18650 batteries

Bobalos

Bobalos

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Does anyone know of a good brand of 18650 batteries?  The nitecore seem to be good batteries but damm they are expensive.   I've bought some of the cheap ass China batteries but they suck...  it seems like there should be a good alternative in the middle of the road there... 

 
Used to have this stuff memorized. 

Even the name brands can have bad quality cells. 

Definitely avoid anything with the name "fire" of some sort. 

 
Those batteries...bigger than an AA, rechargeable..flashlights...weapon lights....

 
I had screenshot this a year ago. 

There is a really expensive $2000 electric One Wheel skateboard that uses the popular 18650. People will open up the battery packs to review which brand cells are inside. Twice the company used a "pink colored" battery from a name brand company that didnt perform well. 

I asked the guy if he could explain which cells are the best. His reply is below. 

Screenshot_20221126-091725_Gallery.jpg

 
Battery technology moves quickly. Facebook banned me for a week or i would go ask those guys what the current good cell is. 

From the post above it seems the RED PANOSONIC or the GREEN SAMSUNG would be a good choice. 

But again thats about 1 year old information. Not even sure your average dude in the USA can buy those brands. 

Im sure ebay is full of FIREPOWER.....MAXFIRE....anything with the word FIRE you should avoid. 

 
Know what bathroom to use = fakebook ban

 
wopachop said:
Battery technology moves quickly. Facebook banned me for a week or i would go ask those guys what the current good cell is. 

From the post above it seems the RED PANOSONIC or the GREEN SAMSUNG would be a good choice. 

But again thats about 1 year old information. Not even sure your average dude in the USA can buy those brands. 

Im sure ebay is full of FIREPOWER.....MAXFIRE....anything with the word FIRE you should avoid. 
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I'm not in a huge hurry.  If you would nit mind checking when your back online I would appreciate it.  

The Panasonic and Samsung seem to have good reviews, but as mentioned, there are good and bad ones...  hard to know which one is the good one to use...  today. 

Lambro said:
I have good luck with the pink Samsung cells inr18650-30q
Click to expand...
Thanks .

 
What's the use case for these? I've done quite a bit of homework here, bottom line is that there are only really a few manufacturers - Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sanyo - everything else is a rewrapped "second," or something that didn't pass QC at a major factory. For my uses (high discharge flattops) Panasonic and Sanyo don't offer enough continuous discharge without risking thermal runaway, so I stick with the first three.

Sony - VTC4/5/6 are the good ones - the bigger the number the longer the life

Samsung - 25R are good, I believe the older ones are baby blue but everything produced in the last few years is light green

LG - I use the HG2/HG4 more than any other battery - 30A discharge and as much as 4000mAH charge life

I just checked my old source for buying, but it seems like they've fallen off into the cheap rewrap crap, so nowhere to recommend to buy, but those are the brands/models I would trust most.

EDIT: If you're really interested in the ins and outs, this guy know probably more than the next three smartest dudes combined when it comes to 18650 performance/safety - https://www.facebook.com/batterymooch/ (I hate linking to FB anything, but that's the quickest link I could find)...

 
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I have a number of flashlights that all take these same batteries.  So specificly, flashlights...  

@psd, thanks for the information!!! Any suggestions on where to buy... 

 
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You wouldn't think it, but I've heard of some strong flashlights (like 300+ lumen) burning up cheapo batteries with long use on high mode - honestly for a good blend of affordable and reliable I'd be looking Samsung 25R, which is what Milwaukee (and maybe some others, I only pay much attention to my tool platform) used before they went to a 21700 format for their new batteries.

EDIT (apparently I edit too much): I use Samsung 25Rs in my single-cell flashlights, which may or may not be overkill, but they've never done me wrong.

 
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Got patience? I used to use Liion Wholesale (https://liionwholesale.com/pages/search-results-page?collection=batteries&page=1&rb_vendor=Samsung), but they don't seem to stock a lot of high-end stuff these days and I haven't used them in a few years. I've also imported direct from China via fasttech.com, but again it's been a while. One of the biggest loose use cases for these batteries is in e-cigs, so there are a lot of sites like that which sell them - I just checked the site I used to write about battery safety for and it doesn't look like my friends/family discount works there anymore or I'd send you...Battery Bro is another decent source (direct from China, but owned/operated by an American expat) but it looks like they're only selling in wholesale quantities these days.

 
Thanks.  Yea, I only want about 6 or so with the button, not a few hundred....  I will dig around and see what I can come up with.  Thanks again for the info.  

 
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