walmart westinghouse 2000 mAh 3.7V 18650's - are they safe?

[PatrynXX]

They are made in China. There is someone who did a discharge test on them on youtube:

Had to join to comment. I have a made in china tester that requires 1 18650 to power it and 1 18650 to discharge it. Have had fairly good luck with it. Running 3.9 volt on it it's around 1748 right now . Brother got 3 4 packs so thats a bit to test. They required some charging as they come out 3.8 to 3.9 volts out of the pack.. $3 probably at Walmart on July 30 2021. Different wrapper. I think I got some gray laptop batteries to get to 3000 mah. But that is a rarity. They came out of a recalled battery pack for a Dell Lat 620 I believe.. (not the widescreen Dell Lat 820 gray wrapper. The greens were the best but I've had those while so not much luck on those. And these are not flat so I can run them in most headlamps. Without getting a magnet for it. (ones I've found are very tiny, don't know why. they coulda been a bit larger so nobody swallows those or tried. They could of course but the ones I have ar about the size of a gnat. This is the specific tester off banggod. Didn't really understand how it worked until I messed with it. It's all in Chinese. has options for mah, mwh, and volts and to + or - the volts there is a switch for on. I think start is the left of the 4 buttons. The white cap will get rather hot (now at 1805 mah with a 200mah rating so we'll see. The start button will stay steady till it cuts off sometimes around 3.6 volts. Not sure how good the tester is but again it's been fairly accurate on the cheapo's. Revenants got 2. Claims 5000 and they don't make many above 2000. So it tests out 1 cell now 277 and the second around 1300. The bad one was originally 601mah. Actually the last test was 200 mah but, I shut it off for a minute and got 77 mah more out of it. But keeps cutting out.. (end test of 1 cell 2056 mah) These have 2020 dates on them.

XH-M240 Battery Capacity Tester mAh mWh for 18650 Lithium Battery Digital Measurement Lithium Battery Power Detector Tester Voltmeter

https://banggood.app.link/7lyBRbInlib

 

[snakebite]

the walmart cells are reasonably good for light duty stuff.
they are not high drain!
2c max.
and Patrynxx some of those recalled packs had cells that were contaminated during manufacture.
but those are quite old now.
the problem was they would go off like a road flare without warning.
most other recalled packs were for assembly issues not defective cells.

 

[PatrynXX]

For what I need them for which is mainly light or a fan anything around 2000mah is fine with me. 3 went over 2000 a few were nearly there 1950mah off that banggood tester. Not sure if it has a high drain tester. But for me for the price it's hard to find tipped 18650's. I wouldn't call them as good as the ones out of old Laptop battery packs but certainly better than short circuiting them. Spark. They say 10G/2020 on them. Not sure about G and old doesn't really mean much with the recalled ones from the Dell. either 2900 or 3000mah. Which might be why they were recalled.. I'd assume though if Vaping requires high drain I wouldn't know. I'd need a tester for high drain. I had a pair of Revanant named 18650's and well one of them fine but the other to 200mah and drop. wait another hours get 200 more without charge and so on so That one cell for sure isn't good on high drain. The tester has a 10 watt resistor on it. But if there is a better tester by all means. But if one can't afford the high drain ones and it's for head lamps, flashlights, tent ceiling lamps or a fan I don't see much reason as to why not.. I'd love to find a high drain tester but I'd just like to know what is high drain items. (and I didn't get these. At the time brother was asking someone if they were anygood and they asked me. I thought they were talking double AA's Nihm's Apparently not. I rarely go to walmart anymore because say Sanyo tv's used to be there. Nope zero support from Sanyo for Sanyo labeled Walmart tvs.. thunk. Okay no more walmart big purchases..

 

[Dave_H]

Three were 3.89V and one 3.83V out of the package. they have a date 0f 2016 100 printed on them. They don't appear to be rewrapped laptop pulls, walmart used to have a ton of these in their stores, I think the original price was something like $14, but I got these on closeout.

Those voltages are fine. It's recommended that Li-ions are stored at 40% charge. I worked on a product which was shipped with a single-cell pack, and voltages were consistently around what you found.

Dave

 

[Dave_H]

I've seen hardware stores sell (I think unprotected) 18650s, even here in Canada. Never name-brand cells, but that's no surprise since I don't think the makers of cells officially allow their sale to the public. There's probably some demand for 18650s in solar garden lighting or something like that. Since I've never seen an 18650 flashlight for sale in any brick&mortar store, I don't think they're sold for flashlight use.

Kind of curious which stores in Canada carry regular Li-ion cells, have not seen any so far. I do see LiFePO4 in the garden lighting section of Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Rona etc. They used to carry 18650's and 14500's but now seems to be 18500's and 14430's. Their capacities are pretty low, 1000mAh for 18500.

Princess Auto used to carry flashlights running one or two 18650's, cells included, but not anymore. They also sold 2-packs of 18650's and chargers.

Giant Tiger sells a small portable fan ($8) which comes with a removable 18650. The cell is a bit of a joke (very light and claims 99000mAh, I suspect more like 990) but the fan works great, have been using a lot lately.

I don't shop Wal-Mart but wander in every now and again to see what they carry; might do that soon.

Dave

 

[PatrynXX]

Kind of curious which stores in Canada carry regular Li-ion cells, have not seen any so far. I do see LiFePO4 in the garden lighting section of Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Rona etc. They used to carry 18650's and 14500's but now seems to be 18500's and 14430's. Their capacities are pretty low, 1000mAh for 18500.

Princess Auto used to carry flashlights running one or two 18650's, cells included, but not anymore. They also sold 2-packs of 18650's and chargers.

Giant Tiger sells a small portable fan ($8) which comes with a removable 18650. The cell is a bit of a joke (very light and claims 99000mAh, I suspect more like 990) but the fan works great, have been using a lot lately.

I don't shop Wal-Mart but wander in every now and again to see what they carry; might do that soon.

Dave

I think because of FAA etc regulations, Li Ion has to be specially sent. Sometimes they can lie and send them , but harder to send them to stores or oneself. The old ones out of the laptops I don't throw, but most of the generics I've begun to.. I just have tons and in storage items. So running low on power well if it's around 1500 -2000 I'm okay with that

 

[Dave_H]

Walmart Canada online is apparently selling a number of raw Li-ion cells including 18650, 26650, and 14500. I guess they manage the transportation restrictions; however, the "people who don't know what they're doing, and/or careless and therefore a threat to themselves and humanity" is another matter. I think this is discussed in other threads.

Bit of info from Westinghouse; website shows 18650 cells but only 2500 and 3000mAh.

http://www.westinghousebattery.com/products_categories/lithium-ion-battery/

Don't think I'll be testing any though, even if available OTC as I have many recovered 18650's available, above and below 2000mAh.

Dave