18650 Batteries

Bugger, just bought 4 ultrafire batteries off ebay to power various torches about the place but not regret it as by the sounds of it they have about half the quoted capacity.

How do you know if the batteries need to be flat top? They seem to be cheaper but do they work in all devices?

Thanks

Dan


Flat tops can be made to operate as button tops if only flats available, just be careful to bend up a couple of small tabs with a small screwdriver. Torchy on e bay has genuine tested stuff.
 
google rechargeable batteries review you will find a good website that will explain which panasonic batteries to buy you really want the batteries from the original panasonic factory in japan they sold it and moved production to china this has not proved as lucrative or as productive as they planned so they now buy there best quality batteries from a factory down the road that they used to own ? the review if i remember was about batteries for emergency locator beacon,s ,avalanchPLB and GPS
 
Bugger, just bought 4 ultrafire batteries off ebay to power various torches about the place but not regret it as by the sounds of it they have about half the quoted capacity.

How do you know if the batteries need to be flat top? They seem to be cheaper but do they work in all devices?

Thanks

Dan


I use ultrafire for a few years now and they do the job. No complaints
 
Geez mate you'd have to have rocks in your head to pay that much for batteries and charger.
The most I've ever paid is $10 (5 quid and free PP) for a charger and $10 (5 quid and free PP) for 2 protected(intelligent) batteries that after 5 years are still working.

When those cheapo batteries die, open them up & see if they actually contain the electronic components you were led to believe. In the meantime I suggest you charge them in a metal tin/bucket with a fire blanket over the top.
Trustfire, Ultrafire etc have been very appropriately named. Maybe there are some good genuine ones but the vast majority appear to be counterfeits of a poor brand in the first place. You will almost certainly never come even close to nominal capacity.
If the price is too good to be true, fit a few extra smoke alarms in your house.
A google search of "18650 battery fire" returns 479,000 pages for a good reason.

http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/imr-safe-chemistry-batteries.html is a good reference site.
There are plenty of chaergers out there now that will perform a discharge test. It's a great way to pick out the badduns.
 
I wouldn't touch a 18650 with "fire" in it's name - many of them are simply old laptop batteries with new shrink wrap around them.
The claimed capacities are always a lie, even the very best genuine 18650 batteries can't do better than 3400mah.

Cheers

Bruce
 
You want some with built in circuit protection to save your touch. The other thing you have to watch is the length, it can vary on diffrent ones. Some i brought are 7mm longer than the nightmaster original ones.
 
I have read that a new generation of inexpensive ( < $1 per unit wholesale) Chinese 18650 batteries will be available soon. A Chinese battery re-wrapper firm has bought the previous technology manufacturing line from a big player (Samsung I believe) as they upgrade to newer chemistry batteries. Apparently they will be very good quality with a true 2600mAh capacity.
 
I too had looked ate the genuine nitecore 3400 ah batteries and very tempted as have bought cheap before and regretted it. The only problem being with China's counterfeit factories pumping out identical products with a fraction of the performance, how can you tell its 100% genuine. I'm sceptical of some UK bay sellers as they cold be passing the high quality conterfiet batteries?
 
There are very few actual manufacturers of batteries. Most just re-badge - I suspect nitecore included. Granted they probably buy the cream of the crop rather than seconds or rejects. Having a charger that can test capacity goes some way in seeing if you bought what you paid for. Alternative is to buy manfacturer branded cells - like Samsung or Panasonic - and buy from a trusted source - like torchy the battery boy,
 
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