Are the Grade A P45B available in the US yet?
18650BatteryStore has had them for a bit, try them. Don’t know if in stock though. Another option…the Epoch P45B’s, in my personal opinion, seem to be Molicel P45B rewraps.
Apparently those and any available from any other supplier have been “grade B” cells and the grade A have not yet been available…some are hoping there’s a difference enough to matter and are waiting for the grade A.
While you’re here, it looks like Vapcell is discontinuing the great H10 and L10 14500 cells, which have been just great little cells for us. They already brought out a newer 3A version (G12 maybe? it’s gold) but no word about an equivalent 10A cell like the H10. Do you have any info to share there, or could it be on your radar for future tests?
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Sorry, no info on 14500’s. It’s been too long since I’ve tested any. If I get a bunch of requests I’ll add some to the testing queue but yours is the first I’ve received in over a year.
Where did you hear about the cells that are available now are only Grade B? It’s my understanding that Grade B cells aren’t given the QR-style code box on the wrap but that I heard that (from a trusted source) a while ago.
The 14500s have seen something of a resurgence over the last 3-ish years, lots of new lights and some of them will allow a lot more juice to flow with a good cell. Several of these have been from Sofirn and Wurkkos, bundled with one of their average-performing 900mAh cells (who knows what the mfr is on those)…Lumintop FWAA probably set off the trend. The interest is probably there if it’s worth your time…but I also know that it’s an awful lot of time for each test and you aren’t charging admission! I think HJK’s hiatus may last a lot longer than any of us hoped.
On the grade A/B, it was in another thread here but Jon from Liion contributed some of his help and knowledge…and some of that must have come straight from Molicell. Sometime right around now is when he expected that they’d be receiving them (grade A).
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You can also try finding the Shockli Orange 1050mah. Those perform at least as well as the Vapcell H10. They are both the best 14500 on the market.
I tested the Shockli Orange and compared it with a bunch of other 14500 cells in flashlights in this post. The Shockli Orange is the current KING of 14500 in this test
yea I’m aware of the Epoch P45B but there were some talk here about the Grade A only available in Taiwan but it’s supposed to arrive in the US in March. The rewraps that are sold here are supposed to be the Grade B. We don’t know what the differences are if any without an expert like yourself testing it but theoretically Grade A is better
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I suspect, based on testing other cells, that the differences are small and perhaps even unnoticeable in “real world” use. I’m looking forward to testing these cells again when we can be sure Grade A cells are available.
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Yeah, those were good (as I saw in tests anyway)…they appear to not be available anymore. I think the only places I saw them were at BG and Neal but the prices (for shipping to the US) were way higher than reasonable. Anymore I stick to buying cells from our various domestic sources (fakes are fewer these days but if you have a dud cell good luck with getting help from overseas sources, y’know?). Hopefully we see another quality high drain 14500 in the future. I’m stocked up on the H and L cells for a good long time but “we” do need cells like that. 
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I think for single cell use it’s probably no real difference, maybe not even for our small multi-cell applications…maybe a little less in terms of longer term shelf stability? It’ll be interesting to see your test!
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I Always get excited when a new and better cell comes out or is about to come out. But the reality is I’m not going to notice any difference in terms of the output of my torch and very little if any difference in runtime.
But I’m still going to get some!
Jon( Liionwholesale) is awaiting them. I ask him about every week or so. So hopefully soon. Obviously they have no control over when these shipments get here. All the information he’s given me for months are just estimates.
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I forgot to mention. Regardless of how little the cell is improved, I get it for the psychological advantage knowing that I have the best.
It might be a 150 additional lumens in 5000 Lumen:flashlight: . And it may be an additional 1.5 minutes of run time. But I’ll take it! 
In fact with the Samsung 50S I got one and a half more minutes of cumulative Max run time with my Modified K1 compared to P42A and 40T. When the cumulative Max run time is only 9.5 or 10 minutes. That 1 and 1/2 minutes make a difference. At least to me it does.
Hey guys sorry I forgot to post here but we do have P45B on the website now. It’s selling remarkably fast, we didn’t get a big batch.
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When the first batch of P45B rewraps hit the market from other sellers (not molicel wrap) I simply mentioned that we had been informed that grade A was not available and that was why we didn’t have a version of that, because we specifically couldn’t get it in grade A. Even those cells are certainly possible to be grade A, maybe they snagged some preproduction batch or something, I can’t know. Now the internet has taken hold of that and speculated beyond what I said.
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We just bought more H10 from Vapcell, it’s not discontinued. Should have it in a month or so.
The L10 on the other hand, is discontinued. But they have replaced it with the F12, which we will also have in a month.
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Oh, excellent! I wonder if Dennis from Vapcell misstates sometimes.
Since the P45B Grade Super Extra A++ sounds like it could be the next Pandemic Toilet Paper, I ordered a few from you just now.
Thanks. I just bought 3 to feed my hungry lights with powerful Chinese LEDs. The shoot-out vs Nealsgadgets Lishen in my Nightwatch Chaos should be “illuminating.” 
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Pre-ordered two P45Bs from NKON before they’re all gone again. Those cells really are quite the Unobtainium.
My delivery of 4x P45’s from Liionwholesale just came today (First time customer). All 4 were at exactly 3.54v. Running a capacity test currently. Afterwards I will put them head to head against the Epoch “P45B’s” and see how they fare in my Nightwatch NS73V2. Current record is 17,405 Lumens with the Epoch’s.
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Update to my previous post:
I tested all 4x of the P45B’s from liionwholesale in my Nightwatch NS73V2 with my Lumen tube (measurement taken @ turn on. “initial brightness”).
My best result prior to today with the Epoch “P45B’s” from 18650batterystore: 17,405 Lumens.
Results with new P45B’s from liionwholesale (all charged to 4.24 volts on nitecore i4):
Battery 1: 16,649
Battery 2: 16,984
Battery 3: 17,207
Battery 4: 16,795
So, it looks like Battery 3 has the lowest internal resistance so far.
I’m very very surprised that none of them could beat my best result with the Epoch “P45B” with all the talk of them being no chance that they were “Grade A” cells. I even remember a forum member here said they spoke to 18650batterystore and they “confirmed” that they were “grade B” cells. The only thing that I can’t test is longevity or cycle life, but at least for “initial testing” in my results, the confirmed Grade A P45B cells from Liionwholesale (Authorized dealer for Molicel, so they get direct from their factory) are NO BETTER OR WORSE than the cells I purchased from 18650batterystore. Yes my results were better with the best Epoch, but it is well within the testing margin of error, so they are essentially the same cells, confirmed “Grade A” or not (minus cycle life since I can’t test that).
It makes me want to retest the Epochs to see if they still hold up today ( they are about 6 months old now).
I have 4x of the Epochs and never recorded all of the measurements, just the battery with the highest measurement (17,405 and 17,399).
The Epoch cells often go on sale for $7.75 and they ship from one state over from me, so my next order of Molicels will be from 18650batterystore when they go on sale. Unless liionwholesale sells them for cheaper lol.
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