Reference: mitro's pile of battery graphs

I'm looking to compile a lot more data on different cells but I just can't afford to buy every size of every brand. I was hoping I could get some members to send me theirs and then I can test them and send them back. All it would cost is the shipping to me and a week of being w/o your cells.

Just a few things:

1. I REALLY need to keep this within the US.

2. The newer the cells, the better. I'd appreciate if you'd include a note with the cells and let me know the age and approximate number of cycles (I know this is hard sometimes. Just get it in the ballpark)

3. I really prefer to have a pair (or more). I'd do a single cell, but the results would be less significant.

4. For now, I'm only looking for lithium cells. Maybe I'll do NiMH later. (I'd do primaries too, you just won't get them back. :p)

Once tested, I will post the results and graphs so we could more accurately compare different brands/sizes.

All tests are done with a West Mountain Radio CBA II that I've used extensively and gotten pretty well dialed in (I have the "pro" sofware which allows you to calibrate volts/amps so that it matches my DMM).

If you are interested, post here or PM me. Also, I'd love to hear requests of cells that the members would like to see tested. Thanks in advance. :)

Here's an example:

mitro's Trusfire "Flames" 18650 #1 (click thumbnail to see full-size image)

0.5 Amps - 2538 mAh

1.5 Amps - 2464 mAh

3.0 Amps - 2386 mAh

Not sure exactly how I want to format everything, but I'm sure it will evolve over time.

Anybody? I can also easily combine old results with new tests so that we can see how different cells compare.

Well here's one of mine again:

mitro's Sanyo 2600 18650's #1 & #2

Received/Age: 06/11 (new)

Source: hkequipment

3 Amps

#1: 2441mAh

#2: 2455mAh

(to be updated with new tests later)

(click thumbnail to see full-size image)

I want to test whatever anybody is using. I'd just like to get an idea of how popular cells stack up against each other in identical tests and how they perform at currents that are often demanded of them.

Here's an interesting one. Two pairs of Trustfire "flame" 14500s bought a month and a half apart discharged @ 1.5 amps

mitro's Trustfire"flame" 14500s #1-4

They're clearly different cells. Not a bad thing in THIS case, but it illustrates that you never really know... until you test. :)

The discussion of protection circuits made me want to see at what voltage I could get it to kick in So I grabbed a Trustfire 18650 blue label "2500" that has been put in my recycle pile and decided to move the test cutoff voltage lower to see where it would cut off. Here's the graph:

Trustfire 18650 blue label "2500" #2

Discharge rate: 3A

3A is too much for this ol' girl. :) It managed almost 1700 mAh, but hit about 40 degrees C doing it.

The low voltage protection kicked in at 2.05v (±0.05v). I'm not entirely sure what it thinks its protecting at that low of a voltage.:)

Thanks for all of your hard work mitro.

Thank you! Sorry, I missed this when you posted it. I’ve been working too hard. :slight_smile:

mitro's AW "2900" 18650s (Panasonic NCR18650 based)

Number of cells: 3
Purchased: 9/4/2010
Link

Usage: Some cells used more than others. Typically in single cell lights running 1 to 3 Amps on high. Kept topped off most of the time.

Protection: It took a 10A discharge to trip over current. I have not tested the low voltage protection.

All tests were done within the last month.

0.5 Amps

#1: 2878 mAh
#2: 2827 mAh
#3: (Error made in calibration - need re-test)

1.5 Amps

#1: 2735 mAh
#2: 2710 mAh
#3: 2702 mAh

3.0 Amps

#1: 2685 mAh
#2: 2690 mAh
#3: 2676 mAh

5.0 Amps

#1: 2719 mAh
#2: 2705 mAh
#3: 2703 mAh

At 5A the cells heat up to about 40 degrees C by the end of the discharge. I assume the increase in capacity at a greater load is a result of this.

All discharge rates for #1

MF UF test:

3.356 Amps

Using my Manafont Ultrafire T6 XM-L 3-mode P60 dropin in an L2i body I tested the max current the battery would deliver.


AW 2900 #1 vs. Sanyo 2600 #2 @ 3.0 Amps

AW: 2685 mAh

Sanyo: 2455 mAh


Here's an interesting way to look at the comparison of the two cells:

Watt hours to 2.8v (when discharged @ 3A)



Sanyo: 8.732Wh
AW: 8.800Wh

Thats a 0.78% increase in power to 2.8v by going from the 2600 to the 2900. There's more to it, and at lower discharge rates it would be greater, but mAh doesn't tell the whole story.

brted's Bestinone.net IMR 10440 #1 & #2 (rated 350mAh)

Thanks for loaning me your cells, Ted!


Number of cells: 2
Purchased: 5/2011

0.5 Amps

#1: 314 mAh
#2: 325 mAh

1.0 Amps

#1: 174 mAh
#2: 150 mAh

1.5 Amps

#1: 77 mAh
#2: 88 mAh

The cells just barely warm during the 1.5A test.

MF UF test:

NOT TESTED

Bestinone.net IMR 10440 vs. AW ICR 10440 @ 1.5 Amps

The AW does 123mAh @ 1.5A (to 2.5v) but, none of the cells handle the load very well. I'm certain that if there is such a thing as an IMR 10440... this ain't it. :) Better news to come...

brted's Bestinone.net IMR 14500#1 & #2 (rated 600mAh)


Number of cells: 2
Purchased: 5/2011

0.5 Amps

#1: 722 mAh
#2: 748 mAh

1.5 Amps

#1: 699 mAh
#2: 709 mAh

3.0 Amps

#1: 544 mAh
#2: 548 mAh

MF UF test:

4.028 Amps :)

Using my Manafont Ultrafire T6 XM-L 3-mode P60 dropin in an L2i body I tested the max current the battery would deliver.


Bestinone.net IMR 14500 vs. AW IMR 14500 @ 3.0 Amps

The AW does 609mAh @ 3.0A (to 2.5v). Why is every comparison to an AW? Well.. that's what I mostly have and as much as I'd like to find the same performance for less bucks, I haven't had much luck. These generic IMR 14500s are stacking up quite nicely against the AWs though. And how about 4 Amps when hooked to the Manafont dropin?!? I'd be more than happy to own a bunch of these.

brted's Bestinone.net IMR 18650 #1 & #2 (rated 1500mAh)


Number of cells: 2
Purchased: 5/2011

0.5 Amps

#1: 1416 mAh
#2: 1427 mAh

1.5 Amps

#1: 1372 mAh
#2: 1372 mAh

3.0 Amps

#1: I lost the graph! Sorry!
#2: 1336 mAh

5.0 Amps

#1: 1319 mAh
#2: 1291 mAh

MF UF test:

3.946 Amps

Using my Manafont Ultrafire T6 XM-L 3-mode P60 dropin in an L2i body I tested the max current the battery would deliver.


Bestinone.net IMR 18650 vs. AW IMR 18650 @ 3.0 Amps


The AW does 1370mAh @ 3.0A (to 2.5v). Here i am with the AW again. :) You have to remember that this is my best run of 6 between two AW IMR cells against a single run of one cell. I'm calling the generic the winner. Why? It has the flatter graph. That extra voltage of the AW's top-end in something like a 980L is only going to heat it up even more. I'm definitely impressed with these and I need to do some more tests (higher and lower amps) on my AWs to compare more thoroughly.

Looking at your numbers, you might want to double-check the calibration... They're too good!

From the tests I've seen other people do, chinese batteries rarely/never have over their rated capacity, but you got 2538 from a 2400 battery, and 748 from a 600... Unless chinese batteries have suddenly become a much better buy than people thought, something's fishy there.

I could live without some of my batteries, but I'm completely broke right now (well, not COMPLETELY... but I have $20 to live on for the next week...) - if you wanted to pay shipping, I could send you four ultrafire 3000mah 18650s, two trustfire 2500mah blue (a couple years old, but only 20 cycles or so), one trustfire 2500mah grey unprotected (sorry, only one - others are soldered into a laptop pack), two really funky (protection supposedly on the positive instead of negative end, and put on at a 15 degree slant on one of them!) no-brand 2200mah ones, two trustfire grey protected 10440s, two trustfire flame 16340s, and two no-brand 16340s. I could also send a pair of 14500 and a pair of 18650 flames, but you already have those, so probably wouldn't add anything, and the 18650s would be the ones I'd be using while the others were absent. Hrmm, I also have some (... 200) 1350mah 18650s, that are ~10 years old but have 0 cycles on them, if you wanted to test a couple for a lark...

--Bushytails

It's great to see these results. Thanks for putting your equipment to good use and doing all the work to run the tests and publish the results. I wasn't able to test them at high currents and I'm amazed to see them hold up. I knew the 14500's were pretty good, but I didn't expect as much from the 18650's. Even though the 18650's are short of their 1500mAh nominal capacity, they still do pretty well under high loads.

I knew the 10440's were pretty pointless, so no surprise there. Even a LCR 10440 doesn't have much capacity and LMR's are always going to be less. Reminds me of the quote someone has over at CPF about Maglite solitaire's: I've seen matches burn brighter and longer.

Great job!

EDIT: Nevermind.

Thanks again for letting me put them through their paces. Its a bummer that the 10440s were such dogs but the 14500s and even the 18650s made up for it. The AW 18650 come in under their rated capacity by more than the generics (1600 vs. 1500) So they definitely hold their own.

mitro's Callie's Kustoms 18650 #1 & #2 (rated 3100mAh - Panasonic NCR18650A based)


Number of cells: 2
Purchased: 6/2011

0.6 Amps (changed from the usual 0.5A to see if the cell was accurately rated over 3000mAh - also see comments a the bottom of the post)

#1: 3100 mAh
#2: 3094 mAh

(not corrected for measurement error - actual capacity closer to 3045 mAh)

1.5 Amps

#1: 2940 mAh
#2: 2943 mAh

3.0 Amps

#1: 2901 mAh (was undercharged a little - need to re-do)
#2: 2949 mAh

5.0 Amps

Run #1

#1: 2920 mAh
#2: 2939 mAh

Run #2

#1: 2934 mAh
#2: 2959 mAh

These were the first tests run, so it looks like the cells were waking up. :)

MF UF test:

3.781 Amps

The max current drawn from the cell using the Manafont Ultrafire T6 P60 drop-in in a L2p host.

Low voltage cut-off

2.44v (±0.02v)

The cells were charged up a little (from fully depleted) and then discharged @ 3A until the protection was tripped.

Callie's Kustoms 3100mAh 18650 vs. AW 2900 18650 and others

coming soon

Comments:

My 0.5/0.6A measurements are coming up a little high. This is something I already know how to fix but it will make comparison to past tests difficult. I'm more concerned with comparing with the cells I've already tested than trying to match other's results. 1.5 Amp and 3.0 Amp results should be pretty close while 5 Amp results may be a little low.

EDIT: For example, the 0.6A tests here are actually drawing 0.59A. the test for #1 lasted 5.166 hours. that means that the result is 51.66 mAh high, so #1 should be 3048 mAh.

Looking great Mitro! Thanks a lot for sharing this data with us.

Sticky'd as a reference post.

Thank you!

Nothing new here. This is copied from brted's Generic IMR thread

Here's the 18350s at 3 Amps: (click thumbnail for graph)

I tested both cells 3 times. I'm not real thrilled with the way #2 is lagging behind and just the consistency in general. Still... they perform acceptably. I just wish I had some of the Ultrafire 18350s to compare them to. The #2 cell is getting more capacity with each run, but I wish I knew what I did to get 915mAh out of #1. :) Here they are compared to the AW IMR 18350s:

I took the middle run from each of the generics and here is a single (only) run a pair of the AW IMRs. I like the curve of the AWs a lot better. That would give you higher current reading from the MF UF dropin or the like. The generics look like they're running out of wind at 3A and I bet there would be a big drop in capacity at 5A. But I don't think I'm going to try 5A. They are already getting warm at 3A. I'm doing 1.5A tests now, but I figured that 3A would be most relevant.

I'm going to try them both with the Manafont Ultrafire dropin and get some readings just to compare further.

EDIT: ok... done :)

(MAX from turn-on - tested with my Vichy VC99 with leads from my hobby charger)

AW - 4.325 amps

Generic - 3.506 amps

As long as they hold up, I think they are a good buy. I wish I had a larger sample size, but its safe to say that if your light will hold them, they're going to do better than ANY 16340.