Whats is the best 18650 and 14500 battery out there for high drainage flashligts?
The 18650 30Q is getting rave reviews. Just ensure you get the correct tops on them :bigsmile: :bigsmile:
No simple answer. Like asking what is the best tire. Do you want best high mileage, cornering, traction on the street or mud,etc…
Lol :bigsmile:
For high drain flashlights…
-Samsung 30Q
-Efest purple 14500
LG HG2's brown wrapper. I do not believe any 18650 will deliver more current than this battery in my testing. These certainly out deliver my genuine eFest 3000mah 35amp samples I have, which surprised me to be honest since the eFest cells are rated to deliver more current. I'm going to purchase maybe a quad of these well reputed 30Q cells and see if they can hold a candle to my brown wraps.
I’m also running the HG2 - I’m VERY impressed. Definitely my #1 high drain battery at the moment. Have not yet had 30Q’s to test drive… it seems the performance of the 30Qs and HG2s are on par. Looking forward to your findings… 
30Q and HG2 seems to be the choice here.
I’m live in Sweden, and can not find any place with Efest Purble 14500 batteries. Anyother options there?
30Q and HG2 is good batteries, but if you want both the high amps (most flashlights do not drain more then 10A, more like 4-6A) you have LG MJ1 or Sanyo GA. They have both 10A and 3500mAh (more power) then the 3000mAh 30Q and HG2 has.
For 14500 I personally have ordered Windyfire batteries direct from their website, you have to order 10, and with shipping it’s total around $26. Don’t know if shipping is cheaper, more expensive or the same to Sweden.
That is the interesting part to me. I have 4 new authentic eFest 3000mah 35amp batteries that deliver current no better than my Sanyo 2600 laptop pulls. Figure that one out....
If the 30Q can deliver current as well as an HG2, with the price being lower, well then its an obvious choice. I'm going to go order some 30Q's right now locally. Well, by locally I mean order some and have them delivered. Ok, I have some coming in from M.E. delivery probably middle/end of this week.
Thinking a little further, I wonder if the older LG HE2 and 4's are as good as the HG2's?
All stuck on drag racing high amp batteries. Several high cap batteries will have long runtimes for the average user. Example NCR18650B 3.7V 3400mAh and come in protected format. MJ1 INR18650 Battery have 3500mAh. Are LG HG2 browns even available anymore as I heard they were discontinued?
All of my 18650s are protected panasonic and LG cells.
Would the samsung 30q be brighter?
The HG2 is probably one of the hottest sellers on Ebay right now...
LOL! I guess I did get a little stuck on drag racing batteries...cute.
Depends on your flashlight. For most flashlights, the answer would be no.
You only need high drain batteries such as the 30Q for high-powered flashlights (especially direct drive models), such as the BLF A6 or Kronos X5 & X6.
Most people don’t know how many amps their flashlights draw. So, I’d suggest this rule-of-thumb based on lumens: if your flashlight is a single cell 18650 flashlight putting out a 1000 lumens or less, then you won’t notice any difference in brightness when using high drain batteries.
How about single 18650 cells with solder tabs — any good recommendations?
Not for flashlights; I have several little USB ‘power bank’ gadgets from the early years — one cell — that no longer hold charge longer than overnight.
The cells have to be degraded at this point.
But they’re very handy to have as portable power for the cell phone, etc.
Ok, so I got my Samsung 30Q from Riches store a couple days ago. Tested it the same way against my lovely high drain LG HG2’s, the verdict is, 30Q drains 8.46amps while my HG2 delivers 8.26. New winner, looks like the 30Q wins the high drain contest. Off to buy dozens of them, there cheaper than HG2’s right now I think, unless its too late already.
Just to let everyone know, LG HG2’s are BOGO from Xtar direct through Monday 2/15
.
Please note that they are priced at twice the price of most sellers to begin with. - Not a Deal and Not a Ripoff.
Great cells though!
Just sayin,…
-Chuck
My HE2 out performs both the hg2 and 30q.
Runner up is button top 35 amp purple efest.
For some weird reason, the button tops do better than the flat tops.
Planning to use it in your BLF Kronos X6 and X5? For the 18650, I can’t fault everyone else’s recommendations. The 14500, you might want to consider Trustfire IMRs from FastTech.
In a simple lux test via ceiling bounce, I found the Trustfires had the same output as my LG MH1 cells. So if you don’t need 10 Windyfire cells, you can buy yourself two pairs for nearly the same price per cell as the Windyfire.
The shipping time took around 3 weeks to get to Australia.
edit: for comparison, I also tried my other 14500 cells, Sanyo UR14500P and Trustfire (black). The Trustfire IMR outperformed them both.