I imagine it might magically change to 3A soon after I post this, as when it arrived it had max continuous discharge of 3A written on it, and 8A short peak. This is sold as “excellent battery for torch”, which I think is… over-stating it. Excellent if you only want to use your torch at half power (but think how long it will last!).
I have written to them a couple of times (about this and a delivery issue) and not received any response yet. This seems odd to me, since they are recommended on BLF.
Am I being unreasonable or ignorant here? Anyone else had similar issues with them? Maybe they are a member here and I’m about to get a telling off!
AFAIK Soshine makes reputable cells. HKJ has a review of this model (link) albeit different wrapper.
Protected cells will always fall short of current delivery. This cell is aimed at high capacity, the 8 amp max discharge is the trip value.
As for the seller, as you have mentioned, they seem not to care about feedback. The site states “High Drain” but in my opinion, anything less than 30 amps (pulse) from a 26650 is not high drain. Perhaps someone from Europe has some dealings with them…
Ok. Thank you for the advice. It’s not really this one battery, more that I keep seeing the shop suggested here and they have a better selection than others, so I wanted to make sure I hadn’t made some kind of basic mistake before labeling them unreliable. YMMV, clearly.
Any ideas what to do with a 26650 that has too low a current rating for a modern 26650 torch? I may pull apart some old USB power banks and see if I can wedge this in instead of the 18650s.
I had originally intended to use it in an old cheapie LED torch (‘MD50’ zoom thing, branded OxyLED, but seemingly generic) for which it turned out to be the wrong size (seems it can take 21700s or sleeved 18650s). I guessed from the age of the torch that it would be pulling somewhere considerably below 8A.
As having a new 26650 battery sitting around doing nothing (at this point I hadn’t noticed the current spec issue) was annoying and I had just stumbled across BLF and the world of torch enthusiasts, I ordered a Sofirn SP33 V3.0 to fit the battery. This is on its way from China (I hope!).
Based on reviews, it seems that turbo will draw something over 10A, which is fine because I don’t need turbo and it would step down due to thermal issues very quickly in any case. I can’t remember where I saw this, but high I think is around 5-6A. An 8A continuous discharge battery should have been OK, but 3A won’t do.
I assume there are no 26650 format torches on sale these days which draw 3A or less in their highest continuous mode? I wonder what this battery is actually sold for, in that case. I know nothing about vaping, but from the high current specs on vaping batteries it seems like they have similar requirements to torches.
The Sofirn SP33 V3.0 looks like a great flashlight.
I would first see how the battery works in the flashlight. If the protection circuit starts causing issues and if you feel comfortable doing this, you could just remove the protection circuit from the battery.
That hadn’t even occurred to me. Thank you! Stupid question, I guess, but do all the budget torches from decent brands like Sofirn have battery protection built in? I originally ordered it protected because I couldn’t find a way to non-destructively disassemble the cheap zoom torch and check.
