H-Cell 18650 3200mAh testing and opening up

Hey everyone,

Well I decided to take the plunge and buy some "H-Cell" 18650 3200mah Batteries for testing. I had never seen anyone review these or even talk about them so I figured it would be fun to see what they could do.

I had talked to the seller and asked about their true capacity and he stated he had no way of testing them but he did use them in his flashlights and assured me they where top quality and lasted a long time.

So after about 6 weeks, my brand new? Batteries came in and where ready for testing. I tested them on my icharger 106b+

Internal resistance measured 241mOhms.... not looking good. My high quality cells have measured 90-140mohms. My trustfire flames came in at 193mOhms

They put out a whopping 741mAh at 1A discharge 4.2-3v cutoff and warmed up quite a bit even at this rate! So at this point I figured opening them up was in order.

No markings on the inner cover.

Very odd negative terminal.


You can't tell from the pictures but the cell is very highly polished. Maybe to remove manufacturer markings? If you look close there is also rust on the + side terminal. About the only positive thing I can say is the wrappers are a little tougher than the Trustfire Flames. Anyway just another cheap Cell to stay away from.

Sounds like relabeled salvaged cells.
Thanks for the heads up.

And I thought nothing could be worse than the fake Sony , well there you go , 741mAh ...

Thanks xxllmm4 ,

I would have been dubious as soon as the seller said he couldn't test them. Thanks for taking one for the team xxmmll4!

We need a new class of battery = Dumpster Class !

In other words , buy them , then toss them in the bin .

Hope they would not put the interiors in these bad ones, at least they could be used as dummy cells :D

but no...

"Dumpster Class !"

I love it LOL!

I tested the second battery and got 265mOhms internal resistance And 967mAh at 3v cutoff. Again the cell was pretty warm after the discharge. Does anyone have any idea what the deal with the negative end is? Maybe a vent?

Looks like a torn off solder tab. Those cells were probably salvaged from a battery pack (laptop, what have you)

Yeah.. dumpster grade indeed.

Look like reclaimed batteries to me.

Well I figured these where going to the recycles anyway so I opened up the second battery. Maybe they will get a chance to live a third life as flashlight batteries again!

As you can see they don't match. I have opened up a bunch like this. This is why I would never trust a Chinese battery in multi cell use.