Test / Review: A123 18650 1100mAh (Yellow)

A123 18650 1100mAh (Yellow)



This is a battery that can deliver very high amount of power!

Official specifications:

  • Nominal Capacity & Voltage: 1.1Ah, 3.3v
  • Recommended standard charge method: 1.5A to 3.6v CCCV, 45min
  • Recommended fast charge current: 5A to 3.6v CCCV, 15min
  • Max continuous discharge: 30A
  • Pulse discharge at 10sec: 65A
  • Cycle life at 10C discharge, 100% DOD: Over 1,000 cycles
  • Recommended charge/cutoff voltage: 3.5v to 2v
  • Operating temp: -30 ~ +60degC
  • Cell Weight: 39g




This battery has a lower voltage than the usual LiCoO2 batteries and also much lower capacity.










There is not much capacity, but the capacity is available at very high currents.





The battery is able to deliver 30A, but only for two minutes!







The battery has no protection and I discharged it before I was finished with this test.



I only uses a 1A charger current, the battery can be fast charged with a 4A current.



Conclusion

This battery uses a "safe" chemistry, but this does not make the battery completely safe due to the high currents it can deliver.
This is a very interesting battery for some applications, but due to the low voltage it is not really good for flashlights (leds need a lower Vf) and who would want a small super bright light that only works for two minutes (This is probably the wrong place to say that)?
This battery can only rate a as very good.



Notes and links

How is the test done and how to read the charts
How is a protected LiIon battery constructed
More about button top and flat top batteries

Thanks for the review HKJ! I don't know about other people but I would love a super bright light that runs for 2 minutes. :)

So, in what applications are these cells used?

Power tools & hybrid electric vehicles.

Cars and tools.

They can also be used to power RC "toys".

The 26650 are even more crazy, they can deliver up to 70A.

Are you going to test them? :stuck_out_tongue:

I am putting the review together and will publish it later today.

Thanks for the explanation!
So for me there is no use for these!
Nice to know a bit more in what varieties these cells are on the market. (didnt know these extreme high current 18650`s existed)

Yes, I got about 160 of these from ebay about two years ago for a buck per piece.
They have very low internal resistance of 20 miliohms.
I get similar capacities of them.

Thanks very much! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

These A123 specifically work very well in LED applications with a driver. That all depends on the
LED. One of these can power up an SST Phat lite diode to 60% output no driver, if anyone is
familiar they will know its a hell of a lot of light. Very stable cell and linear discharge with the diodes
tested. Even for testing these work well. Highly recommended addition to anyone’s battery stock pile.
Do they, A123 still produce these? I still see them float around on Ebay. I got them cheap as well
24 for $1.25 per …

A SST90 needs about 3.5 volt for 60% current (Typical value), that is hardly possible with a A123 battery.

The datasheet is here.

Actually they can do over 200 amps! And I’ve seen them charged at 100C. A123 also makes a 20Ah pouch cell that can do well over 1000 amps. I used those (two redundant 16S packs) in a 180,000 lumen array.

Here is a neat video of a guy using a 4S pack of the 26650 cells to start his car in –20C weather (20 times): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcvmvrmTMMk

I built a 10000 lumen light with a 4S2P pack of these… it has a jumper cable connector.

Your correct and also incorrect.

The data sheet is dead on.

I wasn’t referring to an SST90 LED. I’ll see if i have a data sheet for the diode Phat Lite LED

I like these A123 cell too, reasonable priced, I built one 18650 in 4S2P for my little moped & some 26650’s also in 4S2P for moped with electric starter, cranks over like a champ. Oh yes, it also jump start my car a few times 8)

Wow, jump started your car a few time… At first, I didn’t believe it, so I did some “back of envelop” calculation.

At 4S2P, total of 8 batteries @ 1100mah each, so you have 2200maH (2P) at 12-14volt (4S).

That would be 132 Amp-Minutes at 12-14volt. At the published 400 cranking amps needed by a 2001 Honda Civics, that would be a total of 19.8 second cranking time assuming the rest of the car electronic took nothing.

To start the car 4 times, it will need to start within 5 seconds each time, and each battery must deliver 200 Amps for the 19.8 seconds.

Feasible - actually, feasible even with 4S alone if the battery can indeed deliver the amp - 400 cranking Amps for 9.8 seconds, just enough for most car engine to catch, hot batteries not withstanding.

These A123 cells are the only LiFePO4 cells i know of, that are able to hold the voltage in a Fenix PD32 UE on burst mode! With other LiFePO4 cells the voltage drops to far so the over discharge protection kicks in and switches down to turbo or even high mode. I have 2 of them and 4 more on order. These cells also have a higher open loop voltage and are rated at 3.3 volts where others are rated at 3.2 volts. I love these cells, if only they had a little more capacity…