Simply NO. :~
I don’t even mix the same brand, same model batteries if they are produced a year apart. I measure all my 18650s once every few months and group them by internal resistance.
What you insist on recommending doing is DANGEROUS, specially for high drain lights like the meteor, so please stop.
And FYI Li-ion cell are not all equal, they can be made of different chemistries, even if they all have the same 3.7V nominal voltage. Learn more here.
Thank you Will, and Dale.
I know what you say is correct, but am worried about what others, newer to cells might think about mixing.
Guys - DON’T DO IT - EVER!
Thanks,
-Chuck
This kind of thinking is why it is so difficult to get a manufacturer to give us a hot-rod flashlight. People won’t stay within the realms of safety on their own accord so the manufacturer is forced to do it for us.
Please be safe, and please don’t recommend dangerous practices in open public threads where there might be new people who simply don’t know how dangerous it can be.
The 10 units are sold out on International Outdoors.
Just buy 4 of the same batteries at the same time…
Doesn’t matter that much in this light because they are in parallel.
Not by much if always used at the same time and charged at the same time together
Yes please!
For cells in parallel the lowest voltage cell will always be charged by the other cells , this is not your typical series connection, after a while you will measure identical voltages even if you have inserted the cells of course at not identical voltages (for example 4.221V and 4.209V, will be identical)
After everything that has been explained over and over… At this point I’m not even sure if he’s serious about mixing batteries or just trolling??
After looking at all the battery comments here, I have a few questions just to make sure before I spend $$$ (I don’t have IMRs nor an IMR-specific charger):
1) Although this light needs IMRs for max current and output, I am wondering how much of a decrease (%) in light output will result if we use high-quality 3400mAh batteries? I assume this decrease will only be on turbo mode.
2) Will this situation result in a dramatic decrease in battery life?
3) Has anyone here tried regular Panasonic 18650B Li-ion batteries in turbo mode? Anything bad happen?
4) Would using unprotected batteries be better than protected ones for this light?
5) Since IMR batteries usually have significantly less mAh capacity (2500mAh for IMR vs 3400mAh for Li-Ion), won’t using IMRs decrease duration of light output on all output levels? One video seemed to show this to be true.
6) I currently have the v2 version of the Nitecore i4 battery charger (purchased about 3 years ago) which is not approved for IMR use. Do I need to purchase another recharger for IMRs or can I still use this older i4 charger? Nitecore doesn’t recommend this but is this just their sales pitch for their new charger? Purchasing 4 IMRs and IMR charger significantly increases the total purchase price of this light so gotta ask - especially since none of my other lights require IMRs.
7) What is the best 4-bay IMR charger today (and which Version)? Xtar? Nitecore? Efest LUC?
8) Which IMR battery brand (Unprotected or protected) did you purchase and why? LG, AW, Efest, etc?
Thank you for your help.
Anything under 3V is ignorable, only moonlight can be power with those type of voltages, so basically irrelevant. We did talk about it before and often on the forum.
Look at this link at 5A discharge down to 3V, you have 2242mAh (HE2) and 2649mAh (NCR18650B), capacity will change with discharge current. I wish the website would do also tests for 7A like HKJ, since 5A is too low for what we are trying to talk about.
I got a reading at the tail on my Meteor M43, with 4 Efest 35A at 4.16V it pulls 21.90A. Remember, the emitters are in groups of 3 series, so they’re pulling over 10V at 8A at the emitter with the fancy driver doing all the conversion.
22A is nothing to sneeze at! This is with XP-G2 S4 2B, wonder what the XP-L pulls? Or would it be any different, with the driver delivering the same around the board?
Excellent graph! It shows that for running the IMR battery from full charge down to about 3.1V, it actually has more capacity than the Li-ion Panasonic 18650B. Now that I see it, I don’t understand why I see numerous posts where people with 3400mAh batteries just love the extra runtime, and its not just using the light on low mode. Why is this?
I used to think that way before but since I got high drain cells I’ve been trying to sell all of my 18650B (about 20pcs) and other low drain batteries. For people who rarely run the battery down to the last mA, there are really no advantages at all using the 18650B and alike, except for low modes.
Getting this light and not buying a set of high drain batts is sorta like buying a yacht and using your bed sheets for the sails. Unless you allready have high drain sets of batts, step up and buy the right batts! The light will function flawlessly with the high drain batts. The alternitive is a pound of headaches. Good luck staying in turbo long with the others. As to mixing batts, that could cause a whole host of other problems, the least of which, you will be retiring those batts soon enough.
I cleaned up some of Maksym’s posts in this thread. If anybody quoted him or was discussing the subject of trolling here, please go back and edit your posts. Thanks a lot for the help!
A few pics only. I just got home. I got the Nichia 219B version.
Comparing the size to a Zebralight S6330vn.
Maksym,
Thank you for your help and also your humor, LOL! If everyone in the Ukraine is that funny, my family will have to visit (we hope and pray the situation at the border calms down). So yes, I’ll keep my Nitecore i4. The only question is which button-top battery to buy - IMR or IMR/Hybrid. Choices, choices…. Currently I am looking at the LG INR18650MH1 3200mAh battery but can’t find button tops (I don’t want to solder buttons but maybe I should be open to it) or the Orbtronic IMR/Hybrid 2900mAh battery.