Testing new Panasonic 18500 2000mAh cells

I got several and the first observation is that they are a bit thicker than others cells, none would fit into my MD3 body. Not even if you pushed them in.
This may be a problem with the MD3 body however because they would into MD4. And probably MD2.

I spent half an hour boring my MD3 to accept them. I think they are larger possibly due to the fact the capacity is larger but primarily due to the way they are wrapped, the PCB is added and a layer of wrapping on top of whatever was underneath. I don't have any non-protected Panny 2000mAh cells to compare to.

They came at about 3.5V so I am charging them to give them a test drive tonight.

Do you mean these?

https://www.orbtronic.com/18500-battery-li-ion-panasonic-flat-top

They are an older cell now, good to 3-4 amps readily.

thus far I am impressed. They work as described. One hour of regulated runtime in the MD3 Malkoff Hound Dog.

I did have to bore the body with sandpaper for 30 minutes as the MD3 body I had would not fit them. Unlike other cells. Now they fit great and tight.

That is very interesting; I have a SF C3 that had been overbored slightly, and had retired its ancient 1500mAh AW's a few yrs ago, as they were only at ~20% capacity. It's been an empty host for a while now, but these cells sound like decent candidates ...

These are the definitive 18500 cells to get. I still run ancient AW cells in both sizes, and they slowly tick along in a skeptical manner. Turns out I only have 8x18500 decent batteries at this point and about that many obsolete AW cells. contrasting that with a million 18650s I have.

And with the auction's site 15% off just for today I scored some "GA" the 3500mAh Panny's, the unprotected version that I prefer in single 18650 lights such as the trusted Hound Dog 18650. The red cell.

to make one thing perfectly clear, I think Malkoff made the right decision with this (apparently) earlier bodies a bit on the tight side . This way, if you run older, smaller cells, 3000mAh and stuff, they fit fine. The latest-greatest does not. 3500mAh especially the protected variant. So you can bore it out. It just means get some sandpaper in the size of 200 grit or so +/-, wrap around a thick pen or something equivalent and spend 20 minutes polishing the insides of the MD3/MD4 body. You only have to take off a minimal amount. I took off just enough where the cells go in and out but are still pretty tight. He provides a great body and the user can customize it as he sees fit depending on which generation of cells he uses.
Apparently the last generation of MD bodies is a bit looser. I have one MD4 body I had to do nothing to it, everything fits. The other MD4, hardly anything did.

We have many who prefer latest-greatest and I would not be surprised if some still ran the older 2900mAh or 3100mAh Panasonics. They are essentially just as capable but the price is great on them.

My apologies, but reading the description at the Orbtronic site, these are unprotected yes ? ("Unprotected Bare Cell")
A PCB was mentioned in post #1 so forgive me for the uncertainty.

Edit: I still have that M91N which requires 2xLiIon, so my C3 is still a useful platform.

That's not Orbtronic brand as can be seen in the photo.

Yes these cells have a protective circuit on top of it as indicated in the OP. (PCB). I should have taken a better pic of the PCB to make that abundantly clear.

This is the highest quality 18500 you can get right now. Based on the runtime charts, it has 2/3 of the runtime of the 18650 cell. (Well, 2x18500 versus 2x18650).


Initially I run the MD3 Hound Dog then switched the MD3 body to the M61T.

So my apologies, but instead of searching the 'net & not being certain I'm getting good cells; where is a good place to source these protected Panasonics ?