Which of these is the best/safest 18650 battery for my setup?

[reddal]

Hi,

I've got 3 different types of 18650 battery and am now confused as to which is the best and or safest for my new setup. Any advice would be much appreciated :

1. These - originally bought to drive a variable voltage mod with max output of 15w. They were sold as having 'protection circuits' but I'm now not confident this is correct? :



2. These - also bought to drive a variable voltage mod with max output of 15w. They were sold as having 'protection circuits' but I'm now not confident this is correct? :



3. These - bought to drive a mech mod - sometimes with sub-ohm builds (though I'm trying to avoid that now). I'm scared I might have over discharged them in the mech mod at some point - they don't seem to be holding their charge as well as they did at first. Should I bin them?



I've been charging all these with a Nitecore Intellicharger i4. Is that appropriate?

My latest setup is a 1.5ohm single coil on a RDA - driven by a vape-pro VV mod set at 15w.

Questions :

a) Do 1. and 2. have protection circuits? Am I right to think I should avoid them if not?

b) Is there a better type of battery I should get for my setup? Safest - but with plenty of power.

c) Is 3. the safest of the three? Should I bin them given I'm paranoid I might have over-discharged them?

d) Is the Nitecore Intellicharger i4 an appropriate charger for all of these? I've also got a Trustfire TR001 charger if that would be better.
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Thanks in advance for any advice - reddal

p.s. sorry for messed up formatting around first image above - trying to work out how to fix that...

 

[anumber1]

Those pink Samsung ICR batteries are not "safe" chemistry batteries. They should not be used for vaping.

The green Panasonic batteries are of a safer chemistry but not by very much. They should NEVER be used for sub ohm use. They have a 6.8 amp limit and are not high drain. Not a battery to be used in a mechanical mod. Just barely acceptable for a regulated mod used at low power levels. There are much safer choices out there that will serve you much better.

Protected or not those pink Samsung ICR batteries are not suitable for vaping use.

The Panasonic batteries were sold as protected and non protected. I cant tell if yours are or not.

The only battery pictured that is acceptable for use in a mech mod is the purple Efest (a re-wrapped 30 amp Sony US18650VTC4). It works good in a regulated mod also and is the safest battery you have pictured.

All of your other batteries are not good choices for your stated purpose. I would strongly suggest you do not use them with a mechanical mod. If the Panasonics are protected, they are not a good choice for a regulated mod as the protection circuitry may clash with your mod's circuitry.

The Nitecore charger is fine. The Trustfire is not a great charger. The Nitecore is much better.

Any battery that you have doubts about or is not performing like it used to is due for the recycle bin.

A good battery for use in a regulated mod is the Panasonic NCR18650PF or NCR18650PD.
They are high drain and have a 10 amp limit.

 

[joecil]

Actually the purple efest will handle down to .3 ohms safely. If you do the math (ohm calculator) at 4.2 volts (max fully charged), .3 ohm coil, should give you 58.8 Watts at 14 Amps which should be a safe amount of head room as you get better than 50% protection.

 

[Sarin]

None, buy some new ones. As mentioned above the purple efests are what you want but if they aren't performing as expected then it's time to replace them.

 

[Baditude]

I agree with EVERYTHING that anumber1 stated.