Thorfire 5000 mah 26650 cells

“ThorFire 5000mah 3.7V 26650 Battery Protected Rechargeable Li-ion Battery for Flashlight (Pack of 2) by Thorfire”

Amazon.com U.S.

Under specifications there is no mention of being ‘protected’.

You’re correct . In that Amazon ad “Protected” is stated in the main heading of the ThorFire advertisement.
Also in the body of the ad , it’s stated that there’s “protection recharge integrated circuitry built in” ! Now,
read a little further in that ad and notice their slick , somewhat backhanded way of MAYBE denying protection.
It reads: (ThorFire Protected button top 26650 battery is a bit LONGER than “other” NON-Protected alternatives.
Other NON-Protected ! How do we figure it out ? What’s your interpretation ? It appears to me that the ad has
some false advertising attributes !

There will always be a need for critical reading and evaluation; a misunderstanding can be an intentional act.

202bigmike, I did say earlier in this thread that I was not 100% sure whether these cells were protected due to their length but that Thorfire had stated in an email to me that they were.
From what light-wolff has posted it would seem that my suspicions were correct.
What I can say (& is confirmed by several other users of these cells in this & other threads) is that they are the claimed capacity, have low IR & certainly perform fine in lights drawing up to around 6.5A.
Personally nearly all my cells are non protected & I am personally content to use non protected cells.
If you need protected 26650 cells then the easy answer is to purchase some Keeppower 5200 mah protected IMR”s as these are confirmed as a good cell with protection.
I have a pair of KP”s & they are good cells but are 2-3 times the cost of the Thorfire, Basen & Liitokala 26650”s I have & do not have any more capacity than the Thorfire or Liitokala”s (a little more than the 4500mah Basens but not much) & do not have lower IR than any of them.
At the price they cost me, $5 a piece I am happy with the Thorfires, but if you really need protected cells then they are obviously not the cells for you.
If you could live with non protected cells then the non protected Liitokala 5000 mah at about $5 a piece have got rave reviews on this forum & would seem to offer the best “bang for buck” at the moment & would also seem to offer higher drain than other 26650”s available at the moment.

If they call PTC protection but are vague if the parts we consider to make a cell a protected one are installed and now confirmed have not on these tested cells I personally think that is not good.

I will email Barry about this topic and strongly recommend him to have Thorfire give an explanation here. He probably won’t read it till Monday though.

+1

For those who plan to use 26650 batteries in series, like the Convoy L6, battery length and and the positive terminal being a correct height is an important consideration too.

Barry already responded.
The information will be corrected soon was his reply
So I asked him if Thorfire could explain here in this topic about the cells.

Discharge curves of Thorfire 26650 5000mAh:

Tracking of the 2 samples is not good.
.
The relatively sharp cutoff at 10A and 15A ist most probably a PTC kicking in. It is for sure not caused by an electronic protection circuit board(PCB).
The higher the cell temperature, the faster this cutoff occurs.
Details of cutoff at 15A with warmed-up cell #2, about half-discharged:

PTC kicks in after 17 seconds. However, due to its nature, it just limits the current to some A, but does not switch off. It is the electronic load that stops (it is programmed to do so). If it wouldn’t, the battery would be deep-discharged down to 0V.
.
The tested cells were purchased on amazon.de
Length is 66.7mm.
Photos of tested cells:

The wrapper states “Integrated battery overcharge / discharge protection circuits” even twice.
Hmm, if they call the PTC a discharge protection circuit, they may well call the CID (if present) an overcharge protection circuit.
Also note the funny writing of “High d ischarge p erformance …”. Even Thorfire’s own product photos show it.

Thank you light-wolff for the information, I found the comment: “…PTC kicks in after 17 seconds. However, due to its nature, it just limits the current to some A, but does not switch off. It is the electronic load that stops (it is programmed to do so). If it wouldn’t, the battery would be deep-discharged down to 0V.” to be telling.

We do make an assumption when the term ‘Protected Battery’ is used that we all share the same definition.

And rightfully so I’d say. This is blatant misrepresentation on the part of Thorfire as far as I’m concerned. I bought a set of these batteries for my L6 based on them being protected so I’m none too impressed to be lied to.

Language is a slippery slope and has an ability to misinform as well as inform.

Oh yeah ! The TRUTH IS OUT !! WTF ! This is really a rat piss poor , deceptive ass sale practice by ThorFire ,

done to all who have purchased these cells under the totally misleading text of their sales ads. The ads were,

disguised as being very informative , while putting customers to sleep about their lack of real protection .

Does anyone think , that ALL who have purchased these cells , should seek a TOTAL refund from ThorFire

for its’ deviant and abhorrent sales practices regarding the cell protection !—In other words: Straight lies & BS !

P.S.,
Does the ThorFire sales practice only apply to their 26650 cells or does it also have a “blanket” effect covering
all of their goods—-Hmmmmm :question:

Hmm… Let’s not go nuclear here. :frowning: None of the drama nonsense. All situations must be approached wisely.

Nonsense & Drama is in the eye of the beholder !—What would you do , if you learned that you had been hoodwinked , conned , deceived ,
lied to and your $ taken by fraudulent practices ? Since you stepped up ,what is your wise approach to this situation ?

P.S.,
Not nuclear , ok. Just a little carpet bombing then ! :stuck_out_tongue:

Just to say that my cells are flat tops & not button tops as shown in l-w”s pictures ?

I feel if people wish for refunds that’s not unreasonable. But for what’s it worth the cells do perform as advertised they handle 10amps and how many people here are actually running these cells in a light who doesn’t have low voltage cut off? This isn’t a smart Ass question I’m truly curious. What lights are sold today or the past few years that don’t have low voltage cut off? Or a flash or step down of light output. Yes it’s blatant lie about having a pcb. I still feel I got my money’s worth out of the cells I purchased. I would still purchase them again for the right price. It’s hard to beat the liito cell price currently. The cells power my l6 and s70 with no issues and charge up past 5000mah and charge equally usually less than 60mah apart when done charging. Same with my unprotected evva batteries from Richard. The base cell is a decent one and true mah rating. Not saying this makes the false advertising correct. Just that it’s not the same as being told 5000mah and really is 2000. If I am to be deceived I’d rather it be with a protection circuits then actual capacity or amp ratings. That’s just my opinion though. It’s best to have clear transparency but that’s not really the world we live in. Not every country shares the same business practices hell even American companies will straight up burn you. There is hundreds of millions of dollars a year in this lithium battery industry. Maybe even billions a year. Every company wants a piece of the pie. This won’t be the only time nor has it been a cell isn’t as advertised completely. But thorfire seems to be a lot better then most of the other Chinese vendors. Like there s70 is well documented underrated at 3k lumens. Some have 4k right out the box. And with these batteries at 3.0 volts I get 5200mah roughly so down to 2.5 would probably yield roughly 5500-5600 mah. I’m interested to see how thorfire responds to this. But in the mean time if anyone feels these batteries are no longer safe. I will gladly accept them off your hands and pay the shipping cost. I’ll make great use of them. Just let me know if they were paired at birth or ran single. But if anyone knows the answer I’m curious how many 26650 lights in the past few years have been sold without some low voltage warning? Even my $3 sipik 98 clone has a low voltage indicator. So I’m really curious what the need for a protected battery is really needed for these days. Powerbanks have cut offs, vape units have cut offs besides mech mods. Flashlight a have cut offs even the cheapest ones. Even the 18650 powered fans I’ve seen have low voltage cut off, laptops, power tool packs Every thing has a cut off voltage in it. No protected batteries in any of them.

Interesting.
On the Thorfire and amazon images they aren’t exactly flat top, but don’t protrude as much as mine. And their vent holes are also smaller.
Here are mine:

What do yours look like?

Mine

Completely different positive ends to yours ?
Also my cells are also 66.6mm, the same as yours, but you a have a mm or 2 of positive button protruding whereas mine are flat tops.

Apparently. And also completely different to the product photos. In side-view it looks a bit like yours has a ring around the button under the wrapper.

3 photos, 3 different tops. Maybe 3 different batteries. XxxxFire brand at its best.

” In side-view it looks a bit like yours has a ring around the button under the wrapper.”
Yes it does & is one of the reasons I believed that my cells were protected (along with the email from Thorfire).
A 65mm flat top base cell with protection could be around 66.6mm couldn”t it ?
PCB”s can be around 1.5mm thick I think ?
Anyway whether my cells are protected or not does not really matter to me as I didn”t buy them because I needed protected cells.
For the $5 a cell I paid, they are the rated capacity, have low IR, & they perform fine in my lights that draw up to around 6.5A max.
They are nothing like the XXXFire 18650”s that can be reclaimed old used laptop cells, with far lower than claimed capacity & high IR.
Or are not even 18650 cells at all.
I can however understand how purchasers that actually wanted protected cells might feel if their cells are not protected.