I hope the 26650 IMRs can beat the 18650 NCRs in a current supply race! 
From a price comparison, now that’s a different story. 
Well I am looking at the ability of the 26650's to hold higher voltage.
And interestingly enough I see the two types of 26650's I already own (TF Flame 26650 & King Kong INR) also hold higher voltage than the Panasonic PD's. I was guessing the PD's might at least beat the TF Flames (well, they are better than "Fake" flames I'm sure).
-Garry
I didn’t even notice that image on the FT website. When I first got them, I took one out of the package and threw it in a new light. I thought the brass spring sleeve had screwed up my new cell. I had the whole ail assembly taken apart before I realized the other three cells were the same.
I have some more coming from DoingOutdoor. I’m curious to see if they are the same.
If 3.2 volts under heavy load are enough, how about LiFePO4:
A123 18650:
A123 26650:
I have both types of batteries and their ability to deliver insane amounts of current is simply incredible!
My PD’s from doing outdoor are the same. I figure they are meant to be like that.
26650s beat 18650s in holding voltage, that’s what they are really good for…I learned that with the BLF A8 which has really nice runtime
The Efest 26650s are really nice if you don’t consider the miserable capacity.
What about paralleling some 18650s?
I tried once to order efest batteries but never got an invoice, I am really confused about their shop.
With these currents the protection circuits are suboptimal as they steal voltage, I have seen some nice tests here from night crawl or so which compares the Panasonic PD with the Samsung20r and the conclusion was that the Panasonic are better(almost same voltage but more capacity) below 7A and from that the samsung is better. So HKJ graph from the enerdan PD is different…
Here it is
But if you can use 26650s than this doesn’t matter anyway…until you go in the 15A field
I thought those Moli IMR 26700’s were considered top notch. You get 5 new for around $35-45 in a Milwaulkee V18 pack on ebay. Why are you all willing to pay $15ish/cell for the ones mentioned above?
I make my living in heavy construction. My company bought in to the Milwaukee V28 li-ions when they first came out 5 or so years ago. As the batteries have died I have been able to harvest on average about 4 cells out of the 7 cell packs. They are Emoli IMR 26700’s and rated for EXTREME withdrawal currents. They are too long for some lights but fit most of mine. I mainly buy 26650 lights nowadays because of this nearly inexhaustible supply of batts for free! Sometimes all 7 cells are flat, other times only 1. Check those discard bins at Lowe’s and Home Depot!
I'm afraid I might run into length issues with the 26700's. I don't have the light in hand yet. About the Efest 26650's, thanks to ecigs I can get these cells from numerous US sellers. I'm afraid to ask to dive into the battery recycling bins! Each battery is also wrapped in a plastic bag (at least at my HD).
-Garry
Although I’m not above saving cells from recycle bins, I was recommending new since that is what you seemed to be looking for. Best of luck on your search.
TF Flame 26650 cells seem to do OK then. I knew they hold up better than most 18650 cells, but I figured the PDs could hold up against a standard 26650.
In my case, I need the 18650 format for the BTU Shocker, and I wanted some capacity at the same time. Hopefully they provide at least some additional performance over my Sanyo ZTs.
Garry, in your case, it seems a 26650 is the way to go, and TF Flames (or KK ICRs) may be the best balance of budget and performance/capacity.
TF flames are not able to deliver 10A! The protection kicks in at 7A or so
And the biggest problem is that there a not many tests out there in the 26650 sector. I have found the soshine 26650s quite good for me but I would really like a test of them to compare them before i can recommend them.
for me it was the only opportunity for cheap protected 26650 which can deliver 9-10A.
Not many? How many do you need, I have tested 10 different 26650.
Perhaps I am a bit spoiled by the many 18650 tests.
The soshine and the mnke are often found but its hard to compare them by ourself.
I have two different versions of the soshine 26650, not sure if they are less good than maybe TF flames?
All the multi emmitter lights need good 26650s which can deliver serious currents…
I am always a bit confused if the two examples you test behave very differently, because the standard 7-15XML lights are powered in series so if one cell dies the light output dies….
Me too. I think they have a min order of $50 or maybe $100. I attempted to place a small order and got an email afterwards saying they could not honor it. There are often some Effest cells on fleabay. Not sure about 26650. (I have some of their 18360s and they’ve been great.)
I have a few Pana PD 18650s from fasttech. They all have that circular groove in the tail. It doesn’t affect function. They all work well, best I can tell. My lights running above 3A do seem brighter with the PDs than my AW IMRs. They are good cells.
Thanks for the tip on the power tool packs. I don’t have any 26650 lights currently, but that could be a handy tip.
When the two tested batteries has different capacity, it is best not to use them in series (With protected you can do it).
It is also important to remember that I only test two batteries, i.e. it is very unlikely that I get the best and worst performance you can expect in these two batteries.
The same argument also means that even if two batteries match in capacity, there is no guarantee that all batteries from that brand will match in capacity.
If you want specific batteries tested, you can always ask me (Please include a link to a shop that sells to EU) and I might include it. But my lead time will often be between one and two months, before I have made the test (This depends on shipping time and how many batteries I have in queue).
Efest has more than one website, it looks like http://www.efestbattery.com/ can be used for smaller orders (I have not tried it).
Took another look there. See this link for 26650 IMR's. Doesn't make sense. One is one efest IMR $13.12 while two are $$16.11? Then the MNKE's look identical but have two different prices?
The MNKE's test close to the rated 3500mAh capacity I believe, so I guess that would be my best choice. I know they are hard to find, but this site shows them in-stock.
-Garry
Wait a minute. . . didn't I see a post about these MNKE's being fake? Or at least there is a chance they are fakes.
EDIT - Yup, here it is. So perhaps I should choose the two Efest 26650 IMR's.
-Garry