Living a lithium hell

Every time I need to buy lithium batteries, it’s the same trouble: no one ships to my country.
Now I have built a few quadcopters that can’t fly, and bought a few flashlights that can’t light.

Last time I was successful was during a trip to the US, and I had to bring a bunch of lipos in my hand luggage. Too much of a hassle to do that every time.

Banggood, Gearbest, Fasttech, ebay, you name it, I have tried everyone!
And of course I’m not alone: lots of people from several countries experience the same, such as in Australia and many others south american countries, as I have seen people complaining in this and other forums. Even vendors in Brazil are having lots of trouble replenishing their inventories.

But why??? Are batteries more dangerous in the southern hemisphere?

And the US are funny: “Batteries in, OK! Batteries out, NO WAY!”
Everybody can buy tons from China, free shipping. But they can’t sell abroad. (Or at best you can buy some, if you accept paying more for shipping than for the product itself.)

So, why is all this this way? Why are dangerous products not so dangerous in some places, or are in one direction but not in the opposite? Is there any hope for a change? Or is it getting worse?

You’re not the only one.

India definitely has little choice for li-ion cells. There are some the leak through the blockade, but those are mostly kept for personal use, I think.

Of course, there are the overpriced branded options, which for the most part are good. And few offers on amazon and ebay for the country.

Mostly it is a matter of hunting for them.

Have you also tried https://eu.nkon.nl ?
(Brasil can be selected.)

NKON is great, but…it is super expensive regarding shipment fee!
Even inside Europe / European Union, so to ship abroad must be…$$$$$!
I bought 3 18650 batteries from there: the batteries cost about 14€, and I paid 27€ for batteries + shipping!

JudgeDredd have you tried AliExpress stores? Some do ship to Brazil. It is a matter of seeking what type of batteries do you want and check in some battery stores (Best Power, Varicore, and others…). I’ve ordered some batteries and so far I didn’t have any problem. And shipping fees are usually lower than NKON!
Just a suggestion, though!
Good luck with that :wink:

I just imagined how lithium batteries shipped over sea must be if a full container with them going to start fireworks as one battery fails starting a chain reaction
and then they wont ship small amounts of them in a plane with fire suppression systems

Several years back a plane or two went down, they never found black box or victims,
somebody said then, “it must be that pallet of lithium ion batteries that was on board
caught on fire”, and that was the moment, someone said, everybody believed.
From that on everything went downhill fast.

Which is why I rip them out from powerbanks. I usually get LG 3350mAh cells when taking from Xiaomi.

From a recent The Independent article

Seems not to be that uncommon

Hoverboards, E-cig devices, and Phone batteries catching on fire haven’t helped the situation either. It has nothing to do with what the public believes, everything to do with what aircraft industry experts believe. MH370 was carrying 221 kilos (487 lbs) of Lipo packs.

“Here’s a little more on it, and two other aircraft that they know crashed because of lithium battery fires/explosions

Here’s a screen shot of the short article in case the link won’t let you read it.

part1

part2

part3

It’s very possible that finding an air cargo carrier that is willing to transport them is becoming more difficult, even though it may be legal for them to do so. It’s also possible the insurance companies who insure these multi million dollar cargo aircraft and their Crews, are putting restrictions on them and costing air cargo companies more to transport dangerous cargo. Just a guess.

@JD
Cleaned up Tesla cells from Netherlands here:

Try one of those “offical Liitokala (VariCore, Colaier) store” at aliexpress. There’s several of them.
With most of them you can get as example liitokala repack of Sanyo NCR18650GA 3500mAh and some other lithium batteries relatively cheaply.
Shipping with tracking included is usually free of charge, but there’s required some patience as shipping to EU as example takes around 5 - 6 weeks.

Example:

Sanyo NCR18650GA 3500mAh
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4PCS-100-Original-LiitoKala-Lii-35A-3-7V-3500mAh-NCR18650GA-10A-Discharging-Rechargeable-Batteries-For-Sanyo/32827903440.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.hGY9NF

Samsung INR18650 35E 3500mAh

Samsung INR18650 30Q 3000mAh

Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mAh - protected

LiitoKala 26650 …

None of those links above will ship to Canada. I feel the OP’s pain. Selection in Canada (mostly from vape shops) is very limited and expensive. There are some options for ordering from the US, but shipping is expensive.

I think I’ll have to stop buying 18650 lights. I like AA lights for general-purpose use, but you just can’t get both pocketability + high output (and good run time) from them.

If somebody shipped lithium batteries to those countries, would it be a problem?

I was checking on AliExpress and some stores seem to have “free shipping” or small fees for Brasil and Canada! Lots of the others others are really expensive, I’m sorry for you situation and all the other members that are not able to buy they or at least with small shipping fees :person_facepalming:
I hope this helps on searching :wink:

BRASIL:

- https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1359905?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.7a4af25aNdF8Un

- https://www.aliexpress.com/store/334042?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.7c9add08rQTCkj

- https://www.aliexpress.com/store/3216007?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.2eb6b28bK1hBmd

- https://sunway.aliexpress.com/store/3173029?spm=2114.12010608.0.0.7338d402TkW3zx

- https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1969247?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.1eece3adiZees6

- https://www.aliexpress.com/store/3213027?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.2afeb6a3wLyRsP

- https://www.aliexpress.com/store/2611035?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.5daef00anMjTOy
.
.
.
CANADA:

- https://www.aliexpress.com/store/3213027?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.2eb0b905Hr4N0c

- https://sunway.aliexpress.com/store/3173029?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.1d9acd1bh7yweq

EDIT: I just noticed that not all of the batteries from these stores can be shipped. In my search, the ones that appeared the most were Samsung 30Q and Sony VTC6 unprotected. If you go to search on these stores, search for those in particular. Now I understand your pain :person_facepalming:

Okay, I see that some can ship to Canada. ~ $10 US shipping, which is cheaper than from the US.

I had my credit card hacked the only time I used it on Ali, so I’m a little hesitant to buy from there now. Too bad they didn’t accept PayPal.

Yeah, some are cheaper! But most of the stores takes more than 48€ (maybe USD $50 ?) to ship them.
Hum, can you use any “program” to create a virtual credit/debit card from your account?
I’m using one of those apps/services after my bank stopped allowing direct payment for online shopping. In other stores (BG or GB) I use PayPal, but on AliExpress I use those “1 time use ” cards.

Some time ago SB created this thread, maybe it can help you: Experiences with virtual / prepaid credit cards?!

Soooo

  1. open a special import export company for Li-on cells ? (an opportunity?)
  2. buy power banks with good cells I buy the Innogie 13400 to get 3350 cells (btw I have two that’s 4 cells each if someone wants them) PM me
  3. it seems some are available but due to laws or insurance the shipping to some paces just costs more (remember we don’t live in a perfect world)
  4. start an educational movement to change the laws in your country (or become a lobbyist for the companies who will pay for such lobbyist)

I have made battery purchases 3 times, each shipped from a different Aliexpress seller because they usually change shipping methods frequently. Most can ship to Brasil when Turkish post is available as an option, but it comes and goes. The last purchase is running very late and I’m afraid it will not arrive at all, so that is always a risk with these purchases. The best seller I had was the official official liitokala AE store (the one marked as top brand), I should have ordered a lot more at the time, it arrives fast and easy, shipping and product weren’t expensive, but they will only very rarely have turkish post available, if you miss the windows, you’ll have to start your research all over again

The problem with Aliexpress is the same as with ebay: the few sellers available to me are charging between 50 and 70 USD for shipping!

Except for this one (yes, only one!), which I have not tried yet:

Anyway, it is really annoying being excluded from the cheap battery party that goes on the “Commercial Sellers’ Spot” on this forum.

Edit: MascaratumB, I have just checked your links, and besides the one I listed above, there are 2 or 3 more that seem reliable and might be useful. Thanks.

Thanks, but none (!!!) of them ship to my country.