18650 cells.

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Bearbonesnorm
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18650 cells.

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

Can anyone recommend any good 18650 batteries or conversely, any to avoid?

Ta.
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benp1
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by benp1 »

Fogstar. Cheap and reliable

My stash of Panasonic ones are still going strong but fogstar have been recommended by folks I trust
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Shewie
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by Shewie »

Fogstar do discounts on Fridays

LG and Sony are decent too
redefined_cycles
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by redefined_cycles »

Bearbonesnorm wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 5:20 pm Can anyone recommend any good 18650 batteries or conversely, any to avoid?

Ta.
Nitecore. It'll be the last 18650 cells you'll most likely buy. Get from Flashaholics to ensure some strength of not being fakes (don't want fake 18650 batteries Stu). Very very good company to deal with who stand by the warranties and don't make it a big hassle...
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thenorthwind
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by thenorthwind »

Have you got any old power tool, laptop, etc. batteries lying around? They can be a good source of cells if you're willing to dismantle the pack. Often one or two cells will fail and the charging circuit will prevent under/overcharging of them and so the battery appears past its best, but most of the cells are still good.

A guy in our local club posted some pictures yesterday of a battery pack he'd made using a Bosch drill battery with a failed charging a circuit, a new generic charger board with a charge indicator, and one of those bottle cage tool stores. Looks great.
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mikejd
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by mikejd »

@thenorthwind I have a couple of old laptop batteries which I can try to open up. How do you recognise if a cell is no longer usable?
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thenorthwind
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by thenorthwind »

Good question. The voltage across the terminals might be enough to tell you, though it will vary with state of charge. You might need to do a more elaborate test whilst discharging. I don't know a great deal, but I'm sure there'll be a guide somewhere on the internet - plenty of people will be doing it.
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Mike
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by Mike »

Stu mine are all Panasonic and a few yrs old now and still strong not cheap though think they were 18 each
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Bearbonesnorm
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

Cheers all. Now it's Fri I'll see what discounts Fogstar are offering and see what's what. Ta, much appreciated.
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Cheeky Monkey
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by Cheeky Monkey »

I thought the standard answer for these soer of q's was Mtb batteries?

:cool:
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Bearbonesnorm
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

I only want the cells for a torch Tim, I don't need a battery pack as such.
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Cheeky Monkey
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by Cheeky Monkey »

Understood. I imagine he might sell you cells separately, but dont actually know.
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Boab
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by Boab »

Cheeky Monkey wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 10:03 am I thought the standard answer for these soer of q's was Mtb batteries?

:cool:
I thought it was Torchy (the battery boy) off eBay...?
There are theories at the bottom of my jargon.
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Jurassic
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Re: 18650 cells.

Post by Jurassic »

K1100T wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 1:53 pm
Cheeky Monkey wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 10:03 am I thought the standard answer for these soer of q's was Mtb batteries?

:cool:
I thought it was Torchy (the battery boy) off eBay...?
I've used Torchy batteries a lot and not had any problems with any so far (over a few years) but he doesn't seem to hold the same level of stock these days. I think he mostly sells batteries for those vape things now rather than bike lights. I'll maybe try Frogstar next time I'm after 18650s although I couldn't see any 14500s on their site (which I also use).
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