Soshine - reputable brand?

I'm in the market for some protected 3400 mAh 18650s. There seem to be a lot of Soshines on ebay at around $15/battery. The next runners up in price are a few random ones (enermax+, ampmax, no-name panasonic), and the rest just charge around $20/battery.

Has anyone used the high-capacity soshines before? I don't want to burn my house down

I had one of their 700mAh 16340s sold by Orbtronics die on me after a couple of months of easy use.

I wouldn't go with that brand again. Too many other players out there making good stuff.

Chris

new_to_edc said:

I'm in the market for some protected 3400 mAh 18650s. There seem to be a lot of Soshines on ebay at around $15/battery. The next runners up in price are a few random ones (enermax+, ampmax, no-name panasonic), and the rest just charge around $20/battery.

Has anyone used the high-capacity soshines before? I don't want to burn my house down

Click to expand...

Do yourself a favor and get the Panasonics from Fasttech and be done with it. Yes they are not branded other than with the Panasonic cell but that's what you are really buying anyway.

Here is a review: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...impressions-Fasttech-Panasonic-3400-protected

new_to_edc said:

I'm in the market for some protected 3400 mAh 18650s. There seem to be a lot of Soshines on ebay at around $15/battery. The next runners up in price are a few random ones (enermax+, ampmax, no-name panasonic), and the rest just charge around $20/battery.

Has anyone used the high-capacity soshines before? I don't want to burn my house down

Click to expand...

Orbtronics has the Pannie NCR18650A with their protection circuit listed on Ebay for $30 shipped for two. I don't know where you live, but these cells have gotten high marks from HKJ and at $15 per cell, I'd feel good about buying them myself.

I got two of the unprotected Pannie 3100s from them a while back and they've been fine in my Fenix PD32 and ZerbraLight SC600. You have to be a bit more mindful, but at $19 shipped, for two, they were a good deal.

Chris

hi, if you intend to swap the 3400 cells about in different lights then you have to be carefull about the SIZE of the batteries you buy ! not all 18650 batteries are the same size ! and you can have problems. i personally use eagletac PROTECTED 3400 18650 batteries due to them being one of the smallest 18650 3400 PROTECTED cells...they are excellent quality which use the panasonic NCR18650b

double-check with any 18650 cell, that its going to fit in the flashlight you buy !

its normally the PROTECTION circuit which gets fitted which can make the battery vary in size... and the capacity of the actual battery itself effects the size

Bumble said:

not all 18650 batteries are the same size !

Click to expand...

I was wondering about that myself... Looks like my flashlight accepts batteries up to 69mm long - so the Panasonic from Fasttech is out. Unfortunate - they cost $19 / 2, and free shipping, too. I'll take a look at the eagletec's.

What light do you have - a 69.4mm battery may just fit in it.

I probably should have posted my questions in this thread instead of starting a new conversation-->http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...18650-Li-ion-Battery-Low-Cost-Quality-or-Junk

Husker said:

-->http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...18650-Li-ion-Battery-Low-Cost-Quality-or-Junk

Click to expand...

I haven't pulled the trigger myself, but here's what I know: first, figure out if the Panasonic from Fasttec fits. It's 70mm long, check the thickness too. In that other thread people were pretty satisfied with it, and it's the cheapest by far (2 for $20). Since only Panasonic makes 3400mAh cells, they vary in a)packaging & size b)protection circuit and c)are they really genuine panasonic cells. Since it's the same cell inside, the max current should theoretically be the same (unless the protection circuit isn't good, I guess)

As for myself, the regular protected panasonics don't fit, so I'm eyeing the enermax+ (2 for $30), but that's only because I trust the seller more. Any of the other 2 for $30 cells should do fine as well.

Posted in your other thread, but tl;dr: the best deal for you will be the KeepPower 3400s sold via PM on another forum.

The FT Pannies are great but larger, and you will have to wait 10 days for shipping, after Chinese New Year ends.

Its funny you posted this thread right now, because just after I got home from work I went to grab my battery box, a Pelican 1050, and I removed my 2 pack of Soshine RCR123's that I bought new about 7 months ago, and they were charged to 4.1V a few months ago, and have only been through about 1 cycle because after buying them I realized there's very little benefit to using RCR123's due to the fact they only have less than 1/2 the capacity of the $1 Titanium Innovations CR123's or the $1.55 Panasonic CR123's, making them seem like a lose-lose option vs. CR123 primaries, even if they were really good quality batteries. But to make matters worse, both of these batteries have lost almost all their usable charge, with one down to 3.71 volts and the other down to 3.6 volts, which caused the red warning light on my DMM to light up.

So apparently they dont hold a charge well at all. Which makes them even less appealing than CR123 primaries.

HighlanderNorth said:

Its funny you posted this thread right now, because just after I got home from work I went to grab my battery box, a Pelican 1050, and I removed my 2 pack of Soshine RCR123's that I bought new about 7 months ago, and they were charged to 4.1V a few months ago, and have only been through about 1 cycle [...]

But to make matters worse, both of these batteries have lost almost all their usable charge, with one down to 3.71 volts and the other down to 3.6 volts, which caused the red warning light on my DMM to light up.

So apparently they dont hold a charge well at all. Which makes them even less appealing than CR123 primaries.

Click to expand...

If they are protected cells, that wouldn't be unusual. 700mAh drained over 7 months is about a 0.14mA drain. There are a lot protection circuits that need that much power.

BringerOfLight said:

If they are protected cells, that wouldn't be unusual. 700mAh drained over 7 months is about a 0.14mA drain. There are a lot protection circuits that need that much power.

Click to expand...

What kind of protection circuits?
I have only tested a few protection circuits, but they uses 1/30 of that current (about 4uA).

itguy07 said:

Do yourself a favor and get the Panasonics from Fasttech and be done with it. Yes they are not branded other than with the Panasonic cell but that's what you are really buying anyway.

Here is a review: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...impressions-Fasttech-Panasonic-3400-protected

Click to expand...

Fasttech was off for Chinese New Year, but my order shipped yesterday. They are actually cheaper than a lot of ebay batteries.

Be careful with these because they do not fit in all lights. The above thread lists the lights they've been verified to work / not work with. Since my new TK75 was on the list, I ordered.

-Pie

soshine 18650 use NCR guts, so they should be legit 3400