Help me make a list of batteries for a UK store to sell - we'll get a 10% discount for BLF members

Thorfire S70S loves a keeppower 6000 or 2. Tight fit but functional

Of course.

I thought it was important to point out the 6000mAh Keeppower cell has a 28.6mm diameter. I’d hate for someone buy them without checking the fit first. I used the L6 as an example because there was already a thread on here.

Perfect, thank you :+1:

I expect to be in the market for some in the near future - my spares keep disappearing into new lights :slight_smile:

Good Afternoon!

Just to keep you all in the loop, ive been doing a bit of digging on what i can get immediately (IE, inside a week in decent quantities and at a cost that makes sense for us all) and i should have these on the way before the end of the day;

Panasonic NCR18650b
Sanyo UR14500P
Panasonic NCR 18650F
Keeppower: UH2660

These are a little harder to come by but are cells i have previously supplied to other clients in the EV market. Rest assured these have been a high priority for me;

Samsung INR18650-36G
Samsung INR18650-20S
Samsung: 18650-24S

On the subject of OEM cells (Samsung/LG/Sony) since this is the bulk of my work, does anyone have any idea of the bias over flat/button top? Im happy to pull in some button top variations of the cells we stock, but im unsure of how many devices already have an over-discharge circuit etc and would use a button top option with no protection?

Il be addding the products to the following page as an when they come in - https://18650.uk/torch-batteries/

Let me know what you think!

Ben
18650 UK

Many high powered flashlights will only work with button tops and/or unprotected only cells (650mm height + a couple mm for the button top). For instance BLF Q8 uses 4*18650 button top exclusively, flat tops won’t work. Many flashlights are like this and I can’t recall - but they surely exist - of any flashlight demanding only flat tops. There are many variations but many flashlights use specific combinations only (e.g. Astrolux MF02 can use only button tops - except if modded to accept flat tops by disabling the hardware reverse polarity protection - but can also accept protected ones, Astrolux MF01 will accept whatever MF02 accepts but won’t work on turbo for more than a couple of seconds with protected cells due to very high amp draw and the batteries protection circuit kicking in).

On the other hand, vaping devices are, usually, just the opposite. They need unprotected flat tops and they won’t work with even a couple of mm longer button top battery. Same goes for many powerbanks but with much less amp needs and more capacity needs.

It all depends on where a battery needs to be used.

For example, I am using 30Q button top with all my high powered flashlights, VTC6 flat top with my ecigs, NCR18650B flat top unprotected with powerbanks, NCR18650B protected button top with many low-amp flashlights.

Hi Aleister,

Thanks for that, that mostly answers my querstion. We’re well versed with the vape side of things. I supply several hundred shops in the UK and the same again in Europe and coupled with our primary industry verticals, we will always have flat top unprotected cells on hand. Theres just not been much of a call for the button top variants.

Ill get them in. If i start with the HG2/VTC6/30Q, and go from there?

I think that button-top batteries choice is a lazy choice by many flashlight manufacturers, made just because:
a. they don’t go the extra mile to create software reverse polarity protection (like many ecigs have)
b. find another way (e.g. load the batteries from the tail) for the + pole to make contact in carrier-less multi-cell parallel connections instead of this:

c. can’t use software reverse polarity protection because they use a carrier that only connects with a + and a - to the driver without electronics on its own

In a few words, flashlight companies can solve that but won’t (due to extra cost I believe)

I will vote yes to that

A little update;

The following are now in stock on the website;

Panasonic NCR18650PF
Panasonic NCR18650B
Sanyo UR14500P
Keeppower 26650 6000mAh 20A
Samsung 30Q button top.

I had hoped that i would have had the button top VTC6 today too but there seems to be a bit of a delay on these. There is in fact a global shortage of VTC6 at the moment that came out of nowhere. Normally we know when a drought of something is coming but this one caught us completely off guard!

could you be able take these cells in ?

Keeppower 26650 5200mAh (protected) - 12A

I would like to suggest another ShockLi battery (original battery model, which is rewrapped by them - is unknown):
21700 4550mAh (closer to 4000mAh during tests)

It can be regarded as similar to the LR2170SA (which is mostly known in Liitokala rewrap), but it has better discharge curve for the first half of the discharge, and runs noticeably cooler (15A discharge, at 1.5Ah, temp is 16°C above environment).

For reference LR2170SA has a bit worse discharge performance, and gets hot much faster (15A discharge, at 1.5Ah, temp above environment is ~28°C).

Tests: ShockLi 21700 4550mAh + Liitokala 21700 4000mAh (LR2170SA)

I think, this ShockLi battery could be a good inexpensive one, if you can stock it.

EDIT

Forgot to mention, that ShockLi 14500 660mAh exists in button top version as well, and that could be also desirable.

The Shockli 21700 4550mAh 22A / 30A is a rewrap of the new Lishen cell: LS LR2170SF, an upgraded version of the Lishen LS LR2170SA you mentioned earlier (the LitoKala rewrap: Lii-40A). This new cell does not do 4550mAh as Shockli indicates but 4400mAh according to Lishen and has a continuous discharge rate of 5C, which explains the continuous 22A write on the rewrap by Shockli because 4.4 (Ah) x 5 (.C) = 22 (A). I put a picture of the new Lishen cell with its original Wrap.

Thank you, good to know :-)

Hello 18650UK,

I just looked up the product page on 18650.uk for Keeppower IMR26650 6000mAh unprotected button top (UH2660, white text on black label).

Could you please correct a few mistakes in the product description?

- battery has raised positive connection, but it is unprotected

- weight is definitely not 81g, it is 98g

  • physical size is not 26.1×60.3mm (that would be very short) - it is 26.8×66.7mm
    (source of data)

You are very right, thank you

Ive corrected the information :slight_smile:

Ben

I will buy rechargeable batteries in a Polish store. They have an English version but there are fewer products https://batteries.cr123.pl/

on the Polish have more products
https://akumulatorki.cr123.pl/

I bought 26650 and 18650 with USB.

I’m looking for a good 26650 such as the Shockli 5500mAh. Would be great if it was stocked in the UK.

The KeepPower mentioned earlier is out of stock and no longer showing on your website.

I have them listed, but getting any 26650 out of Keeppower in the last 12 months has been very difficult. They’re listed here - https://18650.uk/product/keepower-26650-5200mah/

The issue i think is with the bare cell. Because these Chinese re-wrapping businesses are relying on OEM cells and the OEM (Samsung, Sony, LG, etc) have firmly had their heads in the 21700 form factor for the last two years, there is next to no (or none at all) development in the 26650 size and with even less production, getting the bare cell to produce this product is becoming practically impossible. What normally happens once supply of the “good cells” runs out is they switch to using unbranded Chinese equivalents which are normally of reasonable quality, but not quite the same. They also often neglect to tell anyone/update the wrap with new performance figures/release a new datasheet for them.

If you join the waitlist, you’ll get an auto-email the moment more stock arrives and is added :slight_smile:

Vapecell 14500 1000mah 10A any chance of getting them?

Certainly not impossible. I would like to get some to test. 10A from a 14500 seems quite a stretch. We already stock the Sanyo UR14500 here - https://18650.uk/product/sanyo-ur14500p/ The capacity and discharge ratings however, are well below what Vapcell are offering.

Ill grab a pair from a supplier and give it a test, and post the results. Ill let BLF decide whether the findings make is useful or not?

Edit - Misread the stats on the cell. 3A, not 10A. This makes it possible they might already be using the UR14500P under the wrap, with a slightly trumped up capacity. Ill grab some regardless and do some back to back comparisons.

Thank you.