Both use high quality (seiko) protection and are types of hybrids.
First of all, this light will never ever make 2000 lm, not even 1000 lm, trust me. I think 700 lm would be realistic maybe less. As I said, most importantly, do not use that built in charger! It is possibly very dangerous. You can’t buy protected LiMnO2, often referred to as “IMR”, you can buy NCR (Panasonics term for LiNiCoAlO2) protected and there are many good choices.
And no, I can not recommend a “2000+lm zoomable, headlamp with built-in dual 18650 charger (and also the best batts for it)? Under like $30 shipped?” Simply because is doesn’t exist, price aside. Now consider the price of that whole package, and think about what 2 good batteries and 1 acceptable charger would cost, you get what you pay for. Nothing wrong about cheap lights, this is budget light forum after all. But cheap batteries and cheap chargers nowone ever tested, that could end up really ugly.
Yes, the headlamp might not be the best but as long as he doesn’t use the built-in charger it should be ok. It makes light and goes on your head. Lets focus on the important parts. Safe batteries and safe charger.
For that price you could get NCR 18650 or Icr both protected
I never trust bay for batteries. Flashlights either.
@ Halo, you’re right. Cheap Xtar charger and that batteries you linked should be fine.
Those Evva (Panasonic PD) from mountainelectronics should be top notch. The Samsung 30B Newland linked could come in handy if he ignores our warnings about that charger….
ICR, the most common type of Li-ion battery isn’t unreasonably dangerous, even without a protection circuit. Overcharging, reverse-charging (as can happen through no fault of yours running them in series) or shorting them can lead to venting/explosion. Using a crappy charger can overcharge them, so don’t. Shorting is pretty easy to avoid. Running them in series is the biggest risk that’s hard to mitigate, but it shouldn’t be a problem if you keep pairs of quality batteries together so they age similarly.
Regarding your purchases, the headlamp is probably safe to use with good quality batteries (i.e. not the ones you bought). The charger is not safe to use at all. Your batteries are probably OK to use in single-cell applications, but I wouldn’t run them in series. Also, there’s no such thing as a 5000 mAh 18650.
For Xstar chargers with car and wall adapters, lowest I found is $20.98
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_from=R40|R40|R40|R40&\_sacat=0&\_nkw=Xtar+car+18650&\_sop=15
For vaping e cigs (highly recommend if you’re trying to quit cigs), a well known, low cost safe go-to charger is the nitecore i2 which can be had for $14.69 with car and wall adapters:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_odkw=nitecor+i2+car&\_from=R40&\_osacat=0&\_from=R40&\_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xnitecor+i2+car+18650&\_nkw=nitecor+i2+car+18650&\_sacat=0
It’s not really the money, but the size and somewhat inconvenience to use a separate charger. But for the extra ~$20 for a charger, I paid like $15 for the headlamp, so for $35 isn’t there a safe headlamp with built-in dual 18650 charger that can push 2Klm zoomable and rain proof? And then another$20 for batteries, totaling about $55?
you say the batteries are safe in the cheap headlamp as long as not charging with it, but how is it any safer? I have no idea what kind of cheap circuitry they used even if it’s just running the LED.
Thanks so much for the input, everyone.
Newland, the protection on those batteries are not as good as seiko.
I’m not here to debate which one is better. I am saying that they are good enough for what they are made for compared to price. Can only speak based on my experience, I have them with the D2 charger. For me, good combination 
Charging is where there is potential to damage the batteries and cause them to vent (then or some time later). Li-ions (, IMR and hybrids) need a cc/cv (constant current then constant voltage) charge profile to safely be fully charged. And the charger must always stop charging before the voltage gets too high. Junk chargers do not do cc/cv and their design and components are bad enough that even if they start out stopping at 4.2v they may at any time decide to change.
Just running a LED is simple. The flashlight pretty much just needs to not short circuit the battery. Batteries can vent inside a light but that is normally not the lights fault. The batteries were either unsafe, unstable to begin with (ultrafire, junkfire) or the batteries started out good but were abused or had internal damage from a junk charger. You can connect an good 18650 directly to an LED (no circuitry at all), known as direct drive, and the worst that happens is the LED overheats / fries or the LED internal bond wires pop. In fact in our hotrod lights we do just that, except we heatsink the LED well and use an XM-L LED that can take high amps.
TL;DR
Easy for a junk charger to blow your batteries, pretty hard for a flashlight, even a junky one, to be the source in blowing a battery.
veganvap, there is no 2000 lm zoomy headlamp at all. In fact there is just one light I know of that is zoomable and does 2000+lm. LED Lenser X21R.2.
Hi veganvap welcome to BLF I was in the same situation about 6 months ago I couldn’t tell the difference between 100lumen and 2000. My parents got given almost the exact same head lamp a while ago by there nabour. I got a chance to have a play with it and I can now tell you that it would be lucky to be 300lumens.
Take the advice from the people in the forum they are experts.
OK thanks.
I’ll definitely get a separate charger. I could use the built in sketchy charger and charge them while driving keeping an eye on them on the floor behind something and I happen to carry a fire extinguisher too, but as Halo said, a cheap charger could actually cause it to go thermal even after it’s off the charger, like while being stored or strapped to my head.
This $15 nitecore i2 should be good, right?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-NITECORE-I2-Intelligent-Charger-for-Li-ion-18650-16340-AA-IMR-w-Car-Cable-/131002574301?pt=Battery_Chargers&hash=item1e805ca5dd
Or get the Xtar for like $5 more?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/XTAR-WP2II-Intelligent-Li-ion-18650-18700-16340-Battery-Charger-with-Car-Adaptor-/141055265023?pt=Battery_Chargers&hash=item20d78c88ff
Then I’ll likely get these
I’m sort of considering these for almost half the price http://www.fasttech.com/products/1420/10002357/1384601
But as Halo said, the protection of ^ is slightly less quality than the Keeppowers, plus, although I think they fixed the issue, it was pretty much impossible to get Li-ion batteries shipped from Fasttech in China earlier this year, they often sat in customs for weeks and months and sometimes never arrive, plus they didn’t mark the + and - on the battery which should be easy to figure out since they did mark the ends red and black and the positive has the nipple and the negative is flat but it’s one of those things I’m not super familiar with and might not be %100 sure about even if I write + and - with a marker which might rub off.
Y’all seem to know quite a bit about batteries, This is the e cig I’ve been using.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Mini-DNA30-Clone-Killer-ipv2-Cloupor-Zna-and-Hana-Mod-Battery-Charger-/251694562174?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item3a9a2a3b7e
Have been charging it overnight without problems but am always a bit worried about it. It came with a pretty cheap Trustfire TF 18650 2000mAh Protected batt that has reached it cycles and I’m looking for a new one. I was told on the e cig forum to not use a protected batt in the vapor device. The main device has protection and the unprotected batteries allow for more Amps that vaping sometimes needs compared to protected batteries, but I only really need like 10A max the way I vape but was told to get an unprotected 20A batt like these http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-Samsung-25R-2500mAh-HIGH-DRAIN-20A-Rechargeable-Li-on-Battery-/291309619722?pt=Battery_Chargers&hash=item43d3680a0a
“running a protection circuit in your mod, and a protection circuit in your battery is a bad idea. It’s counting on one or the other reacting properly, and not interfering with each other, or one cancelling out the other….it’s something the designers never expected or allowed for in the design”
Any thoughts on that besides possibly using the nitecore/Xtar instead of using the vapor device’s built-in charger?
…batteries these days, right?
Vegan, read what Halo said above: it is not running the battery in the light that is the main danger, the main danger comes from unknown, cheapo integrated charging circuit which may or may not stop at the correct voltage and charge in the correct algorithm or not, and you will never know it. You’ll also not know if it is OK but then goes bad. Or if it charges one battery more than another, and all of these things can lead to an explosion later. If the two batteries are in series that is even more danger and 2x18650 = more weight, which I dont mind in my hand, but on my head that gets annoying.
If you are thinking of a different safer and brighter light, I would suggest this one: http://www.illumn.com/nitecore-hc50-xm-l2-565-lumens-1-x-18650-2-x-cr123a.html It operates on one cell, which you have to charge separately yes, but that is safer. I used to think that I needed 1,000 lumens, but after having this headlamp myself and the Armytek which produces 1,000 lumens and is about $90, I find I use a lower setting anyways so the 565lumens is more than enough. BTW, this will be BRIGHTER than your “2000lumen” headlamp in all probability.
A reasonable charger can be had for $10: http://www.illumn.com/batteries-chargers-and-powerpax-carriers/chargers/nitecore-intellicharge-i2.html
If you are going to do this, buy now, I think that sale is over after the weekend!
The cells may be OK…if they are not fakes…nobody has any way to tell if they are from the high probability fake land of ebay…
The fasttech samsung 18650s, the protection won’t be that reliable but as long as you will always without fail use a good charger then they should be safe enough. The reports I’ve read of protection failing has always been cheap protection. They all seem to use the same chip, DW01 fortune semiconductor. In fact just today there was a post on protection that malfunctioned. link That why I always point people toward seiko protected Evva or Keeppower.
For high amp use that is the one place where you often can’t use protected batteries. The overcurrent protection is normally not set high enough and it trips on you. Those samsung 25R are among the best choice for high amps. Its what I would go for. And that seller saftymind is trustworthy. http://www.ebay.com/itm/291309619722
If you must charge overnight get a metal box to charge in. Ammo box or cash box. If the batteries “vent with flame” it will contain the flames & you can just worry about getting away from the cloud of gas. I was just talking about how nasty the vented gas and chemicals are in this thread today. They do make lipo guard fire resistant bags but the cheap ones on ebay will burn through.
yeah B42, I said I learned here that the main concern with the $15 headlamp would be charging with it’s built-in charger, but not a serious concern to use it with quality batteries charged in a separate safe charger. Thanks for the sale link and everything but I think I’ma stick with the $15 one, I like the zoom affect (although when condensed to smallest it forms a lop sided diamond instead of a square, same with all the review videos I saw on these).
I’ll get the Samsung 25R for my e cig, I might charge it in an ammo case. The cheap charging bags actually make thermal runoffs/explosions much worse as shown by video demos.
I’ll get the KeepPowers linked for the headlamp.
For the XTAR WP2II Vs. Nitecore i2 charger is the only thing I have left to figure out, there’s a lot of threads compaing those, so I’ll read them, I’ll probably get the nitecore though since I think it can charge more range of battery type Ni-MH and Ni-Cd the XTAR might not, and that they’re both basically made in the far east with similar quality control and thus one’s probably not much safer than the other, you might read more complaints about the nitecores because they’re more popular.
It used to be much simpler, just double A batteries for almost everything, C and D for flashlights and boomboxes, and 9 volts for like gadget’y type stuff of you stick your tongue to it and get shocked (these actually spark if both connections are joined with something conductive like if stored loose and open in a drawer with something metal, open the drawer and cause a spark possibly). anyway, thanks again.
Adding to all the above, that particular headlamp model is a piece of crap. Even ignoring the safety issues related to the charging, i could use it a couple of times before the switch broke leaving it in “on”. You have to remove batteries to turn it off. Not a very safe malfunction, BTW.
If you want to keep trying with the cheap XM-L headlamp, I have been luckier with this other model
not a zoom, but a solid construction, glass lens and OP reflector.
And if you want to go for the cheapest safe charger, how about a couple of these . It has good reviews here and it just can’t be cheaper.
Well, you are getting the better batteries and charger, that is the most important part. $38 is a great price for that headlamp I linked, I’d get that if I was just wanting one in the beginning when I started. I’ve gone through probably 6-8 cheap headlamps over the last couple years, then got the Armytek on sale for about $80 and the Nitecore I linked and haven’t had any problems.
Yup, already my button is sticking. I’ll probably have to store the batteries separately, now taking up even more space. If they would have just made these cree-type headlamps with safer charging and fix the button issue etc, I’d pay double, $30 for them all day. I’m considering the $38 one linked though. I’m not getting that $6 FTech single charger, would cost more to charge two than a Nitecore i2.
That single charger is great if you want to use it as a USB power bank. Aside from that, you’re better off with the i2 or an i4 (current Amazon price: $16.50 for the i4).