Test/Review of Samsung INR18650-30Q 3000mAh (Pink)

See the 1st line on the can under the wrapper, 3rd digit = year, 4th digit = month.
I found it here.

Thank’s tkd15 ! :wink:

I understood. This is Lot marking.

■ Lot marking :

There are three lines on the cell metal can as follows.

Line 1 : J5D5 —-

1st digit: Line number ( “1” for cylindrical line No.1, “J” for cylindrical line No. 8)
2nd digit: Final number of Model Name (“5” is INR18650-25x)
3rd digit: Year ( “D” is 2013)
4th digit: Month ( “5” is May ; A is Oct., B is Nov., C is Dec)

Line 2 : 45221 —-

1st digit: Negative coater number ( “7” is No. 7 coater)
2nd ~ 4th digit: Batch number
5th digit: Serial No. of assembling

Line 3 : 62F1 —-

1st digit: Date (“6” is 6th day ; 10 is A, 11 is B…)
2nd digit: Serial No. of winding in a batch
3rd digit: Reel No ( “F” is F reel ; A is A reel, B is B reel, … F is F reel)
4th digit: Winding Machine No. ( “1” is No.1 winder)

Is the flattop 30Q a raised flattop that will work in series?

No, the top of the pos is actually lower than the plastic wrap and washer. My HG2 are actually higher than the plastic.

Thank you VW, I could not tell for sure from the pictures I could find and was wanting to order some.
Appreciate the info…… :slight_smile:

Button top 30Q are available from Gearbest if you need to use these batteries. I used this code last time (not sure where it came from) and may still be valid. a59300.

:+1: …. Thanks for the tip VW. :wink:

This definitely is a very good battery. I studied HKJ comparator for awhile. Only the relatively new VTC6 beats it in all of the voltages. Not by much.

The 30Q is ~$4 cheaper,in that sense it would probably be the best choice. From a visual perspective and a performance perspective, I doubt if there would be any noticeable difference.

I have One of these for the last 1.5 years and it is still working well. i have a pair of VTC6,so far they are working well!

It was good a week ago when I bought 4....but only works on so many pieces as far as I could tell....

a59300

Thanks for that update VW, I was just about to pull the trigger on some at BangBang… with a code and points. :person_facepalming:
Not even gonna waste my time now, :wink:
I’ll just get em here in the USA & pay a bit more & have them in a couple of days.

I have no problem using any of my 30q in series. I have 4 put up I use in l6 and s70 to save weight of 26650s if imma be holding it for awhile. Got two from imr batteries and the other married pair from GB

Good idea about the saving weight thing ‘Speed4goal’. :+1:

Are your 30Q’s flattops or button tops like the ones below??

Mine are flat tops, pretty much all I buy now. Only have one light now that requires a button top. The nitenumen

If I’m scanning for critters and/or need long turbo time I’ll use the 26650. But I’m walking with my daughter at night up to the park and just using high setting I’ll use the 18650 and bring the spare set. And spare light of course.

The 30q is one of my favorite batteries. I use it in my vape unit as well its a single 18650 unit. So I don’t have to worry about married pairs besides the 2 sets for my heavy hitting lights. I don’t hit more then 9 amps at most. Lots of 30q and mj1/ga. The mj1 I like a lot to because at 10 amps still has roughly 95% of its original capacity. Compared to 30q @10 goes down to 2700. But still my favorite battery nonetheless. For $6 a piece and can power my x6 triple, my vape and all my other lights and be 3000mah works for me. I dont like running batteries at their amp limits. As the cell ages and resistance increases id rather have some cushion room. But I’m not happy with just one battery. I have to purchase some of all of them just to have them in rotation. Some reason I’m addicted to batteries as much as flashlights.
I just cleared out my night light batteries to recycling. So picked up a couple new laptop batteries off eBay (Samsung 26h). To use for nightlights and waste my good batteries cycle life on lamp use

I see that VTC5A and INR18650-30Q have exactly the same IR in HKJ’s tests. They are extremely similar in akkudb too (similar to each other, not similar to HKJ’s result). Nevertheless, when looking at discharge curves, VTC5A sags much less. Why is it so?

It is probably related to the way DC IR is measured. You can find my method described in this article: How is the test done and how to read the charts (In PCB trip current).
You can find some more about IR measurement here: Internal impedance of a battery

There are many different ways to measure the DC resistance and they will not give the same result.

Thanks for the info. I have a request then. In your reviews, could you provide the raw discharge data?
I’m trying to predict flashlight performance. Right now I use IR to estimate voltage drop. This is grossly inaccurate and I’d love to be able to do better. Access to actual discharge curves would be such thing.

Not in the the review, but you can always send me an email or PM and ask for the data for a few batteries.

As you can see in the discharge curves at 5A, the 30Q performs better than the VTC5A after about 3.88V and below, or about 0.4 mAh. So far 83% of the discharge time, the 30Q beats the VTC5A. Same thing against the VTC6, accept the advantage of the VTC6 is even better than the 30Q.

The VTC5A is a very deceptive cell, and quoting performance #'s like lumens and throw based on the first 30 seconds of discharge from a fully charged cell is somewhat mis-leading in comparison to other cells. You will actually get better performance though from the VTC5A for this brief time, so the discharge curves are accurate compared to posted lumens/throw results here using FET based DD drivers.

Once again, HKJ's tests are proven in actual flashlight usage and measurements over and over again. We see this exact behavior and difference.

The VTC6A has a lower IR rating at 0.03 than the VTC5A, and justifiably so. You have to consider the entire discharge time, not just initially.

In my use case, the battery will rarely be fully discharged and so initial performance plays much bigger role. I believe that VTC5A is the best 18650 for my daily use. Though really I’m more into 18350 anyway, I just want to make an educated choice.

It is ironic that you said that. I have been thinking about posting this for awhile. Thanks for prompting me.

That thinking applies to Four of my single cell Modded lights. I LOVE Max output and because of that I change the battery in 15 minutes and sometimes a maximum of 20 minutes. These Sony[VTC5/6] 18650 cells and my V’power 26650 cells are between 3.82v and 3.96v[26650] when I get home.

When I look at these graphs w/ the voltage curve I see that some batteries are better in the beginning. That is most important to me to because I am NOT interested in long run times. A fresh battery is my choice/solution for enjoying max output!

EDIT:The most important thing to me is to have as much MAX output as I can. :sunglasses:

In reality, I am not going to “see” the difference regardless if it is a 30Q,VTC5 or VTC6!All Three are great batteries.