I’ve got some AW protected 18650s I’ve had for a while, and they seem to still be fine. I actually use them very lightly, always monitor recharging, never fully discharge and all the usual tips for safe handling.
The thing I was wondering was whether for Li-ion batteries, there would be some sort of general rule about “don’t use them after X years” or “replace after X years”.
In other words, if I’m OK with the performance, how long should I keep these for? They don’t go “off” and become more likely to explode or something do they?
No they don’t go off and explode but if you start feeling some heat while you charge them this means their internal resistances are higher and use a lower charge current for safety.
Typical life is around 3 years. Heat breaks them down. Heat while fully charged is worse. It’s not like they suddenly become bad though and cells can go much past 3 years. If you don’t have a way to measure capacity a sign of the age is low voltage after they’ve had a chance to settle/cool from charging.
I think generally you can expect 3-4 years life time from a quality cell. (Depending on the use)
With cheap cells like *fire it is a lot about luck as well. I have some 3 year old Trusfires working ok, some 2 year old ones performing like new and some that have 50% of the capasity available after a year or so. I think that when the capasity drops enough, it is time to get some new ones and there is no more magic in that.
The life time depens a lot on how you store them and weather you charge them often. If you store them at 50-60% charge they last a lot longer than if you keep them fully charged. Keeping the cells not charged is not an option for cells you store for using at any time.
If you need batterys to last a long time (without use) you might opt for lithium primarys which could last around 10 years or so.
For starters, when I purchase li-ons I always place the date I received them directly on each battery itself so I’ll know how long I’ve had them. In addition, as others have stated, I always use a DMM to check the charge before and after charging and alway keep a close eye on their performance looking for issues that would cause me to discard the battery and replace it.
This just in! I received a couple of private messages from... anneycloud. :O
anneycloud admits that they work for newfrog, and they did not like the fact that I think they are spammers.
(Don't you just love it when spammers are offended when they're called out?) 8)
I did not respond to the the private messages because there's no point in having a private conversation with a spammer, a troll, or anyone else that annoys me.
Tesla Model S uses 7000 18650-cells if i remember correct. Panasonic cells.
They have a 8 year warranty on the battery package. So I would assume that good cells would have decent capacity for 8 years.
Someone correct me if wrong. I believe they use about the same stuff as in our flashlights?
I had two Blue Ultrafire cells. They were my first 18650-cells. One was good, but stopped working the first week. The other one could not output much higher than 2-ampere. Not sure if it was protected either, and capacity was not impressive.
Got rid of them. Swore I never would buy cheap cells again. Bought 2600mAh protected AW-cells because of their reputation for being safe and reliable. They have worked perfect for 8+ months (since I bought them)
Today I would probably have bought the Panasonic protected 3400 from intl outdoor, they have great performance, should be safe, reliable and maybe very long lasting. If/when I need more cells those will be on my list.
raccoon!