I am very confused by the Efest offerings in 18650 factor.
I see 3100 mah “20A” which really are 10A continuos output. They sell for $7-10 EA from Chinese vendors. Very steep for an exaggerated spec’ battery considering the tried and true NCR18650B and the Samsung 18650-30q outperform it in every way and can be had for less.
There are others like Shockli which I believe have something to do with efest. Don’t even get me started o. The “fire” brands.
I use the Samsung 18650-30q in multi die or high demand flashlights like Xhp35/50, MTG2 and multi LED lights.
I use the LG ICR18650D1 in single die lights like C8s and klarus TD16/Thrunite TN11sV2.
I also use the venerable unprotected button-top NCR18650B in single die lights requiring a button top.
So, my question is, am I on the right track? I care far more about output and duration of high output than runtime in almost every application. I have chargers and batteries everywhere…
Constructive input is appreciated.
I don’t know all nor claim to about batteries.
i avoid the rewraps.
no point when you can get cells with known specs for less.
when you can get 25r at $4/cell at illumn its totally moot.
and we are supporting trustworthy vendors at the same time.
illumn and mountain are on my very short list.
There will always be a grey market. Nothing they can do to stop it, short of not making them anymore. Plus, many lights have polarity, and LV protections built in, so requiring a protection circuit is redundant and not cost effective in many cases.
I think the tobacco industry has more leverage in these markets than the battery industry.
They need to keep selling the nicotine extract, and nobody’s making heaters using petroleum-based lighter fluid.
The way I see it they will never be able to stop it. They can try. If they shut down the markets in america. Aliexpress and other foreign markets will explode. With millions and millions of batteries made yearly they will find a way to sell them. Just like GB and banggood lieing on custom forms. Something close to 20 million pieces of Intl mail hit the USA daily. They can’t even search 5% of that. Customs can’t even stop 3% of the drugs coming in through the mail. Then suppliers will sort to the way the drug dealers do it. They’ll set up websites on overseas servers that don’t have treaties with the united States. If you research drug dealers set up sites in Pakistan, Panama, Lebanon etc. Otherwise they get shut down and have to move. And Obama just gave up USA control of the internet something bush refused to do. Then the Chinese will take over most likely. All the millions of batteries they purchase since they make everything for the world. They will still supply it by the pallet to people. They may shut down the legal tax paying channels. But the black market will just take off. Speaking off my experience when I was in the military and powerlifting. Once steroids became illegal in 1990. China took over production and still today is the worlds #1 supplier for hormones and no shortage of it either. I see the same thing happening if they ban the sale of batteries
I wish them every luck with that
Once they have successfully done that, they can use those skills to help the world eradicate all the illegal drugs and all the dangerous counterfeit stuff online.
Then maybe a bit of walking on water for an oncore
First of all, they can’t ban anything, let alone a store selling a legal product. They can only police their own sales channels and stop selling to the people who are passing product off to the grey market. If they can figure out who’s doing it, which is pretty much everyone. Some e-bike manufacturer is not purchasing pallet loads of cells from Sony. They purchase from distributors who buy pallet loads from Sony, and there are tons of distributors. There are also dozens of companies like Keeppower who buy pallet loads of bare cells from Panasonic/Sanyo, add protection circuits, and wrap them with KP logo’d wraps. You think Samsung & LG are going to stop selling to Efest, and the other 100 companies that re-wrap? I doubt it.
Also, I never said anything about a non protected flat-top cell having protection. I said, increasingly flashlights are being manufactured with protection circuitry built into the drivers. Zebralight for example has low voltage protection, thermal protection, and reverse polarity protection built into the driver. So installing a protected cell into a Zebralight is redundant.
Many folks missing the point here.
When manufacturer wants to stop sales (outside of their own channels) they will do it with easy.
Enjoy reading this notice from Sony.
Yes, they actually spend $$$ and time on sending snail mail (first warning), not emails.
Meaning: things are getting serious.
I will stock up on 18650s at first sign there’s any kind of ban for bare cells, eventually we will have to buy power tool packs just for the cells but I’m sure we still have many years of li-ion freedom before that happens.
Next batch of LG cells will have inprint (not label that can be removed): “Online ecommerce sales, sales to individual consumers, or sales for E-cigarette use are strictly prohibited”
And since that letter in Feb I’ve seen a sharp increase in the amounts of Sony cells available. One popular site on here we use for batteries just a couple months back only had one Sony cell the nc1 or something. Now they have the vtc 3,4,5,5a and 6 up. Sony maybe targeting certain physical vape shops they know are selling. But they have many years of work trying to stop it. Thousands of vape shops. And many of those don’t sell online only locally. There is a flashlight in rite aid now that says on the package can run off a 18650 or 3aa. The 18650 is starting to go mainstream. They won’t be able to stop it as long as they are producing the hundreds of millions. Publically they have to take that stance because of lawsuits. But behind the scenes the availability has been increasing not decreasing. Sending a letter to a vape shop 10 months ago isn’t actively going after distributers
Exactly. Printing “not for individual use” on the battery wrapper is a legal disclaimer against some idiot vaper blowing a hole in his pocket, which almost never happens, but goes viral on youtube when it does. I’ve never heard of a authentic Sony, Samsung or LG 18650 cell exploding anyway.
I am not here to argue, but to provide some useful info.
Also I am talking about popular unprotected cells from LG, Sony….
Some people who do care about safety will find it useful.
See if that store is still selling Sony batteries
If this is printed on LG cell I wonder how you are going to advertise, and sell it:
“Online ecommerce sales, sales to individual consumers, or sales for E-cigarette use are strictly prohibited”
They are still selling the Sony cells. Actually just added another. Its the one with a discount code for us. Check it out. The had 1 just 2 months ago and now carry 7 different Sony cells. The whole vtc series and 2 others. And just added 6 more lg cells to their line up. And they purchase the cells 20-50 thousand at a time for the popular ones I’ve seen them run through 40 thousand hg2 in 6-7 weeks
