Yeah, that’s why I love the “Batteries are so cheap, I toss mine after X years…” crowd.
Good luck finding new ones if, ohhhh, something like this happens.
I’m still using laptop pulls in low-stress lights, and am babying any/all other cells. As long as they don’t get too warm when charging (ie, too-high internal resistance), they stay. And big boys like 30Qs, any 21s or 26es… no, ain’t tossing any as long as they got a few more gasps left.
They should never do that! Brand 18650 can last more than a decade for our hobby… I’ am still not tossing out anything that works. But I did tossed xxx fire cells (battery recycle container of course).
The so-called battery “shortage”, could we blame it on the craze in the USA of using battery-powered tools?
Just look at the ongoing Black Friday “tools sale” in Home Depot, Lowe, COSCO, etc., one selling point is getting one or two extra battery packs (each containing 8 or 16 rechargeable battery cells) when buying one battery-powered tool.
The resellers will clear out their inventory if an order is big enough, they don’t care about a fair share for everyone. Large order buyers like DIY e-bikes and powerwall are a direct hit on our source of batteries.
You guys Stateside is lucky compared to availability and pricing here in Canada. Sure glad I stocked up last year. I respect and baby all my batteries and tools but use them for intended purposes.
Guilty of stocking up on DeWalt and Makita tool batteries over the past month.
Doubled prices sounds so dramatic. But I do agree on +60% in 11 months.
I think it is a simple matter of supply and demand. The “old” Tesla S contained up to 8,000 pieces of 18650 type cells.
Don’t know what type they put into the powerwall. But I’m pretty shure everybody is focussing on 21700 cells now.
The flashlight community is only a marginal player in the global scheme.
Even vapers are bigger stakeholders.
Economies all over the world are getting back on their feet. The NL economy is even bigger than before COVID. Energy companies did not expect this. In summer they would PAY you money if you bought electricity from them in specific day/time slots. Two weeks ago things were reversed. End of October my current supplier made me an offer for a 1yr fixed price period with a tripled monthly advance! Now prices are declining again. I think I’ll wait till the storm passes.
And the flashlight community? Will have to ride the waves as good as we can.
Currently have enough batteries so this is not something that is likely to affect me. Just want to note that I have got a few batteries lately and I am more than a little impressed with the quality, value, and availability. Sofirn, or Wurkkos 21700 included with the IF22a or TS21. Certainly have not had enough time to confirm longevity but in terms of performance these are fantastic batteries!
When I got into this hobby any of the lights that I got that came with a battery were something like a TrustFire or UltraFire. Those batteries were crap. Seems like back then the real shortage was the ability to find a decent cell that didn’t cost as much or more than what cells are going for today. The majority of cells that I bought were marginal at best. Could use greater shortages of mis-represented junk;-)
Well you showed me yours. So I’ll show you mine. Not talking about lying, or so.
December 2020 I paid €19.80 for four 30Q-BT, today these are listed for €31.80.
Question: for what you need 200 30Q’s? My bunny-rabbit runs on ordinary Duraleaks
Tesla long-range battery packs contain 4,416 21700 batteries. Some cars use 18650s and older Teslas used around 7000 18650s PER CAR. So no, I don’t think we should blame power tools for the shortage.
Oh, but we’re going green, blah blah blah! Sustainable energy, blah blah blah! Solar and wind power, blah blah blah! Good for the environment, blah blah blah!