18650 batteries

I have a couple Nitecore 18650 3400 or 3500 mah. I forget? They’re as good as any I have tried. I don’t have the cold weather version though. I have been meaning to try one out. I just already have a pile of 18650s so I just swap em out.
 
hunt0168 said:
Panasonic or Sanyo brand are considered the best in most reviews, and I have a few of them. Orbtronics is what I run mostly. They use Panasonic/Sanyo cells. I have some Nitecore brand that are not disappointing me. Finding legit and trustworthy sources is the important part. A lot of room for shady stuff in the battery market.
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Panasonics are what you want, 100%. sanyo a good second.
 
Then there are high amp draw versions, you see a lot listed as 15amp high amp draw....now wouldn't a 15 amp draw battery, potentially damage a 5 amp draw device, even if it was a protected cell? I do think many of the high amp are unprotected cells for high amp drain flashlights. The ones for like lighting up face of moon 20 to 50x more bright than what's usable . what's hard to find at times is real amp draw of a given device
 
Any *****fire batteries tend to be low grade. Vastfire, best fire, unquiefire, richfire to name a few , usually come with flashlight of same name.....I have had a few fire batteries surprise over the years and still ticking 5 years later. Lots of b.s.'ed milliamp rating too on the cheap China junk battery list.....I think I read 3500 is about highest milliamp possible and lots of premium batteries aren't much more the 2600 or 2800 m/amp.....get to the 5600 rating and then some, larger the rating the more the p.o.s. it is.

I wish there was a way these phony Chinese ratings and specs could be dealt with......anyone a bird in Trumps ear?
 
One thought came to me, is even a cheap 186540 battery is more effective than 3 AAA batteries of premium brand in a given light that has the AAA adaptor......look at runtime of non chargeable AAA and AA , and you see what multi million dollar money maker one of them Walmart battery tree displays rake, and why you'll prolly never see an 186540 cell on a wallyworld battery tree
 
"wouldn't a 15 amp draw battery, potentially damage a 5 amp draw device" ?
Not really. A true 5 amp draw device will only draw 5 amps max at its rated voltage, hence the name.
A variable draw device may end up over-discharging the battery when its resistance drops low out-of-spec.
Certain types of loads can have a much higher start-up current than run time current - those can be tricky.
The fact that a battery can deliver 15 amps (over a short period) refers only to its own internal ability to deliver that current,
it says nothing about the loads capability to handle it. I know TMI...
 
Anyone can pretty much completely stop buying 186540 cell if you recycle battery's from all the rechargeable devices using these.

The most common source are laptops and lith ion power tool battery's.and you'll get 6,8 10 even more at a pop. If you get them from name brand putors and tools like Milwaukee and dewalt your pretty much getting quality cells too....but nothings true free...First they nearly all flat top and soldered together with cell stripping or fine wire. Some can be snipped and lightly sanded so ends are flat and free of rough solder puddles.. These strips are usually spot welded(soldered( in couple places and the solder tab is usually fused to most of battery end, and really too heavy to cut and sand..You'll need to learn to de-solder and use a solder sucker to pull off the excess solder, and carefully not to use excess heat since your soldering/heating a potentially explosive power cell...
I can make flattops work in about all my flashlights and devices unless they are doublesstacked. You can put the flattop in positive first then use a buttonhead to make connection to first battery..sometimes on chargers you'll need to bend one of metal charge clips to make contact...
What you really want to watch and be 100% sure of is you've got them marked very well so you don't reverse polarity when installed.....especially when putting in a charger that not protected...the battery will superheat in seconds until rrjet of chethe magic stuff red plasinside starts burning thru the thin s..steel skin on battery, then it will shoot a jet of cherry red hot plasma flame, just like one of the hhflower pot firecrackers, and even spin like a flower pot on your carpeted floor taking around 30 seconds, iniburning all the way thru the carpet and then half way thru flooring on a cheap 40 y.o. trailer...i know as I watched all this in front eyes while clutchingnmy bare ankle where the damn hnothing landed when burst preeheand jumped out of the charger in my hands....not a good deal "ntrwhen you have both eeeeblood and fire spreading at alarming rate.....now I mark them by painting a 1" wide ring on positive end with metal paint markers.
Usually and common power,tool battery's there hortwill be one battery that went bad,or connection corroded thru shorting the pack, or the BMS board udshorted due to idrust...battery got wet budidnt get dried out enough and eventually it uocorrods. Laptops youll see more worn out cells as a hole compared tool battery's., and what I've seen few packs live to old e if they occasionally get wet damp more often...plus all the yard rechargeable stuff now there's more chance to get left out overnight.....they all ain't great like brand new ones but I never run out of battery's...I get the 4 pack plastic cases off them and always have 1 full 4 pack in my bino bag to start the ,night, and since I've got so many I don't try to eek out last bit of juice from them and swap out before they die as matter of habit
 
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