Does anyone know what the life expectancy is for 18650 batteries? I know they usually list the number of recharges that can be expected but what about if your batteries don’t get a lot of use?
The reason I ask is that I have a half dozen Ultrafire 2400mah batteries that were supplied with cheap flashlights that I have bought off ebay over the years. I have read all about the fakes but I really can’t complain, the newest battery is 3 years old and the oldest are over 7 years. They have only been charged in the chargers that came with the lights (very cheap) and have been kept fully charged between uses.
I recently purchased a Nitecore D4 charger and the oldest two batteries only charge to 4.1v while the rest charge to 4.2v. The older batteries drop to 4v after a day or two while the others drop to about 4.1v. I only use them when fishing, hunting and camping so they would be lucky to get an hours use before being recharged. Over a year they are probably used every second week.
After researching batteries for my metal detector I now have a much better understanding of the quality of batteries available and would only buy quality cells though I am surprised with how well the cheapies have lasted.
Is this sort of life span normal?
