I haven’t bought any li-ion cells in years. What are reputable websites in the US to purchase high capacity (3000-3500 mAh) unprotected button-top cells these days? Doesn’t have to be high current as it’s going into a portable radio.
Checked liionwholesale and IMR and boths seem to be out of stock.
I’ve been ordering from https://www.18650batterystore.com/
They usually have the lowest price, even after considering shipping.
Can you try Nkon website?
Isn’t Nkon primarily a European thing? I’m in the US.
Anyway, looked at 18650batterystore and Illumn - slim pickings when it comes to button-top unprotected high capacity 18650 cells. Ended up just getting some flat tops from liionwholesale - their shipping charges were lowest. I’ll just use a small magnet to make the battery contact the radio.
I dont know, thought they were Japanese company.
Anyways what cells did you get? You should consider instead of magnets to solder blob or solder a small metal button top for a permanent fix that wont short your radio. Im curious about what radio you have that runs on 18650. Is it a Ham/amateur radio or a walkietalkie or a standard radio reciever?
I picked up Sanyo/Panasonic NCR18650GA since I’m familiar with them.
It’s just a regular radio receiver with weather band (NOAA) - XHDATA D109WB.
Nice! Good choice for batteries and the radio!
Edit: it looks like your radio has a charging port so no need to worry about solder top. Magnets should work just fine.
I picked up soeme Samsung 35E button top cells from IMR .
For the same thing basically. I got a new SR-286 radio that takes 18650 button tops. I have more then 100 18650 cells, but none that are in great shape nor have button tops… It figures.
Anyway they seem to be good cells. Capacity testing at ,5 amps showed around 3400 mAh for all of the four that I got.
It looks like you may be set for now, but if you need something else going forward. They also have the NCR18650GA cells with button tops. FWIW
Out of stock.
I paid $4.99 for the NCR18650GA.
How did you get that deal? I found that almost all of the button top cells that I found are also protected (which I didn’t really need). Meaning the price goes up considerably. The 35E cells I got were not protected (according to the description) and were $7.99. The GA button tops I found there were $8.99 per ?? But they do have them if you really need the button tops. So just adding the button nearly doubles the cost?
I would be happy to find some NON-protected button tops in a good cell for a bit less. But it seems that these are hard to find in stock.
But yeah, good cells without a button can be found around that $5 mark in lots of places .
As I mentioned, I ended up getting non-button tops as I couldn’t find any button-tops in stock that were reasonably priced.
Yes… Reasonable Cost … I was amazed that just adding the button seems to almost double the cost. But I rationalized it by thinking that I only needed two for a specific application.
I tried flat tops in my new radio and they “flat” can’t work. 
I didn’t want to mess with magnets… so I just sucked it up .
A radio that takes 18650 button tops?? Didn’t realize that was a thing.