18650 batteries: what's your go to

[Bent Benny]

if it says "fire" in the name, don't buy it. I buy mine from li-ion wholesale and they've all been very consistent

I've use liionwholesale.com for years also. They have great prices and selection. I have never gotten a fake from them out of well over 200 18650's.

 

[Bent Benny]

If your still looking

Sony
Panasonics
lg browns
Samsung 25R

Or go to a vape shope and ask to see what 18650's they have and these come with protection circits on them already and you wont get ripped off since they buy batterys from the makers or the distributers for the makers themself.

Vape shops are notorious for selling fake cells. I've gotten some myself. Also, there may be some vape shop somewhere that sells protected cells, but that is not the norm.

 

[saph]

Vape shops are notorious for selling fake cells. I've gotten some myself. Also, there may be some vape shop somewhere that sells protected cells, but that is not the norm.

never had one of the 50 i brought be fake cells since they get them from the same places shops like battery world get them you may have been burned before by a dodgy shop but i havent been and its easy to tell them since they are color coded to their capacity and branding How to identify 18650 cell capacity by color / code and how to tell fakes from real – [En] mostly just need to make sure your not buing ultrafire ones since they are the fake ones on the market

 

[JohnnyC]

Yea they do the ones i have do have the protection in them and they are beside me right now the ones that explode are normaly damaged in some way or inserted wrong.

YOU may have a set of protected batteries, but MOST batteries (as in I'd be confident saying 99%) sold by vape shops DO NOT HAVE PROTECTION. Not even button top batteries are guaranteed to have protection circuitry built in. The most common vape batteries, Sony VTC's, Samsung 25R's and 30Q's, LG Brownies, etc. DO NOT HAVE PROTECTION BUILT IN. Since pretty much every other 18650 on the vape market is a rewrap of one of the big suppliers, you can be fully confident that none of the others have protection circuitry built in either.

Regulated mods have protection built in to the device. That's why they are regulated. Mech mods have no protection built into the device whatsoever. That's why they have the potential to start fires when used with batteries with damaged wraps, poorly designed atomizers, etc.

Here's a supplier of batteries that's pretty common in the vape world:
Batteries - 18650 Batteries - IMRbatteries.com

Pick a battery, click on it. It even tells you if there is protection.

Here is the list of protected batteries they sell:
Batteries - Protected Batteries - IMRbatteries.com

As you can see, the list is tiny.

This is just one supplier of batteries, there are many, but you have to be sure of what you are buying.

 

[kelemvor]

WOW you guys sure do go through a TON of 18650 cells! What in the world are you guys doing with 200 of them or 50 of them? Even recovering them free out of laptops I "only" have 11. I haven't had any fail after recovering them and deciding they were good enough to use.

Two of the 18650's I've got came from a friend along with a headmount flashlight. Those are labeled 3200 but actually only store 800. They run the light well enough, and I recharge them every few months but if I had recovered a cell with only 800 I wouldn't have bothered to keep it.

 

[JohnnyC]

WOW you guys sure do go through a TON of 18650 cells! What in the world are you guys doing with 200 of them or 50 of them? Even recovering them free out of laptops I "only" have 11. I haven't had any fail after recovering them and deciding they were good enough to use.

Two of the 18650's I've got came from a friend along with a headmount flashlight. Those are labeled 3200 but actually only store 800. They run the light well enough, and I recharge them every few months but if I had recovered a cell with only 800 I wouldn't have bothered to keep it.

Vapers go through a lot of them because vape devices are very high drain, especially at higher wattages. Because they are high drain they tend to buy batteries like Samsung 25R's or Sony VTC's that have pretty significant amp ratings, which coincide with lower capacity ratings.

Some like a 25A or even higher amp rating for mechanical devices with very low resistance coils. Because of voltage drop off, vapers using high drain batteries tend to have to swap them fairly regularly, so someone who spends all day vaping with an un-regulated device might go through 6-8 batteries over the course of a day. Coupled with most of those guys having multiple devices and such, they tend to stockpile batteries, and rotate them very frequently.

 

[Bent Benny]

WOW you guys sure do go through a TON of 18650 cells! What in the world are you guys doing with 200 of them or 50 of them? Even recovering them free out of laptops I "only" have 11. I haven't had any fail after recovering them and deciding they were good enough to use.

Two of the 18650's I've got came from a friend along with a headmount flashlight. Those are labeled 3200 but actually only store 800. They run the light well enough, and I recharge them every few months but if I had recovered a cell with only 800 I wouldn't have bothered to keep it.

Like JohnnyC said I went through a bunch when I was vaping with mechanical mods at high amp ratings. Abusing a cell like that shortens the life and when you are pushing them for all they are worth a 10% decrease in performance is noticeable so I would recycle them and get new ones.

I also made 2 separate 48 volt battery packs with 52 cells in each that i carry back and forth to my place on an island where I don't have power so that I can have electricity.

I'm regard to the cells you got that were over-rated, this is very common. This is a good reason to buy cells from a reputable vendor and it's really best to stick with the big 5 manufacturers Sony, Panasonic, LG, Sanyo, and we'll shoot I forget the other one. There is a ton of misinformation out there about lithium ion cells and even more counterfeiting. Cells from a reputable seller that are made by one of the big 5 can be trusted with what is on the label for ratings and what is under the wrap inside.

To anyone reading this, make sure not to use cells with a ripped wrapper. It doesn't seem like a big deal but these cells aren't supposed to be used outside of battery packs and a torn wrapper can cause a fire or explosion, even with a light with protection circuitry. This only applies to cells without protection circuitry built in.

 

[MichaelMc]

someone who spends all day vaping with an un-regulated device might go through 6-8 batteries over the course of a day.

Dang, 6-8 batteries over the day. So vaping is really big tobacco's effort to secretly fund better battery technology. Who knew.

Complete conjecture on my part and just a joke on how many batteries that is to swap out and charge during one's day.

I thought airlines did not like carry on batteries not in devices, how do heavy vapers travel by air with that many batteries?

 

[JohnnyC]

Dang, 6-8 batteries over the day. So vaping is really big tobacco's effort to secretly fund better battery technology. Who knew.

Complete conjecture on my part and just a joke on how many batteries that is to swap out and charge during one's day.

I thought airlines did not like carry on batteries not in devices, how do heavy vapers travel by air with that many batteries?

Battery cases. I have a bunch for 18650, AA, LS14500s, C's, etc. As long as they're in cases and not loose the airlines don't have any problem with them. Of course your carry-on ends up weighing a ton and a half because you're carrying so many batteries.... It makes traveling to go cave diving with a housed camera a royal pain in the cunning linguals.

 

[CaveSloth]

eh, I have protected cells in all of my lights. Just carry an extra one. I plan my backup lights at how long my gas can possibly last me, then add a bit. I know my backup lights burn for 45 minutes, so if I have a 1.5 hour exit from the cave, I carry 3 etc

You carry extra batteries when you dive? How would you swap a battery without flooding your light? I could just be incredibly dense.