18650 Battery Questions.

Hey All,

i have a couple of noob questions. did a search but found nothing ... so here goes.

1) can an AW 18650 be left charged stored for 2 months with no self discharge? meaning as a spare battery will it still be good to go even after 2 months of storage?

2) what is the difference between the New AW P18650-26 vs the AW18650 Button Top? can i use the P18650's in place of the Button Top's for longer life (2600mah vs 2200mah)

3) what can be the expected extra run time running of using 2600mah vs 2200mah? is it worth the extra $$$ vs extra run time?

thanks,
brandt

Storage = keep em in the fridge .. If you need fresh cells after 2 months .

Cant speak for the earlier one but the 2600 is a good cell , though some of the newer Chinese batteries look promising ..

Some of the other questions are very subjective . Value VS Run Time ..

For the price of one AW you could buy 2 Ultrafires , which when counting $ VS run time would win on both counts .

some of the newer Chinese batteries look promising

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Any you could recommend?

aurum said:

Any you could recommend?

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I've had good luck with Trustfire 2500mA.

maddog said:

1) can an AW 18650 be left charged stored for 2 months with no self discharge? meaning as a spare battery will it still be good to go even after 2 months of storage?

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Absolutely. They store almost like lithium primaries, and while cool temps are better than warm (don't freeze them, though!), refrigeration is definitely not required to have near zero loss of charge. It does, however, take a toll on their ability to sustain good capacity if you store them at 100% charge, or about 4.2 volts. I like to stop charge at about 4.1 volts, which can about double the life of the cell with respect to how long it will take untill it loses a given percentage of it's storage capacity. At 4.1 volts, you will still have about 90% of full charge, and with an 18650, that is still a lot.

aurum said:

Any you could recommend?

Click to expand...

Just tested the New - WOW18650 and Fireworm 18650 , both did better than the AW2600 ..
Red and Black Trustfires look good as well and the new Ultrafire 2600 red and green batteries are good as well .

But plenty of battery tests to read on this forum .

Two things to consider : Capacity and discharge rate .

Discharge rate could be important if say you run a SSC P7 that uses a single 18650 , so the more current that gets to the LED the brighter or more output you will get . A lot of folks only get 2.4-2.6A current measure at the tail , and it may very well be due to the battery and its inability to deliver .

So a high discharge capable battery may be very important to you ..

Capacity , also could be important to you . You may not wish to carry spare batteries , and having a light with good output and long run time could be all important . A true 2600mA battery , at say 500mAh will offer over 5 hours run time and most likely over 100Lumen of light , giving a good balance of light VS run time .

For the average person these things may not really matter or be all that important , especially for say a light used around the home , but for police / fire / or emergency personnel , every minute could mean life or death .