Twelve NEW 2400mAh 18650s, under $30?

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
1

The HP DV4 (and similar models, not sure what all interchanges) have an optional extended 12-cell battery. The originals were rated as 8800mAh, which works out to 12 2200mAh cells inside - I bought a lightly used pack and opened it, found 12 LG 2200Ah 18650s, all in good condition. But used packs are always a crapshoot, especially if you know nothing about how it was treated in its former life.

So completely by accident I stumbled across *new* aftermarket DV4 packs on ebay, with an upgraded capacity (advertised, unconfirmed) of 9600mAh, which meant that if true, there should be 2400mAh cells inside. And the price with free shipping is, somehow, under $30. What?!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/310405754542

I bought two, and cracked them open. They may be complete garbage when used as intended as a laptop battery, but who cares about that, right? Here's what you'll find inside...

One thing to note, there was a sticker on the PCB inside that said "DV4 8.8AH", which may mean nothing fishy going on with the 9600mAh advertised rating. The internal circuitry would be the same whether the cells used were 2200 or 2400mAh, and these could have been from the same batch used to build the 8800mAh packs. Without identifying these particular cells, I'll never know.

From what I can figure '6K00112' is the model (I have 6 CJ cells from a different pack, and they are marked 6E00312) and CJ is the manufacturer... but I have no info on who or what CJ is, other than some hits for similar cells on alibaba and the like.

All cells from pack #1 were at 3.84v after they were all separated; pack #2 cells were 3.80v. All 24 charged up just fine in a XTAR WP6.

And finally, a tip for my fellow cheapskates who like cracking open laptop packs. Get yourself some of these:

Outside snap ring pliers, most commonly used for things like retaining syncros/gears/bearings on transmission shafts (remnants from my previous incarnation as an auto tech... *shudder*). Once you break open a small spot between the two halves of the casing, stick the pliers in and squeeze. POP! POP POP! And the pack is opened. No Dremeling, no hacksaws, no poking holes in the cells trying to use a screwdriver. Couldn't be easier, and on top of that you're much less likely to damage the goodies inside. Win/win.

2

Have you verified the capacity of these batteries? Are they really 2400mah? I’d like to give them a try but I don’t want to find out they are 1000mah used Chinese retreads. Thanks.

3

No, I don't have anything to test capacity other than using them in lights, and compared to known 2200mAh LGs they have significantly longer run times and push more current through the same load - direct drive into two XM-Ls in parallel on copper the LGs do 4.5 amps and these 'CJ's do 5.71 amps. Out of the 24 there were 4 that had the heatshrink damaged when the tabs were welded which I re-wrapped, nothing under the cover that would indicate they're anything other than brand new cells.

4

Look at it this way: what other options are there for 18650s for less than $2.45 each? Red/silver Trustfire "3000mAh", at a little under $2 each? I got 4 of those with the first lights I bought, 3 of them would trip the protection at 3 amps and shut the light off. The other one would just flicker even after the protection board was removed, there's something not connected inside the case. On all 4, the button tops weren't welded, held on only by the heatshrink. They are complete total garbage.

5

Hi,

I’d be interested in these, and I have an Accucell so I can do a discharge test. Based on what you all know thus far, is it worth a try? Seems like that’s the case from this thread so far, but let me know?

Thanks,
Jim

6

Bummer +10 dollars shipping to uk,But if you guys test and they r ok still might b worth it

7

Hi,

Well, I’ve gone ahead and bought one. Ebay says delivery by 3/11, but I think that I’ve dealt with this seller before, and what I bought got here (VA) faster than that… Will post back.

Jim

8

Figured it out. Sold by “N&K Trading”… Looks like that is tmart.com, or someone/something associated with with tmart.com.

Jim

9

Bit like these:

http://www.fasttech.com/products/1420/10001900/1136602-18650-37v-2300mah-rechargeable-li-ion-batteries

Marc.

10

Look similar,$47 therabout for twelve so if you pay $40 for the lap pulls its not so good to us in the uk.Thanks marc.

11

Plus you’d get 6 battery boxes too :)!!

Jim

12

Google finds hits on what appears to be these cells. After some searching, I suspect these are 2200mAh cells… when they were new.

One of the links found a MSDS
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.magicshinelights.de%2Fapp%2Fdownload%2F5784966222%2F18650C4_MSDS_Zertifizierung.pdf&ei=n45gUdWUKeWujAK-joGwDA&usg=AFQjCNHtcwb-pyttSLZObtB_WcNW4OxWcw&bvm=bv.44770516,d.cGE&cad=rja

No wonder Majicshine cells are so crappy. But for what you paid, and if youre happy with them, thats all that matters.

13

cat eyes,

What is “BAK”?

comfy chair,

Your pictures didn’t show it, but do these cells have button tops? Or are they flat tops?

Jim

14

Try this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190776517081

15

Hi,

The Ebay listing says New Brunswick, NJ, which is probably like across the river from New York:

http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&q=new+brunswick,+nj&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x89c3c355f06a92a5:0x25925506798e230c,New+Brunswick,+NJ&gl=us&sa=X&ei=s6tgUfnZL9bF4AOLmoH4Ag&ved=0CJYBELYD

Incidentally, I’ve bought a lot of stuff Newegg, and that always inevitably ships out of Edison, NJ, which is almost the same place…. coincidence?

Also, before I bought the pack off of Ebay, I did do a brief search of Tmart.com, but that pulled up like 25 pages of results. The one 9600 mAh one I found was $34.99, but it looked slightly different than the pic on Ebay:

http://www.tmart.com/Laptop-Battery-7200mAh-11.1V-for-Dell-Studio-1737-1735_p136250.html

Re. flat vs. button top: I looked more closely at the pics from the OP, and those do look like flat tops.

Jim

P.S. On my purchase from Tmart, the payment went to N&K Trading_tmart, thus my “guess” that the ebay seller is tmart.com, or associated with them.

16

cat eyes,

Who were you talking to/asking?

Jim

17

Hi,

Oh, ok….

No, I don’t resell lights :).

It’s just that I’ve just gotten interested in lights fairly recently, and there’s a TON of stuff to learn about (for me).

I have a technical background, but it’s been all work, while this is actually FUN, so it’s like “a kid in a candy shop”… and, BTW, I think I’ve mentioned on other threads, my wife is already starting to hate it, because of the pile of lights, batteries, chargers, and rigamarole that I’ve accumulated in the last 1.5 months.

Jim

18

Haha, yep, same creative spelling in the ebay listing.

-----

Is there good evidence that any cells made in China are automatically 'retreads'? That's not a leading question, I'm truly asking. I know about some of the quality issues, like everybody else I got burned years ago by the Chinese capacitor scandal, but capacitors and batteries are different animals. Lots of circuits still work passably well even when some or all of the capacitors are completely ineffective... for a while, until they vent. Can they really use river water and ox dung in a LiIon cell and have it still work?

19

I would dearly love to have a tackle box packed full of fifty Panasonic 3400's or Samsung INRs, but not so much I'd be willing to give up food to get them.

20

These aren't HP packs, they're aftermarket replacements. The genuine HP-branded OEM packs use LG - at least based on the one sample I opened.

edit: The OEM 12-cell pack for the HP DV4 used LG cells... they may use something else for other and/or newer models.