My AW C's are starting to fail

I purchased two batches of the AW C......1st run, and 2nd run. Some are starting to not hold there charge over a month storage cycle. I have 6 left, and the need for 14 in total. I have many of Varooj's C creations.

So the big question is whether to go with the AW 18650 2600, or maybe the dx C( I am very hesitant to do this). Is there any other option I'm missing?

Sorry to hear your cells are failing. As a matter of interest, what charger have you been using for them, and how many cycles have they done? What voltage are they holding 1 hour after charging?

SR.GRINGO said:

I purchased two batches of the AW C......1st run, and 2nd run. Some are starting to not hold there charge over a month storage cycle. I have 6 left, and the need for 14 in total. I have many of Varooj's C creations.

So the big question is whether to go with the AW 18650 2600, or maybe the dx C( I am very hesitant to do this). Is there any other option I'm missing?

Click to expand...

For what it's worth, I own a few of the DX C cells and haven't had a problem with them. (One out of six or seven no longer holds a charge but that's it.) What their TRUE capacity is, however, I have no idea. They're not being used much anymore because I'm using the AW IMRs but I sure like the idea that the DX's will slide into any old C tube with no problems while I have to get my Mag bodies bored to take the AWs.

How long ago were they purchased, and how many cycles would you guess they have been through at roughly what kind of current draw?

my DX- Li-Ion Cs are crap,
runtime under a good 18650 cell - in the same setup.

unnecessary bigger light for nothing

I purchased the 1st batch around the time AW ran out of the 1st run...(guessing around 3/4 years ago..could have been more)

2nd batch was purchased when his 2nd run started(wish I would have purchased more!)

The first month or two I used the cheap 1 cell charger that AW had linked on his sales page....soon after purchased an adapter to work with my pila IBC charger.

As far as how many cycles I have no idea.... For the most part I didn't let them die. Probably on average 2x per month. I have been running a Fm85, Mac's variable P7, 5761's with AW's soft start, WA1111's.

Around a year ago ended up having so many different forms of AW's purchased a Bantam BC6. Just charged up 6 C's starting at 2.3 amps and got the following readings after 1 hour.

1. 4.18
2. 4.18
3. 4.18
4. 4.13
5. 4.12
6. 3.91

So it looks like one cell @ 3.91v definitely should be recycled, and then there are 2 other cells that are starting to go bad.

Let the other 3 sit for 24hrs then take another reading. If its under 4.15v then they are starting to go bad...