This post has made me curious. What is the highest mAh for 18650 cells anyone has reported finding while harvesting, anyone remember some figures around 2600 or above?
Thanks for the updates everyone. If harvesting is going to become more popular, makes me wonder if it would be worth it to renew and get behind the spreadsheet that Aftrburnr floated in August?
I was the “OP” in that thread also, but couldn’t remember how we ended up and didn’t go through the entire thread. I think that you are correct though :)…
Still charging batteries. One came off of a TF 1 bay charger about 3 hours ago at 4.22V, and is now 4.20V. Waiting to get more of them fully charged, running 5 different chargers simultaneously, including 1 battery on my Accucel 6, which is now at 1965 mAh and still going :)!
EDIT: One of the batteries came off the Accucel charging - 2043 mAH - 4.18V - 167 minutes. For some reason, when I charge batteries on my Accucel, they always terminate at slightly less than 4.20V. I’m waiting for a couple more to complete, then will run a discharge test.
So, so far:
- Battery1: Off TF 1 bay charger at 4.22V - currently (3+ hours) 4.20V
Battery2: Off Accucel charger at 4.18V - 2043 mAh charging
Gonna be a long night (may not complete the 12 batteries tonight :laughing:…
EDIT 2: I started a discharge test on Battery1. It’s already at 2364 mAh and 152+ minutes and still going on my Accucel!
What is “Li-lo mode”? I am using an Accucell 6, and it was set for LiPo (which is what Accucell calls the 3.7V batteries) and cutoff voltage 3.00V.
EDIT: Ahh - re-read the manual, and there’s “LiIo” mode, 3.6V. Is that what you mean? Also, if I set that, does it automatically change the cutoff voltage for the discharge, or do I need to change the cutoff voltage manually?
I don’t know about your Accucell, but my iCharger has a lower cut-off and reconfigurable minimum voltage that can be set. I think yours can do such a thing too. Yes, the “lilo’ mode it is.
You didn’t answer the other question: You’re thinking that these batteries might have more than 2420 mAh capacity (that’d be good, right?)? I’ll try that, but not tonight since it’s 02:45 now :).
Also, BTW, every battery I’ve taken off the chargers after termination has been 4.20V - 4.22V so far.
And, also, I want to do a test later that I did before with another set of battery pulls, run an XM-L2 DD with a clamp meter. The last batch I tried got 7.9 amps when I did that (just really, really briefly).
Seems like ok batteries?
The one thing I noted that I don’t like is that the wrappers seem kind of flimsy.
Yes, the cells could give a higher, true capacity than what you got in the LiLo mode.
Yeah, those cells are still excellent.
Usually, cells from packs are flimsily-wrapped because they are usually intended for industrial uses (like inside battery packs, etc.) so probably no need for more expensive thick wrappers and printing.
You know what Jim, experimenting with the cells, specially from OLD laptop packs, has become another hobby of mine aside from lights. Since I don’t do modding, having a hobby charger and acquiring old and new packs can be quite satisfying, it’s a continuing process and the suspense of the health (or shall I say its remaining life) of a cell harvested from an old pack can be quite intriguing, to say the least.