare for him. I use a 3400mAh flat top unprotected Panasonic (NCR18650B) in mine. I would recharge the one you got. It's borderline too low. I'd charge it outside the lantern if you have an external charger. That way its not enclosed just to make sure nothing happens but I doubt anything will.

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OK, I'll be placing it in my i4 and I'll keep a close eye on it while it's charging.

Yes, it seems strange that a flat top battery was included, and I was wondering whether the seller might have had some old batteries that he used to replace the ones with that came with his lanterns. The light still has the tag attached that says 'Please ensure the insulation tag of the battery removed before the first use' [sic], but there was no insulation (I remember some people saying that their light came with a plastic disc inside the battery tube). I really can't imagine Fenix doing that, and in fact in the UK electronic or electrical items with batteries inside are restricted by the postal service.

I'm starting to wonder whether the light itself might be fake. I briefly plugged it into the USB port of my PC to test it, and I was surprised that I could see the distinct outline of the light that was emitted from every LED, while I had expected that it would be lit up more uniformly. That is not something that was mentioned in any of the reviews (or something that could be seen on any of the photos), and one reviewer even made an assumption about the amount of LEDs in his light, whereas with my light there is no need for any guesses - the amount of LEDs can clearly be counted by their outlines.

EDIT: The photo that is part of this thread shows that the output of every individual LED is visible in moonlight mode. It does make sense that they would only blend into each other at higher output levels.

I suspect that the battery isn't the original and that it was swapped out. As far as the light itself, that is hard to know unless you compared it against a known original. I think you're probably OK in that area as it might be harder to do a fake replica without being noticed. Yes the lanterns do come with a plastic disc that needs to be removed before using.

Here is a picture of mine. You can also make out the LEDs on it too. This is the 2nd level up. It's a little more pronounced in moonlight mood, but you can still make them out at every level. It doesn't bother me though. It's still pretty well diffused light.

That's what mine looks like. At least I've now got some reassurance, and I have edited my original post:

EDIT: The photo that is part of

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this thread shows that the output of every individual LED is visible in moonlight mode. It does make sense that they would only blend into each other at higher output levels.

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Yes, it does seem like a way for the seller to replace his stock of old batteries with new ones - sounds like a dodgy practice, but at least I'm not too concerned about a 2,300mAh battery. I just needed to know whether it is safe to recharge it and keep it as a backup.

Oddly, it wasn't the only 18650 with a low voltage that I received today. I also got two protected AWT 3,400mAh 18650s. The first one showed 4.18V, but the second one only had 3.51V. I'm wondering whether that kind of thing happens a lot, or whether I've just been unlucky. The only 18650s that I had before were the ones that came with my Olight torch - I didn't have a multimeter when I received them, but I do remember the torch working straight away when I first tested it with them inside.

The 4.18v has been charged since new.......but probably doesn't matter that it was. The 3.51v is similar to a new cell. The manufacture leaves them around 3.65v (+/- some tolerance that I can't remember right off) because that is the ideal long term storage voltage in the event the battery doesn't get sold any time soon. I think you're OK with those. AW is well known brand around here.

That's good to know. Pretty sure that they must have come from the manufacturer like that, as the packaging didn't look like it had been tampered with. They're AWT by the way, not AW - I searched for AW after reading about them on this forum in the past, but they don't seem to be available in the UK (unless you pay an extortionate amount for postage). But the ones I got do look like quality items, and they've had some good reviews so I'm pretty confident that I'm safe.

Wow, I had no idea what the light is capable of. Now that it's dark outside I decided to test it with one of my Olight batteries (which I assume means I'll need to top up all 3 batteries to the same level, before using them in my torch again). The low and medium modes that were accessible when it was plugged into a USB charger were nothing compared to the high and turbo modes - I'm seriously impressed, and I can finally say that I'm happy with all my new purchases!

Bright Bird said:

That's good to know. Pretty sure that they must have come from the manufacturer like that, as the packaging didn't look like it had been tampered with. They're AWT by the way, not AW - I searched for AW after reading about them on this forum in the past, but they don't seem to be available in the UK (unless you pay an extortionate amount for postage). But the ones I got do look like quality items, and they've had some good reviews so I'm pretty confident that I'm safe.

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Torch direct sells AW batteries.

Nev said:

Torch direct sells AW batteries.

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You're right, just found them - pretty steep though, at twenty quid a pop!