Do you find that you are moving more to higher current cells?

It seems like lately, I have been moving away from high capacity cells like the NCR18650B or NCR18650GA toward higher current cells like the LG HG2 or Sony VTC6. With such a small difference in capacity, it is hard to miss the extra runtime, especially since that little extra that you get from a higher capacity cell is either with poor regulation or after the light has already stepped down. Plus, if even one NCR18650GA isn't enough to keep a light lit on an entire hike, there is little advantage to higher capacity if you already need to swap batteries. Admittedly, none of my lights actually NEEDS more than the 10A that you can safely get from an NCR18650GA. But it just seems like my lights run better with higher current cells (due to better voltage). And the capacity difference is fairly slight, especially when you consider the better regulation you gte from high current cells. Does anyone else here find that the current crop of 3000mAH high current cells just work better than 3500mAH high capacity cells?

most my 18650 come from laptops so i dont get to choose. id love some sonys

In the ever increasing race for more power in smaller packages I find myself more and more excited about the latest in high discharge cells, I just got some Sony VTC5As and Sanyo NCR20700As that I'm excited to see what they can do. Particularly when you are modding lights it seems there is now a drive for higher and higher performance numbers per size even if it's only achievable for a short time due to thermal issues.

It seems battery development in 18650s has slowed recently for capacity, the 3500mah panies have been around a while. And high discharge development is still marching on, the VTC5A is rated at 35A discharge up to 80C and has voltage sag far lower than even cells from a few years ago. I'm sure we'll see some capacity developments considering the amount new battery tech these days but for now it seems the balance of capacity per discharge is tilting so high discharge cells have almost as much capacity but way better current capabilities.

I have found Matt that i have moved to higher drain cells quite a while back. I still have the odd pany B (be it generic or wrapped in KeepPower etc) in use for work lights. It was not too long back i dropped an xtar 3400 which tore the wrapper. Not needing the PCB, i removed the wrapper and PCB which of course revealed a pany B cell(in a p1 feeding an oveready mule right now).

This move to high drain was probably helped along with my vape mods.

A while back i bought quite a few samsung 30Q cells for lights and LG he2/he4's cells for vape mods and some for lights. Also sony vtc5's for both uses(lights and mods). I still have the older pany BD's in use, 10a 3200mah. All cells are separate, so they dont get mixed up and know where i am at with them.

As you say performance wise, i feel similar as i dont use cells right down to 3v or less in low drain applications. So for me(have said before), if its 3000mah or 3500mah it really does not make much difference for my types of use. The GA's i have are being used in a tn36vn right now and seem to suit that application well, LG 3500mah are also used in a k60vn rotated with 30Q's. Both lights i class as moderate demand being multi cell and not crazy output(in todays standards anyway), where as a quad p60 for example gets a 20a cell. Very rare if at all, after a set use the cells get topped off, not seen bellow 3.5v. I also like the fact that they suffer less V sag than the higher mah cells under load.............

Although many get frustrated we have not hit the 4000mah mark, i think we are in a pretty good place with 18650's. It would be nice to have 16340 and 18350 cells get past 600/800mah, as these little suckers soon drop under load. These smaller sizes are great for EDC uses, would be nice to be near 1500mah, which i dont think is too unreasonable in this day and age. Of course 18650 size is where the attention has been at, who knows what is around the corner..............little nuclear cells maybe................or maybe not

StorminMatt said:

... Does anyone else here find that the current crop of 3000mAH high current cells just work better than 3500mAH high capacity cells?

Click to expand...

Yep. My 3000mAh Samsung 30Qs outperform my Orbtronic 3500mAh cells when both power my Olight X7 at Turbo S mode. They actually triple them, if comparing protected cells with unprotected ones is fair. According to my unscientific experiments, I can use 500ish mAh per cell out of the Orbtronics before Turbo S mode becomes unavailable, whereas this happens after I get 1500ish mAh per cell out of my 30Qs.

with the way lights are coming out now with 1000 lumens or higher being the norm, naturally we would look towards high-capacity and high-drain cells. snapshot about a decade or more back when the lumens were barely going over 800, even with a 2900 pany, you would be able to get good run times off that light. Remember that Four Sevens Maelstrom that Dave Chow was carrying around in SHOT? Yes it run using a 26650 cell, but still, the 800 lumens was WOW back then.

I'm probably one of the few that hasn't migrated over to high drain cells. I'm using the NCR18650B's and NCR18650GA's. For the most part, I don't use the lights on the turbo outputs. As far as the small lights (IMR18350 etc) and lower capacity cells compared to a 18650, ya, you can hit some high lumen values but I don't see the point when the run time is so short or terminated due to heat. The new Klarus Mi7 that can hit 700 lumens on turbo with a 14500 doesn't even interest me. But what does interest me is the lowered price of the Foursevens Quark QTLC as they get rid of them for $20 + shipping. Then I don't even use the max mode as one of my two programmed modes.

When I bought my modified SupFire M6 from Richard at Mountain, he recommended the Samsung 25Rs, as being best for output on that light, so I bought four of them, but that's it.

None of my lights need 10A (Ven's 3Tronics Convoy S2+ Triple that he sent me does 6A, but I run an 18350 AWT in that) and none of my lights get used out in the field anywhere near their capacities, so I haven't had the need to go that route.

30Qs, or NCR-GAs (or whatever is a better value to me at the time) will probably be in my next batch, if and when some of my current 18650s begin crapping out.

Chris