Test/review of LiitoKala INR26650-50A 5000mAh (Cyan)

HKJ · Feb 6, 2017

[size=+3]LiitoKala INR26650-50A 5000mAh (Cyan)[/size]

Official specifications:

Capacity: 5000mAh
Rated voltage: 3.6V
Full voltage: 4.2V
End-off voltage: 2.75V
Max discharge current: 20A (4C)
Internal resistance: 15 mohm

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-info.png

Fairly high capacity, good current and not that expensive, is this cell as good as it looks?

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-Capacity.png

Discharge curve looks good, the tracks fairly well and capacity is nearly constant up to 15A.

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-Temp-15.0.png

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-Temp-20.0.png

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-Temp-30.0.png

At 30A the cell get hot enough that I terminates the test a bit early.

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-CapacityTimeHours.png

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-CapacityTime.png

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-Energy.png

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-PowerLoadTime.png

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-TripCurrent.png

LiitoKala%20INR26650-50A%205000mAh%20(Cyan)-Charge.png

[size=+3]Conclusion[/size]

The cell live up to its rating and is one of the top performers for 26650 at the current time.

[size=+3]Notes and links[/size]

How is the test done and how to read the charts
How is a protected LiIon battery constructed
More about button top and flat top batteries
Compare to 18650 and other batteries

teacher · Feb 6, 2017

Excellent!!! Thank you for the review of these cells HKJ.

SG Hall · Feb 6, 2017

Thanks HKJ, excellent review as usual.
This is a great cell and very cheap. I have two and they have been working beautifully in high lumen single 26650 lights. Your test adds weight to what I am seeing in the field. [emoji106][emoji4]

Capolini · Feb 6, 2017

Thanks for the great review!

I was waiting for these to compare to my Vappower IMR.

These have more slightly capacity with the Voltage sag being about equal w/ the Two going back and forth a few times then leveling off.

samgab · Feb 6, 2017

I'm pleased with this new trend of cells having more than their claimed capacity (and making those claims in Wh ideally too).
I remember the bad old days when cheap AA NiMH cells were claiming more than 3000 mAh, and 18650's were claiming as much as 9900mAh...
Oh, those are still out there on eBay etc... :ohgeez:

Mr. Tone · Feb 6, 2017

Great review, HKJ, thanks again. It's good to see more reliable 26650 options.

SubLGT · Feb 6, 2017

The 50A claim on the battery label is ridiculous. But otherwise a good battery. Over at BLF, they have pointed out that there is another (fake?) version of this battery, with inferior performance.

samgab · Feb 6, 2017

It's really hard to find datasheets these days, but the 50A likely refers to MAX PEAK PULSED current, not sustained continuous current. It's not at all unusual for it to be able to handle quick pulses of 10C, as it was (just) able to sustain 30A continuous. But with continuous discharge heat becomes the big problem due to ESR, which isn't an issue if it's a short pulse.

bella-headlight · Feb 7, 2017

SubLGT said:
The 50A claim on the battery label is ridiculous. But otherwise a good battery. Over at BLF, they have pointed out that there is another (fake?) version of this battery, with inferior performance.

I am not aware of any reports of a fake version of this cell on BLF ?
What there is is a report that some cells are labelled 26650-50A & some cells labelled 26650-50B.
One member posted that their capacity test on their cell showed 4900 mah, which is still perfectly acceptable for a 5000mah rated cell, but they are the only member to post capacity under 5000mah.
Everyone else has posted capacity at 5200-5400mah depending on what analysing charger they are using, 5400mah being seen by those using Opus chargers & 5200mah by everyone else using MC3000"s, Lii-500"s etc.
I have 12 of these cells labelled both B & A, bought in 3 separate purchases from 2 different sellers, & have had them for around 7 months.
They all showed capacity of about 5400mah when tested in my Opus & about 5200mah (same as HKJ) when tested in either of my 2 Lii-500"s.
Also the original post about these cells on BLF was from a member using an Opus charger.
Opus chargers IMHO tend to show "optimistic" cell capacities.

bella-headlight · Feb 7, 2017

samgab said:
It's really hard to find datasheets these days, but the 50A likely refers to MAX PEAK PULSED current, not sustained continuous current. It's not at all unusual for it to be able to handle quick pulses of 10C, as it was (just) able to sustain 30A continuous. But with continuous discharge heat becomes the big problem due to ESR, which isn't an issue if it's a short pulse.

Agreed.
I have 12 of these cells & compared to my other 26650"s, Basen (2 versions), Keeppower (2 versions), King Kong & Thorfire they are the highest capacity & best performing cells.
They were also the cheapest, in comparison to the KP"s well under half the price !
I like them a lot.

samgab · Feb 7, 2017

bella-headlight said:
I am not aware of any reports of a fake version of this cell on BLF ?
What there is is a report that some cells are labelled 26650-50A & some cells labelled 26650-50B.
One member posted that their capacity test on their cell showed 4900 mah, which is still perfectly acceptable for a 5000mah rated cell, but they are the only member to post capacity under 5000mah.
Everyone else has posted capacity at 5200-5400mah depending on what analysing charger they are using, 5400mah being seen by those using Opus chargers & 5200mah by everyone else using MC3000"s, Lii-500"s etc.
I have 12 of these cells labelled both B & A, bought in 3 separate purchases from 2 different sellers, & have had them for around 7 months.
They all showed capacity of about 5400mah when tested in my Opus & about 5200mah (same as HKJ) when tested in either of my 2 Lii-500"s.
Also the original post about these cells on BLF was from a member using an Opus charger.
Opus chargers IMHO tend to show "optimistic" cell capacities.

Okay, so the "50A" is just part of the product code moniker: "INR26650-50A" like Samsungs with the "ICR18650-30A", it's not a claim of current capability. Makes sense.

khas · Feb 7, 2017

The battery is produced by PLB (Power long battery), they produce a wide variety of batteries including the one tested here. The 50 in the product code I think is 5000mAh, they also produce INR26650-55A with 5500mAh capacity.

SubLGT · Feb 7, 2017

bella-headlight said:
I am not aware of any reports of a fake version of this cell on BLF ?...

See post #2 at http://budgetlightforum.com/node/52562#new

bella-headlight · Feb 7, 2017

I had not seen that post before, it was only made Monday night.
There is no mention of their capacity or IR it just says "They have higher int resistance abd lower capacity".
I wonder if they only show 4900mah ?
Apart from that post I can only remember one member reporting under 5000mah capacity & that was the member who reported 4900mah, if there have been other posts reporting poorly performing Liitokala 26650"s I apologise.
I have 6 cells that say 26650-50A, VB16B23A & test at about 5200mah & 6 cells that say 26650-50B, VE15E19A that also test about 5200mah on a Lii-500 or all 12 show about 5400mah on my Opus.
If a lesser version of these cells is now being sold that is sad as the ones I & many members have are probably the best 26650"s out there.

Greta · Feb 8, 2017

Several posts and references to those posts have been removed from this thread as they could be considered to be "thread trashing". If you have a problem with someone's review of a product regarding the "truthfulness" of it, please feel free to post your own "truthful" review instead of trashing someone else's.

bella-headlight · Feb 12, 2017

Without wanting to cause an argument over here but for clarification purposes I have spoken to the BLF member who has mentioned that there are poorer performing versions of this cell (he has lots of Liitokala 26650"s)
These poorer performing versions do indeed test out at about 4900mah & ir"s of about 30 as opposed to about 5200mah & ir"s of about 20 (when tested on our budget analysing chargers)
Although a few hundred ma less, for a cell rated at 5000mah these are still not bad numbers but it would appear that some of us have got lucky getting the 5200mah versions.
Bearing in mind these numbers I would not go so far as to say these lower ma cells are fakes as they are only about 100mah below the manufacturers claimed mah, probably rather just a different production run.
As we all know 26650"s are not made by the 5 big cell producers & as such differences in the quality between production runs can & does occur.

HKJ · Feb 12, 2017

It would be interesting to get the markings on the lower performance cells, are there any differences?

bella-headlight · Feb 12, 2017

Hi HKJ, post number 2 here http://budgetlightforum.com/node/52562#new
has pictures of the lower performing cells.
Slightly different labelling, no INR, no 3.6v, no 18wh & no F3.
I have been thinking & wondering that as there is apparently a 5500mah & 5000mah version of this cell, & as it is usual for us to generally record slightly lower ma"s than manufacturer specs give for cells if the cells showing around 5200mah are actually the 5500mah version labelled as 5000mah either by mistake or as sometimes happens with Chinese manufacturers to get sales going of something new ?
I have often found that the first version of a Chinese product is the best & when they make a mark 2, so to speak, that rather than being better it is often not quite as good as the mark 1 ?
That is exactly what happened with the Basen 26650"s where the early cells were over spec & the later ones (once interest in the cells had been aroused) slightly under spec
Who knows ?

Gauss163 · Feb 12, 2017

HKJ said:
It would be interesting to get the markings on the lower performance cells, are there any differences?

Iirc this infrormation, including links to the original manufacturers datasheets, was given in a prior CPF review linked in a posts above (now deleted by a moderator). Does anyone have a link to that prior review? (I could not locate it by a quick Google search).

BVH · Feb 12, 2017

Where are you getting these good cells from?

Test/review of LiitoKala INR26650-50A 5000mAh (Cyan)

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