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Was looking for 18650 rechargeable lithium batteries for a new flashlight I just bought, and the (very few) listings I was able to find for them on Amazon look dodgy (brands I've never heard of, and/or wildly inflated capacity specs). Does Amazon have some sort of rule against selling these types of batteries or something?

I ended up ordering a couple direct from a company called Fenix (I've at least heard of them, as I own a couple of their flashlights).

Edit: FWIW I was able to test the new flashlight using a 14500 cell and a stack of dimes to fill the gap. Obviously not a good permanent solution (from both a reliability and run time standpoint).

This is a big reason why I stick with simple AA NiMH flashlights instead, because Lithium Ion battery vendors are far less standardized and overall more shoddy. From my understanding, you want Samsung 18650. I'm not super into that market though. There are some other brands that are trustworthy, but... I only remember Samsung right now.

There are a bunch of non-standard issues, like "Protected 18650" vs "Unprotected 18650"... These little differences can cause issues (integrated 18650 protection makes those cells slightly larger, so they won't fit in some flashlights). So you definitely need to do some research + read the documentation on what your Flashlight expects.

Still: if you want those ridiculous high-lumen flashlights, you gotta go Li-ion. They are the best size / weight / lumen ratio. How many lumens is your new flashlight btw?

EDIT: Wow. It seems impossible to find Samsung 18650 on Amazon anymore. When did the Chinese-crap brands take over the website?

EDIT2: I dunno. I might just "retreat" to a brick-and-motor store. Batteries+ has a bunch of stores near my home address, so they're a trustworthy US-storefront. They only offer this 18650 cell. I'd have to do research to find trustworthy suppliers online... I really don't trust Amazon for this crap anymore.

Heh, it didn't even occur to me to go B&M for something like this. That's not a bad price either; I'll have to keep Batteries+ in mind for next time.

Oh, and it's 1100 lumens (with 3 lower brightness levels as well). This one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073F6BP6C/

...and I also hear you on the sticking to standard NiMH cells. This is the first light I've owned which requires lithium. I do have a couple of smaller lights which can run on 14500 lithium cells, but they will also run on standard AA cells (at somewhat reduced brightness). Those lights are why I had a 14500 on hand.

Interesting you bring this up. We have a need for non-rechargeable 14500 batteries at work, as some devices in the field use them for monitoring sensors. I had previously been ordering 10-packs of the SAFT brand on Amazon, but as you've also noticed, they're becoming difficult to find at any decent price or quantity for whatever reason. Batteries Plus does carry them, though at somewhat higher prices. I've ordered from them a few times. Maybe I just need to call and ask about bulk pricing.

Speaking of which, Batteries Plus is everything Radio Shack should have become, had they adjusted with the times. I've only dealt with them once for personal stuff, and I'd rate the experience highly. My dad has an early-90's police scanner -- a high-end model with a frequency range no longer available -- and it needed a Ni-Cd battery pack with a specific voltage and special connector. In addition, the physical form-factor had to be a nearly exact 5-cell trapezoid shape, otherwise it wouldn't fit in the device. They custom-made it exactly to spec, and it worked beautiful. Very professionally done, shrink-wrapped, special connector re-used, and all the specs and date listed on the battery. I want to say it came out to around $45, which was a steal considering that's material in addition to custom work.

I wonder if there is a shortage of these types of batteries due to the vaping craze?

If you're not willing to trust the Trustfire, Everfire and Ultrafire brands, which go over 9000 easily (I've seen 9800 mAh) ... then there are still Samsung and Panasonic 18650 cells on ebay.com, offered by sellers in China, Europe and UK. Judging by the looks and realistic mAh ratings, they seem genuine. Check it out, you may also see sellers in US that I don't see.

Wirko wrote:

If you're not willing to trust the Trustfire, Everfire and Ultrafire brands, which go over 9000 easily (I've seen 9800 mAh) ... then there are still Samsung and Panasonic 18650 cells on ebay.com, offered by sellers in China, Europe and UK. Judging by the looks and realistic mAh ratings, they seem genuine. Check it out, you may also see sellers in US that I don't see.

I assume you mean 9000+ mW-hr, not 9000+ mAh. Most reputable 18650 cells are around 2500 mAh to 3000 mAh. Anything more is "too good to be true", and is basically proof of the shoddiness that Amazon's marketplace has become.

The Google has given me this website: https://www.18650batterystore.com/ . It appears to be US-based (Georgia), and has big-brand name cells from Panasonic, Samsung, and other suppliers that are familiar to me. I'd need a bit more research to make sure they're a legitimate store, but its a start at least.

dragontamer5788 wrote:

The Google has given me this website: https://www.18650batterystore.com/ . It appears to be US-based (Georgia), and has big-brand name cells from Panasonic, Samsung, and other suppliers that are familiar to me. I'd need a bit more research to make sure they're a legitimate store, but its a start at least.

This looks promising for future needs; thanks!

Edit: Wow, they really do specialize in 18650 form factor batteries... now THAT'S a truly niche business!

I was rather surprised/disappointed that the selection on Amazon was so thin (gotta love the Prime shipping...), but I did get free shipping (and pricing that wasn't grossly out of line) on my order from https://www.fenix-store.com, so provided they work as expected I'm a happy camper.

Orbtronic. They are the renamed Panasonic battery maker.

Wow, Sorry I missed this thread. There are generally only 3 places you want to buy your cells from.

https://www.illumn.com/
https://www.imrbatteries.com/
https://liionwholesale.com/

I listed those in my preferred order. Stick to Sony, LG, Panasonic/Sanyo, and Samsung. For a flashlight I'd go with LG HG2's or Samsung 30Qs, but if you ever need high discharge cells you can't go wrong with Sony VTC5/5a/6/6a.

EDIT: If you need a /good/ charger get a Nitecore charger.

Edit: Missed the part where you said you checked amazon.

Thanks for the post, Phildoe. I was a Sanyo fan from way back and didn't realize Sony and LG had superseded Panasonic/Sanyo. I'm still running a 18650 Trustfire ~2200 mAh that came with my quite infrequently used flashlight I picked up on a group buy, but the flashlight topic came up recently for me due to wandering what to do re the 4D Maglight I kept in my truck and only just realized needs either new batteries or a modern replacement.

Philldoe wrote:

Wow, Sorry I missed this thread. There are generally only 3 places you want to buy your cells from.

https://www.illumn.com/
https://www.imrbatteries.com/
https://liionwholesale.com/

I listed those in my preferred order. Stick to Sony, LG, Panasonic/Sanyo, and Samsung. For a flashlight I'd go with LG HG2's or Samsung 30Qs, but if you ever need high discharge cells you can't go wrong with Sony VTC5/5a/6/6a.

EDIT: If you need a /good/ charger get a Nitecore charger.

So what are Fenix and EBL rebrands of? Are they decent as well? Looks like Nitecore itself also sells their branded batteries.

Related question: what is the general opinion of those batteries with a micro USB port to save on getting a real charger? Giving up too much in capacity?

Go for samsung if you really want reliable Lithium batteries.

Flying Fox wrote:

Related question: what is the general opinion of those batteries with a micro USB port to save on getting a real charger? Giving up too much in capacity?

Seems like charging multiple cells at once would also get really messy, with a rat's nest of USB cables.

If you really like the idea of being able to charge batteries without carrying a bulky charger, maybe these would be a better compromise: https://www.amazon.com/compact-magnetic ... 01M5KU97Q/

Doesn't take up much more space than a USB cable, and allows you to use standard cells so you don't need to sacrifice capacity. I actually own a couple of them, and they seem to work well with one caveat: If you have a NiMH cell which has been discharged all the way down to 0V, it confuses the battery type and polarity detection algorithm and the charger refuses to charge it. I've hit this a couple of times with batteries from NiMH-powered flashlights I've accidentally left turned on.

Try zebralight.com. They're a flashlight manufacturer but they also sell batteries. I think they used to offer more but now it's only 18650. They are sourced from Panasonic, Sony or Sanyo. Very happy with mine.

I'm really sorry that I keep forgetting to check this thread. With the recent... changes, I've not been on TR much. In regards to chargers, Nitecore, XTAR, and EFest are brands that have been well tested and are popular enough to find good reliability data/opinions on. I personally only use Nitecore chargers. EFest is known to really over-state their batteries and then blatantly lied about it for a couple of years. Due to that I refuse to purchase any of their products but I will admit that their chargers do pack a lot of handy features and seem to be good. XTAR is similar to them in that they have good features and seem to be reliable. On the note of that space saving charger, that thing is just thermal runaway waiting to happen. Please don't buy it. It will probably burn your house down, or cause serious injury.

Flying Fox wrote:

So what are Fenix and EBL rebrands of? Are they decent as well? Looks like Nitecore itself also sells their branded batteries.

Related question: what is the general opinion of those batteries with a micro USB port to save on getting a real charger? Giving up too much in capacity?

I have no idea what cells EBL and Fenix use or if they are generic chinese made cells.

On the subject of USB chargers for Li-Ion cells, you can go small with a nitecore UM20 2 bay charger (I own one myself). It packs quite a few nice features. Pretty much every charger out there (From the brands I mention) will charge each cell to 4.2v and they won't affect the capacity of the cells. A charger only Charges, the discharge rate of a cell, and it's capacity are not affected by the charger.

If you want to dig into the world of Li-Ion you should have a look at some tests done by a man called Mooch.

https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/blogs/mooch.256958/

This guy is responsible for keeping a lot of people safe when using high discharge cells on the edge of their abilities. He's dabbled in chargers, but his main focus are batteries. within that link you'll find a few charger tests and a very lengthy list of cell tests. Much of the information you'll find is related to the use of Vaporizers but he goes into detail about the abilities of each cell he tests...including the consistency of each cells performance within a brands models.

As this thread goes on, it may be a good idea to not only make a post here but to PM me letting me know you need more info here as PM notifications are sent to my email so I'll know when I'm needed.

More useful information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMZuHMlRw_0