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.
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.
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'...
"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!!
