best batteries for best performance

Years ago I used to post on this forum, then I had kids and poof, all the money went bye bye. Now I am back into lights again and I am buying a Trustfire TR-J187 X Cree. Here is a link http://dx.com/p/trustfire-tr-j18-7-...ite-flashlight-black-2-3-x-18650-26650-146727. I am looking to get the best performance or most light that I can from this flashlight. The flashlight takes either 26650 or 18650 batteries and says it runs at 3000 mah. does anybody out there know which type battery would be best and perhaps have a recommendation as to a specific battery. I am looking at buying some 18650's from spiderfire, they are rated at 3000 mah and are lithium ion. here is a link. http://dx.com/p/spiderfire-protected-18650-3-7v-3000mah-batteries-pair-50481. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I've just bought a eagletac 3400, not bad price. I'm no expert on batteries ,but have you seen there is a battery link in the forum menu.

vader,

Best advice: please, read carefully, twice over, mattheww50's post #2 hereunder :

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/4165728

.....and heed religiously...

Cheers,

__philippe

I wouldn't get those spiderfire brand batteries, the quality isn't great and the capacity claims almost certainly exaggerated. The key thing is the cell inside.

The TR-J18 doesn't have low-voltage protection and can pull cells down to around 2.5v so I would go for Panasonic NCR series based ones. A lot of brands do protected versions, the cheapest being available at Fasttech; you could search either Panasonic 2900, 3100 or 3400.

If you want a US seller then Orbtronic and Callies Customs do some decent deals, their batteries being the same Panasonic base cell with a good PCM added by 'keeppower'. In fact, almost all of the top quality 18650 sellers bar AW are their own label on keeppower assembled cells so you're best just looking for the cheapest deal as long as you can be sure they have the genuine Sanyo or Panasonic cell inside.

I use Keeppower 18650's now....3100 seems to be the best capacity per dollar...
PM me for a source, $21 a pair shipped
Tony

Don't buy cheap cells. They're inevitably overpriced.

Edit: That doesn't mean that you shouldn't shop around for the best price for quality cells.

vader said:

Years ago I used to post on this forum, then I had kids and poof, all the money went bye bye. Now I am back into lights again and I am buying a Trustfire TR-J187 X Cree. Here is a link http://dx.com/p/trustfire-tr-j18-7-...ite-flashlight-black-2-3-x-18650-26650-146727. I am looking to get the best performance or most light that I can from this flashlight. The flashlight takes either 26650 or 18650 batteries and says it runs at 3000 mah. does anybody out there know which type battery would be best and perhaps have a recommendation as to a specific battery. I am looking at buying some 18650's from spiderfire, they are rated at 3000 mah and are lithium ion. here is a link. http://dx.com/p/spiderfire-protected-18650-3-7v-3000mah-batteries-pair-50481. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Don't confuse mAh and mA. The flashlight consumes 3000 mA of current. Battery capacity, which is the product of current and the length of time the battery can supply it, is specified in mAh -- a 3000 mAh battery can supply 30 mA for 100 hours or 300 mA for 10 hours. At higher currents, the capacity is usually less. That is, it won't be able to supply 3000 mA for a full hour. So the capacity of the battery just indicates you how long it'll power the flashlight before it runs down.

That said, nearly all cheap (e.g., "xxfire") batteries are grossly overrated. You typically won't get anywhere near 3000 mAh from a battery claimed to have that capacity. Stick with the quality ones, as several other people have recommended. AW has built a very good reputation, and I recommend his batteries without hesitation. He has a sales thread at CPF marketplace, and several U.S. vendors carry them for slightly more, but without the delay and shipping from Hong Kong.

On a side note, you'll also find that the lumen and/or candlepower output of the "xxfire" (except SureFire of course) and other cheap lights is nearly always grossly exaggerated, too.

c_c

http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650Summary UK.html

Great resource for batteries and chargers.

I will review all of the above posts and links. Thanks for the lessons on batteries, they are more important than I thought!

^

NCR18650A core used by many manufactures are the excellent, but are expensive.

If you want the best/dollar,, the unprotected XSL Ultrafire 18650 {DX SKU: 26248}
I use these cells every single day without issue, never have I had an issue with these.
Nearly 80% actual capacity of an NCR18650A for less than half the price!


The last time I ordered them, I got 6 cells for $24.93 {the buy 3+ units deal}
= $4.16 each for a cell that has strong performance.

Yes, I do have several Panasonic NCRs' also