Why I can’t buy. Lio ion battery online in Canada?

Check local vape shops I just purchased a Sony VTC6 today, they also stocked Samsung 30Q and Lg batteries. There are some vape shops in Canada that ship as well.

Being from Canada I’ve encountered the same issue. Li ion batteries now require hard protective packaging, sturdy cardboard shipping boxes and specific large danger labels which for some reason China sellers aren’t willing to use. As others suggested, vape shops are your best bet locally but for the best price I use Amazon who has no issue meeting the shipping requirements.

Same here. Amazon is listing and assuming shipping them to your house.

Normally, they use postal service BUT…wh at I don’t know is if they are using local carriers, or they only ship to houses and not drop off centers.

I haven’t actually bought any. I looked at EBL and had them on the last step of purchase before I changed my mind. Nothing special about shipping or any warnings.

However….there may be an issue with shipping just batteries from US. I was rummaging through Amazon.com and I had a flashlight with a battery and one without, I think there was a warning or Can Not Ship on one. Just go Amazon.com and test it yourself. If you can’t ship raw li-ions then that would be a red flag that it can’t be shipped or potential problems.

Probably comes under…if they don’t ask, I won’t tell.

@xmlaohan

Have a look here:https://www.illumn.com/batteries-chargers-and-powerpax-carriers/batteries/18650-samsung-3000mah-inr18650-30q-high-discharge-button-top.html

This is the only place i get my 18650 from, they were recommended to me by John ” Mooch”, a popular and professional lithium-ion battery tester for vapers.
They have very good selection of cells at good prices, even with the exchange i get a quality cell at reasonable price. Usually i get my shipment within 10 days if the post people are working instead of striking.
Have some cells that i used in my vape mods for a couple of years when i was vaping, and now use them in my flashlights,to me that speaks quality and durability of the cells is spot on.
Some are 4 years old and and still work ok in the regular flashlights, when i put them in my BLFQ8 or MT09R i only get about 20 minutes instead of 120 minutes from a brand new cells. In my book that is quite acceptable.

Been having the same gauntlet. For a few cells, the shipping costs are disproportionate. Ilumn’s is $18 USD. The vape stores carry high current cells but not the higher capacity types. Their prices are high at $15 each (CDN). I’ve found Richard at MTN Electronics reasonable at $10 USD (shipping) but only 2 cells, afterwhich jumps to $17. Not as much selection but has the better cells for lights.

It would seem that as Canadian carriers use passenger lines and as such refuse china shipped cells. The probable cause of fire would jeopardize human safety. But they accept cell phone batteries - and since the Samsung Note 8 misadventure, they should be more stringent. Perhaps there is different route with such cells, as land transport?

Edit: for typical cells I did buy from PKCell. 2600 mAh and 5C discharge rates. They have Canadian warehouse, and you must check from which they ship. Else have extra fee.

Re-edit(?): NealsGadgets uses expedited shipping once in Canada - very reasonable rate. I ordered a special battery (26950) and awaiting their New Year finishes for processing. Doesn’t have the usual “This item cannot ship to your country” tag once completed the order.

+1 to Sidney Stratton

The worst thing is that cylindrical quality cells are safer than even cells in phones.

Illumn’s shipping charge is quite reasonable per cell if you order more than a few. Certainly much cheaper than vape shops, which are the only real source in Canada.

@ Bob_McBob:

I like your graphical analysis. But my point was about a couple of cells. But a few, lets say 4 Sam’s 30Q @ $6 = 24 + 17 (shipping) = 41 USD. Thats $54 CDN or 13.50 / each. My local vape shop would sell me these at $12.50 each if purchased 4 (individually regular at $15). Not want to disprove anyone, but the cells are almost as expensive as the flashlight (Q8 going for $64 CDN).

Thanks for you guys helpful messages.

If buying within Canada, don’t forget to add HST, which adds another 13% or more to the price.

Also, I’m a little more sure that illumn is selling genuine cells, than a local vape shop. That’s primarily because I can’t find dozens of positive reviews about a local vape shop, whereas illumn gets a lot of Internet business. The vape shops are hopefully selling genuine cells (certainly betters odds than off Amazon/e-bay/Chinese sellers). But, maybe they just bought them off Amazon?

But, yeah, if I was only buying a couple of cells, illumn doesn’t make much sense. In that case, maybe I’d risk a new source.

Forget about Canadian suppliers. What is the cheapest and most reliable source to get high end li-ion?

https://www.illumn.com (often mentioned on this forum)
https://mabdelectronics.com (I haven’t seen them discussed much on this forum but I have had success ordering from them)

Here are the sources I’ve used before:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1382210

Thank you for the links.

I have to get over my concerns about paypal.

The most reliable source I’ve ever used is Amazon. The product ships from Amazons fulfilment warehouse which is owned by Amazon and is prime eligible (2-day free shipping). They offer no questions asked returns/refunds/exchanges and they’ll cover all return shipping costs for refunds/exchanges.

Also: if you return to Amazon: they send you the waybill for shipping and you typically have 30 days time limit for them to receive the return or at least confirmation it’s been shipped. I’ve many times returned something to Amazon about 18 days after I ordered and received the replacement.

I’m also a vaper which means I did some pretty intensive research regarding batteries due to the potential catastrophic failure that can occur in a vape if used incorrectly. I found quite a bit of info on how frequently even vape shops will sell knock off batteries labelled as premium.

Two weeks ago I bough 4x 18650 flat top Samsung 30Q from Amazon. Arrived in 2 days:
-The batteries came in clear 18650/18350 plastic battery cases (2x18650 or 4x16340 cases)
-Plastic carriers were inside a 3.5”x3.5”x1” flip lid cardboard box
-The 3.5” cardboard box was shipped alone inside a 12”x4.5”x8” cardboard shipping box with a huge 6”x4” LI-ION DANGER blah blah blah warning label

Amazon is consistently less than any vape shop I’ve checked (at least a half dozen) but more expensive than BG or GB (which won’t ship to Canada).

Amazon doesn’t however offer ANY button top batteries as from what I’ve read, these are modified in house by the seller which Amazon isn’t offering.

I’ve also just placed an order over the CNY that hasn’t shipped yet from Nealsgadgest which didn’t restrict me from buying 4x 30Q button tops. Hope it ships! If not Amazon’s got your batteries.

Amazon today: (prime eligible) 30Q 6 pack $62.86 or $10.48/ea
Nealsgadgets: 30Q 2 pack $18.09 or $9.05/ea
digitalimports (vape warehouse): 30Q singles (when available) $15.00+ ea

NEVER ORDER 18650s from Amazon!

You could easily get counterfeit cells mixed in with the legitimate cells.

Another potential advantage for using Amazon is that you can purchase an amazon gift card at almost any local retail store which eliminates the need for you to ever give out credit information

LOL well I’ll have to buy them direct from Samsung then! ha ha in my research I found the exact same problem was likely to happen at vape stores, Chinese sellers, alixpress/baba etc.

It looks like if my order is actually allowed to ship to Canada from Nealsgadgets, he’s going to be the #1 BLF recommended source!

I actually know a few Chinese sellers on Aliexpress that I have 100% trust on to buy/put cells in gadgets.

1. Nealsgadgets. I’ve asked him about the shipping method, and he said he has a special shipping forwarder that ships legitimately lithium-ion cells without any problems.

2. Aliya’s battery Store and Lucky’s battery Store. They also use dedicated shipping services to North America for battery shipping to a USPS hub, and I haven’t had a problem with them.

3. Sofirn. If you ask nicely, they’ll put in their cells inside of their lights, which is very nice.