18650s. What are you using and where are you buying?

[TPA]

I'm in the USA and most of my 18650 stock are harvested from laptop batteries, which are now long past their prime. Some of my flashlights came with Samsung 35E's and they've been good. I'm trying to find a replacement or equivalent substitute for those at a reasonable cost, and from a reputable dealer. I fly a lot and the last thing I want to deal with is an LiIon battery fire from a counterfeit or cheap cell.

Thanks.

 

[orbital]

+

These were the last 18650s' I bought while back,,
button top & good performance.

I'd buy them again if needed.

18650 Keeppower IMR18650 3200mAh High Discharge Button Top

18650 Keeppower IMR18650 3200mAh High Discharge Button Top

illumn.com

> I don't bother with cells that have tacky pcb on them, unnecessary

 

[chaosdsm]

Orbtronic is my primary site for 18650 / 26650 Lithium Ion batteries. I have a few genuine Panasonic cells, a few other cells that came with flashlights (including 1 really good 26650), but 80%-90% of my Li-ion batteries are Orbtronic, out of the Orbtronic's, about 70% are protected cells.

They're just a couple hours away, so I can go down & pickup if I'm already headed that way. But I usually just have them shipped, basic USPS shipping usually takes 1 or 2 days, & is less than the cost of gas for the trip.

All of my Orbtronic branded batteries have exceeded rated capacity according to my Opus BT-3100 charger. Even the oldest ones I own, after several years of usage, are still showing within 1% of the capacity printed on the batteries.

My oldest pair of Orbtronic 26650's - unprotected 5000mAh - still show about 5050mAh (+/- 15mAh) after last "Charging Test" cycle on the Opus, and that's with poor battery management on my part. For some reason I often find myself over running them in my Convoy L6, reaching the flashing LED warning built into the Convoy But the batteries just keep on goin!

 

[pnwoutdoors]

Panasonic NCR18650B are my go-to. (Or the Orbtronic or other variants based on the NCR18650B.)

They work reliably well. Replaced my old stash of AW cells.

 

[vicv]

Panasonic NCR18650B are my go-to. (Or the Orbtronic or other variants based on the NCR18650B.)

They work reliably well. Replaced my old stash of AW cells.

I think you'd be surprised how much better your lights perform if you got better cells. That's a really old tech, and they weren't particularly good for our use when they came out. More for big battery packs

 

[Mr. LED]

Vapcell 18650 4000mAh 10A, it's great and the capacity surpasses the advertised.

 

[pnwoutdoors]

I think you'd be surprised how much better your lights perform if you got better cells. That's a really old tech, and they weren't particularly good for our use when they came out. More for big battery packs

"Old" tech -- how so? IOW, what specifically are the better-performing aspects of "modern" cells?

 

[vicv]

By old tech I mean Panasonic developed that over 10 years ago. Those particular cells have high internal resistance, so they have low voltage under load. Most of the extra capacity is down around 2.7-3.3v. Below regulation for almost all lights. They are good if using 2 in series in a buck driver. Then those issues aren't apparent. But the 3500 mah cell is better in every way. For useable capacity most 3000mah cells are better as well.

From hjk website

 

[iacchus]

I've still got a bunch of healthy Sony/Murato VTC cells.
Lately I've picked up some Keepower and Molicell IMR that I've had good performance from.
I mostly deal w/ illumn

 

[Monocrom]

Just using mine in the numerous lights I have that accept them.

Tried going the rechargeable route several times in the past. All previous efforts ended very early. Honestly, too many cons over going with primaries. But with recent improvements, many of those cons have become mild disadvantages instead of deal-breakers. Plus, now there's one HUGE con with primaries.... jacked-up prices!!!

As to where I get mine, only from trusted online shops. Most of us know which ones I mean.

 

[letschat7]

I use Eden purchased from knivesandtools.nl

 

[dml24]

Orbtronic is my primary site for 18650 / 26650 Lithium Ion batteries. I have a few genuine Panasonic cells, a few other cells that came with flashlights (including 1 really good 26650), but 80%-90% of my Li-ion batteries are Orbtronic, out of the Orbtronic's, about 70% are protected cells.

They're just a couple hours away, so I can go down & pickup if I'm already headed that way. But I usually just have them shipped, basic USPS shipping usually takes 1 or 2 days, & is less than the cost of gas for the trip.

All of my Orbtronic branded batteries have exceeded rated capacity according to my Opus BT-3100 charger. Even the oldest ones I own, after several years of usage, are still showing within 1% of the capacity printed on the batteries.

My oldest pair of Orbtronic 26650's - unprotected 5000mAh - still show about 5050mAh (+/- 15mAh) after last "Charging Test" cycle on the Opus, and that's with poor battery management on my part. For some reason I often find myself over running them in my Convoy L6, reaching the flashing LED warning built into the Convoy But the batteries just keep on goin!

I have Orbtronic 18650s, and 21700s. The 18560s are nearly five-years old, and hold a charge well.

 

[chaosdsm]

The Panasonic NCR18650B is a great, consistent, & reliable battery, no doubt about it.

BUT... it was designed & built before all these great super bright flashlights that require a higher current to reach those really bright levels.

5A is kind of pushing it for the NCR18650B in either protected, or unprotected variety and it will not do 7A.

Newer batteries from Sony, LG, Samsung, Panasonic, can outperform. Like the Sony US18650VC7 3400mAh, for example. At any load 2A or greater, it shows higher capacity, and a better voltage curve than the old Panasonic at the same load. Plus it can run up to 15A load continuously.

There are even some more modern ICR18650, IMR18650, & INR18650's (& probably others) that can hit 30A continuous draw.

I don't have any way to test their high drain capabilities, but I have some Orbtronic high performance 18650 3120mAh that claim 30A continuous 40A pulse (5sec on with minimum 30sec rest). I bought them due to great price, not the 30A draw capability.



These will be used in a 200 Watt portable bluetooth speaker I'm building!!!

 

[pnwoutdoors]

The Panasonic NCR18650B is a great, consistent, & reliable battery, no doubt about it.

BUT... it was designed & built before all these great super bright flashlights that require a higher current to reach those really bright levels.

So, in a light that doesn't require much power and doesn't pull much amperage, then it works quite well. Just not in the high-draw type lights you mean. Yes?

My own flashlights are all the Malkoff LED drop-in M61 modules. None of the M91, none of the other 1000+ lumen lights out there.

 

[vicv]

So, in a light that doesn't require much power and doesn't pull much amperage, then it works quite well. Just not in the high-draw type lights you mean. Yes?

My own flashlights are all the Malkoff LED drop-in M61 modules. None of the M91, none of the other 1000+ lumen lights out there.

Probably the worst in the m61. The m61 really needs two cells. The driver he uses has a pretty big drop out voltage so once the cell hits around 3.8v, it drops out of regulation. The ncrb is at 3.8v fresh off the charger as soon as a load of 1A is put on it. As I said, its performance is low in the discharge. It doesn't supply good voltage. Which is what you want. It's more than just bad at high loads. Now with an md4 and two of them, they would be almost unparalleled

 

[chaosdsm]

The ncrb is at 3.8v fresh off the charger as soon as a load of 1A is put on it. As I said, its performance is low in the discharge. It doesn't supply good voltage.

That's not quite true. From about 0.25A to about 1.5A the NCRB is excellent, and it will run longer than most of the high drain cells, especially under 1A or less - 1.5A is pretty much a push with no clear winner, above that the newer cells almost always win out. EDIT: YES, as with any generalization, there are exceptions.

Also, lgyte-info shows the NCRB does NOT drop below 3.8v right away, except with a 5A load, but even then it's around the 1 minute mark... Even at 2A load, it runs about 18 minutes before dropping to 3.8v, at 1A it's nearly 50 minutes to 3.8v...



If yours aren't behaving this way, you may have gotten counterfeits or just bad battery. There were a LOT of counterfeits of this battery for a long time...

 

[vicv]

It's was a long time ago. It was a protected aw cell so it should have been good. But I remember it dropping to 3.77v and dropping quickly at 1A. Maybe I got a bad one? AW was supposed to be the best and I got it directly from him. This was before bare 18650s were really available.

But it could have been bad. Still I imagine the GA or 35E cell shouldn't be much more expensive and it's a far better cell. I just use 30q/HB2s in all my 18650 lights as they seem to perform quite well in a lot of devices

 

[iacchus]

Sometimes it seems like I buy flashlights just to justify my battery addiction.

 

[PaladinNO]

(Panasonic NCR18650B)

That's a really old tech, and they weren't particularly good for our use when they came out. More for big battery packs

I had to double-check, but the Panasonic NCR18650B is the same cell I am using in my Fenix TK76 (got 3x battery carriers, each carrier taking 4x cells in a 2 parallel / 2 series configuration - shown off here).

Personally, I went with the NCR18650B because I needed many of them and the price was right. Most difficult part was finding real ones back then (this was a decade ago), amongst the plethora of fakes sold at around the same price...

Would there really be much difference in performance if I went with 12x Nitecore NL1835HP cells instead? The TK76 is only 2800 Lumens.
I am a bit limited regarding what I can put in the TK76, because the carriers only take protected button-tops. Tested with Fenix 18650 ARB-L2 flat-tops, and they don't fit.

 

[vicv]

Man that's a wild looking light! I'd say you're fine. The light uses 3v LEDs and you have the cells in a series configuration so they should be performing well. As I said before, the ncrb has a lot of its capacity down in the low voltage area of its discharge curve. Bad for the incandescents and xm-ls I was using back then due to its high vf. But since yours are in series, it can take advantage of the capacity