So I thought it might be a good idea to obtain bare 18650s by purchasing a “new” off-brand laptop pack via Amazon . . . but I think I’ve been ripped off.
Can anyone help identify these cells?
Specs:
7800mAh/87Wh, 11.1V, 9 cells/Samsung cell
Since the pack is 3s3p, each cell should have 2600mAh.
Calculation: 9 cells for $23.76 free shipping = $2.64/cell
Sounds like a good deal, right?
But testing on one of the cells tells a different story.
Result was 1651mAh when discharged at 0.2A from 4.1V to 3.0V.
Who the heck creates a user name with randomly generated letters? I mean, other than ltpdttcdft? I have a hard enough time remembering my different passwords on various websites. I can’t imagine the tediousness of logging in with such a user name.
I'm not actually upset, and I hope you enjoy your stay here. :)
Well, they’re definitively not made by any of the respected manufacturers - Sanyo, Panasonic, Sony (Japan), LG, Samsung (Korea), BAK (China), Moli (Canada/Taiwan) and others.
So indeed, those are cheap chinese cells as other people have noted.
@scaru:
I’ve already built the 8 of the 18650s into a custom pack for my camera, so won’t be sending them back.
Think I’ll just post a negative review for the product on Amazon.
@GottaZoom:
Shenzhen maybe? Major manufacturing city.
@raccoon city:
Originally, copy+paste. However, you have provided an excellent mnemonic. Now i got “Linux Test Project Design Test Technology Conference Dark Forces Team” with unforgettable visuals burned in. CANNOT UNSEE
@antonkochubey (and others):
May I quote you on that in the review?
For comparison, this particular cell worked out to be 625mAh per dollar.
1651mAh / $2.64 = 625mAh/$
Lowest reputable price I could find was KumaBear’s unprotected Sanyos
6 batteries with shipping:
6*2600mAh/(6*$4.61+$4.68) = 482mAh/$
(EDIT: Please note I am not factoring in cycle life (as this is time-expensive to test), which is UNFAIR to higher-quality cells. Ideally, comparisons should be based on mAh/dollar over a large number of cycles (e.g. 1000) instead of mAh/dollar on a single discharge cycle)
Probably. Large enough to be an area with smaller communities included like Los Angeles is considered. Looked at a few SZN manufacturer product listings and didn’t find any that looked terribly close.
This is a very very old thread, i know, but if you like me came here because you bought a laptop battery to salvage the 18650 out of it and the only usable reference on it that shows any kind of result on google is “16850 szn” because all the other letters and numbers don’t seem to mean anything, I have finally found something that can help find out the specs of the batteries.
So, if you enter the words SZN on alibaba and then the capacity of the cells, you should get some results. Serach for the correct capacity and maybe for the color of your cells and you should get the item description together with the specs of that cell.
Don’t know why yours were rated 2600mah but the links on a SZN batteries with the same color as yours are 1900mah and should be 4A max
Regarding the quality of the cells, I bought a pack from VHBW and they seem to be a respectable company from Germany, with a website and a webshop www.vhbw.de and their batteries are also sold on amazon.
So the cells seem to be of some quality for them to use them… On the other side, I’m just assuming and could be wrong Nonetheless I’ll leave this info here for anyone who may need it.
Interesting. I didn’t realize this was an old thread at first, and my guess from the codes (and tested capacity) were that they were 1900mAh cells.
I have a cheap Kmashi power bank with some other cheap Chinese cells. I don’t make heavy use of it, but it works.
There are a few Chinese pouch cell manufacturers that supply Apple (and Xiaomi). That means Chinese manufacturers have access to supplies of good quality electrodes and electrolytes. There is no reason to think they can’t make good 18650s too. I think one issue is that the 18650 market is more commodified (pouch cells are often custom form factors) and the automation and efficiency of the big players is very hard to compete with.
Nonetheless I’ll leave this info here for anyone who may need it.
