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.
I just (early November) bought 8 Samsung 30Qs from 18650BatteryStore.com.
Just keep checking until stock shows up.
You mean this one Samsung 30Q Button Top Battery - 18650 3000mAh 15A | INR18650-30Q ?
Try to buy it now :partying_face:
“Wait until stock shows up”… It is not just stock problem anymore. Problem will be 10$ per battery.
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.
PennDot is reporting lug nut shortage today. Go figure.
Because of Tik-Tok, because of Harry Potter, or just because of supply and demand? The first one should be punishable as second degree murder (IMHO).
No wing nut shortage. 
They are and will be more than double. I did not lie. So it is not dramatic I am afraid…
Year ago at NKON.NL I paid 200 pcs of Samsung 30Q 593 EUR with tax. Which means 2,95EUR per piece.
Now 200pcs price is 1160 EUR! Or 5,8 EUR piece.
Update… Currently Samsung INR30Q just disappeared from NKON.NL so you can’t buy it for 6 Euro even if you want…
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.
So 30Q button top is almost 8 Euro now! OMG 
In fact I ordered 500 so far from NKON (but not any more I’m afraid)… I am selling some modded lights and IR illuminators.
Oh that is nothing pal… My friends that do DIY ebikes ordered much more than me like 5-10x more…
I would also order at least additional 500 at 2020. but I did not knew that this “Shortage” can happen in this field…
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!
Please don’t sniff my hair.
Not sure where you are in Europe, but Fogstar are a very reputable U.K. company. The guy who runs it is very definite about safety and quality. Have a read of some of it.
Thanks for info.
UK orders have one small problem called “Brexit”.
But if we compare price on most popular battery on BLF Samsung 30Q Samsung 30Q 18650 Lithium-ion Batteries | Fogstar UK
8 GBP = 9.5EUR=10.8$! For plain flat top battery without S&H. Even more expensive than NKON.NL
Yeah man, don’t get me started on the ridiculousness of Brexit, it’s seriously screwed things up and I’m not just talking batteries, I’m talking food rotting in fields because the labour forces can’t come and live here to work, lack of truckers because they’re now held up at the borders for so long it’s not worth them bothering etc. It’s a mess, orders from anywhere in Europe to the U.K. are similarly affected.
They were about $8 per battery. I love how their price drops back to "normal" when they are out of stock.
Thanks for sharing that.
The Liitokala Lii-31S is being sold by a local online seller and it’s fairly inexpensive here (around the equivalent of US$4/pc ).
I’ve only tried a few. The AC IR I measured with the YR1030 resistance tester is similar to the one on the video, around 15-16mOhms (in comparison, a genuine 30Q gets around 12-13mOhms AC IR using the YR1030 resistance tester).
Unfortunately I don’t have a setup to discharge at high amps. But using the SkyRC MC3000 to discharge the Lii-31S does yield around 3000mAh capacity, from my testing.
Interesting to know from the above video review that the Lii-31S was able to successfully complete discharge test at 15A and got 2852mAh with 2.70v cut-off voltage, and battery temperature reaches maximum 77 degrees Celsius.
(The 20A discharge test from the video resulted in the Lii-31S battery getting over 80 degrees Celsius by the time 1500+mAh has already been discharged)
~
Would be interested if HKJ could test the Lii-31S, so would be able to compare the voltage sag graph vis-a-vis the more well-known LG HG2 / Samsung 30Q batteries.
“Interesting to know from the above video review that the Lii-31S was able to successfully complete discharge test at 15A and got 2852mAh with 2.70v cut-off voltage, and battery temperature reaches maximum 77 degrees Celsius.”
While I am waiting for slow boat from China with possibly fake Samsung INR 30Q batteries I am open to different options. This one seems to have potential and yes it would be great if HKJ could test this Lii one…
About Samsung 30Q. Shouldn’t that battery have around 35mΩ resistance? If so than Lii-31S with 15-16 mΩ resistance should be better?
Hi all, piggybacking on this thread since it’s close enough to my questions.
I’m a bit of noob when it comes to 18650s. I’ve been using Samsung 30Q/35E batteries exclusively since that’s what my devices have been coming with. I’m using them in DC fans, SC31 Pros and EDC18s.
I’d like to buy more 18650s, but at $8/battery, the Samsung battery prices have gotten above my budget. Could someone suggest a safe alternative and reputable sellers? Emphasis on safe — I’ll be carrying these a lot in aircraft and some of the aircraft don’t have cabin-accessible baggage compartments.