EagleTac 18650 or AW 18650?

[LitFuse]

I am looking to purchase about a half dozen protected 18650 cells for use in my new EagleTac M2 and M2X.

Is there a consensus on the forum regarding the quality of the EagleTac 18650s? I've done some searching, but am not coming up with much info on them. Has anyone done any testing to see if they compare favorably to the AW 18650 cells? The extra 200 mah isn't a big concern for me, I'm just wondering about the overall quality of the cells.

I'm tempted to go with the tried and true AW 18650, but if the ETs are as good, I wouldn't mind saving some $ and getting them instead.

Any information would be appreciated. TIA. :wave:

Peter

 

[mdocod]

They're pretty new but I did read one positive review on them over at PTS IIRC...

Honestly, if you buy them you are going to be the one telling us how good they are rather than the other way around as I doubt very many people have them at this time.

If you are willing, I would ask that you buy a half dozen of each and give em a whirl for awhile and maybe you can let us know how they work out for ya....

It would be an interesting study to do some external tear-downs of an AW, Eagletac, TrustFire, Solarforce, Spiderfire, Ultrafire, Pila, and Wolf-Eyes cells, to see if some of them don't maybe share the same source of origin and could be more trusted... They are ALL chinese cells but some chinese cells seem to be better than others.

A search through a global trade website results in many brands, some more familiar than others, the name DLG pops up and they may be one of the better ones (pure speculation here). Others like KS and Shenzhen I've never heard of...

 

[Toaster]

I saw a test of them here where they performed favorably compared to an AW 2200mAh 18650. AW 2600mAh 18650s are supposedly coming in late May which may be another option worth waiting for.

 

[LitFuse]

Thanks for the replies guys. :thumbsup:

mdocod- If I had the time and equipment (and $) I would certainly take you up on your suggestion to buy a half dozen of each and go crazy...

Unfortunately, that's not a possibility at this time. I do agree that unwrapping some of these cells would be a worthwhile endeavor.

Toaster- Thank you very much for the link! Wow, those EagleTacs really seem to kill the AW cells in that test. So much so, that it would seem that the capacity ratings on one (or both) of those brands are not accurate. I don't understand how the EagleTac cells could go almost a full hour longer than the AWs with only 200 mah more? It would seem that these cells would probably hold their own even against the upcoming AW 2600 cells?

I've never visited that site before, but while there I also came across this thread. Granted, the thread does not really offer a comprehensive review of the "other" cells tested, the author does seem to offer a very favorable opinion of the EagleTac 18650s.

In the back of my mind I had pretty much decided that I would go with the AW 18650s because of their CPF track record, but the info Toaster provided has me thinking that I may give the EagleTac cells a try.


Peter

 

[Black Rose]

AW 2600mAh 18650s are supposedly coming in late May which may be another option worth waiting for.

Aww crap...I just bought another AW 2200 mAh 18650 that should be here tomorrow. Oh well.

 

[DHart]

I saw a test of them here where they performed favorably compared to an AW 2200mAh 18650. AW 2600mAh 18650s are supposedly coming in late May which may be another option worth waiting for.

WOW... the test results surprise me. I say that because I would have expected the capacity of the other lesser-revered brands to be overstated... but apparently the capacities are somewhat reasonably rated. If the Ultrafire 18650... a cell brand I always thought of as being low performing/low quality, can last so long, I would certainly expect AW to step up to the long capacity level. I'm sure there's more to the cells than that test reveals, but perhaps AW isn't the only game in quality town.

 

[Black Rose]

I've got some of the black 2400 mAh Trustfire 18650s on the way (should have them in a few days according to tracking data) that I am going to test with my pair of Solarforce L2 lights and see how the cells compare.

Lermite confirmed they do in fact meet and/or exceed their 2400 mAh capacity rating depending on the current draw.

AW wins on the safety and "guaranteed to fit" aspects for sure. I have no complaints with the AW 18650 (and other sizes) cells I have.

 

[DHart]

AW wins on the safety and "guaranteed to fit" aspects for sure. I have no complaints with the AW 18650 (and other sizes) cells I have.

Agreed.. all my AW protected cells, 18650 and otherwise, have performed very well for me. In fact all of my Li-Ions were AW until I recently bought some Solarforce L2 lights from the solarforcestore which were supplied with no-brand, blue 18650s. And I recently bought a protected Ultrafire 14500 just on a whim. I haven't tested it's runtime against my AW protected 14500 cells though... there is a rating difference between them, IIRC.

But it's nice to see that some higher capacity 18650 cells are available. I wonder if they will hold up for as many cycles as an AW, or be as safe as AW. Such information isn't easy to come by.

 

[LitFuse]

It looks like the link that Toaster provided has been updated with runtime data from the Pila and Wolf Eyes 18650s.

They both were better than the AW and Kai cells, but the EagleTac is still the clear winner.

These are interesting results indeed...


Peter

 

[vio765]

i just broke in a set of eagletac 18650s and it is beating out my AW18650s in runtime tests. i ran my new Eagletac M2CX with the AW's. then i performed the same runtime tests with the ET18650's the ET18650's beat all AW's in all four settings about about 9% in time. not surprising to me, 2400mah is about 9% more capacity than 2200mah.

 

[maxilux]

I have much of the EagleTac 18650, no problems, very good runtime, in my opinion one of the best 18650 you can buy in the moment. EagleTac said to me, they are based on Sanyo cell, what do you want more.

 

[Black Rose]

EagleTac said to me, they are based on Sanyo cell, what do you want more.

Now that is a good bit of information right there :thumbsup:

 

[LitFuse]

Yes, Sanyo has an excellent reputation as a battery manufacturer.

I ended up ordering 6 EagleTac 18650s from 4sevens. I got them yesterday along with 2 Yoho-122 chargers from Batterystation. Looks like I'm all set for those guilt-free lumens.

Peter

 

[lrp]

I like AW's cells and have never had the first problem with any of them and been using them for several years and several different sizes!!

 

[DHart]

It's great to see more options for quality batteries these days. Good on EagleTac and Ultrafire.

 

[mdocod]

I have much of the EagleTac 18650, no problems, very good runtime, in my opinion one of the best 18650 you can buy in the moment. EagleTac said to me, they are based on Sanyo cell, what do you want more.

If these were in fact Sanyo cells with PCBs these would be the best bargain in flashlight oriented LiCo cells since, ever.... The concept of being "based on" probably means that the Sanyo design was the chosen design to "rip-off" by some chinese cell manufacture, but I can't say for certain either way... This just tends to be the more likely scenario...

 

[maxilux]

I think the battery is from Sanyo and the protection is from EagleTac.

 

[Greg G]

I can't find these on 4Sevens site. Anyone have a link?

Thanks.

 

[wapkil]

I can't find these on 4Sevens site. Anyone have a link?

They are listed in the EagleTac-Store but not on 4sevens.com :shrug:

 

[Black Rose]

If these were in fact Sanyo cells with PCBs these would be the best bargain in flashlight oriented LiCo cells since, ever.... The concept of being "based on" probably means that the Sanyo design was the chosen design to "rip-off" by some chinese cell manufacture, but I can't say for certain either way... This just tends to be the more likely scenario...

Without peeling the wrapper off and hoping to find Sanyo info on the bare cell, there is probably no way of really knowing.

EDIT: I found a photo of the EagleTac 18650 cells on another site. Cropped and rehosted the photo.
No need to peel the wrapper off, but there are no tell-tale signs of who makes it either.
Doesn't seem to match photos of Sanyo 18650 cells I found.