Hey guys, I’m replacing the cells in an 18v milwaukee battery pack for my work drill…The cells that I pulled out are Moli IMR-18650E’s. 4 of the 5 cells did outgas, leaving nasty smelling residue between the cell and the wrapper, but one cell tested great at 3.7v, the wrapper looks just fine (no lumps or bumps) and absolutely no sign of visible damage. It’s currently on my charger to see how it performs.
What I’m looking for are IMR 18650 cells, five of them, with the highest capacity I can find (and still be safe!) I’m looking to see what people think and can recommend.
I emailed MOLI and spoke with a wonderful salesman who sent me the following spec sheets on the cells I pulled out:
(click the image to see it full size)
Also, on an interesting side note, a newer battery pack of the same type but purchased this year actually uses samsung INR’s…I’m reluctant to use INR’s in the old pack due to the different charge curves.
What about the Sony VTC5 IMR batteries Almost double the rated capacity, and 50% greater peak continuous discharge current. These batteries can handle enormous short-time current loads as well.
And it’s better to replace all of the cells in the pack together so new cells from the same batch can condition and wear evenly between themselves, putting an old used cell in a series of cells is just asking for trouble, at the very least asking to re-crack the pack back open and replacing the cell early.
The drill battery still needs to charge on my milwaukee charger, and be regulated by the very handing looking circuit board inside the battery. I’m reluctant to use another chemistry in case the boosts is designed for the imr charge curve
I think it would be to your benefit to post the info on the battery and the charger here, if anyone can help tell you if cells like the VTC5 will be safe to use in your battery, it’s going to be someone on BLF!
That’s my problem….Milwaukee is not very forthcoming with tech data on this. The battery is a “smart charger that monitors the voltage of each individual cell” and the battery packs are 5cell with a circuit board on top with many many micro-components.
The charger is a model 48-59-1812
battery is (I believe) a model 48-11-1815
Milwaukee does NOT like the idea of a person re-cell’ing their packs….and their charger info is limited. I can take pics of each tomorrow after work, see if there’s any relevant info our battery-guru’s here can pick up on!
Thanks for the info. Look, I’ll be honest with you, I still think the VTC5’s are perfect for your application. Comparing the charge and discharge curves, they’re almost identical. Voltage monitoring capabilities will not be affected by cell choice at all! It’s that simple!
The specs of the VTC5’s absolutely smack around the original cells. So if the original charger and circuitry pumped electricity to and from the batteries at a rate that was safe for them, there’s no way the VTC5’s can’t handle it. These batteries were designed for usage in ridiculously high drain applications, like power tools.
Statistic: Factory vs. VTC5
Maximum Continuous Charge Current: 2 A vs. 4 A
Maximum Pulse Charge Current: N/A vs. 12 A
Maximum Continuous Discharge Current: 20 A vs. 30 A
Nominal Voltage: 3.8 V vs. 3.6 V
Recommended Voltage Range: 2.5 V to 4.2 V vs. 2.5 V to 4.2 V
Cell Resistance: 32.5 mohms vs. 13.5 mohms (lower resistance means higher current delivery and less waste heat)
Size: 65 mm (L) x 18.24 mm (D) vs. 65.20mm (L) x 18.35 mm (D)
