Please recommend a good 14500 battery for me

I have multiple AA flashlights that are also 14500 compatible and I’d like to buy a couple 14500s for them.

Please recommend some for me, preferably some that are genuine and available from AliExpress if possible.

Thanks for any recommendations.

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Vapcell f15 for capacity, and drain up to 3A.
Vapcell H10 for high drain up to 10A.

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which specific lights do you have?

do the lights need protected or unprotected batteries?

do they need button top or flat top batteries?

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Thanks for the reply.

I have dozens but I’m probably only going to use 14500s for a couple

Acebeam Tac AA 2.0
Manker T01
ThruNite Archer 1A

I suspect they’ll all be button tops as they take regular AAs, I don’t find any information specificity protected or unprotected cells.

The last time I bought 14500s they were TrustFire from DX probably close to 15 years ago but I don’t remember where they went or what light they were for way back then.

I saw some Vapecells, some higher capacity (1500mAh) but maximum 3A continuous and some lower capacity (1000mAh) that can handle 10A continuous.

However I have no idea of the current draw of any of the lights on the maximum setting.

when I googled “Acebeam Tac AA 2.0 zeroair”
it finds this zeroair review and search for LVP the review says YES… that means you can use an UnProtected battery.

regular AA are 50mm long and have button tops.

Wurkkos 14500 batteries are also unprotected button tops that are 50mm long.

I did not look up the other two lights to determine if they have LVP in the driver… if not, then you need Protected batteries.

The Lumintop 14500 is a Protected Button Top that is the same length as an AA, 50mm.

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That review is for the TAC AA, not the TAC AA 2.0.

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Love the Vapcell H10 for the D3aa. With that light, I can also use eneloop/regular alkaline in a pinch. Always enjoy lights that are versatile.

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I was not sure if the lightning storm, tac strobe, and other blinky modes were hitting the 1.5k lumens, so even for momentary draws like that I figured the H10 was the safe bet. That was another thing I wanted to try and address when I got my Gkey flashing tool…which I STILL haven’t done yet…

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Yeah, I know I’m gonna get dogpiled on, but wotdahell…

I just went and got a pile of EBLs from amazon way back when they were on sale or had a coupon or whatever. Forgot if it was an 8pak or what, but I got 3 in use, and they’ve still held up all this time. Haven’t had to touch the others yet.

Unless you got a really high-strung light that can suck down multiple amps and the emitter is beefy enough and heatsinked enough to handle it, it doesn’t really pay to get “high drain” cells, certainly not in 14500 format. You’ll get a burn time measured in minutes before it steps down or something inside cooks itself.

A recent(?) review by The Flasholic about a Sofirn or Wurkkos light used the come-with cell, and then swapped in a Fancy Cell for more oomf. If the difference was from, say, 1100lm to 1500lm, that seems like quite a jump, but a) visually the brightness increase is negligible, even with A/B switching, and b) it’ll draw significantly more current and generate that much more heat for… almost nothing?

If you’re going for numbers on a meter, “hey, great!, I got 25% more light!”, but visually it’s hardly noticeable, and all it did was heat up the light and sharply decrease its runtime.

It’s like filling up your car’s gas tank with 93 octane when it runs fine on 87. Unless you’re taking it to the track and neeeeeeed that fractional-second better time, you’re just pissing away the bux for negligible improvement in day-to-day performance.

So it’s fine to get a generic cell, and go for capacity. Sneaky tip: If you do get it from amazon, measure the capacity on a tester. If they’re rated 900mAH and you only get 750mAH, grex to the mfr directly, and they can do anything from send you another of what you ordered, refund half the price, or in some cases, refund the total price. :balloon::partying_face:

If you buy from AX, even though they might claim free returns!, you might have to ship it back, and shipping could cost multiple times what the cells cost, so even if they’re crap and test out at only 300mAH, you’re stuck with them. Just try counting how many places sell “Genuine LiitoKala!!” cells…

Anyway, you do you. I thought Vapcell just rewrapped other mfrs’ cells, but they stood by whatever’s under that wrap, which should be fine. Or try for quantity/price by getting EBLs or whatnot, but test them out.

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shockli black 1000 mAh

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Same. I use those

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Another vote for the Vapcell F15, I really noticed the increased runtimes when I started using them in my 14500 size lights. They turn a useful EDC torch into something far more reliable.

Just back from a dog walk, using the Emisar D3AA and running it on high or turbo much of the time it dropped from 4.1V to 3.7V during about half hour of walking. As you can see it’s not fully dark, though darker than the phone camera sensor is showing.

Pics of this little powerhouse with the stock optic and SFT-25R emitter.

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Thanks everyone for the replies.

It was already a decision between the H10 and F15 unless anyone recommended something else but I don’t know how many amps any of these lights would draw. I wrote to Acebeam asking what’s the maximum current draw for the Tac AA 2.0.

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This light comes as a high cri option with a 14500 usbC 14500 included

Just like the Wurrkos Ts10 or the Ts12 on sale on the Wurrkos website.

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Don’t need, but they’ll make good gifts, 2 orange Wurkkos and the UK shipping is free, cheers @Boaz

Pokelit, definitely didn’t need, but as the black with the blue clip was also reduced, one ‘fell’ into the basket :wink:

Back to 15400 Vapcell F15. I’ve just put one in each of my Wurkkos TS10 (one copper and usually battery tolerant, one aluminium and notoriously intolerant). Both appear to be running fine on the Vapcell, despite it being noticeably shorter as the supplied Wurkkos 850mAh is a button top.

Going to order a couple more if there’s no malfunctioning, I’m definitely a convert.

I love this shop, just everything, brands and sizes:

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Happy to be an enabler .
The recommendation was for Ezarc .
I thought if he could grab a few lights on sale with a 14500 included it might be worth the grab .

Ezarc for years was notoriously actively avoiding lithium ion of all sorts so I was making an assumption that he hadn’t ever bought a ts10 or played with Andruil . Either way I think the $9.95 ts10 and the $12.95 old version of the ts12 are almost must buys if you’re looking for extra 14500’s . The cells alone are worth $3-4 each .
In the U. S. A. The tariffs add $5 to each light making them less attractive but still worth buying if you don’t already have them .
The emitter is getting swapped out of the ts12’s and green doesn’t stand a chance either .

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Late rebly but still - how is your F15 in dhad Emissar? Im planing to use exact same combo (D3AA and Vapcell F15) but Im afraid of high temperatures and worse brightness. I mailed Hank (from Emissar) about that and he recommends 8A or above.

So tell me if you can - does it run without problems at 100-300 lumen range? How’s the temperatures (not LED, but battery) and runtimes?

They run ok in all 3 of my Emisars, but since I’ve been using them I learned I ought to dial down the ceiling for brightness because they’re 3A max. That’s an Anduril programming thing I’m not familiar with…yet. It’s going to involve a lot of counting flashes.

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At least TK had the wisdom to include 1hold = 10clicks lol…

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