Protected 14500 Recommendation

MascaratumB, thanks for the information. As for which of my 1xAA lights I’d want to use the 14500s, I guess the answer is I’d like to try 14500s in all of those which can safely accept them, as per my list above. And I’m thinking from what you say that I don’t really need high drain cells on those?

As for the Lumintop cells, are those protected and what is their length? Can’t tell from the website.

Finally, what are opinions about these Xtar cells? Xtar 14500 800mAh 3.7V Protected Lithium Ion (Li-ion) Button Top Battery - Boxed They’re button top, protected, and the length is 50.5 mm (almost identical to eneloops). The price is good and shipping and tax are reasonable, and they ship from the U.S. (where I am). And the reviews are very favorable. On paper they seem to be pretty much what I’m looking for.

Sorry, I missed the list above :zipper_mouth_face:
No, for any of these light you won’t need high drain cells! They don’t use FET/direct drivers, so they won’t drain too much as if they were pockect rockets.

If you were willing to try unprotected cells, I would say check the Vapcell gold or the Shockli black. These are not long cells. I have the Vapcells and they are 51,12mm more or less (with the button top, the flat tops are shorter) . I bet they fit almost all the lights poste above. You must only pay attention to the driver, in this case if it accepts flat tops or only button tops (the Tool AA is one of the cases that uses button top, mostly).

If you wanna go protected cells, they will be longer and fatter (due to the wrapping) so I am not sure if you will be able to fit all of them in those lights. Currently, except for that blue and white Lumintop with mini USB port, which is inherently protected, all the 14500 protected cells I have are longer.

Those Lumintops are: 50.2mm*14.5mm. Being USB-rechargeable cells, they have a protection circuit.

Extra info from their website, that I linked:

Unfortunately I don’t have any info about those, but normally Xtar does decent batteries, so maybe you can try them.
They have less capacity than the Vapcell or the Shockli I linked above, but I am sure that in the lights you have, they will eventually perform well, as none is a high-drain flashlight.

MascaratumB, I really appreciate your detailed reply—-it is very helpful.

Thanks,

Andrew

You’re welcome :wink:
Glad it helped and let us know about your decision on “shopping” :+1:

Vapcell 14500 P1409A cells are protected, rechargeable (USB port, what a waste of space) and 50,3mm long:
https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Vapcell%20INR14500%20950mAh%20P1409A%20(Black-red)%202020%20UK.html

Unless a mfr uses a shorter 14430 instead of 14500, the cell with protection doodad will be fiendishly long.

My Wuben has the room for it (protected 14500) because it’s sold with it and can fit it, but that cell doesn’t fit any other AA/14500 lights I have.

Thanks, gents. Where do they sell the referenced Vapcells?

Nice one! Didn’t remember that!

Thanks for the vendor info. These Vapcells would be almost twice (with shipping & tax) what the Xtars would cost, and the Xtars would ship from the U.S., where I am. Would they be worth the big premium?

Prizes are in favour of the Xtar, of course.

The Vapcell:

- has USB-Charing (which can be good in case you don’t have a charger at hand and wanna travel, but can, eventually but only in rare cases, be bad in case there is some issue with the charging circuit).

- has more capacity (theoretical 950mAh, more real around 880mAh - 900mAh) than the Xtar (800mAh) - in can be relevant in case you are using the lowest modes, in which you will have more “juice” to feed the light.

- has maximum continuous discharge current is 2000mA against 1600mA of the Xtar (if I understand well, this means that if a flashlight pulls more Amps, the Vapcell will give a marginal superio limit, although not much higher )

- is 3.4Wh and Xtar is 2.96Wh

  • is 50.3mm*14.1mm and Xtar is 50.5mm*14.3mm

Also, the Vapcell has been tested by HKJ but no testing data from the Xtar… Decisions decisions. :money_mouth_face:

Excellent points. Thanks, MascaratumB. Yes, indeed, a lot to consider!

Andrew

The Keeppower 1000mah is excellent. I bought mine from Illumn and they preform amazingly, with some of the longest runtimes from any 14500. They make an 1100mah version, but for only 100mah more you sacrifice 2A of discharge.

Gentlemen, thanks for the recommendations but I think the problem is the length. I’m really trying to keep it under 51 mm and the Orbtronic is 55 mm and the Keeppowers are around 52 mm.

Regarding protected 14500 batteries — it’s usually difficult to find out at what discharge current, the protection circuit will trip. (unless it’s tested & reviewed by HKJ, which will then indicate the current when the battery gets cut off)…

I think many protected 14500 batteries trip at around somewhere 2.5-3 Amps. This may trip when used in certain 14500 flashlights that can draw around 4 Amps or a bit more (eg. Klarus XT1A, GT Micro or BLF X5).

I understand Vapcell allows option to add protection circuit to their 14500 batteries (some added cost), but I wonder what is the ‘trip’ overdischarge current for their protection circuit board…

Truly frustrating. Eg: the unmarked cell that came with my GT MICRO (Osram) from Lumintop runs fine in all my 14500 lights. However, the Lumintop branded (wrapped) cell (920 mAh) that came with my AA TOOL 2.0 runs fine in the Tool, but trips immediately upon turbo activation in the GT. Strangely enough, I bought a couple Nitecore NL1475R’s (750 mAh), and they run turbo in the GT without issue. Seems like it’s a crapshoot.

Wellp, the ToolAA’s only rated for 650 lemons (just goggled it), so it ain’t a screamer, and LT probably shipped a lower-current cell.

The ’micro is rated for 1000 lemons, so probably needs a higher-rated cell.

Point being, they probably shipped the “appropriate” cell for the light.

Not so strange since the protection circuits are added by either the seller or middleman. One never knows what they’re getting even if the cell itself is the same.

Totally get that. I’m just thinking out loud it would be
beneficial for the end user to have some relevant specs published along with the product, in order to acquire the appropriate power source a la carte, so to speak.

I have the reverse question - I have a few Keeppower 14500 protected cells and what do they actually fit? Didn’t work with my Convoy T2 or T3, Really hard to screw the cap on my Sofirn SP10 Pro.