Here’s the deal, I make and sell 18650 powered bike lights. I ordered 100+ TF flames from manafont last time and had good results with them. Is there anywhere that sells good 18650s for around 5 dollars each other than manafont?
I sent an email to bestvaping.net and havent received a response yet. With all the fake 18650s floating around I’m scared to take a chance on 100 of them and have to replace 100 cells to 50 different customers.
protected? target mAh?
I think you’re right to avoid the possibility of getting crap cells… reputation kind of demands it. I’d stick with Sanyo/Panasonic.
Just being nosey here, but have you built a two cell holder/cover combo like your SL2K single? If so and one or two might be for sale, maybe you could drop me a PM?
Yes, protected is a must! Mah in the 2400-3000 range.
Pm sent on the holders.
You can get 12 protected Hi-Max 2600mAh’s for $54, that’s $4.5/battery (+ shipping).
Sounds like a winner. Got a link?
I am not that impressed with these HI-MAX batteries, they are better than the typical cheap battery, but not top performance.
Anything better for the money? I’ve just submitted an offer for two HiMax at $16 including delivery to the UK but if there’s something else out there…?
I would take HKJ’s advice. Bestvaping prices on Panasonic or Sanyo cells are pretty competitive. How long have you been waiting for a reply?
Why not make an order and wait 24 hours (max) for the shipping cost (DHL, I would imagine)?
have you considered used laptop batteries?
they have your target mAh and even the dead ones still have good cells (normally only 2 cells are beyond charging in a duff pack), they will be in matched pairs from the factory and a battery capacity tester is cheap and easy to make.
The cost saving could go toward a batch of protection circuits (something off a job-lot of phone batteries perhaps if you don’t mind the DIY aspect, then sell off the phone cells as “Project batteries”).
laptop manufacturers have been known to place a charge counter in their circutry which will disable a perfectly good battery pack because it’s been charged X amount of times.
I’ve just bought a job-lot of 14 laptop batteries (96 18650 cells for £12gbp delivered) i’m not expecting much more than a quarter failure rate from experience…… something to think about maybe?
start hunting/enquiring at your local laptop repair/recycling centers, why not sample test a couple and see how you get on, i’d love to know how it goes for you…… just be careful disassembling the packs, i’m sure you know Li-ion cells can be quite dangerous.
I have never seen these before. Anybody with any first hand info on them? I have always found Yezl flashlights to be crappy but who knows.
Alternative: very cheap unprotected high quality cells from bestvaping.
Thanks for all the help guys. Especially you HKJ!
I think I have settled on the keeppower 2900mah.
I also found these:
Are they really original? Honestly, now I afraid to order anything from China 
No idea about those particular ones… but I got quite a lot of batteries from bestvaping (UR18650W2’s, CGR18650CH’s and NCR18650’s), and all of them were originals.
Where did you find them, and at what price?
You will be ok with them. Panasonic NCR18650 inside.