If you might consider unprotected, I've been looking at these for a while, Sanyo 18650 2600mAh from Intl Outdoor, at $5.85 a piece. Free shipping if bought 3pcs above.
Its brother (2100mAh) has been tested to get 1800mAh, around 85% of claimed. Since it's Sanyo cell, I believe that result will be consistent, and for a 2600mAh cell, good chance you will get a good 2200-2300 mAh from these. Still a great value for the price.
No, they are the real deal. They have a US and China warehouse. After reading the bad reviews, I decided to risk and purchase them. So far I've had good experiences with Pandawill.
I recently had a DX Trustfire Flame go bad on me. Not in a bad way, it just wouldn't charge up anymore. I'd probably had it for a couple of years, but not real heavy use. So I bought some more XTAR 2600's from the longstanding group buy. I think those are very good batteries for a little more than Trustfires. Still a lot less than AW's and equivalents.
I have 4 TF 3000 soon here, wait a while before ordering. Quality may vary, going to test them…
Xtars with groupbuy price are the safest bet.
I can recommend the TF Flames from Manafont. I've bought about 100 of them in the past 3 months and I only had one that was DOA.
I think you're safest with the XTAR 2600 at $13.50/pair from Serena or I guess even that Pandawill site if you're feeling lucky. That's all I've been buying lately, for myself and for friends.
I have had good luck with HiMax 2600's in the past but they seem to have gotten very expensive.
I have over 50 Trustfire flames from DX some over over a year old all of them still work. The ones I have tested all had decent capacity.
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/panasonic-cgr18650ch-2250mah-liion-battery-p-291.html
massive discharge rate, low resistance, not going to explode
imo, they're the best value, hands down
They might not be the cheapest but I just ran some testing on these in a light that draws high amps and they truly are outstanding! Definitely more capacity than the AW IMR's and as long as your application is below 10A then you should be good.
I also used them as a pair in the EYE30 runtime testing and they yielded just slightly less than the AW 2600's:
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/6527
(look at chart under: RUNTIME (2 cells) )
Are those protected? Seems the webpage doesn't say.
-Garry
Those are great cells.
I acquired an identical one from Callie's, and it allows for more current in my Direct Drive SST90 than my AW IMRs by over a quarter Amp. (~280mA)
I will slowly but surely be replacing all of my IMR 18650s with these.
A very good cell at a fair price is the Sanyo-based Solarforce 2400 protected 18650. The wrap is a bit brittle, however.
no but I think callie's sells them re-wrapped w/ protection. They are safer chemistry cathode, despite saying li-ion on the side, so for my purposes, the protection isn't relevant (I don't drain my cells to where protection trips....on purpose anyway).
Yep
I'll also back the Sanyo-based Solarforce 2400mah. Indeed, the wrap is brittle, which is the only downfall. Otherwise they are quite the performer for the price. They seem to match my XTAR 2600's.
What about cycle life & shelf life? I’d guess they would be quite high due to low initial internal resistance (isn’t it’s increase the cause of cell degradation?)
I hate to spend $50 on 6 batteries, but I may not have much choice
These were, AFAIK, designed for use in high-draw rechargeable power tools. Since both criteria are important design considerations, I would infer that both would be excellent - why bother changing chemistry otherwise? Pricing is similar, if not greater, than common lithium-ion cells.
The sample that I own has performed above expectations over the last 9+ months.
can't say for sure, only a few cycles
but, I would assume that a cell that can do 10A discharge (at very close to stated capacity!) will handle 3 and 4A discharge for a lot longer than cells that are struggling when they do that? Now...that's not very scientific...but it made me feel better about spending $9 on a battery lol
the other thing to note w/ this cell, is that for some lights, it has more usable capacity than the mah alone implies - check out the tests/graphs done on this cell, and the voltage level that it maintains during discharge...a couple members (hkj and mitro?) were kind enough to share data of some thorough testing.
..I'd also guess that it would charge faster at amp same rate due to more time spent in CC phase and less in CV phase?
(I might be wrong on this one though, correct med if needed please ;Ь)