18650’s - what else are they in?

[Shootinok]

My wife’s robo-vacuum stopped working and research indicated I just needed to replace the battery. New one fixed it. Looking over the old one it appeared to be 4 individual cells wrapped into a single shape. I cut away the plastic wrapping to find it was indeed 4ea 18650 batteries. I tested them to find only one was bad. The other three held 4.2v fine.
Bad one went to the recycle box and the other 3 work in my Braun 390 lumen light. WIN !

What else has these little gems hidden inside them?


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[m32825]

My two favorite things to put them in are my Fenix headlamp:

Fenix 18650 Headlamps

And my Opus battery charger:

Opus Battery Charger

 

[Dave Carney]

Tent lights, solar powered security lights.

 

[BukitCase]

All kinds of lights, personal fans, earlier Tesla cars

"The 85 kWh battery pack weighs 1,200 lb (540 kg) and contains 7,104 lithium-ion battery cells in 16 modules wired in series (14 in the flat section and two stacked on the front). Each module contains 6 groups of 74 cells wired in parallel; the 6 groups are then wired in series within the module"

BTW, Tesla has apparently shifted to 21700 cells

"Tesla has switched from 18650 cells to 21700 cells because it's an optimized size to maximize energy, with minimal increases in weight, and excellent cost. Voltage is largely unchanged, since its a function of battery chemistry.Aug 7, 2018"

(No tears here; might make the (decent) 18650's not so hard to find... Steve

 

[Citation]

18650s were the standard cell in laptop batteries until perhaps 8 years back. As laptops started to get thinner there was a move from making batteries out of lots of 18650 cells to fewer, larger pouch cells.

Telsa originally picked 18650 cells because they were the largest commodity cell type at the time. Since then Tesla's volume is high enough to get custom cells. Laptops, as I mentioned before have moved away from 18650s. They are still used in lots of tool batteries and more and more are, with the addition of an integrated safety circuit, being used as stand alone batteries instead of in packs.

Do note that the integrated safety circuit is really important. Li-ion and Li-polymer batteries can "vent with flame" (an actual term in the industry) when things go wrong.

 

[F451]

My Alta e-dirt bike has them. Lots of them, Lol.

And yes, thermal runaway, its bad! Lol

 

[LS6 Tommy]

My two favorite things to put them in are my Fenix headlamp:

Fenix 18650 Headlamps

And my Opus battery charger:

Opus Battery Charger

The Fenix brand batteries are great. I have 18650s in my EDC Fenix TK20R and I only have to charge them about once every other month or less.

Tommy

 

[kenners]

Certain type of Streamlight flashlights have 18650's

 

[engineer2]

Instead of tossing my bad laptop battery pack, I broke it open and took the batteries out. All the 18650 cells charged up OK. I now use them in flashlights that have the 3xAAA holder. The others are in a box for future use.

 

[like2wheel]

Instead of tossing my bad laptop battery pack, I broke it open and took the batteries out. All the 18650 cells charged up OK. I now use them in flashlights that have the 3xAAA holder. The others are in a box for future use.

Wut?
You can replace a 3xAAA holder with an 18650??

Now you tell me. I recently threw out some lights that used them because I swore off AAA's for lights that use the rechargeable 18650's

 

[engineer2]

You can replace a 3xAAA holder with an 18650??

I tried it in one of those cheap $6 Amazon LED flashlights. I expected to fry the LED, but it worked perfectly. The 18650 is slightly smaller in diameter, so you have to make a sleeve out of piece of paper or plastic. Google it: it may not fit all flashlights and you have to be careful not to over-discharge the 18650.

 

[Dozerhand]

My vape smoker has that battery.

 

[nadogail]

It appears that the 18650 will become the Go To battery of the future.

 

[slow]

I run 18650's in my 2/$20 amazon LED flashlights, GearLight LED Tactical Flashlight S1000
I did buy a nice Opus charger and Samsung 25R cells from 18650batterystore.com

I have found 18650 batteries in Ryobi battery packs, I am sure many others use them as well, but that was all I have taken apart.

 

[BearsFan315]

all my flashlights at home use them bought a 4 pack and charger for them. all over amazon and other marketplaces.

 

[mv213]

Wut?
You can replace a 3xAAA holder with an 18650??

Now you tell me. I recently threw out some lights that used them because I swore off AAA's for lights that use the rechargeable 18650's

In some of those little flashlights, yes. You can buy a plastic adapter sleeve pre-made for very little money. Other 3xAAA flashlights won’t take that setup—I have a Maglight 3-AAA that won’t and I’ve heard there are others. The adapter sleeves are so cheap I keep a couple on hand in case I run across another device that will work with it.

 

[Shootinok]

I guess I’m late to the party to figure out there are other sources for these. Told my sons and they both said “yeah...they’re in laptop batteries too.”
None of the 3AAA flashlights I have work. They are too short for the 18650 to fit into.
I’m just super happy to have spares for my light that it does fit in. They last so long, I can’t see needing more than a couple. I will look for other devises now with them as I love the recycle over alkaline idea.



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[Citation]

To all who are recycling unprotected cells be sure to understand the risk. It's not trivial. Li-ion cells are picky bastards. They don't like to be over discharged, over charged or over current. Any of those can damage the cell and increase the risk of a fire. That fire can occur inside of an aluminum flashlight tube.
https://budgetlightforum.com/node/40943

Safety discussion of unprotected cells
https://www.imrbatteries.com/warning/

Happily the batteries just aren't expensive. I found a deal on a 4 pack of Westinghouse branded batteries for solar lights. $2 clearance at Walmart. The are only 2000mAh but rarely has that been an issue for me. Of course higher capacity ones are easy to find as well.

 

[theoldwizard1]

It appears that the 18650 will become the Go To battery of the future.

More like the "present" !

The old AA and AAA are fading fast and only used in a few things that are inconvenient to recharge (wireless mouse).

 

[theoldwizard1]

Because the 18650 battery (18mm diameter, 65 mm length) is built into so many things, it will likely be around for a number of years.

A few years ago Tesla and Panasonic came up with a new "standard", 21700 (or 20700). That 1mm difference is about 10 sheet of copier paper, so does it really make a difference ? I don't see a big change over to the new larger batteries, certainly not in any cordless tools.

 

[bubinga]

To all who are recycling unprotected cells be sure to understand the risk. It's not trivial. Li-ion cells are picky bastards. They don't like to be over discharged, over charged or over current. Any of those can damage the cell and increase the risk of a fire. That fire can occur inside of an aluminum flashlight tube.
https://budgetlightforum.com/node/40943

Safety discussion of unprotected cells
https://www.imrbatteries.com/warning/

Happily the batteries just aren't expensive. I found a deal on a 4 pack of Westinghouse branded batteries for solar lights. $2 clearance at Walmart. The are only 2000mAh but rarely has that been an issue for me. Of course higher capacity ones are easy to find as well.

Yeah, l have an old lap top battery here, but best for me not to fool with them, and just but protected cells.
I know me. I can be A carless clumsy @$$ at times.

 

[rayra]

Lot of youtube guys making home battery packs emulating Tesla'a power wall and they are buying massive quantities of recouped 18650s. Mostly out of laptops but many other devices. There's apparently a whole market chain in recouping and recycling these batteries.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=18650+powerwall

 

[whateg01]

Wut?
You can replace a 3xAAA holder with an 18650??

Now you tell me. I recently threw out some lights that used them because I swore off AAA's for lights that use the rechargeable 18650's

Yup. I've been doing that for several years now. All of the lights I've done that with required an adapter to lengthen the housing and then a spacer to center the cell but it works great. Just have to keep an eye on the voltage and not let it get too low

 

[bwringer]

18650s haven't really been used in laptops in several years (laptops got much thinner), so any cells harvested from laptops are going to be pretty old. For that matter, replaceable laptop batteries are pretty much extinct.

 

[bluedog225]

+100 on unprotected cells. They are strong medicine.

A protected cell has a little button shaped circuit on top wrapped up in the plastic. Invisible.

I wouldn’t charge or use unprotected cells in my home separated from the original circuitry.

 

[19D2P]

They are in the battery packs of Makita 18v power tools for sure.

 

[Mandres]

They're in the battery packs of pretty much all power tools. The good ones use high discharge rated cells also, much better than typical laptop cells. You can make a charger for them easily and cheaply with the tp4056 ic chips if you can handle a little soldering. Something like this: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...QtwJ6BAgXEAI&usg=AOvVaw0sBUe4L8BuNAxwp67juc7s