Test/review of Panasonic NCR18650G 3600mAh (Green)

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
1

Panasonic NCR18650G 3600mAh (Green)







Official specifications:

  • Capacity: 3600mAh

  • Nominal voltage: 3.6V

  • Discharge end voltage: 2.5V

  • Charging voltage: 4.20V

  • Maximal Continuous Discharge Current: 4.87A



A high capacity 18650 cell.











The two cells are perfectly matched, but are not for high current.






















Conclusion

This cell is a good cell for high capacity, but it is not for high current.



Notes and links

Vapcell told me that I was missing some cells in my comparator and they would be happy to supply them.

How is the test done and how to read the charts
How is a protected LiIon battery constructed
More about button top and flat top batteries
Compare to 18650 and other batteries
2

Ah, the missing link.

Came out in 2013 iirc, meant as successor to the NCR18650B, but was pulled when Panasonic/Sanyo brought up BD, BE, BF, BL and GA.

It is interesting to see how little gain there is to the NCR18650B. And the curve perfectly matches the GA, just lower at higher current. Seems to be the same chemistry. Perhaps still with a PTC.

Thanks for testing!

3

There is NO gain, it’s actually worse, see IR.

4

I wonder the age of the cells. Can you decipher the date codes?

5

Thanks for the test HKJ!

Seems fairly happy at 5amps more then enough for most applications.

6

Thank you HKJ for the review and thank you Vapcell for your generosity! Both of you done great benefits to the flashlight community.

7

Nah, the internal resistance is a bad indicator as it is very difficult to get proper, comparable results.

But HKJ’s comparator lets us compare the discharge curves, where you can see the gain of the G over the B:

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NCR18650G (red) vs. NCR18650B.
Clearly an improvement over the B when it comes to voltage at all three discharge currents. But the difference in capacity seems to be only below 2.8V.

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And here the NCR18650G (again red) vs. NCR18650GA.
Here the GA has the edge over the G at higher current, but not at 0.2A, where it’s virtually identical.
It’s interesting to see how the G and the GA have the same kind of curve at all three current levels, just with increasingly lower voltage at higher currents. Looks like very similar chemistry, but the the G seems to have more resistance.

8

Never use these “Panasonic NCR18650G 3600mAh” and “Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mAh” for laptops, because they will always be useless due to low voltage. With them, your laptop will be much faster to disconnect, despite the superiority in capacity. Yes, they will still have a lot of remaining capacity, but this will not make sense since the laptop still goes into standby mode to start charging.
I still also don’t understand where they have 3600mAh, if even with a discharge current of 0.2A you can get only 3300mAh?