Not a 18500 and, in my opinion, “button top” and “high drain” shouldn’t be packed in the same sentence. 
Cheers :partying_face:
Oh no… I think I may get sick… :confounded:
I ordered some of those Panasonic 18500’s linked above from Banggood. Well, I just received them and noticed Made in China stamped on the labels! :cry: I went back to the banggood listing and looked at the pics again. Only one pic shows the ‘back’ of the label. It’s the pic with 4 cells, each turned a different way. It clearly shows Made in China on the label. How did I miss it? :person_facepalming:
Guys, I can’t afford to buy fake cells - especially at the price I paid for these 18500’s! I don’t know what to do. Is there anybody that has these same Made in China cells that can confirm that they are real Panasonic high capacity 18500 cells? I thought Panasonic was a Japanese cell. HELP!!!
Well, plenty of big brand names outsource the manufacturing of their products. What makes you think Panasonic has not made it so at all? 
Cheers ^:)
Actually, after posting this plea for help, I did a quick Google search and found that Panasonic did, indeed, start making some cells in China. But, I’m still having trouble finding anything official about the specific NCR18500A cells I bought. Most of the articles talk about EV cells - 18650’s - and one website has NCR18650 listed as a Panasonic China product.
I’m not worried about owning or using genuine Panasonic cells, even though made in China. I’m worried that I may have gotten some fake cells. Some of these guys have already bought some of these exact cells from Bangggood, so I’m asking if anyone has tested and confirmed them to be legitimate. They do feel weighty to me, which is generally a good sign. Cheap and/or fake cells are usually a lot lighter. I obtained 15 of these cells, which I plan to use in a 5S3P arrangement in a tool pack upgrade. They need to be trustworthy.
https://www.imrbatteries.com/18500-batteries/
I have purchased 18650 from both stores with no problems.
If in doubt, do some quick test on them DavidEF, and record it. If something smells bad, you can submit the record to DamnGood as proof in order to request your refund. 
Cheers ^:)
I don’t have an easy way to check the cells. I wish I owned an analyzing charger.
See how long it runs on a setting that doesn’t overheat. Preferably one with a known current draw like a 3 chip 7135 driver. Or maybe it’s time to get that charger. Or get one of the led stars that has a 7135 on it and drain the cell through that and do the math. The only way to be sure of your cells isn’t to test your cells, nobody else’s will do.
Thanks Mr. Duck. I guess I’ll have to figure out something. I don’t have the money to buy a new charger right now. Maybe I’ll rig up a test station with a 7135 based driver like you suggested.
DavidEF, Based on this thread, I ordered some of these NCR18500A from Banggood, now I feel you are responsible for this...
I now have 18500's that test on my Lii-500 analyzing charger at ~1980mah on the first cycle and over 2000mah a few cycles later....
Thanks....
I do not know if these are genuine, but they test at rated capacity for all four of mine....
Thanks ReManG! That’s what I was hoping for! I feel better now! :partying_face:
Maybe you two could post pics of the cells to see if they at least look the same. You know how often things change. What’s the drain rate on this’d cells? I’d think it would be much lower than high drain imr’s.
Yeah, shouldn’t be as high drain as IMR for sure. But, that’s not what I need. A decent drain rate with a high capacity is what I was looking for. These 2000mAH cells should do fine.
As for pics, I could load one, but really my cells look exactly like the picture on the Banggood listing. After getting mine and seeing the Made in China mark, I looked it up, and even the Banggood picture says Made in China. ReManG bought his not very long before I got mine. I know that doesn’t guarantee anything either. But my cells do feel weighty, like good cells should. And Panasonic does make some cells in China as of a few years back. So, I’m ready to believe they are genuine, unless ReManG or someone else says that they have some marked Made in Japan. Then, I’m back to being worried again.
No problem. Next question is size, which can be an issue both for length and diameter, especially with protected cells. Could you or RemanG post dimensions?
Well, I can surely do that! These cells are unprotected.
Length and width measured by Harbor Freight digital caliper. Weight measured on a cheap digital kitchen scale from Walmart. Here are the numbers:
Length = 49.23mm
Width = 18.20mm
Weight = 32g
Edit: Then there’s this Keeppower page for these cells. They clearly list Made in China among the attributes. Also, weight is listed as 33.5g, which is close and I can believe my scale could be that much wrong.
I will measure and post pics after work today. I have one 1200ma 18500 I will compare to as well.
I plan on using them in a couple of 1.4A triples I am making, so do not need high draw. I can run them in a BLF A6 just to see the amps available if you want…
That would be great! I’d love to see what these can do, even though I’m hoping they never reach max draw in my application, since I need them to be reliable for as long as possible!
Here you go...
Length compared with Brillpower IMR 18500 (shrink wrapped in orange)
Width (Brillpower IMR is double wrapped... )
Weights.
Tried to even up the weight with shrink wrap on a NCR... The head is a bit large to wrap twice, so this is how it is double wrapped for the NCR18500.
They seem legit and my LiitoKala 500 says they are over 2000mah after a few cycles on two of the four I am using currently...
The one earlier with the "rust" stain, I would return for replacement, stuff happens with batteries..
Cool, thanks ReManG! I’m going to proceed in confidence that these are great cells.
We need to see if HKJ can get some of these cells and put them through his evaluation regimen.