No one forces you to buy LiitoKala. This problem namely has to do with the battery market and spurious AliExpress. Many independent sellers under AliExpress umbrella, and they're not the same thing.
Right now I am not buying Liitowhatever cells because of deception. It has to do with them liking to overstate wrap figures and falsifying brand names. Very much like what vaping cell rewrappers do blatantly.
Although it’s not forcing, but it is deceiving. Liitokala seems to approve this Aliexpress stores and provide URL link to those shops. To protect its own brand and customers, Liitokala should have a list of scam Aliexpress shops they know published on their official website.
I am thinking in writing up an essay devoted to the LiitoKala fellows in battery regards (liitokala@126.com). I'd like to hear from you how do you think this stuff is better handled besides speaking truth. Of course I understand they find reward in lieing because there are buyers who do not possess the minimum technical knowledge to discern what they are really buying and some (or lots) even believe in wrap figures blindly. We'd better educate ourselves.
Not necessarily.
For example, for 26650 batteries I use black liitokala 5000mah and I am very pleased
And so far we have had lots of batteries from the liitokala stores and I have no problems.
I will buy from this site. Are they original?
What do you recommend for Astrolux MF04? I saw samsung Q30 and has 15A drain. Q30 does not have a 20A drain?
The Samsung 30Q is oficially specified for up to 15A continuous, but independent tests have revealed it also does nice at up to 20A. Samsung cares about cycle life and is spec conservative.
As far as my experience goes with them all NKON sells is genuine.
Murata/Sony hype. They're expensive and overrated.
Too sparse information, Coman. Speaking so little makes it harder to provide you with useful information.
What flashlight?
To know the current draw it can help to think in power terminology. What amount of power?
In any case, if we are speaking about an Astrolux MF04S or thereabouts it'll probably fed ≈55 - 60W to the emitter and maybe take up to 70W from the batteries to do it, which is less than 20W per cell and 6A at most. And I mean at most. I do neither own nor possess first hand information of such torch, thus you may want to wait for another opinion if this is the case.
I know, i have 10+ 26650 black liitokala 5000mah. Liitokala doesn’t deceive about this 26650 and use their own brand as wrapping. Now they are scamming customers by wrapping fake branded cells with their stickers.
Nothing will explode but you could over discharge it (by your fault or if it accidentally turn on while in flashlight: lets say in backpack where you don’t see it, or even faulty charger - it can also over discharge cell) or you could overcharge it (charger failure - my charger charged cell to more than 5V once and it did not explode).
So precaution measures for unprotected cell are:
- If you’ll put it in a backpack(or similar situations without your control) than lock off tailcap switch(only if flashlight have anodized threads) or remove 18650 cell completely for piece of mind.
- If your charger charges longer than usual or indication light starts blinking or if it does not work at all just toss it in a trash cause it will “eat” your precious cells
- When you use it in flashlight lets say in driver without over discharge protection. Put it on high or turbo mode and if it is visually much lower than it should be than stop using that cell and swap to fresh one.
They are much better than protected cells imho cause they have 2 mini electronic pcb less to fail
I took with PCB because I read that they are safer, I have about 5-7 panasonic pcb (liitokala) 3400mah, all works, I have for more than a year. But the new MF04 does not work as being too long (67-69mm), and I need unprotected batteries because they are 65mm (perfect for MF04)
Seriously? There are better ways to check out if a charger is working properly. Just after acquiring any given charger there are easy ways to test its maximum charging voltage like testing it no-load while powered on or just letting it raise a small and/or old cell to max voltage while watching.
If the seller uses the nomenclature NCR18650B or INR18650-30Q (for instance) then I believe PayPal will still help you, espcially if the word “Genuine” is in there. They did for me however they messaged “Due to the uncommon nature of the complaint, PayPal has chosen to find on your behalf and refund your purchase. The seller will not be charged for this claim”.
I believe the seller *should be charged for selling fakes* although I am glad to be reimbursed without trying to get the cells back to China for return (not feasible). All this the sellers know and exploit.
Bottom line, I have had only one batch of fakes from Gearbest or Banggood. It was an order of NCR18650PF from Gearbest. GB refunded $10 of my $44 order which I disagreed with but I could acccept that or send them back.
I will skeptically now buy from GB or Banggood but in most cases I will buy from Illumn or Liionwholesale here for a little more per cell and keep my sanity.
I believe the more people take the chance for a good deal on Aliexpress and others, the more it fuels the counterfeit market.
I am done with Aliexpress forever.
