10 18650s at HD for $22?

I’m looking forward to seeing how they handle my xml2 and 3.5a nanj… Hopefully better than my current cells

I just have one question because I am curious and don’t have those batteries in my HD’s. Please don’t take this as an opportunity to start a Li-ion safety war. There are plenty of threads going right now for that. I think most here would just assume that type of discussion stay in those threads.

Do the battery packs appear to have cell balancing circuitry? From what I am reading, I’m getting the impression that they don’t. If not, maybe the manufacture used a type of cell that mitigates the risk. If so, those might be some tough cells. Another plus if that is the case.

Scaru, have you run a discharge test on the cells yet? Are you going to?

-Garry

from what I can tell they are being balance charged, but in packs of2s.not perfect but better than nothing and yes I will be doing a1 amp discharge tonight

Very interested to see the results. Seems if you buy these cells bulk, they are from about $3 up. Couldn’t really find any singles for sale in a quick search last night.
Got to clean up the spot welds tonight and start charging them up.

Found the following info at this site:

Specifications

1. Model: UR18650W2
2. Nominal Voltage: 3.7V
3. Nominal Capacity: 1500mAh
4. Place of Origin: Japan

UR18650W2 High power li ion rechargeable battery 18650 3.7V 1500mAh

Description

1. Nominal Capacity: 1500mAh
2. Nominal Voltage: 3.70V
4. End Voltage: 2.75V
5. Charging Current (Std.): 0.7C(=1.05)A (0 ~ +40°C)
6. Charging Voltage: 4.20V
7. Charging Time (Std.): 3.0hours
8. Discharging Current (Std.): 1C(=1.5)A (-20~ +60°C)
9. Discharging Current (Max.): 15A
10. Internal Resistance: less than 50Mω(AC Impedance 1kHz)
11. Weight: less than 47g
12. Surroundings temperature range for shipped battery
less than 1month: -20 ~ +60°C
less than 3months: -20 ~ +40°C
less than 1year: -20 ~ +20°C
Note: Percentage of recoverable capacity 80%

-Garry

Looks like everyone’s pestering Scaru, so I’ll add my pester. Love to know at first click whether there is any lumen-output difference in these tool cells as compared to — say — a panasonic 2600 — if Scaru has a minute to try the same in his famous integrated bathroom. In other words, Sanyo 1500 in a light; click it on; take lumen reading. Panasonic in the same light; click it on; take another reading. Are they different? The same? Well, maybe it doesn’t have to be the exact second the light clicks on. Just as long as both readings are taken at the same time in both lights.

At first I thought these produced a dimmer light than a 2600, but after a couple minutes of playing around last night, I’m not so sure. I only tried a couple EDC tube lights. Did anyone else try to see any difference?

I found a couple of these at my hd…what kind of screw driver is used on the outside? don’t want to have to resort to bashing it with a hammer :face_with_monocle:

>>>>>what kind of screw driver is used on the outside?

I believe they’re called Torx security screws or Torx tamper-resistant screws. Torx screws are bad enough trying to find the right-size driver. But these have the added security feature of a raised dot in the screwhead so regular Torx drivers won’t work. I don’t know if HD has these drivers. I got mine on ebay a couple years ago.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/33-PC-Security-Bit-Set-Hex-Torq-Torx-Tamper-Proof-/380599819653?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item589d845d85

I don’t know this seller. Just the first one I ran into. I saw some Torx TR drivers at a mom-and-pop hardware store a couple months ago, so you never know where you’ll find people who want to take apart things they shouldn’t. :wink:

HD or Lowes does carry these bits, but I would just cut them off with my dremel were it me. J)

okay thanks! I got them out with some small flatheads. you guys weren’t joking about sparks flying…wooo! that was exciting :~

I ripped all of the metal contacts off, but how do I get the little dots of solder off? will it hurt to take an iron to them?

You can sand/grind/dremel them off. If you use an iron be very very quick with it and cool them off rapidly.

-Garry

It’s not solder, they are spot welded on…

>>>>>will it hurt to take an iron to them?
.
YES it could destroy them!!! DO NOT DO THAT!!! It could melt the bag inside the battery and start a “vent with flames” sequence at worst. Or it could just ruin the battery.

(You can get away with +quickly+ putting a blob of solder on the flat-top. The positive terminal is somewhat thermally separated from the battery innards. But the neg battery end is right against the rolled bag inside the battery.)

I use a dremel and VERY CAREFULLY remove the burrs. BUT CAREFULLY. The battery case is very thin metal. If you break through, it could be dangerous. Others may have other ways of dealing with the welding detrius.

On the “sparks flying,” you do really need to be careful when doing this. I was kinda joking about it before, but a short for 5-10 seconds (maybe less) could start a hard-short runaway and you could have a vent with flames on your hands. It does not take much to get a li-ion battery to immolate. SO BE CAREFUL. What is particularly unnerving about disaasembling any of these packs is that if one cell vents and gets going, it will undoubtedly take the other cells with it. The heat and flames will spread to the other cells and set them off; electrcity doesn’t have to be involved at that point.

Don’t mean to soapbox or criticize. Just don’t want to see a flaming BLFer. :wink:

Scaru said it was like defusing a bomb, and he’s pretty close to the truth!

Yes, that's right. Sorry I responded without realizing it wasn't solder (would have dawned on me had they been in front of me to see). Hope I didn't lead lgr45 to try it!

-Garry

Thanks for the heads-up. I just got back from my local Home Depot where I picked one up. It was a shame to break open a perfectly good battery pack, but when I saw the 10 beautiful 18650's, I didn't feel quite so bad. I removed them from the case, got them all cleaned-up and now 4 of them are sitting in the charger.

Now I just need more flashlights

haha ok I will just leave them as-is. i figured an iron on them would be pretty sketchy but wasn’t sure. all of my cells are reading 3.65-3.66 V! only tore down 1 pack so far. still waiting to decide what to do with the other. the store I went to had one left after me, and another store across town has 8 left in stock. seems to be a bunch around here (Indianapolis, IN)

yeah it it's extremely dangerous with all the wires that are so close top each other I shortest it for half a second and sparks flew and it took a while for them to die down. Easily the hardest pack I've ever had to take apart. However I'm really excited about these as I now have20 of them.

I was very careful and had no shorts. I started by removing the wire st the top, and then carefully turning my needle nose to wrap the tabs around them. Was still pretty hairy. They did not want anyone getting to those cells lol

I usually dissemble packs outside, so I can toss the thing FAR away from me if something shorts. Those thick wires coming off the tabs in this pack are particulalrly hairy. I cut them all first, which probably wasn’t a good idea, so I had a forest of live wires looking for my needle nose pliers. Probably better to do one at a time and rip each set of tabs off before continuing.

I agree with Scaru. I have done maybe 35-40 packs at this point, and this one was definitely the most involved and hairiest.