Other than to fit an existing device, any reason for 18500 rather than 18350?

eh4

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I'm looking at these mini tubes for the Emisar D1 and D4, initially I thought it was kind of over the top to shrink the lights further and decrease the battery capacity from 18650, but now I'm thinking differently.

Anyway, lacking any devices made to hold 18500, I'm not seeing any advantage with those batteries over the 18350, am I missing something here?
 
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Strintguy

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I think you can get more than double the capacity in the newest 18500 compared to 18350
 

ven

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Not sure of the latest 18500's, but seen 1000mah which is now surpassed by the 1100mah (measured) aspire 18350 cells. For me personally, the only reason i would choose 18500 would be to use up cells i have, and prefering the form factor over 18650 and 18350. Now i think its small enough in 18650 guise, fits nicely imo and have the advantage of more energy in the tank. I also think the 18350 looks kind of awkward(subjective of course), too stubby for my liking.
 

ChrisGarrett

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I'm looking at these mini tubes for the Emisar D1 and D4, initially I thought it was kind of over the top to shrink the lights further and decrease the battery capacity from 18650, but now I'm thinking differently.

Anyway, lacking any devices made to hold 18500, I'm not seeing any advantage with those batteries over the 18350, am I missing something here?

Like Ven states, some people, like me, don't need the longest of runtimes in my EDC life. I'm a 'lipstick light' type of gun and Ven sent me a custom triple XP-L HI Convoy S2+ that runs at 6A on direct drive 'turbo'. I bought the 18350 body for it and happily run it on AWT/Aspire 18350 cells. Runtimes, if you can space it out, are only about 8-10 minutes on turbo, but more than enough for practical purposes.

Two 18500s equal roughly three CR123As in length and voltage and if you are/were running something like a SureFire 9P, then running two of those gives/gave you a rechargeable option, but that was then and this is now.

Chris
 

StorminMatt

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Another advantage of the 18500 size over 18350 is the availability of quality, name brand cells. With 18500, there is the option of the 1700mAH Sanyo UR18500fk and the 2000mAH Panasonic NCR18500a. 18350's, on the other hand, are all Chinese cells of unknown quality.
 

eh4

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Great, thanks!
I hadn't seen the 1700 and 2000mAh 1850s, where I was looking it seemed like the 18350 had them about matched for capacity.

Stacking 2x 18500 to simulate length and voltage of 3x CR123 is a serendipitous matchup.
 

eh4

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ChrisGarrett, I went with an extra 18350 for the Emisar D4, and like you say, after playing around with the D1 til I got the 18650 down to 75-80% I figure that it's practical enough to use with only 1/3 The capacity. I realize that the D4 will drain amps even faster, much faster, but my usage is likely to be mostly low to highest regulated (350mA?) with very sparing use of turbo.

I'm probably going to order an 18500 tube and battery as well for evaluating the ergonomics, but the D4 with the 18350 tube looks to be almost the same length as the 18650 tube and tail cap Without the head. That size will fit in the watch pocket of a pair of jeans, and can be completely covered by my closed hand, which opens up a lot of possibilities.
 
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