Hi, all. I’ve been dormant, but needing your input on protected 18650s. I’m going to get some new ones for 2 reasons.
1. After getting out of Li-ions, my dad gifted us 2 super cheap 2x18650 flashlights a few years ago. They’ve been “fine-ish”. I recently put two of the 18650s that came with them on my XTAR VC4 charger. The charger kept having problems with one cell (it would think the cell was ni-mh, but then flash to other things, back to ni-mh, not starting the charge sequence). I pull that cell looking to see if it was bulged, etc. I note that something seems to be rattling inside of it. So this cell is permanently out of service. There are 3 others that are the same 18650. I’m leery on using any of them, as they seem super cheap anyway (They say skywolfeye, metallic green wrap, and claim 5000mAh). What’s your advice?
I like Samsung 30Q I run them in most of my lights.
They aren’t protected, but are IMR chemistry. They are a high performance cell with good capacity, but also capable of supporting quite high amp draws.
These are all high quality protected, bout the best you can buy at any price: https://liionwholesale.com/collections/batteries/Liion, and Jon at Liion has excellent support. What I also like is the protected circuits are actually spec'd, and there's no guess work with rewraps - they are legit brand name cells with protected circuits added, which is how it should be.
Of course I'd recommend the first or second ones listed: protected GA's or MJ1's, because of the high capacity. Just be sure they will fit your lights.
And yes - throw those cells away. Not worth taking a chance with.
+1 being careful where you get your batteries from, and what claimed capacities are. Make sure you get some good ones for sure!
I have 4 total Orbtronic batteries, and I only just killed one after using it for the last 7-8 years, so I am comfortable in saying that I would recommend that brand. Here is the link to their official store.
If you don't go for the the Orbtronic batteries, no worries there, but I would definitely recommend that whatever battery you consider, you should check the review section Here to see if someone has reviewed those particular batteries. The good reviews will usually have enough comparisons that you don't have to have intimate knowledge of batteries in order to know if they're saying good things about the battery or not. Plenty of graphs and data in comparison to other batteries will help with that.
One thing to be aware of, that is probably less of an issue on that Olight, is battery length. Protected cells are longer than unprotected batteries, and may not always fit in every flashlight. My Zebralight SC600 III can't fit protected cells in it at all, and I can only use unprotected cells. The battery terminals are pogo pins, and don't have enough travel to allow for significantly longer batteries. I can't tell you for certain what batteries do or do not fit in that light as I don't own one, but I'm sure some reviewers have that kind of information as well.
Any 18650 claiming to be over about 3500mAh is likely to be junk. Stick with brand name batteries from reputable sellers.
Rattles? Some batteries like that have been opened up and found to have a small cell inside and the cavity packed with some powder.
A battery charger doesn’t “know” what kind of cell is in it if it is multi-chemistry. It’s uses voltage. If the voltage was down below 1.5v it would think NiMh. If it was that low, it’s WAY too over discharged anyway.
If you are in usa I think the best place is illumn. I agree pink samsung 30Q is generally best overall value for capacity and high current performance:
"Safe" is all a matter of use-case. A battery that sees heavy loads needs to be rated for the loads that it sees, otherwise it is no longer "safe." In the flashlight world, that depends on the light that you're using it in and its expected power draw.
That being said, I think that battery ought to be just fine. 10A discharge will be more than enough for that Olight. Just be mindful of battery voltage. Not knowing your experience level with lithium-ion batteries, it's worth making mention to not discharge them below 3V, conservatively. This is one of the major advantages of protected cells - They are there for over-charge, over-discharge, and over-draw protection. I mainly got them to make sure I didn't over discharge my batteries when I was new to the flashlight world. I honestly have very little experience with Olight brand flashlights. I know they're great lights, just haven't owned one for myself. So, I can't really tell you off the top of my head if it has any kind of battery indicator on it. But if it does, make sure and use it plenty in order to keep an eye on the battery and charge it when it gets low.
If you aren't comfortable in saying you'll be able to keep on top of it, then a protected cell will give you better assurance, and make sure that you have a healthy battery for longer.
There’s no such thing as a ‘safe’ lithium battery. They can all do nasty stuff if abused/neglected. Some are more resistant, and the NCR hybrid chemistry is one of them (ICR is the most unstable). Protection circuits help, but even those have limits. Just get the battery from a reputable source. I own a bunch of GA’s and they do great. Don’t hit as hard as a 30Q or VTC6, but for 3350 mAh does really well under about 25 watts.
Protection circuits are fine to a degree. But it depends what sort of protection you are looking for.
Most commonly is:
-Restricting amp draw
-Prevent over discharge (low volt protection)
-Reverse polarity protection
However not all protection circuits offer all of these.
ICR chemistry is more likely to “run-away” and explode or catch fire if something goes wrong. And these typically have some sort of protection circuit. ICR generally offers the highest capacity in mAh. But likely the lowest amp draws.
IMR as far as I understand is a much safer chemistry and less likely to runaway. However the cells still contain a huge amount of energy, so shorting out such a cell would be very bad news still. IMR typically don’t have have protection circuits, as they offer very high amp draws.
I believe INR is a mix of the two. Offering a blend of performance vs capacity.
Things to note. Most ICR’s are longer due to the protection circuit. Meaning they may not fit some lights. Often if they are button top. And may cause you problems in high amp lights with reduced performance.
Most IMR’s are shorter, but may be too short in some lights and not make good contact. Most IMR’s are also flat tops, although you do get them with button tops occasionally. I find some disc small magnets are handed to make a flat top a button top and add some length.