What's going on with 18350 Batteries?

What is going on with 18350 batteries? Most of my regular shops and many of the “name” brands are out of stock. Xtar is not producing the 18350 any longer as far as I can tell. And I’m not sure about Nitecore either. Where are the good, non-fake batteries and what brands are people finding reliable?

Try Vapcell. People usually like this brand. It may be a little bit wider than other brands, at least someone have trouble with the 21700 and a Convoy light.

Soshine, Keeppower, Shockli batteries are also available. I don’t know how good is Liitokala, especially because there is a topic here about Liitokala scam, but you can find it also on AliExpress.

I’ve purchased several Vapcell and KeepPower cells from Illumn, and both brands have performed well. https://www.illumn.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=18350

I recall reading elsewhere that 18350s are declining in popularity among vapers, which is/was the biggest source of demand for these cells. Manufacturers may respond by producing fewer of them.

Thanks for the info. I’m going to put in an order for each of the batteries mentioned as a test. These batteries claim to hold 30+% more than the standard 18350 in approx the same size. I use them in my Solarforce L2M shorty EDC. One reason I am looking for new batteries is to try some of these higher discharge batteries and see how that helps the brightness of my light. I also have a drop in LED with 3 XP-L LEDs which is quite bright for a P6. I use it with a 18650 3400 Sanyo but would like to test it with one of these 1100mAh 18350’s.

Thanks for the info. I haven’t been keeping up on new batteries and was about to buy more of the batteries I already own to make sure I had plenty of batteries in case there is a large tariff or blockade of stuff made in China. But you guys gave me an education that really helped me. I didn’t realize the improvements made in the 16340s and 18350s.

So I ordered a small bunch of batteries and gave them a capacity test in my Liitokala-500 charger. I learned a couple of things. These newer batteries had a higher discharge rate which worked great in my flashlights making them brighter which is always a good thing. But because the discharge rate is higher I was afraid the batteries would empty faster but because these new batteries have a higher capacity they seem to last as long as my older lower capacity batteries but are much brighter. A win win for me.

Here are my test results. The 16340s were tested at 300Ah and the 18350 were tested at 500Ah.

Vapcell INR18350 1100 tested at 1097 and a second battery at 1115.
Vapcell INR16340 800 tested at 797 and a second battery 765.
Keeppower IMR 18350 1200 tested at 1156 and a second battery 1152.
Efest INR 16340 700 tested at 731.
The one battery that didn’t test as well was the Keeppower 18350 Button top w/protection circuit 1200 tested at 983. Since I only had one of these batteries I let it sit for 24 hours and then tested it again and this time the 1200 tested at 1068. A small improvement. Maybe if I had tested it at 300Ah rather than 500 it might have tested better.

Now that I know how well they tested I already put in a second small order before the tariffs come in and the new supply goes up in price. I added a couple of 18350’s and one 26650. I’ll post those results when they arrive.

Thanks again. My old 16340s and 18350s aren’t that bad so I will keep them in storage for an emergency

Great review. Where did you end up ordering from?

Illumn