Banggood Sofirn 26650, Protected??

I bought some Sofirn 26650 batteries from Banggood when they were on offer.

First thing is they arrived in a protected case loose in a box with no packaging. Luckily the protective case did its job, but its wrecked now. I’ve given them a charge/discharge/charge test and they came out 5049 and 5125mAh. However the internal resistance was low, 21 milliohm. I suspect they are not protected. On the battery it also says “Use with protection circuit”.

Are they protected or not? How do I test (without burning my house down)?

What is the overall length of the battery?

My almost new unprotected Sofirn 26650 5500mAh is 65mm in length and has a discharge capacity of 5563mAh

A Vapcell YR1030 measures internal resistance 18.26m ohm at 4.15V with room temperature at 24C

I’ve gotten a battery with the same wrapper with my SP33, and it came dead so I decided to unwrap it and take a look. Turns out, there was no protection circuit - it seems they’re printing similar wording on their battery wrappers regardless of whether or not the cells are actually protected, so don’t take it as any assurance that the cell is protected. (Or you could interpret it as, “use with a protection circuit [on either the cell or the flashlight].)

All the protected cells I’ve encountered have a noticeable raised strip underneath the wrapping, running between the two ends of the battery. If you take a look and feel around the cell, you can probably find such a strip if it is protected.

A protected cell is usually about 3mm longer than the same cell unprotected.

Orbronics protected 26650 5500mAh is 26.5 mm x 70 mm (+/- 0.9mm) while the the same cell that is unprotected is 26.3 mm x 66.8mm (+/- 0.9mm)

Orbronics 26650 cells are a bit longer than others due to it's raised flat top making them OK for stacking and compatible in some lights that require a button top.

Identical height to my unprotected LiitoKala, so unprotected then :frowning:
I ordered some protected 26650 off eBay, which never turned up. I’m having a hard time getting protected ones, any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks, but all out of stock, apart from the Soshine 26650 5200mAh Protected USB. Not to sure about USB charging in a battery. Found some protected Soshine from a UK (Glasgow) seller on eBay, so I’ll give them a go. It was a pair of Soshine that never turned up.

The Sofirn 26650 5500 mAh batteries are to short to work in my new TrustFire torch that requires a protected 26650 cell. So, I have to say the Sofirn is not protected.

I’ve encountered several types (maybe 3 or 4 types) of Sofirn 26650 batteries (flat-top, not counting the button-top variety that’s bundled for their Sofirn SP70 flashlights).

One type has YR1030 IR measurement of around 17-18mOhms, and capacity test (with a few different analyzing chargers would usually be around 5300-5500mAh)

Another type has YR1030 IR measurement of around 13-15mOhms, and capacity test will be somewhere like 4900+ to 5000+ mAh, this appears to be the most “high-drain” type.

And yet another type has YR1030 IR measurement of around 40mOhms (yes, very high), and capacity test is around 5500+mAh. This variant is the least “drain” type, and will notably be dimmer when used in flashlights that can consume 10Amps or more). I’ve seen this only once but have not encountered it again.

(Unfortunately Banggood does not ship bare batteries to my country, so my Sofirn 26650 batteries were all bought when I buy Sofirn flashlights (AliExpress) that come with Sofirn batteries bundle package)

It looks like some are back in stock if you still need them

Has anyone pointed out to Sofirn’s reps that this is STUPID?

What, are they selling the protection circuits as an add-on user option?

This should clue you in, if the battery itself were protected, that battery would not need to say use only in protected devices. It is a little concerning that the batteries do not have the amp rating on them, and that is usually the case with protected batteries. The bottom line is the battery pcb on protected batteries takes about 5mm…these measure 65mm, so they are not protected. On the other hand most of the Sofirn single battery lights have the necessary pcb circuits in the light. I am not real sure a legitimate protection circuit can be on a light that has stacked batteries. I really don’t think I have ever seen Sofirn themselves ever claim those batteries were protected. The Sofirn lights I have that came with that battery have the protection circuit built into the light. Sofirn SP33. I also have 2 Sofirn C8G lights that came with unprotected 21700 batteries, and it says in the manual that unprotected or protected batteries work due to the lights protection circuit. On 21700 batteries, I have only 1 charger that a protected 21700 will fit in. That is why here lately they have started putting a mini usb on some protected batteries for usb charging. The weird thing is the charger the protected batteries fit in was a relatively inexpensive HohmTech 4 bay charger that I bought 4 of just because they were so inexpensive. It wont fit in any of my Nitecore’s, Xtar, and Efest multi bay chargers the protected 21700 will not fit.