Dropped 18650 - Keep or Discard?

I’m sure its fine. If the insulation of the wrapper is compromised and makes you nervous you can always rewrap it.

If the wrapper is nicked id rewrap and keep. Ive dropped a handful of cells on ceramic tile and never had a problem.

As a precaution I always discard any damaged battery, but in this case i would keep.

Dropped many cells over the years, never had to throw out and never had an issue. As said re-wrap if required and just keep an eye on it at 1st when charging…………all should be fine imo.

I’d keep it because it’s not dented. As far as the nicks in the insulation on a non-protected battery, I wouldn’t worry about that because the body of the battery, except for the tip, is negative just like most flashlight tubes. That said, unless you have a flashlight that the battery is inserted with the positive end towards the tail cap, I think it’s a non-issue

Many of my batteries are like this. Some older cells have been dropped so many times they have to be reshaped to be able to still slide into the battery tube, maybe there is a minuscule capacity loss but definitely usable.

If the tension spring on your charger hasn’t accidentally slung a cell across the room when taking the cell out of the charger then you’re not a flashaholic, lol. :wink:

I’ve had 2 18650 cells that totally stopped working after i dropped them on a concrete floor.
Others have survived just fine though.

Were they protected or non-protected? Maybe you damaged the protection circuit?

Keep if not dented.

Unprotected.
They were both light blue Samsung ICR18650-20 laptop pulls.

+1 to that

How many feet can you get an 18650?

hahahaha I actually had one jumping out of the charger the other day. but i aught it with y left hand while it already had passed me on the way down (neven know I could be this fast :wink:

Hmm, interesting to mark cell pairs with a wrapper, might just order a few of those, thanks for the link

Ha Ha Ha. I just spit my mouth full of water out laughing at that one. I’m NOT the only one. Good one my friend :smiley:

Wisest thing my daddy ever taught me who was the best engineer I've ever known.

"Son if it ain't broke don't fix it"

My dad 1986

The battery looks perfectly fine to me, I don’t see anything wrong.

Woah … feet? Are you replacing the springs in your charger with extra-strong springs for more distance? :sunglasses:

Does having a 10180 stovepipe in my charger count? That’s happened a few times here :blush: Wee little beasties those are in a big charger bay.

I must sadly report the loss of another of my LiIon cells, a 14500 this time. It was in my SK68 clone and dim, when the light shut down I thought I’d clicked it off but apparently I hadn’t. Later in my VC2 it read “0” volts and my DMM showed 0.007V. Shame on me- and it was an Efest too :cry:

Phil

Oops… :person_facepalming:
Dropped a rather new Panasonic 3400mAh on the tile floor here today from about 3½ feet high…
Ugly dent in tail…
It’s doing the NOR test in my Liitokala charger as we speak.
Reading 2173 mAh at 3.52 Volts now, so it seems to be okay…

I don’t know what the separator is and where it would be located…
And how do i find out if it’s prone to fail?
High current discharging?