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