I’ve got a bunch of protected Trustfire’s bought back in the hay-daze of BLF buying frenzies that I still shove down the tubes of many a flash. They still work. And work well enough. When I say back in the daze I’m talking 2012ish vintage.
Ya know those Home Depot kinda daze where cats reported back to BLF that they had found another 2 cases of Defiant Super Throwers for $9.88 each.
Deal Extreme was my battery nuthouse provider then and many of their generic blue-wrappered 18650 landed on my front porch too. Of course everything I bought came endorsed by a certified whack job BLF guru as being legit. Turns out they were right as the test of battery time longevity has proven across the board.
Sum of yooz youngins were still poopin yellow. Pikers. :laughing:
Ps. I’d like to hear about sum, “Believe It Or Nots”. :+1:
Seven years and two weeks ago I bought my first 18650 flashlight. From NKON.
A Thrunite TN32UT, loaded with 3 protected 3400mAh KeepPower batteries.
Stil have them. Still use them. Light & batteries.
Just talking batteries, I’ve got 18650s from XP era laptops that were harvested and still chugging along. 19 or so years old.
I even have some from earlier vintage laptops older than that.
And who knows how may of these things are re-wrapped into Crap-Fire batteries for sale on eBay.
All the Best,
Jeff
I bought my first li-ion light—a ZL SC600cw in April/May of 2012 and I still use it occasionally. I actually carried it for 8 days on a trip through New England one summer and it wasn’t too bulky in shorts.
ETA: The oldest 18650s that I still use are 16 Sony ~2200mAh cells harvested from two ~2004ish VAIO packs and they’re at about 75% and still function at medium to light loads.
Trusty vintage 2012 AW 18650 1600mAh still kicking after many moons of use and abuse running my V1 Malkoff Wildcat. I have charged and discharged this old AW 18650 countless times. Oldie but Goodie …
I think this is from around 2008~2009.
6P body bored for 18650
Solar force bezel & stainless insert
Over-ready springless low resistance tail cap mod
Malkoff M60, with USA Cree XRE and Khatod TIR optic. I think Cree XREs were made in North carolina back then. Mine has the white backing, which was characteristic of USA production.
Panasonic 18650 works fine for this application.
Use it all the time as a night stand light. It’s probably around ~175 OTF.
I also have a Zebralight H501 headlamp from about 2009. I just wear it loosely around my neck and point it down to the ground on night hikes. Still use it on backpacking trips where I need to minimize pack weight and volume space. Great camping tent light.
I’ve got some Trustfire 10440s that must be at least 12 years old. They’re rarely used but are still actually used. I can’t precisely date laptop battery cells but I have Hitachi 17500s from the mid or late 90s that still work for replacing a 3xAAA carrier. Have several green 18650s from a laptop that might have been 15-20 years old.
The oldest light that I use occasionally is the Olight S2 Baton, single protected 18650 and single XML2. Feb. 2016, along with the protected Olight cells that I bought with it. All great with the light and the cells.
Next is Acebeam X65vn spec 1. 8 x 18650, 5 x XHP35. Dec. 2016 and another one March 2017. All great there, along with the cells that came with the lights.
Coming in third is Acebeam X45vn 4 x XHP70.2. 4 x 18650. June 19, 2017. I still use the two sets of unprotected purple Efest cells that I bought with the light.
My lights: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/9150/287
My oldest cells are from mid-2014, two Thrunite-rewrapped 18650s bought in a set with an MCC-2 charger. Still work fine, can’t even notice a difference in the charge they hold.
Well something I’ve wondered about with these old protected 18650’s we’re discussing here is that the PCB’s in them were supposedly only good for around 10 years according to Ultrafire. Quoting right off their blue label……
“PCB life is around 10 years.”
I didn’t use Ultrafire’s ever butt some of the flashes came with them so I have a few 18650’s of them laying about. They’re about 8 years old now so if Ultrafire is giving the PCB 10 years or so of life “theoretically” these protected Ultras should be crapping out in the next three years or so.
Question is outside of Ultrafire’s 18650 are any of your other protected brands (TrustFire, etc) that are now approaching 10 to 20 + years old still have PCB’s that are working fine?
I have some 2001 to 2003 vintage Sanyo 2100 mah laptop pulls I made into a 5S2P battery for a project. They still happily take a charge. In fact, they’re doing better than some 2016 Samsung 22F’s from another laptop pull for a different project. Otherwise I had some LG’s from I think 2001 (salmon color) that still work but are so worn out only good for low drain. A testament of how good Sanyo batteries are!
