Test / Review: "Himax 2600" 18650 batteries from "pingyi.co.ltd" on eBay (very poor results)

The ones with a “D” look like Sanyos.

I am still waiting on some documentation from Pingyi but they insist mine are brand new Samsungs.

I’m still have not received a clear answer on the pictures i sent them about the Sony cell you have. I brought it up for the 3rd time and this was the reply along with a picture of the different Samsung batteries.

Pingyi,

“For he defines a brand. Need to see the battery anode, head
I am for you to do a simple description of images.
The better I have confirmed that, we battery is not recycled product, and then processing
Purchasing, and goods are samsung original skin,
Then we will it take off, and put on hi - Max”

I have about 400 HI-Max in stock and they seem to be consistently numbered under the white label. I didn’t check them all but sorted through enough to put me at ease.

-Shane

Shadowww, All of my units look like yours with out the dents.

Thanks raccoon city! Thats an awesome light you have! :bigsmile:

-Shane

It is a very nice flashlight.

Unfortunately it belongs to BLF member rikr, and not me. :(

(Don't worry, I'll live.) :)

SO can someone make sghort conclusion.
I read but I dont understand.

SO these cells are Samsung after all.

And how come they have so high voltage sag??? Like any ordinary chinese cell.

Ecig,
They are suppose to be Samsung cells. I am confident that my units are, but we are trying to figure out why there is a Sony and possibly a Sonyo Cell mixed in.

I can’t speak for others but i am concerned on the honesty and reliability of Pingyi LTD. I am working on getting this answer.

When you ask “And how come they have so high voltage sag??? Like any ordinary Chinese cell” Do you mean voltage Dip/sag in the beginning of the graph? Like or unlike any ordinary Chinese cell?

The Dip is rapid because the discharge rate was 2.5 amp (2500mAh) which is beyond Samsungs core preparation rang. This test on the batteries needs to be done again to get more accurate results. The load was simply to high.

Test done right or not, it still doesn’t explain why there is a possible Sony cell in the mix.

-Shane

Pingyi has told me via email that he will get to the bottom of this and for me not to worry about any bad cells. So I take it that means if I get faulty cells he will replace them.

I do know one thing that these Hi-Max batteries use to be good.

Shane, by big voltage sag I mean the following:

I bought them especially because of graphs I saw here, and I have only 1A discharge equipment (hobby charger) so Ill talk only about 1A discharging curves.

From first reviews here (based on wich we all bought these cells), this cells hold 3,8V after 30 mins discharging with 1A…

In my testing, all Himax cells had similar results as any other cheap cell. (better then some, worse than some) - specifically, all cells come down to a*t least 3,6V *and below after a minute or so (discharging with 1A)….
So this is a big big difference. And after 30 mins they can be way down. SO thats 0,4-0,5V difference in voltage sag previously and now… (I didnt had previous now, this is my first purchase of Himax cells, I wanted something better then Trustfire flames and this is what I got)

Just now I started measuring one cell, it dropped to 3,50V in 10 seconds!!! And thats at only 1A… (some cheap 1000mAh Ultrafire cells I have hold 3,64-3,60 after a minute…)

Can you comment on that?

PS: I think you made a mistake, you probably wanted to say that you are “NOT” concerned in pingyi’s honesty.

I can’t comment on the quality of these cells…

However I can say without a doubt that the graphs posted by the OP’s CBA are a bit misleading…

The jagged lines are due to a poor connection and resistance from the CBA to the battery changing throughout the discharge test.

The CBA has a horrible connection method. I have had many tests turn out like the OP’s that are perfectly good cells.

You should bend the prongs from the CBA connector to make a good solid connection and try some more tests…

thanks for sacrificing your own batteries to proof the quality.

That is a nice light there!!! :bigsmile: :beer:

OP’s CBA? Whats that?

I dont know about my equipment, but even if readings are not nominally correct, they surely have some comparative value, and by these tests these cells are not better than my Trustfire flames, just some 200mAh higher capacity. (because Trustfire flames i regurarly measure just below 2000, and these I regurarly measure, with some exceptions, just below 2200, when discharging with 1A to 2,8V)

A battery analyzer, very useful if you want to test batteries, but also expensive.

A hobby charger can do the same, for less money, but might not have the same precision.

Actually, 2.5A is only 1C. That is very low you know, it is not a very high discharge rate as you are purporting.

Yes, at some point I will do this, especially for the weird 1000mah cells.

Just that they are unwrapped and naked now, I am also planning to rig up a more robust holder someday to provent a naked battery from going poof during testing.

For anyone that may not know, I am a vendor for these batteries.

Before I start to dig to deep, I want to get a few things clear. Honestly, I don’t care about these batteries. I’m NOT defending them. I will simply stop carrying them if the quality is poor. I stock many brands of batteries and flashlights. I will not hesitate to pull these off the shelf as I have done with other items; if they are junk.

I am not on this forum to bicker. I really don’t want to point fingers nor do I want to tell somebody they are doing something wrong. I’m on this thread to get to the bottom of a flaw from a manufacturing vendor that I trusted. To this point I still do; with some uneasy doubt. We can only hope for the best.

The ultimate reason I need to get to the bottom of this is the customers!
I listen to my customers as these batteries where recommended by a few different enthusiasts. Now that we may have a flaw, it is important that all the customers that were sold batteries in the past had received what they paid for. It is a duty to do this service so I sleep better at night.

This thread has led me to purchase test equipment to run the batteries through. I want to do these tests per Samsung specifications in my own controlled environment.

Many people on and off these forums have dealt with me as a supplier. If you have, you know, or at least I think you know, that I do my best to cater on a personal level. This is how I run my small growing business and how I plan to keep it.

I will eventually come to a conclusion on whether I will continue to stock these batteries based on the test results. These batteries don’t seem to under or over perform more than any other brand that I carry. Nor has anyone ever contacted me and complained about the performance of these batteries.

I’ll keep you posted,

-Shane

I will have a better comment on the voltage drop when i do my own test.

I said it right about Pingyi, I feel my cells are new Samsung but something is not right about the Sony cell mixed in. This is the trust issue i have.

-Shane

Yes and no,
All i was trying to say is thats not how Samsung did there testing to come up with the numbers. My bigger concern it the Sony cell mixed in.

Great, you have me worried about the last batch of 6 HiMax batteries I got from Pingyi
So I pulled one out of a torch and took it apart

No writing of any kind whatsoever on it.
I’m guessing I wasted a perfectly good $6.50 battery

Or these one