Can someone recommend good 18650 batteries ?

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
1

Hello. So I have a SkyRay King on the way and I am looking for good 18650 batteries.

I had store credit from DX so I ordered some trustfire flames 2400 from them over a week ago but they haven’t even processed yet and they won’t reply to me so I don’t have much hope there…

As per a member’s recommendation here I ordered the Nitecore i4 charger.

Can someone recommend good protected batteries for my skyray king ? I checked fasttech and all 18650s seem to be sold out.

Thanks !

EDIT: Did some research and found recommendations for Panasonic cells such as NCR18650b 3400mah

Where can I buy protected ones ? Ebay has them but can it be trusted ? Thanks !

2

These Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mAh are popular.
Banggood have been delivering batteries, where fasttech have had problems with battery deliveries.
Occasionally they are cheaper at other vendors.

3

Wow pretty pricy. That would be $40 in batteries for a $40 light !!! Yikes

Can you link some place where they might be cheaper ?

I also noticed those green protected ones look the same as the ones on ebay.

How do they differ from something like this ?

Also is there any place where shipping is faster ? (im in Canada so maybe some place where they ship from canada or US )

4

+1 Great value if you don’t mind waiting for shipping.

Thank the for the blf discount Panasonic NCR18650B 2-pack for $14.95 shipped at BG (now also protected button top for $16.50) :bigsmile:
Same battery inside but possibly different PCB, usually not a big deal since these are both quality batteries.

5

HKJ tested the 3100mAh Orbtronics and declared them “very good” Test / Review: Orbtronic 18650 3100mAh (Black)

Cheapest I’ve seen the panasonics is about $8 each, which is the bulk price or group buy price.
Borked is investigating a group buy at FEELER - Panasonic 18650 protected 3400mAh button top batteries and waterproof storage case - POTENTIAL GROUP BUY

Did you know that you could recycle laptop cells ? You may get better but unprotected cells than the trustfire labelled ones you’ve seen.

6

$14.93 per pair with Coupon Code : SWIATELKAWB

7

Panasonic 3100mah for 11.67 pair after discount code blf. 11.25 a pair if you order 3 pairs. No protection but the SRK runs batteries in parallel.

8

With discounts, 4 protected 18650b’s come out to $29.34 at wallbuys and $33 at banggood

Who ships faster ?

9

Go with the cheaper price, both ship slow, you will probably get them in 4 to 6 weeks.

You don’t need protected batteries in the SRK, you need protected batteries if the light runs them in series. If you have a meter to measure voltage you can determine when your batteries are low, you will figure out how long you can run the light before recharging. If you don’t have a meter, get the protected.

10

I’m going to be the weird here… But for the srk, IMO, you don’t need to go for the latest gen batteries”
with 4 parallel batts the runtimes are good enough, even going with some 2400-2800mah quality batteries (they will be cheaper, and the capacity is ver respectable)

11

Thx for quick reply ! Ordered 2 pairs from Wallbuys.
Still pricy but $30 bucks for all 4 isn’t so bad considering these are way better than those trustfires !

I went protected just for peace of mind. How long can these cells last in terms of years or number of recharges ?

12

What discount code did you use at wallbuys?

13

SWIATELKAWB

14

Several years, maybe 5 or more. How long does a laptop battery last, they use the same batteries. If you recharge them every day that’s another story, couple of 100 recharges easy.

15

You did a good buy
I can’t recall the max charge cycles, but I think it was around 400-500
I think I will not make all that cycles in mine, in ten years I’m sure we will have better options and these will be in the recycle bin

16

I recently ordered the same batteries fram WallBuys. I am new to Li-Ion rechargables.

What’s the best practice for charging these? If I charge them after say using 20% of the capacity, will this count as a 1 cycle in the life of the battery or only 1/5? In other words in terms of the longevity of the battery is it better to charge when mostly depleted (I know the voltage shouldn’t go too low), or can you do more freuqent charging without substantially shortening the life?

Thanks.

17

I found an answer to my question here

and here

18

+1
The second link talks about Discharge Cycle.