Battery do's and don't?

[dr g]

Which vendor(s) sell the "tested and reliable" ones and not the ones he rejected? Does the AW king have his own site and sells then to individuals? Thanks.

He sells them directly here:
IMR16340 / IMR14500 / IMR18350 / IMR18490 / IMR18650 / IMR26500 *Part 2*
AW's LiIon Batteries Sales Thread *Part 12*

 

[IrishUpstart]

Instead of starting another battery thread, and this one being active, I will ask my question here....(also, good to see this still going!!)

So one of my batteries has a slight indentation on the bottom of it. I don't know if I had me k100 too tight or if it I dropped it on, but you can see where the firing nub (technical term) is hitting the battery.

Quick (terrible) picture:



Should this be a case for concern? Battery fires and charges fine.

 

[DaveP]

If you go back and search the candlepower forum, you find that members were finding fault with the batteries they were purchasing from various vendors. AW decided to research the QC issues. He bought large lots of batteries and found that QC was all over the place. He tested and cherry picked cells and sold them to forum members. The rest he sold as bulk batteries to other vendors (the B product) to recoup his investment in them. His "A product" was so reliable that a business grew out of his efforts. Everyone on CandlePower forums wanted AW's batteries because you couldn't trust the mass produced ones that were available at the time.

It was just a matter of someone filling a niche in the market and finding success. Apparently, back then the manufacturing QC was not as stringent as it should have been. I'm sure it has changed a little because of AW's efforts.

 

[dr g]

We can speculate about this magical hand picking process all day long. It's the fact that we have to speculate about it that makes me want to take my money elsewhere; not unhappiness with performance. My speculation is that no serious battery manufacturer leaves their quality control to an outsider and slaps their own labels on his discards.

If it was about price, we wouldn't been having this discussion at all.

Guess I currently have no option for my beloved 18350s. For bigger cells, I'll stick to Sanyo/Panasonic.

Never fear ... A-dub delivers

 

[RobUpNya]

actually, i was reviewing some batteries on their site, and i noticed that if they were REAL cells, it is labeled. The ones with fake mah values is also noted with real values. gotta read the fine print before ordering.

Including a battery case would be a nice business practice, and might encourage vapors to use them.

However, I've read that vendors such as FastTech and Ebay have been selling counterfeit batteries dressed up to look very similar to brand name batteries. Just a heads up: be aware of what the battery you need looks like and has the exact labeling that the manufacturer uses to confirm you are indeed getting what you are paying for.

It was either AW or Panasonic that issued a warning that the batteries being sold by FastTech were not their batteries, but counterfeits.

Edit 8-4-2013: I was unable to find, confirm, and list a link concerning the above information that I posted about FastTech selling counterfeit batteries, although I do recall reading a blip about it. I made a claim that I unfortunately can not confirm, so I respectfully retract that statement. My appologies for the resulting off topic rants that ensued in this thread.

 

[RobUpNya]

here's some cheap batteries with misleading mah value, but they did note the actual mah value https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10000367/1048500-ultrafire-18650-37v-1300mah-rechargeable-li-ion-ba

this pair is authentic:
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0...onic-ncr18650b-rechargeable-3400mah-37v-18650