Where do i buy good 26650 high drain cells?

When you look at HKJ’s 26650 comparator, Shocklii 5500 vs shocklii 4300mah(green) graph look very weird. At below 15amp discharge, Voltage sag still in favour to the Shocklii 5500mah. But when it come to above 15amp discharge, the 4300mah(green) can handle heavy load. That why I change my mind, 5500mah look very strong for me….

Edit: its Shocklii 26650 4300mah (green) imho typo :person_facepalming:

I don’t see a Shockli 4500mah.

The 5500mah is a fairly new (couple years old) high capacity cell that is still pretty good at delivering amperage despite being high capacity.

Since only smaller companies make 26650, they usually can’t get very high capacity, but they can still get good high drain performance.

Anyone know what Sofirn SP33 tubes are like? Would a the new SP33 V3 take one of those “fat” cells?

Vapcell 26650 battery 4200mAh 32A https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32870546544.html
Can’t find any review of this. Vapcell seems to rate their cells amp draw somewhat reasonable.

I don’t know if the version 3 tube is going to be the same as version 2. I’ve got the version 2 and there is no problem using a shockli 5500.

Mooch has tested it. It’s a good cell with accurate ratings.

Mooch link

I have tested the below mentioned batteries in my SP33 V2. All of them fitted except for the protected Keeppower 6.000mAh on the right end.

[quote=JasonWW]

[quote=RapidLux]
Vapcell 26650 battery 4200mAh 32A 15.33€ |Vapcell original 26650 batterie 4200mAh 4300mah 32A wiederaufladbare li ionen 3,7 V batteries handy mooch HKJ test freies verschiffen|Wiederaufladbare Batterien| - AliExpress Can’t find any review of this. Vapcell seems to rate their cells amp draw somewhat reasonable.

Thanks. Is the Sofirn battery itself “fat”. From the picture it looks about the same a the Shockli.

I have the Sofirn HD 5000mah button top, it’s a normal size cell. Just a tad smaller in diameter than the Shockli 5500. I don’t know about the normal Sofirn 5500mah.

I contacted PLB and got some samples of PLB 5000mAh 26650(the 5500mAh was discontinued)

the 5000mAh cells works well on SP33, SP33 V3, but they are flat top, so they won’t work well on SP70 directly.

If sofirn rebrand these batteries, I am not sure if they will be too fat for the flashlight tube.

What’s your ideas? Do you like PLB 5000mAh 26650 HD cell to be used in SP33 V3 and SP70?

Or do you prefer using 21700 for SP33 series and SP70?

I wonder why PLB would discontinue their best battery?

I’ve never heard of their 5000mah. Do you know if it’s new or maybe currently being sold by other companies?

I was told the sales of 5500mAh is not good, the last inventory runned out in Oct.

PLB’s 26650 batteries are for battery powered cars or for factory. Even if flasholics like 5500mAh HD 26650 very much. The sales is not big for PLB. That’s what I am guessing.

The guy contacted me after I emailed PLB official email address, so I think it’s factory direct. Maybe some dealers have inventory.

Anybody help confirm this “discontinued 550mAh HD 26650 from PLB”?

I want to use the battery with biggest possible capacity, provided the performance is adequate.

I like the shocklii 26650 5500mah and already place another order on AE.Why would they discontinue? Hmmm…probably they come out a new one, much more better…

They don’t mention that on their website. They just show the smaller capacity 5000mah, and the specs for that one are not so great, they show 10A continuous discharge. The 5500mah was 15A, so that’s disappointing.

MTN was mentioned here, but that is a US store and I live in Europe. Is this a legit source? Shockli Battery Store

The batteries are 6.93 euro there and the shipping is 3.06 euro via PostNL in my case. Link: https://bit.ly/34N6yHE

On shops like AliExpress and Banggood almost everything seems to get rave reviews and a lot of shops are called ‘official’, so it doesn’t mean much to me. Then again, this store has a 99.3% rating, and the batteries themselves have the full 5 stars, something which you don’t see very often I think. Any thoughts?

Aliexpress is like eBay, it’s a bunch of independent stores that are all grouped together through a common payment system. The bottom line is you need to be familiar with the particular store you’re buying from if you want to be sure to get the genuine article. Just like ebay.

Banggood on the other hand is an actual store so you know who you’re buying from. They also stand behind what they sell. If they should get a batch of imitation batteries then they will stand behind what they sell and make it right.

A common store for Europe is EU.Nkon.nl.

If you want that 5500mah PLB battery they carry it, but the total cost may be more.

So you have to weigh the cost against getting a fake cell from an Aliexpress store over paying more from a more legit source. Most likely it will be legit. You can usually tell by its size and measured capacity.

Good to know and thank you, I did not know about that distinction.

I live in the Netherlands and do know NKON, and got a protected Keeppower buttontop for my Zanflare F1 there. NKON would indeed be my go to source, provided they have what I want. The shipping depends a bit, if it fits through a mailbox (3.2 cm / 1.26”) the national shipping is only 3 euro, if not it’s 5.

Thing is, that Keeppower battery you mention is 15A, and I’m looking to maybe buy a MF01 mini. That lamp might benefit from more amps (Right?). An obvious choice would be to go for a 21700 battery like a Samsung or Molicell, but I heard it might rattle a bit in a MF01 mini, so that was why I was looking for a 26650 cell.

I don’t mind taking an (as educated as possible) gamble. So if I have made up my mind about the torch itself I might just try it.

Okay, I thought you were interested specifically in that Shockli/Keeppower 5500mah 15A 20A cell that you linked to. It should work well in the MF01 mini, although it won’t give the highest measured output.

If you want a higher drain cell to max out the measured lumens the iJoy 4200mah is a good one.

Looks like most 21700 do fit. Molicel and Samsung make good 21700 cells. If you dont have a spacer, just cut a piece of cardboard to help center it.

The one I mentioned is 20/30A right?

Thanks for the tips. This definitely helped :slight_smile: