Nobody? I went ahead and ordered a couple from Lighthound. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll be good batteries.
I received three Solarforce branded un-protected 18650's and a small charger with my L900. Separately I ordered 8 Trustfire Gray packaged protected cells and chargers.
This is by no means conclusive, just interesting, but examination of the button top on both cells shows apparently identical tooling marks. This probably means that the button tops were sourced from the same factory, not necessarily that the internals are the same.
They work, they hold a charge in a seemingly identical fashion, very little self discharge over several days. The un-protected cells do not get much use because all my flashlights need multiple 18650's and it is not safe to run them hard in series. I keep them for backup and light duty use.
Sorry I don't have any more definitive answers for you. IF the cells come from the same OEM, they are probably pretty decent. What I can tell you is that when I run them, they discharge at essentially identical rates, they hold charge equally well etc. This small sample of three cells seems to show good consistency. Too small a sample to be conclusive, however, if I had seen inconsistency it would have been cause for concern. Lack of troubling data is not proof of perfection. :)
Best regards,
DGM
