**NEW** Fenix ARB-L2 18650 (2600mAh)

I found this few days ago,

18650 Li-ion battery from Fenix. (UL certificated)

http://www.fenixlight.com/viewnproduct.asp?id=112

I like the pcb protection

Fenix finally jumping on the 18650 bandwagon!

I find it humorous that they say that the battery has passed the following certifications:

1) UL (The individual cell is probably UL certified, but the product as a whole, I doubt it. The UL logo also is fake. The real one the text is not slanted / italicized. UL logo's here.)
2) Recycle Symbol (not a certification)
3) RoHS (RoHS does not apply to batteries! Yet so many companies just slap these markings on their product)
4) Don't throw in trash symbol (not a certification)

in china they have their own certification program but never properly executed, and most china manufacturers would just disregard it since no authority are likely to check before their products are being push into markets being exported. Thus instead of having their product to undergo through various testing they would just affix whatever certification stick you could name, this explains why virtually all unbranded electrical appliances carry every kind of safety/certification/compliance stickers. nothing is authentic in china

Rohs (lead free soldering) can apply, as there is a pcb inside.

CE marks are just a manufacturers promise.

UL or similar actually require testing. You can get it tested directly in China. TÜV, UL and others have "offices" and "test houses" there.

ev13wt said:

Rohs (lead free soldering) can apply, as there is a pcb inside.

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True, but RoHS does not apply to batteries. Secondly, yes you can use a lead free soldering process, but most of the PCB components like mosfets, IC's etc, would also need to be lead free.

UL testing costs thousands of dollars, and again I highly doubt the product as a whole (PCB and cell) have passed this process.

I just bought some Xtar 3100mAh 18650... pass on this one ~

iron potato said:

I just bought some Xtar 3100mAh 18650... pass on this one ~

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Remember though, that the 3100mAh use NNP technology. This is not so good for high drain, and the battery still has almost half it capacity left when its voltage would indicate it was empty when compared to ICR li-ion. Your high power lights may not get the best out of it unless designed to do so, so the new Fenix cell, which should deliver the specification as a minimum, should be a good one.

Of course the price point is important, and I'd be interested to see how long the TK21 will run on Turbo using Fenix's own 18650.

subwoofer, chinese price 70 CNY/pcs (11.09 USD)

jasonck08 said:

True, but RoHS does not apply to batteries. Secondly, yes you can use a lead free soldering process, but most of the PCB components like mosfets, IC's etc, would also need to be lead free.

UL testing costs thousands of dollars, and again I highly doubt the product as a whole (PCB and cell) have passed this process.

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Well, Rohs doesn't apply to batteries as a product, but Fenix typically is quite English challenged anyhow... They "could" write PCB is ROHS. Lead free soldering sucks anyhow, but what can you do these days...

UL: True, but if the Chinese cousin has the test lab, and the other cousin does the PCB, and the other cousin... UL done right is very expensive, agreed.

The German price at flashlightshop.de (the German importer for Fenix) is 12.90€. This is a very good price for Germany, AW 18650s cost over 20€ at German shops and the German assembled Enerpower start at the same price for the 2200mAh version.

It says "safe"?! Anyone going to test it? And since it says "safe", it should give some legal leverage (Consumer Protection Agency, law suits, insurance, fire department) if there's a thermal run away.

snakyjake said:

It says "safe"?! Anyone going to test it? And since it says "safe", it should give some legal leverage (Consumer Protection Agency, law suits, insurance, fire department) if there's a thermal run away.

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Cars are 'safe' in the right hands. I do hope the 'let's sue them' culture does not keep going. People really should take more responsibility for themselves and only sue in cases of a true failure of a duty of care.

It is comments like this that have resulted on 'WARNING! Misuse can cause injury or death -- follow warning and instructions in owner's manual' being stamped on gun barrels!

snakyjake, you were joking weren't you?

I see a large difference between comparing the risk of cars to batteries. Many things today are illegal, regulated, or controlled because of risk. Same with cars. The majority of people are taught cars are not safe, and risks are mitigated.


I think a manufacturer declaring these batteries as "safe" either shows a lot of confidence the battery really is safe (no thermal runaway or explosion), or is socially irresponsible and negligent. So Fenix better be careful on what they advertise (false advertising leading to personal/property damage is a big deal).


The reason for a lawsuit is because the manufacturer/distributor/store/packaging is telling an average person the battery is "safe". There's a lot of presumption/interpretation of what "safe" means, and the manfucturer can be fraudulent or misinforming the consumer.


Now what happens if the battery is obtained by a child and the battery goes into thermal runaway? How do you think Child Protection Services, parents, judges, juries, law makers, manufacturers are going to react? I'd say the packing said the battery was "safe", and therefore misled to believe the battery would not explode or cause personal damage. The rest is up to a judge, lawmakers, and society to decide.

Fenix...you've been warned!

Jake

gopajti said:

I found this few days ago,

18650 Li-ion battery from Fenix. (UL certificated)

http://www.fenixlight.com/viewnproduct.asp?id=112

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Anyone knows what cells these are based on? Sanyo, Panasonic or Samsung? Or Redilast?
The protection looks good but i havent any problems with my protected cells (Xtar, based on Sanyo).
If the Fenix contains a noname cell (say of the XXXFire type), then i dont care too much for the Fenix name ON the cell and the great protection!

subwoofer said:

Remember though, that the 3100mAh use NNP technology. This is not so good for high drain, and the battery still has almost half it capacity left when its voltage would indicate it was empty when compared to ICR li-ion. Your high power lights may not get the best out of it unless designed to do so, so the new Fenix cell, which should deliver the specification as a minimum, should be a good one.

Of course the price point is important, and I'd be interested to see how long the TK21 will run on Turbo using Fenix's own 18650.

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Although I agree with you if used in a single cell environment, when used in series of 2 or more cell the regulation of the driver circuit will be able to make much better use of the supply voltage variance, so the faster voltage drop will not be as critical.

Personally I think they should be at 3100 or 3400 right now and releasing a 2600 mAh is just a "safe" move on their part as those cells are established.

Look at JetBeam - didn't they stick with a 2200mAh forever until just moving to a 3100mAh cell?

According to the shape of positive contact and the vent holes,
Fenix uses Samsung cells.

A good choice.

Accept Fenix uses Samsung fakes, which I doubt.

Good point, Samsung do also make 2600mah 18650s. The positive contacts are often added onto the base cells as an extra though and one choice from keeppower for that contact is exactly what the Fenixs show. (The same as Redilast normally use).

I see what you're getting at though, the positive contact does look more recessed than normal protected cells, so it may well be the contact of the base cell.

Even so, in my opinion that positive contact looks identical to the Sanyo 2600 positive contact, not the Samsung 2600.

RedForest UK said:

I don't know of any other really high quality well known (manufacturing) brand cell of 2600mah capacity.

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Sony, LG, Samsung, Panasonic (actually Sanyo was bought by Panasonic some time ago...)

RedForest UK said:

Even so, in my opinion that positive contact looks identical to the Sanyo 2600 positive contact, not the Samsung 2600.

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Sanyo has 6 vent holes, Fenix battery has only 5 vent holes.

Looking forward for some capacity measurements, but I believe Fenix wouldn't use bad quality cell.