I have been designing some lights around the new 20700 batteries. I ordered these and they arrived yesterday. Both batteries have the same markings… They were supposed to be 20700 4250 MAh batteries. Sitting here, although I have been assured that they are, 20700 4250 MAh, I just don’t know what I have purchased. I was told ” That 18650 label is for customs! ??
Has anyone else seen this mess? We SHOULD have products that are labeled, defining what they really are.
Got callipers?
You don’t even need calipers for this one. The difference between a 18650 and 20700 should be obvious. Just set the “mystery” cell down on a table next to one of your known good 18650’s and see if it’s the same size or noticeably larger in all directions.
Edit: Of course you would prove me wrong by setting it next to a protected 18650! 
Still, it looks legit to me.
Luckily there should not be any fakes of the 20700s yet so it is highly unlikely that you would have got fakes. Give it a few more months and that may not be the case.
Ordered from who?
I’ve got 2 on order from illumination supply. I’ll post when they show.
I almost fell out of my chair laughing so hard!
Asking TexasLumens if he knows how to measure a cell, man that takes the cake! He’s a machinist, runs a CNC machine of his own and sells em across the country… spends a vast majority of his time training people how to run the machines.
He DID in fact say that he’s designing lights around these cells, did he not?
The problem of course is that somebody is slapping the wrong label on top of the cell, mis-identifying it. Looks like a label from IMRBatteries to me. Somebody better get on the ball over there… wherever they came from.
I added a couple of images to the original post. I know they aren’t 18650… but when you receive something labeled like this, it makes …well, at least me… wonder. Especially all that is going on right now with batteries.
My customers wouldn’t let me get away with something like this for a hearbeat!! Nor should they. TL
Interesting!! How many of your 18650 flashlight this 20700 can fit?
Fixed, the automatic link conversion do not always works correctly, this time I copied some working html code with the link.
From my experience, protected cells are usually ~5mm longer than the spec, so that 18650 could definitely be 70mm long.
Just from looking at the wrap it looks like the black 18650 is protected while the 20700 is not.
Also, the black 18650 does look 1-2mm smaller diameter form the other pic.
Thats where these came from. 
TL
These won’t fit in our 18650 lights. I am keeping the “basic” look of our 18650 series and just sizing them up for the 20700. A few differences, but minimal.
Thanks!! TL
These came from Illumen… thats one reason I was a little shocked about the labeling. TL
What light are you designing with this 20700 in mind? Looking at HKJ’s discharge curve, it looks like this cell has close to the IR of cells like 30Q, but with a good deal more capacity. I expect/hope the 3100mAh 20700 cell will have an even lower IR, perfect for very-high-output direct drive triples or throwers.
From my very inexhaustive experience, most lights can’t be modded to fit theses cells since reboring will exceed the o-ring land OD or leave too little metal left there. Some lights with much fatter tubes might be possible but Solarforce L2’s have 20.5 mm O-ring lands and .25 mm isn’t enough for wall thickness. I’ve checked an SRK and ZY-T08 and it couldn’t be made to fit either one. Closest possible I have is the Brynite B158 at 20.85 mm with still less than .5 mm wall thickness at the land. Maybe another chunky light like a 501/502 or similar but I don’t have one to check. The length I don’t see as quite as much of an issue as likely clipped or shorter springs could take care of that.
Will 30A from the Sanyo 20700A get the job done for you?
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