[time-nuts] Li-ion Battreries

Mark Sims holrum at hotmail.com
Sun Jan 22 12:36:16 EST 2017


I have a LOT of experience in testing and using 18650 cells.   It is a horrible place for the un-initiated to be.  The market is so saturated with dangerous fakes and inferior, over-speced cells that finding a genuine cell is a vanishingly small probability.  Hopefully the seller mentioned before pans out and sticks around.

You can be pretty much assured that any no-name Chinese cell will be dangerous crap.   Buy a 3000 mAh cell that is really 500 mAh and charge it at the 3000 mAh 1C rate and KERBLOOIE!   If you want to buy decent cells from a reputable maker (Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, etc) you have to be certified that you know how to properly build with and use them...  and also the minimum order quantity can be over 100,000 pieces.

Shop around and you can find sellers of 18650 shrink wrap sleeves for all the major/reputable cells.   I have yet to test a Chinese cell that comes even close to its advertised specs. Also probably 90+% of what is offered as genuine name brand cells are fakes.

Your best bet for finding a decent cell is to get them from GENUINE laptop packs.  That is easier said than done...  counterfeit packs are the norm.   Also, most newer laptops use packs with pouch cells.  18650's are on the way out for modern machines.


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