18650's at walmart

So I have been seeing these around at Walmart for some time now. Price hasn’t changed so they weren’t worth my time because I get salvaged high drain cells for free. But my last trip to Wally world I spotted 4 packs in the clearance section for $4. I don’t care what the drain is, charge rate, or if the capacity is off by 20%, that is cheap. So I grabbed em and tested them.
At a modest 1C/2A discharge they are just under 2000mAh in the neighborhood of 1875. Once I break them in a little they may test better. I wouldn’t drain them at anything over 3A or 4A, that’s where voltage sag becomes a problem. They will drop down below nominal voltage fairly quickly at 5A or 6A. They don’t get overly hot though. Tested at 6A they were about 1700mAh, and jumped to about 125°F by the time they were just under 3V. Not overly hot, that temp wouldn’t cause damage to the cell chemistry, but not exactly ideal.
From a price stand point, I will buy every one I can find. At that price and the advertised capacity, we’re looking at $135 kWh. You can’t come close to that as a consumer. Not even GM. Not Tesla (not yet, maybe weeks away). By the way for everyone that hates ‘made in China’ or any where else in Asia that electronics come from (besides Japan, they usually put out higher quality) where do you think Sony and Panasonic/Sanyo were producing cells at when the tsunami hit Japan and the nuclear power plant was shut down and damaged that powered 2 major production facilities putting out cells for these two companies? I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t the US.
Bottom line? Worth a dollar a cell. No doubt. I told a few of my buddies from around close to my city, and as of right now 3 of them have told me where to get (or have picked up for me) a total of 12 more packs of 4 for $4 and 4 packs of 4 for $6, which I will most likely get for $4 when presenting my receipt to price match. So that’s 80 cells to string together in two 3S13P packs (2 left over, I know) to use as 12v solar storage. So I’ll have a total of 52Ah @11.1V and 577Wh of storage for less than $100. Where else can I get over half a kilowatt/hour for $85.60? Good times ahead of us my friends. Let’s get off the grid.

The new version of Westinghouse 18650 batteries showed up again a Wally’s. After holidays when Wally’s did reset for Spring/Summer products. $14.72 per 4 pack.

Tried them in Sofirn Q8 and they worked. How long? Do not know. Just tested them in light.

It would be nice to see a complete test done on the Westinghouse cells. I’d like to see HKJ test them. But someone would probably have to send him some to test.

What capacity are they listed to have?

3.7 V 2000 mAh

Low for today’s standards BUT still usable when 18650’s are needed.

BTW, I tried in a few different lights and all worked.

Fenix PD35, Powertac Warrior, Sofirm Q8, Klarus 12s, and a few others.

/\ … Thanks for the info mmalive. :+1:

Sure. No problem teacher.

BTW, I think these will be good back up batteries once your main ones are powered up.

I charged them using Olight’s Mini Dock 2 cell charger with no problems. Considering that charger is older model.

I may take a look at my local Walmart.

I just wonder what cell it is inside, and whether it is a quality cell that will keep working fairly well for years to come, or it is a cheap cell, that will die or lose capacity too soon. I’m not very trusting in general of anything that comes out of Wal-Mart. I’ve been burned too many times. :frowning:

Very good points. Reading packaging states made in China ( not good sign ). BUT cells seem to perform OK as backup batteries. This is very good when primary cells are charging. These cells were designed to be used with solar systems so not to bad I guess.