An Idiot's Guide to 18650's - Under Construction

Moms are the leading cause of fire in the house together with kids... they should have a warning label. ;-)

LOL! Yeah, pretty much! :slight_smile:

Oh dear oh dear oh dear !

The most dangerous thing about Li-ion !

Is the user , and his or her lack of knowledge . Most battery mishaps can be traced directly back to user error !
And sure , Li-ion , Lipo etc , will flame from time to time , but again , if one were to examine the actual root cause , I would dare to say [ or claim ] user error !
Li-ion is part of our lives , flashlights , power tools and even powering cars , bikes etc .

I dont think the battery can educate itself , so it is up to users , to educate themselves , make themselves safe ! As Li-ion ATM is not 100% safe , but nothing is 100% safe , not even AA batteries , well they might be 99.999% safe but not 100% , and the most important factor with Li-ion , is the human factor !

My brother just gave up on Li-ion , he was simply too lazy to use a MM , or bother to check the batteries from time to time , even though I made him aware of the risks . Now he is back to AA powered lights , as he simply wants to run them down and not monitor the state of the battery . And I think average Joe and Floe probably feel the same way , their really not interested in safe procedures when it comes to batteries [ possibly from decades of exposure to AA batteries and the other sizes ] . There are people out there that never check tire pressure , there oil , or the spark plugs , they simply expect things to work without maintenance .

Sure there are cheap nasty batteries out there , but 99.9% of the time , they need a lot of help before they will flame out , and that help comes from the user !

Bottom Line :

Worry more about people and what they do and dont do , than the battery itself :

My sentiments exactly.

This is a good example of what happens when people take CPF seriously. Tens of thousands of these supposedly “super dangerous” items have been sold, and yet nary a whiff of the wholesale destruction they’re predicted to cause.

In science, we call that a failed hypothesis, the domain of cranks and their adherents.

Just to be clear, I don’t necessarily think what you’re doing is a bad idea. However, if anything the data (ie lack of drama) seems to indicate that my two guidelines above are if anything overcautious.

Trolling is not a substitute for lack of substantive thoughts.

BLF is the carpet.

I’m just confused about this. Most sellers say 4.35v, while some forumers say 4.2v. But a trusted site like Orbtronic says 4.2v. Do you have a product page for the NCR18650B?

Sorry about that, I meant to say ARENT! You probably think I’m a battery safety worrywart now.

More deep thoughts from our resident CPF mod.

Fake just about anything exists on ebay but constitutes a minority of sales. Designer bags, tools, etc, caveat emptor. It is after all not a store but a facilitator.

Just buy from manafont or whatever if paranoid, just like IRL best buy is less risky than craigslist.

Possibly… although we may have a sampling bias, here. What percentage of the flashlight community do forum members make up? I really have no idea. I would think it would be a fairly good chunk, but I don’t know. The forum members, I would think, would be the sort of people who would do a bit of research before buying/using this stuff, thereby limiting the kinds of risky behavior that might bring about an accident. At the very least, they’re more likely to see the safety rants.

edit

What’s the accident rate among non-forum flashlight users? We’d never hear about em if they didn’t join.

Given that bazillions of 18650’s are produced annually, and there are thousands of just current ebay auctions for them + chargers + flashlights/lasers/etc at any given time, the incident rate should be on seller ratings and whatnot (if not the news) if there were one at all. Even in the entire history of CPF with many thousands of members and likely 10x lurkers, there are maybe a handful of incidents, often reported from other sources internationally (like Vectrex’s link).

Frankly if we’re just listing guy hobbies, this probably has to rank as one of the safest other than stamp collecting.

I dunno, doode… paper cuts can be pretty nasty :slight_smile:

The Panasonic data sheet says 4.2v, I would go with that.
They do test from 4.2v down to 2.5v, 250mA current at 25 degrees, which results in a higher capacity result than my usual testing of 4.2 - 2.75v at 1A, 20 degrees.

Quote from Battery University:

"Considering the number of lithium-ion batteries used on the market, this energy storage system has caused little harm in terms of damage and personal injury. In spite of the good record, its safety is a hot topic that gets high media attention, even on a minor mishap. This caution is good for the consumer because we will be assured that this popular energy storage device is safe. After the recall of Dell and Apple laptop batteries, cell manufacturers will not only try packing more energy into the pack but will attempt to make it more bulletproof. "

I really like their view on that subject and I think the same goes for threads like these.... even if the some "old", "few" horror stories are posted again and again, it gets peoples attention and makes them think about battery safety for a minute, or even better it let's them do some own research.

Make yourself at home, f42!

Thanks :slight_smile:

Hello all again!

I found some budget protected 18650s…
Any ideas?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Sanyo-Li-ion-18650-Rechargable-3-7V-2-6Ah-2600mAh-Battery-with-Protected-/350549576054?pt=US_Rechargeable_Batteries&hash=item519e620976

http://www.buyincoins.com/new_en/details/new-sanyo-li-ion-18650-rechargable-3-7v-2-6ah-2600mah-battery-with-protected-product-12508.html

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/genuine-samsung-icr18650-26f-3-7v-2600mah-protected-li-ion-rechargeable-batteries-purple-2-piece-146756?item=58

http://www.buyincoins.com/new_en/details/new-panasonic-18650-ncr18650-rechargeable-battery-2900mah-with-pcb-protective-gg-product-12510.html

http://www.buyincoins.com/new_en/details/new-samsung-18650-original-rechargeable-battery-2600mah-3-7v-with-pcb-protective-product-16382.html