Test / Review: (OLD) Panasonic NCR 18650A 3100mAh batteries $11.96 Protected and $9.97 Unprotected (OLD)

except the xtar charge rate slows down as it reaches capacity. I don't know why people doubt these batteries. They are the same as Kallies with a different label. I seems I tore my label off for nothing. It was damn hard to get off too.

from Old's review

Lets look at how the charger behaves : Lets start with the 1A setting

I was using two batteries Bat-1 @ 3.03v and Bat-2 @ 3.4v to start ... Both channels were doing 1A

I was monitoring the charge rate as the batteries charged , and at 3.84v the charge rate had dropped to 800mA

At 3.99v the charge rate was down to 500mA

At 4.07v it was down to 300mA

At 4.12v it was down to 140mA

And the charge terminated @ 4.14v [ tested battery voltage ]


would like to make sure they are the same batteries and the IC's are good.

it seams no one has been able to mention the how many amps the pcb,s (ic's) can take before it cuts in and if the lvc works well and i have not noticed all mAh test on these cells from this seller yet.

i might be fussy but this is a new seller and things likr torches and brands have been copied before, im sure they are fine im very keen to buy a couple but just waiting for more info, i was hoping to buy some tonight.

same stuff diffrent bucket

Possibly a dumb question but - compared to AW: How are Panasonics?

All I admittedly know is CPF: AW, etc.

i had a car sales man once told me the car could do 50 mpg but it did 20 mpg

screw it ill just buy some an test them for myself

Benckie, i think if i insert them fully charged into the DRY, them XM-Ls will pop!

Sanyo 2600s already went way past 5A. BTW actually the Sanyo 2600s are able to get me higher amps than the NCR18650A.

Even SST-90 lights like Elektrolumens ST90 do 4 x 18650 in parallel to draw 2.5A.

The high current incans, well they managed to even pop the green Sony Knion (sp) IMRs. Stuff like the 250W TK Monster.

benckie, I can tell as much as I had been told, which by the way is what the seller said.

I tried yesterday measuring the power consumption from an XM-L, but I think there is a problem with my tester, I had no more than 3A with any battery I checked it, but I had recently 5A from the Hi-Max and 4 from the trustfire flames, but now all of them are giving about 3A, so I think it is my tester's fault, I will check replacing its own batteries.

I will let you know if it imrpoves after replacing the batteries in the tester.

IF in the worst of the cases, it can only handle to give about 3A, it is not that bad for me as I have some Direct drived XM-L flashlights, wich I would not want to toast at 5-6A, the most important thing for me now is their runtime.

Thanks yarvi.

Today I brought a couple protected ones to try out.

Protected arrived today.

These are really long/fat batteries.

They don't work in my TM11 and don't fit in the DRY battery carrier.

Almost the same lengt as the Xtar 18700 / 2600 mAh

The website has been down for a while for me any one else ?

Has any one done any test of these from this seller yet ?

I ordered a pair of protected 3100 on the 16th of november it will be a week or two before i get them.

got mine today, pcb trips on my 5.6 amp dropins but not on my 4.2 amp

Welcome to the forum, bugsy714. I hope you will participate more in our discussions around here.

Are you sure you DMM is measuring accurately. 5.6A is a high current, the higher it is the harder to correctly measure it because the leads length, thickness and resistance. It is possible that the currents to be higher than 5.6A.

Even with with stacked AMC7135 chips the current can differ . For example they are rated 350mA per chip, but if you look at the manufacturer specs you can see they are rated 340mA to 380mA.

No DMM, just my 5.6 amp regulated kenji quad in a c2 with a mcclicky (the mcclicky should provide some resistance as well). It does the same in my VIDSM copper quad 5.6amp uunit with a fettie switch

When I put them in my 6p/mcclicky 4.2amp regulated VIDSM light they run fine. I'll be taking a walk and timing how long these can run my quad on high, an AW IMR 18650 is about 25minutes @5.6amps so I'll be hoping for a lot more runtime at 4.2amps =)

Hank has told me he will release their official test reports of these batteries soon!...

the runtime is noticeably longer than my trustfire flames

I also just purchased 3 of these batteries, and will compare with Callies Kustoms when I get them. Sounds like a real good deal for these cells.

ordered 3 unprotected and they are shipped, will post when I have news (facts)

i ordered mine on the 16 Nov once here ill do a internal resistance check and mAh test to 3 volt

Well I'm not impressed at all really. Ok I only brought two but was charged $3 usd each for shipping, no big deal the cost of a can of coke down under at a service station, they came loose no wrapping at all just rolling around loose in a padded letter.

Slow charge of 0.5 amps after being discharged to 3 volt at 0.5 amps I'm getting good results around 2900 mAh, but the kicker is with a 3 amp discharge test from 4.18 volt to 3.013 volt I'm getting 1229 mAh ouch on cell A in around 24 minuets.

Cell B discharged from 4.18v to 3.194 volt at 3amps I was not even able to extract more the 1000 mAh if fact i got less in 18 odd minuets, ok the batteries protection did kick in early on cell B but there is no way it would of out done cell A if it did discharge the extra 0.194 volt.

Panisonic say these can handle 2C discharges (6.2 amps) nope they can't, Panisonic say they can handle 1C charge rates (3.1 amps) nope they can't from 3.54 volt they jump straight to 4.19 volt at 3 amps my charger will start to limit the charge rate to 2.4 amps cause the cell jump to the termination voltage with in a minuet or so.

Internal resistance on cell A is 127 milliohms cell B 129 milliohms, but high for quilty panisonic cells so they will give lower tail cap readings say the the cheaper solarforce cells. Even the trustfire flames I tested with a 3 amp discharge give a 1000 more mAh then these.

Hank wants me to retest and take photo,s another 15 hours of testing per cell the remove the PCB,s then do the testing again, but I can tell from using Logveiw in my icharger atlest with cell A it's not the protection kicking in as the battery is dishcarging to 3.013 volt cell B it did kick in at 3.194 but the battery will not give 1000 + mAh in 0.194 volt it's just not possible.

Im at work right now I have done my normal charge and discharge tests with the data tables and I will post them up tonight after work and do more testing for Hank and post my results but at this stage I'm an un happy customer and I feel I wasted $30 usd on these I could of brought 6 good trustfire flames for that price or two redilast 2600 mAh that I really like.

18650 Panasonic NCR 18650A 3100mAh protected battery Test from intl-outdoor.com

Cost $29.92 USD delivered to Australia, shipping took 21 days, first impressions i only brought two but was charged $3 usd each for shipping website said only $3 USD, no big deal the cost of a can of coke down under at a service station, they came loose no wrapping at all just rolling around loose in a padded letter ?

Out of the bag

Cell A 3.61 volt internal resistance 127 milliohms (bit high for a panisonic cell)

Cell B 3.61 volt internal resistance 129 milliohms (bit high for a panisonic cell)

Due to the internal resistance being higher then my solarforce and redilast cells these give slightly lower tail cap current readings.

mAh test

Cell A dishcarged @ 0.5 amps to 3 volt and recharged to 4.2 volt @ 0.5 amp

Cell A discharged from 4.2 volt to 3 volt @ 3 amps

They did not perform well at all, for example my trustfire flames give between 1950 to 2150 mAh with a 3 amp discharge test to 3 volt and cost 1/3 the price, these panisonic cells should be able to give 3.1 amps for 1 hour on a perfect world, but this cell only managed under 25 mins i was expecting it to last 50 mins and give around 2500 mAh atlest after my first results.

Cell B dishcarged @ 0.5 amps to 3 volt and recharged to 4.2 volt @ 0.5 amp

Cell B discharged from 4.2 volt to 3 volt @ 3 amps

Ok the battery protection kicked in early on this battery @ 3.194 volt as you can see, but i honestly feel it would not of given any more then another 400 mAh if it was to fully discharge to 3 volt, so this cell also performed poorly in my book,s, these panisonic cells should be able to give 3.1 amps for 1 hour in a perfect world, but this cell only managed under 25 mins i was expecting it to last 50 mins and give around 2500 mAh after my first tests.

The cell,s i got will not handle 6 amp discharges as you can see as the PCB,s trip and i think the cells would fall flat (will test this) and they do not handle fast charges either, panisonic say these can handle 1C (3.1 amps) charge rates but i can not even push the charge past 2.4 amps from a resting voltage of 3.54 volt as they jump straight to 4.19 volt and the charge winds down as its pritty much at termination voltage they dont stay on charge long enough to take any real mAh and yes i have checked the calibration of my icharger.

I have emailed Hank from intl-outdoor.com

Now i thought panisonic 3100 cells where made in Japan, Hank asked me to perform some test take some pictures and he will reward me, but while making this post i recived an email from Hank at intl-outdoor.com saying they need proof, photo,s they can not go to the factory with txt and then i got a full refund for the total amount, um not sure if Hank read post number 66 on this thread or not for the change of mind ?

Hank as also asked me to write my name on the cells and ship them back using the fastest method i can and they will send me the money, i know it would cost more then double what i payed for the batteries to send back so i most likely will not bother.

Some will say good service or some might say post # 66 was a gentle persuasion as his tune changed pritty quick, but either way the batteries i recived are not upto scratch in my opinion and the 2400 mAh trustfire flames test better under load sofar, i know i have just got my full refund but i will continue the testing for the benifit of our forum members as i feel as fellow torch freaks you all should know as these are not $6 usd a pair to take a gamble on.

Cell B charged @ 1 amp from the 3 amp discharge test (after resting over night) then discharged @ 3 amps.

As you can see the battery protection kicked in 0.175 volt to early but the battery would not of taken much more the 350 mAh if it discharged the extra 0.175 volt. I took some pictures but it was hard with the ichager flashing connection break down, but you can see the mAh and the dishcarge time match my logveiw data table from above.

Cell A charged @ 1 amp from the 3 amp discharge test (after resting over night) then discharged @ 3 amps.

This cell has picked up and the resting voltage on the charger was 3.61 volt as the battery had been sitting on the charger a while with the voltage climbing back up (this is normal) before i took the picture, but still under performing i think for a 3100 mAh cell, we will see how they go after more testing.

A quick description of the above tables

Zenit [s] is time of the charge, it is updated every 2 seconds.

Input [V] is how much volts my power supply is giving my Ichager 106B+

Voltage accu [V] is battery voltage

Current [A] is how many amps the charger is charging or discharging the battery or batteries.

Capacity [mAh] is how long the battery will last under load. A 2900 mAh battery should be able to give 2.9 amps for one hour till empty.

I will do more 3 amp discharge test with the wrappers and IC,s (PCB) removed and will post a data table and a pictures of both cells.