18650 high capacity question:

Hello! I don’t speak English very good but I will try my best :slight_smile:

What is the best 18650 battery available? Is it 3500mah the highest capacity existing now?

Thanks!

Yes. Sanyo NCR18650GAs, Samsung 35Es, and LG MJ1s are all 3500mAh. Keeppower and EVVA both have protected versions of these cells.

What country are you in? We can recommend good places to buy 18650s.

I am from Gonbad-e Kāvus (Iran), my friend stay overseas and can bring me battery easy.

Which of the 3 is the best? Thank you very much.

The Sanyo NCR18650GA performs the best.

No, the Samsung 35e has the highest capacity of any 18650 cell at ~3360mah at 1A discharge down to 2.8v.

Maybe do some research next time instead of spreading false information.

I can see a lot of review very good for Sanyo 3500mah. I think I will follow Virisenox advise. Thank you!

If you don’t need high amperage, those 3 mentioned are all good. Typically you can choose by what is available to you and at a good price.

Also there are 2 versions of Sanyo NCR18650GAs - Japanese made and Chinese made. I've tested both and the Japanese made has a little bit higher performance than the Chinese version. You can easily distinguish them by the heat shrink design.

@thunderheart, You got any pics of the japan made cell?

This is the Japanese cell, made by Sanyo Energy Higashiura Co, Japan:

This is the Chinese one, made at Panasonic's plant in Suzhou, China:

Here is my test of both NCR18650GAs, LG MJ1 and Samsung 35E:
www.youtube.com/embed/fJDuKyXfrQY

Looks like I got the japan version from mtn.

Yeah, it should be a Japanese cell. By the letter after "SANYO" you can define the plant on which it was manufactured.

On my cell's photo you can see the letter "L" which stands for Sanyo Energy Higashiura Co.

The image I posted is of the Japanese sanyo cell.
HKJ has the best testing methodology and you can clearly see the 35E is better, unless you need a high Vf for something that draws 5-10 amps.

Is this possible to draws 5-10amps from M2X-UT Javelot original driver? I try to find ideas how to hot rod this beautiful light (reflector is so nice! Sure it can reach much more than 40 chebel)

Just putting this out there: I think these higher capacity cells degrade (capacity and IR) faster than cells like the 30Q.

See some tests here.

The best methodology is called IEC61960-2003 standard. I use it and i trust the data which i collect from my own cells.

35E is never better than a NCR18650GA and the character of their curves differ noticeably, unlike on the photo you've posted.

And one important thing - their discharge cut-off voltage is 2.5 and 2.65V, not 2.8V as on the picture you posted.

Take a look at their curves at 10A: