Li-ion Battery Safety and Shopping Guide

First of all, 99% of the graphs below are from HKJ. These were done by him, I am simply placing them in this thread for easy reference.

All of the below batteries are ones bigger than 18650.

26650

These are the same diameter (approximately) as a C sized battery, and the same length as a 18650. For this reason they are often used in C maglite mods, along with in lights that want a longer runtime than a 18650.

A123 26650 2500 mah LiFePo4

This battery can supply extremely high currents but at the cost of capacity, it is rated for a 70 amp continuous discharge.

Full review here.

Datasheet here.

Keeppower 26650 4000 mah LiCo Protected

This battery can handle currents up to 7 amps, but there is variation in the batteries.

Full review here.

Unspecified internal cell.

Trustfire 26650 5000 mah LiCo Protected

This battery is one of the few good fire brand batteries. It does well up to the 5 amp load, and it would be a good idea to keep the load under that level. There is a small variation in batteries.

Full review here.

Unspecified internal cell.

King Kong ICR26650 4000 mah

This is one of the few batteries where the true capacity exceeds the marked capacity. It does well up until 10 amps, all while having over a 4000 mah capacity.

Full review here.

Unspecified internal cell.

King Kong INR26650 4000 mah

This cell also exceeds it's rated capacity, but is not as good as the ICR26650. It can handle loads up to 7 amps.

Full review here.

Unspecified internal cell.

32600

This is the exact dimension of a D cell so is a higher voltage replacement for D cells.

Ultrafire BRC32600 4000 mah LiFePo4

This cell has a lower capacity then stated, but can handle loads up to 20 amps. Due to being a LiFePo4, it does this at a low voltage.

Full review here.

Unspecified internal cell.

Feilong 32600 5000 mah LiCo

This battery has not been tested yet. One can guess that it can handle loads fairly well due to the large size, but we can't know for sure.

32650

These are slightly longer than a D cell, and higher voltage.

Feilong 32650 6000 mah LiCo

This battery has not had discharge curves done, but the capacity has been tested. It handled currents up to 13 amps.

Amp Draw

mah
1 5612
2 5580
3 5539
4 5559
5 5501
7 5404
10 5384
13 5226

Full review here.

Unspecified internal cell.

Protected LiCo 5000 mah 32650

There are no discharge curves, but at a 3 amp discharge it tested at 4697 mah to 3 volts. At a 1 amp discharge it tested at 5191 mah. This is fairly impressive.

Full review here.

Unspecified internal cell.

26500

26500 batteries are the exact size of a C battery, but they are have a higher voltage.

26500 3000 mah LiCo

This battery has not had any tests done on it, but if the specs are true is a very good battery.

Unspecified internal cell.

Hi Scaru

Another good one for the “ScaruPedia” :slight_smile:

You should probably explain what IMR (Lithium-Mangan) is as you mentioning them
and that they are considered safer (as the LiFe/Lithium-Iron) because they don tend
to start a nasty fire when they are physicaly destroyed (punctured/cut/broken).
AFAIK the Lithium reacts with Cobalt but not with Iron or Mangan.
I think not going into the chemistry is probably the wrong way as thats the essential way these cells work.

As a noob in LiIon i haven’t any experience but reading here in BLF helped a lot.

Also a mild warning about Blabla-Fire-5000mAh Cells would help not to be scammed.

Thanks for your effort

Mo

I was getting ready to PM you about this! Perfect timing…

I will add some more info about IMR batteries now, I guess I will have them be a third class.

As for not going into chemistry I am trying to keep this relatively simple. I plan on explaining that LiCo are more reactive than LiMn but I see no reason to explain why. (As that requires more knowledge and discussion of bonding etc.)

The warning about xxxxfire cells will come later on when I explain what type of batteries to buy.

I finally know what a protection circuit looks like now!

Thanks scaru. You have been a busy boy lately.

Thanks for your posts. Must say that they answer many of my questions.

Osmrs! :wink:

Great Job scaru!!! :wink:

Ditto!

An excellent resource for those getting into the addiction.

First 3 comments are lists of different types of batteries along with discharge curves. <--Still in progress

Can anyone point me towards the NCR18650B datasheet?

Double Ditto!

They haven’t been seen in public yet :frowning:

But you might try asking HKJ, he often has datasheets for cells that other people haven’t even heard of :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: and, by the way, those FAQ threads about LEDs, Li-Ions, etc are a very nice Christmas present from you to BLF community! Thanks :slight_smile:

Ok, thanks. That's what I was guessing. I'll send him a PM.

Good job, Scaru!

The only correction I'd offer is that all ***fire cells are NOT crap. Most are, granted, especially the Ultrafire offerings, but a genuine Trustfire cell is a damned good budget cell with excellent capacity and are as safe any other good Li-Ion cell.

I have heard people say that many times, but I have never come across any trustfire cell (or any xxxxfire cell) that is equal to any other trustfire cell. For this reason they can't be used in series. At one point I had 2 that were within 60 mah of each other, but they had drastically different internal resistances. (So in high drain lights they would not be equal)

So for that reason I would say they are crap, at least for multi-celled lights. I don't see the point in ordering them, when you can buy good brand name 2600 mah cells for only a bit more.

I simply don't believe in blanket statements. I only suggest that you qualify the original "crap" statement that in a multicell light they may want to avoid certain cells but some are fine in single cell lights. Otherwise it comes across like you are one of those Surefire fanboys that is convinced that any chinese light or budget light that is not a Surefire light (that is to say any light other than a Surefire) is guaranteed to fail the next time you need it or explode in your hand and kill you and your entire family.

Many of us use Trustfire cells extensively and have never had an issue with a genuine Trustfire cell. Just sayin'...

Ok, I replaced it with this.

"First of all, any battery that has "fire" in it's name is not suitable for use in multi-cell lights. This is because even if they may be rated at the same capacity, they are most likely not equal and could become unbalanced under high loads."

As for using them extensively, I would personally not trust them that much. If they were in my DRY rather than name brand batteries I am not so confident it would have ended so well.

Much better. I agree about the time your DRY was turn on in your luggage. You were darned lucky regardless of what cells were in it. While I did say “extensively” I did not say “exclusively”. I prefer my Panasonic cells to the Trustfire cells also and feel safer with them in my multicell lights too, even in unprotected form. I monitor my cells voltage in multicell lights and only run in sets that discharge at the same rate and check in at the same voltage. I also have several TF Flames that are matched quite nicely and that I trust. As for any other ***fire brands, I try and avoid them like they were covered in syphilis!! :stuck_out_tongue: