On Molicell IMR- 26700A batteries, from a Molicell representative.

Since nobody seemed to know the origin or how to read the Molicell wrappers, I’ve been in communications with a Molicell representative I reached at the Molicell company, on the various Molicell battery sales going around, and am sharing this for general information. I included his responses from several emails put together with pertinent information and omitted my questions and comments.

“The MOLICEL IMR26700A, FSPE70045.227805 was manufactured in Canada on
Friday, August 15th, 2008.
The nominal capacity was 2900mAh and the maximum continuous discharge
rate is 40A.
Maximum charge rate is indeed 7.4A.
This cell was originally shipped and sold to a customer in Asia and may
be used or recycled from a battery pack.

(Likewise the green cells marked ending in 240803 were manufactured on the 240th day of 2008)

The date code for our cells is as follows;

FSPE800XX.YYYZAB
XX = Model Number
YYY = Day of manufacture
Z = year (0-9, A=10, B=11, ect.)
AB = Daily Batch number.

The FSPE70045 cell was discontinued in 2009 and is no longer in
production.
The version with the paper sleeve was our standard production for this
model and was manufactured only in Canada. The primary market was power
tools and light electric vehicles.

I would be very cautious about purchasing cells online for this model as
the cells are at least 4 years old and cannot be guaranteed with regards
to capacity and impedance. If they are ‘new’ unused stock they may be
fine but the impedance may have increased due to storage conditions.

Our minimum Order is 10K per month. We don’t deal with retailers and
don’t sell to any retail operations. We deal directly with
manufacturers.

I would assume that the retailer that you are dealing with has purchased
a number of cells from an auction or business sale or from one of our
customers who was liquidating old stock. They did not purchase from
E-One Moli Energy directly.

Any lithium-ion cell will be prone to failure if subjected to any abuse
conditions which include but is not limited to;
Over charge
Over discharge
External Short circuit
Drops
High temperature operation/storage
Freezing
Puncture/Crush
Immersion in liquid
Burning
Shooting with a bullet
Operation outside of the recommended parameters

The IMR26700 was a cell that used Manganese and Carbon electrodes and as
such are a very safe chemistry but severe abuse conditions can still
cause failure of the cell.

Every lithium-ion cell requires a protection circuit with, at the bare
minimum, protection from over discharge to keep the cell from going into
the negative voltage range which will cause lithium plating on the
electrodes which in turn causes internal short circuits that can lead to
“rapid disassembly” of the cell. (at the very least, capacity loss and
high impedance)
Over charge protection can be put on the battery or if not will be
located on the charger circuit.
Cell balancing circuitry and temperature monitoring are also typical in
multi-cell battery packs.

In rare cases, single cell application can be run without protection
circuitry but that is very application specific and would not be
recommended for this cell.

The “seller” of the cells online is not the manufacturer, and does not
constitute a representative of E-One Moli Energy nor our products, and
is obviously trying to just make a sale, I would again caution you to
take what they say with a grain of salt. No cell manufacture would tell
you that their cell will not explode and does not require a protection
circuit.”

(last portion was in response to my question whether or not its true this chemistry is safer and doesn’t explode as I’ve seen claimed, not in reference to any particular seller)

I had wondered about their “safety” aspect as well as thats what people keep mentioning as positives about them. The battery univertsity web site classes them as one of the safest li-ion chemistries, grouped with LiFeP04 etc…

B42, great information here. I’m a little shocked and perhaps scared now that I know the 3 Moli 26650’s I have (bought off ebay) were originally manufactured on March 22, 2002! 11 years old (Moli FSPE70038.0812 01)…. I might have to look at recycling these….?

That’s exactly one of the main reasons I put this out there, looking at some of those sales I saw too, its possible some of these batteries could become quite dangerous, especially if used in series… It also seems to be true there is NO way to get them from the manufacturer legitimately, so when people sell them to you saying that, they are starting out lying to you.

It also seems to show that if they are 11 years old and still working well, Molis may be a great battery after all, lol

Excellent. Thank you very much for your diligent work researching and reporting this. This is a great service to BLF that you have just rendered.

Thanks B42.

I guess getting brand new Moli cells is going to be extremely hard then..

thanks for this very useful information, good research!

. . . which will cause lithium plating on the
electrodes which in turn causes internal short circuits that can lead to
“rapid disassembly” of the cell

Sounds like another way of saying explosion. Or does it mean something less sever? Based on the other statements about safety, explosion doesn't seem like a probability.

EDIT: I know in a sealed flashlight, venting can cause an explosion. I'm asking only about the cell itself.

So, do you think then this is real then? ebay Brand-New-MOLI-26700-2900mah-3-7V-Li-ion-battery

I ordered one yesterday . It says brand new... Crap - from the pic it's 2008... Double crap! I see the example you use in the OP is this pic, crap!

Excellent digging D42. Very useful info. Both the part about must be a 10K a month purchase to buy from them and also the decryption of the date code.

My MOLI cell indicates shipped, so I'm contacting the seller (saftymind) saying it's date code is 2008 - hope that's ok B42... Not mentioning BLF or anything about where I got this info from, of course. This is what I sent:

"I noticed today the date code on the picture of the MOLY cell is from 2008, and the manufacturer stopped making this model cell in 2009. Is the one I'm receiving as old as the one in the picture?
Please be honest. You are claiming "Brand New", but I'm not sure how that is possible.
Thanks,
Tom"

Tom,

I think you did the right thing by contacting the seller. He probly doesnt know anything about the manufacture date ( the way none of us did until just now LOL). By saying its "new" he probly just means it has never been used, ie not harvested from a tool pack etc. He may not be meaning to deceive any one. I mean if I had a maglie still in the package from 2008 I would consider it new :)

I had no idea of the age of the batteries.

I bought and sold 100 of them in 2012. I am presently looking to buy 100 more, and, have a pre-sale going on them. The batteries I had before were awesome and worked great. My understanding of ‘new’ is never have been used before.

Anyway, I contacted the company I’m buying from and presenting the information (not mentioning source I got it from, exactly.) I want to know what the date is of the battery I’m intending to buy, so everyone knows what they are getting. I misunderstood to think I was buying from the manufacturer which is E-One Moli. I cannot give the name of where I’m buying them, obviously.

I appreciate the time and energy put into finding this information out. (of which I should have done so myself.)

(I hope it’s okay to post here on this subject? )

Wayne

Yes - didn't want to come down hard on him, but he's got a pretty big eBay store, and things like batteries do have a shelf life but he may not be aware of that... Dunno, 'brand new' to me sounds like recently manufactured, tuff call.

Wayne - really appreciate your postings here on BLF. Please, I think we all love your integrity.

His response below. Honestly, I think it's a fair reply. I'll probably keep it and do my own tests with it on a high amp or direct drive single cell build to see if it match's or exceeds a KK ICR. I also got 3 of the SONY 50A cells on order that HKJ reviewed. Actually, what we do to CREE LED's is far beyond manufacturer's recommendations, so, not sure if the shelf life concern of the manufacturer is all that accurate as well, but I'm sure it's a factor.

"The date code is 2008. I purchases from distributor. Your information is correct with Moli. The battery I sent you is in brand new condition. If you don't like the date code, you can return it. I will refund you the money.

So far, none of customer bought this Moli battery, has problem.

Terry"

Link Please…

flo - post #8

Tried it, doesn’t work :expressionless:

I had the same problem with the link, but if you copy and paste in in your browser it will work.

Yes, I think they’d never say their cells “explode” directly, but “rapid disassembly” in a contained space would lead to that…and technically explosion could be described as “rapid disassembly”. Sounds to me like they are “a little” safer than other chemistrys, but have the same dangers.