Has anybody tried Fasttech's As-Is batteries?

Hello,

Fasttech seems to have recently begun selling As-Is batteries for a cheaper price than their regular batteries.

From fasttech.com;

“These batteries are taken out of other industrial products and are sold AS-IS.
FastTech checks to make sure voltage is between 3.6V and 4.2V but we cannot make any other guarantees.
These batteries do not come with any warranty from FastTech.”
An example:
630mAH 14500: http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002821/1210701-as-is-sony-us14500v-1450514500-680mah-36v-recharge

Seems pretty interesting as they do check the voltage before hand.
I’m interested to hear the feedback from others.

It sounds like Ultrafire batteries, except without the label and bogus claims.

Nope, and it’d take an awful lot of persuading to convince me that a couple more dollars for non as-is batteries isn’t worth it.

Alright, I’ll play pessimist…

It would take an awful lot of persuading to convince me that non as-is batteries aren’t kept in the same box/bin as as-is batteries.

:slight_smile:

PPtk

You might be on to something there…

Is that like when people list a car “AS IS!!!” and it means everything is worn out, beaten up and it doesn’t run?

According to description their AS-IS batteries might as well be old cells pulled from various beaten up battery packs that went for recycling ;)!
You all know how many of those old cells end up sold at Chinese retailers re-wrapped or packed into different battery packs and then sold as new.

I wouldnt buy these due to fact that these most likely are pulls from used battery packs.

“This item is covered by manufacturer’s warranty.
Manufacturer’s warranty replaces FastTech’s standard product warranty.
These batteries are taken out of other industrial products and are sold AS-IS.

FastTech checks to make sure voltage is between 3.6V and 4.2V but we cannot make any other guarantees.

These batteries do not come with any warranty from FastTech.
FastTech’s DOA and satisfaction guarantee still apply.”

I don’t believe they are used cells. Probably taken out of stockpiles of battery packs whose hosts are now obsolete. I put a couple of the Sanyo 16650 in my shopping cart to go with my next order. Probably a good buy for people on a tight budget.

for some reason i trust fasttech and the fact they have 16650's at a much better price than anyone else makes me think they are absolutely worth taking a chance on ... no one has them or is even close on price ..this is stuff you don't or can't get from anywhere else .

soon enough someone will buy them and run real tests on them and we'll know for sure ,,

for now.... i'm betting they are a great deal on nice batteries

i'm a sanyo fan :P

I ordered a couple of the “as is” 16650’s. Seems a hard one to come by and Int. Outdoors is one of the few places that has some. The word is that even at Int Outdoors, they may be “pulls”. I’m trusting FastTech on this one.

Ordered them Jan 16…haven’t shipped yet…strange?

I ordered a pair of the A123 lifepo4’s in the as-is section. Found this same battery on ebay for $4 plus $3 shipped and probably is from the same lot as the ones from FT….

I for some reason also trust FastTech. Mine have shipped alread hopefully will have them soon.

I know where you can get some FREE as-is cells. ALL name brand and ALL guaranteed real and not fake. Go to your nearest home depot and look through the recycled battery bin. :wink:

Now the thing is with laptop-pack pulls is that ALL the batteries — without fail — have been EXCELLENTLY cared for. You can’t find better-cared-for li-ion batteries. They have NEVER been overcharged and they have NEVER been over-discharged. Well, you need to check and make sure the batteries aren’t below 2.5 volts from nonuse when you pull them, but the pack electronics will never let them over-discharge. In fact, most packs will refuse to charge if the batteries fall below about 2.5 volts. So as long as you use a DMM to check ’em, you’ll never get an overdischarged cell.

HOWEVER, unscrupulous vendors can “bring back” over-discharged cells. Simply touch a 9-volt power source to an almost dead battery for a few seconds and almost all will pop up to like 2 volts and now can be charged in a normal li-ion charger. BUT since the cell has been overdischarged, chances are that NASTY crystals are also growing when you recharge an over-discharged cell — crystals that will grow and grow and eventually rip through the liner bag inside the 18650, creating the famous “venting with flames.”

Some li-ion chargers will even charge a completely dead 18650. My gray-colored Trustfire charger will charge an 18650 batt at 0 volts. After 20-30 seconds in this charger, most “dead” li-ion battery voltages pop up to 3 volts or so, and the cell can be charged normally.

I am NOT saying that any dealer charges over-discharged cells. I’m just saying that the possibility exists that it can be done, and overdischarged cells often come back with flying colors after being “zapped” and can perfectly hold a charge and charge to full capacity. I have experimented with this and recovered 9-10 cells that were effectively zero volts, and they worked fine after zapping and recharging —— EXCEPT that now they may be growing those dangerous crystals and could vent with flames without warning.

Because of those crystals, you do NOT want to charge over-discharged li-ion cells. This cyrstal puncture can happen at ANY time. The battery can be sitting on your shelf. The crystal can puncture the liner bag when you’re at Aunt Grace’s. The cell vents with flames and burns your house down. (Or causes an airplane to fill with smoke.) Charging overdischarged cells can come back and bite you badly. And unless you harvest the pack pulls yourself, you really have no way of knowing if the pack pulls have been mistreated AFTER being pulled.

Some vendors are beyond reproach and would never intentionally do this. But their supplier could be zapping the cells and not telling them :–0 There’s really no way to tell, and that — fellow BLFers — is the problem. We don’t have x-ray vision and we can’t see inside li-ion batts to see if those highly dangerous crystals are growing.

(I am NOT a li-ion scientist. I am simply going by various white papers that I have read on the web about the dangers of over-discharging. I assume that these papers — like the NASA one on li-ion dangers — are accurate, but I have not done the experimentation myself and must rely on others to do it for me.)

That was interesting, thanks Ubehebe ;)!

It never fails to amaze me how people will spend hundreds of dollars in flashlights and then try to skimp on the most important safety feature… reliable quality batteries. IMHO, its like buying a Ferrari and running it on 85 octane fuel because youre to darn cheap to put high test in it. People, please just spend the money. Good batteries will last a long time and provide repeated heavy discharge currents without blowing your head off. Its cheaper than taking your girlfriend to McDonalds! SHEESH!!

+1 :smiley:

I claim Exception:
The 16650 they now are offering is almost impossible to get, locate, find, afford….it can replace 2 CR123’s…so I went for it.

If these are unused cells, removed from battery packs that were meant for an obsolete model of PC, you can’t go wrong. I believe the Sanyo 16650 was meant for an Acer laptop. Laptop batteries are usually the pick of the crop. The highest quallity cells are culled especially for the laptop industry. I already have six protected Sanyo 16650’s from Intl-Outdoor, but I’m at least going invest the small sum of $9.42 for a pair before I start slagging them with nothing more than a personal opinion.

The analogy is a good one with the Ferrari but you obviously can't sell the idea by telling anyone it's dangerous ..they don't care ! The REALLY stupid thing is that everyone on the site wants the brightest lights on the planet ...But a bad battery means it will never be bright ..Since 90% of all budget lights run direct drive on high if your batteries suck .. your light output sucks.. real simple

Good point Boaz, and there’s a lot of truth to that. High powered lights require sustained high current to operate at peak output… something that tired old cells are incapable of delivering. I point out the dangers so I can say “I told you so” after someone that cares nothing about their safety and that of others, turns their flashlight into a high powered frag bomb or burns down their house. It is inevitable that we will continue to see more and more of this sort of thing as the hobby grows. Hopefully people will read my warnings and do some research before reclaiming old cells. For a few dollars, quality cells are far to cheap and accessible to skimp on.