What are good 18650’s to buy right now? Where is the best place to buy them?
My highest drain is a Lucky Sun D80 from the group buy. Guessing 4-5 A, maybe more.
Saw some shipping prices, I think on BG, that were high, imo.For that, I’d rather use mtnelectronics, I think.
banggood is free shipping but opt for the cheap priority direct option.
gearbest is expensive to USA.
many will suggest the Samsung 30Q
Yeah, maybe I was on GB, not BG, after all. Any idea if these are good? Like to avoid counterfeits.
ALL THREE reasonable and reliable: IMR recently gave BLF a discount code-BLF15. With that they beat most of the other Two’s prices. L.Ion is 2 miles from me and I can p/u the batts,no shipping can be the equalizer for me!
I order those and leave a review there, if you can see in cassic mode on site, you will see their caacity in lii500 
If you want low price and protected, I think it will be better in that price range :+1:
Looking at the sites listed above, looked at the 30Q. Looks like there are quite a few good batteries out there at a good price, especially since I don’t need high capacity or A, particularly. Several of the LG look good, too
I have an AW IMR 2000 mah that I like, are those still good? Not finding many, these look counterfeit
So, you want lower price or better battery?
I think the better battery you can get is ncr1860ga, high capacity with 10A continuos dischage and good price.
In banggood they are expensive, I think you can get that for under $5
Right now, I like the 30Q's for best low resistance and SANYO GA's as the best high capacity cell. Could argue the LG HG2 competes well with the 30Q. I got a lot of each of course. The GA's are nice in that their flat tops protrude a little, so they make contact on a flat contact surface.
I've been buying a lot from LiIonWholesalers and IMRBatteries, depending on stock/price/qty/shipping, etc. GearBest had some great deals, and BangGood as well. Of course at GB, they started charging big bucks for shipping to the US, so they are now out of contention for me.
Good stuff Tom!
Liionwholesale is 2 miles from me. Jon lets me come to the store and get my stuff. A few hours ago I picked up 4 X NCR18650GA for $4.87 each,NO SHIPPING!
I also have several 30Q and HG2 for my single cell modded throwers.
I have no reason to order[and wait] over seas w/ prices in USA with IMR W/coupon Code and L.Ion where I can stop in anytime!
QUESTION: Do you know the difference or significance of the letter that is stamped on the GA? Mine has the letter “B”, HKJ’s sample had “C” and I saw an “F” on another website! Maybe just different batches?
,thanks,Capolini/Wolfdog
Hhmm, no not sure. about the letter code. If you can get GA's at a good price, that's great! They beat the other 10A cells in tests I've seen - actually posted here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/35721
How'd you get them that cheap? Yea, I've had conversations/emails with Jon - seems all like the real deal, nice guy, keeps up with things. We really benefit from the ecig guys buying so much, and pushing the limits. Actualy with Jon, I feel bad because of some issues I had with EFEST 4200's I ordered he had to lose his shirt on me, so I still owe him. He was having some issues with EFEST, sent me another batch no charge, and then he just sent me out a new batch of BASENS' at no charge, telling me to keep the double batch of EFEST's - crazy. Not too many vendors would do that, for sure.
I still buy cells from Richard/MtnE too, usually I'm adding a couple when placing orders for parts, etc., just for buying 4+ at a time, the battery specialty shops have better deals, different selections, or based on in stock or not.
^
Sorry Tom that is a TYPO by me!!
It should read $5.87 each! Since I bought Four[4]I got .12 cents off of each battery,the wholesale discount!
I use to just buy off of Illumn and Mt. Elec. Now it is usually L.Ion and sometimes IMR. With the new BLF discount code for IMR, I would have to figure out the difference with the discount VS. paying nothing for shipping w/ L.Ion! L.Ion is so close and convenient and certainly reasonable.
Jon is such a nice guy. I bought an Efest LUC V4 and after a few months the display was missing a sliver of one of the numbers. it was no longer under warranty and he replaced it for free!
Thanks for that link,I posted a comment on it. Jon, HKJ and Light-wolff ALL had the same results w/ the GA’s slightly edging out MJ1’s. That was the determining factor[Jon/HKJ] for me getting the GA’s instead of the MJ1’s!
Enjoying the replies, I was so lost buying batteries. I have a bunch of cheapies, some Samsung laptop pulls I got probably in 2013, and the AW. So I “just maybe ” need to upgrade lol.
I don’t really need the high capacity I suppose, or A, but it looks interesting to try the 30A 1500 mah LG, to see what it does to the light output.
Good to know about the 30Q and the Sanyo, and the reviews to test performance, I had missed those. Looks like these are the gold standard now, unless you are really doing bright lights, and need over 10A
I need to do some higher output lights.