# Test/Review of Fenix 18650 ARB-L2 2600mAh (Black)



## HKJ (Jun 3, 2012)

[size=+3]Fenix 18650 ARB-L2 2600mAh (Black)[/size]







Official specifications:

2600mAh large capcity with outstanding performance
Triple overheat protection, safe and reliable
Built-in over charge, over discharge protection circuits
Circuit board has front and back protection for impact resistant
No memory effect, negligible self discharge
3.6v 2600mAh
Size 18.5mm x68mm, weight 49g
Charging currect - Recommanded 1A, Max 2A



















The battery has a flat top, but due to the raised ring on the bottom it can be used in series.















This battery has a high voltage at low loads and higher capacity than most other 2600 mAh rated batteries. There is also very good tracking between the batteries. 

































[size=+3]Conclusion[/size]

The high voltage can be an advantage in smaller (i.e. 3-4 watt) lights where the battery replaces two CR123 cells.
With Fenix behind the battery I have no problem rating it as a good battery although it uses a unknown cell.



[size=+3]Notes and links[/size]

How is the test done and how to read the charts
How is a protected LiIon battery constructed
More about button top and flat top batteries


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## Changchung (Jun 3, 2012)

Thanks again HKJ.

unknown cell???

Their dont let you know?


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## HKJ (Jun 3, 2012)

Changchung said:


> Thanks again HKJ.
> 
> unknown cell???
> 
> Their dont let you know?



I did not ask and Fenix does not announce it. 
I bought the battery from a flashlight store.


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## 45/70 (Jun 3, 2012)

Using your excellent Battery Comparator, these look to be either fresher, or cells of a different source than other 2600mAh cells available. Not bad at all!

Speaking of the Battery Comparator, is there any chance of making the data for the Samsung 18650 ICR18650-30A cells available for comparison? I was checking out the LG 18650 D1 4.35 Volt cells. I've looked at separate graphs, but it'd be cool to just use the comparator.

Dave


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## HKJ (Jun 3, 2012)

45/70 said:


> Speaking of the Battery Comparator, is there any chance of making the data for the Samsung 18650 ICR18650-30A cells available for comparison? I was checking out the LG 18650 D1 4.35 Volt cells. I've looked at separate graphs, but it'd be cool to just use the comparator.



I have not tested the Samsung cell, but is is used in the Keeppower 3000 battery and you can find that in the comparator.
I do not have a 4.35 volt trace, due to a over voltage protection at 4.34 volt.


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## 45/70 (Jun 3, 2012)

Ahh, that will work! You did test the Samsung 18650 ICR18650-30A at least here. And somewhere there is a thread with individual graphs for the 30A, which I can't seem to find at the moment.

Dave


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## HKJ (Jun 3, 2012)

45/70 said:


> Ahh, that will work! You did test the Samsung 18650 ICR18650-30A at least here. And somewhere there is a thread with individual graphs for the 30A, which I can't seem to find at the moment.



I do not include any old test/batteries in the comparator. That is the 2011 test and I did test slightly different and with some other equipment. My current setup is the most accurate of the setups I have used.
You can find the full 2011 test with all curves on my website and also a 2010 test.


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## RedForest UK (Jun 3, 2012)

gopajti said:


> Fenix use BAK cell
> 
> http://www.bak.com.cn/main.aspx
> http://www.bak.com.cn/quality.aspx


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## gopajti (Jun 3, 2012)

Yes.. Fenix use BAK li-ion battery. This is an official information from Fenix.


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## Changchung (Jun 3, 2012)

I never ear about this BAK brand...


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## jasonck08 (Jun 4, 2012)

Changchung said:


> I never ear about this BAK brand...



They are a major Chinese cell manufacture, and their cells are sometimes used in OEM laptop packs. They are one of the largest in China along with ATL, and Lishen, and HYB.


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## Changchung (Jun 4, 2012)

jasonck08 said:


> They are a major Chinese cell manufacture, and their cells are sometimes used in OEM laptop packs. They are one of the largest in China along with ATL, and Lishen, and HYB.



Better than; panasonic, lg, samsung, sony, sanyo etc?


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## Shadowww (Jun 4, 2012)

Changchung said:


> Better than; panasonic, lg, samsung, sony, sanyo etc?



Nope, Japan/Korea made cells are mostly superior to Chinese made cells.


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## tobrien (Jun 4, 2012)

jasonck08 said:


> They are a major Chinese cell manufacture, and their cells are sometimes used in OEM laptop packs. They are one of the largest in China along with ATL, and Lishen, and HYB.



what does ATL stand for?


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## kaabob (Jun 4, 2012)

tobrien said:


> what does ATL stand for?


Atlanta. jk =P


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## tobrien (Jun 4, 2012)

kaabob said:


> Atlanta. jk =P


haha that's the city I grew up in is why I ask


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## HiltiHome (Jun 4, 2012)

gopajti said:


> Yes.. Fenix use BAK li-ion battery. This is an official information from Fenix.



Do You have any evidence, or link to "official information" ?

May be Fenix uses BAK cells, but judging from the vent-holes, it looks like Samsung cell.

I doubt, that BAK cell could outperform nearly all competitors in the 2600mAh class,
but that is exactly what HKJs tests show for Fenix 18650 battery.


Right now we are doing own tests @ German messerforum.net
Hope we'll have it done till weekend.


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## kaabob (Jun 4, 2012)

let us know the results of the test. the curves do look very consistent


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## jasonck08 (Jun 5, 2012)

Changchung said:


> Better than; panasonic, lg, samsung, sony, sanyo etc?



These particular 2600's seem to preform very well for 2600's. However generally speaking Japanese cells are still going to be regarded as being overall higher quality. The Japanese cell companies have been around for longer than the Chinese cell companies, produce many more cells and obviously have larger R&D budgets.



Shadowww said:


> Nope, Japan/Korea made cells are mostly superior to Chinese made cells.



Generally, but these cells seem to do quite well, I'm not going to lie. But time will tell if they hold up as good cycle wise.




tobrien said:


> what does ATL stand for?



Amperex Technology Limited.



HiltiHome said:


> May be Fenix uses BAK cells, but judging from the vent-holes, it looks like Samsung cell.
> 
> I doubt, that BAK cell could outperform nearly all competitors in the 2600mAH class,



It's not a Samsung cell based on the positive end and also the discharge graphs, or any other major Japanese / Korean companies cell, so I assume it is a BAK cell. Also keep in mind that most of the 2600mAH cells on the market from major Japanese / Korean companies have seen little if any development in the last 5 years or so, since the cells were released. The attention of these major battery companies has been focused on higher capacity cells. So it is entirely possible that a Chinese company could have developed a pretty good cell.

I don't have much experience with BAK, but I did have one cell die in an 6 cell pack a while back. It was a 2200mAH, but I'm not sure if it was the cells fault or the BMS's. Either way though, I'm sure Fenix did their homework, and is offering a good cell.


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## candle lamp (Jun 6, 2012)

Another great test review. Thanks a lot for your time & effort as always. HKJ! 

This battery looks very nice cell.

Your review is very useful to all of CPF. Please keep doing your great work. :thumbsup:

KH


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## snakyjake (Jun 13, 2012)

Fenix advertises "safe and reliable". Can we reliably depend on the safety features?


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## inspirit (Jun 13, 2012)

Great review.Thanks


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## LEDAdd1ct (Jun 14, 2012)

snakyjake said:


> Fenix advertises "safe and reliable". Can we reliably depend on the safety features?



Only time and user experience will tell.


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## snakyjake (Jun 15, 2012)

I've reported Fenix's safety claim to the FTC & CPA for public safety concerns and questions. I look forward to hearing their conclusion...presuming they follow-up to my inquest.


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## tobrien (Jun 15, 2012)

snakyjake said:


> I've reported Fenix's safety claim to the FTC & CPA for public safety concerns and questions. I look forward to hearing their conclusion...presuming they follow-up to my inquest.



what?


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## Blackbeard (Jun 15, 2012)

will these work in all their 18650 lights including the older ones? Or might you need to put a magnet on the flat top?


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## HKJ (Jun 16, 2012)

Blackbeard said:


> will these work in all their 18650 lights including the older ones? Or might you need to put a magnet on the flat top?





Look at the plus connection in then light, if it has a spring or a small bump it will work with flat top batteries.


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## lionken07 (Jul 27, 2012)

Anybody using this on their Fenix? I got a few and I'm using them on my TK21. Seems to be pretty good and decent runtime on turbo mode.


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## gopajti (Feb 12, 2013)

more precisely,

*Fenix ARB-L2 = BAK C18650CC (2600mAh) max discharge: 5.2A
*






*Sanyo UR18650FM, 2600mAh* (Unprotected) vs* BAK C18650CC, 2600mAh* (Unprotected)

discharge until 3V with 2A
Sanyo: 2480mAh
*BAK: 2503mAh*

3A
Sanyo: 2473mAh
*BAK: 2552mAh*

5A
Sanyo: 2432mAh
*BAK: 2465mAh*

_Source: Dampfakkus_


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## gopajti (Feb 12, 2013)




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## TEEJ (Feb 12, 2013)

Those are the prettiest pictures of a cell dissection I have ever seen.


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## degarb (Dec 30, 2013)

From: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalciti.../Countries/us/ba_bakli-ion2.6ah_us_eng_v1.pdf

Shenzhen is behind this? They made the leds for the 2011-2012 cheap biglots and home depot headlamps. Bought a few from both sources; Most made it only a few hours before burnout, and none still work. My guess is that they were a cool 50 lpw led, driven at 1 watt, and no heatsink.


Have they made it to 3100 mah yet?


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## Labrador72 (Jan 1, 2014)

Sorry, are you referring to the Fenix 18650 batteries? According to previous posts they are produced by a Chinese manufacturer.



gopajti said:


> Yes.. Fenix use BAK li-ion battery. This is an official information from Fenix.



What do you mean by "Shenzhen is behind this?"? Shenzhen is a city or are you referring to a company that goes by the same name?


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## degarb (Jan 1, 2014)

There is a common led, looking like a cheap Luxeon Rebel ripoff, that is sold in many cheap lights (for last 3 or 4 years) in stores with this Shenzhen stamped on it. The biggest problem is color, weak efficiency, and very short led life (which may be fault of heatsinking or low maximum current ability).


Then, you may be right, random companies stamping a city name on the led star (white circle really). 

I am guessing the important thing is the secondary addition of safety measures in the BAK cells and the test performances of the cell (where even if they measure to stated capacity, this is a huge step forward from most generic 18650s). The emphasis on redundancy and creating damage proof protection circuits (and damage proof wrapper), is a big selling point. I have been pondering wrapping my new Panasonic 3400s in thin, wide clear 3m tape, since this tape is very tough. Maybe plasti dip or bombproofing bed liner spray to make them tougher.


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## tobrien (Aug 4, 2014)

gopajti said:


> more precisely,
> 
> *Fenix ARB-L2 = BAK C18650CC (2600mAh) max discharge: 5.2A
> *
> ...


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## donjoe (Sep 4, 2014)

I think I just killed one of these with my Olight S20-L2. I had been using it on its first charge for so long I had forgotten than the S20's button LED was supposed to turn red to signal that the battery was close to empty, so I kept using it even after seeing the red light. What finally drew my attention was the fact that the flashlight ended up refusing to go into any of the higher modes beyond Moonlight and Low. At that point I figured it was time to charge, so I stuck the battery in my Chinese no-name single-unit 3.7 18650 charger, only to see the charger's LED stay green continuously, as if there was no need to charge the battery. Then I thought maybe it wasn't discharged enough  so I stuck it back in the flashlight and ran it down until the light turned completely off. Back to the charger, same story: green light, no charging whatsoever.

Then I came to the forum and found out about the protection circuit and how it needed to be reset etc., so I measured the open-circuit voltage (indeed 0 at this point) and then I connected the battery in parallel to a USB port's VCC and GND pins and to a small resistor I had around the house for a few seconds. Sure enough the protection circuit reset and the next voltage I read across the battery was approximately 3V, so it seemed all set for a recharge. Except it wasn't: even now if I stick it in the charger the LED will still stay green and there will be no charging going on no matter how long I leave it in there.

I'm looking at 2 possibilities now:
- The battery is fine but I need a better charger
- The battery is really damaged and will no longer charge with any charger, which means that Fenix' protection circuit sucks (didn't kick in when it should have).

Since the last (Ultrafire) 18650 I had went through multiple cycles with this charger and didn't have any problems, I have to assume the second variant is true and I'll just have to order a new (and different) battery.


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## HKJ (Sep 4, 2014)

My guess would be to get another charger.


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## donjoe (Sep 4, 2014)

HKJ said:


> My guess would be to get another charger.


Haha, thanks for that! Your reply made me go back to try one last time and as I did that it occurred to me to try to connect the charger to the mains and just measure the voltage between its terminals with no battery: *0 V*.  Turns out one of its terminals was a piece of metal soldered directly onto the little circuit board inside and its soldering point had snapped due to the stress it always had to deal with due to this elastic design:





After moving the terminal back into place and putting some more solder on there I got 3.7 V between its terminals and now with the battery in I'm finally seeing a red LED. Looks like Fenix' protection circuit did well after all.


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## newbie66 (Nov 21, 2014)

HKJ, will you be doing reviews on new Fenix cells such as the 3400mAh and 3200mAh versions?


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## HKJ (Nov 21, 2014)

newbie66 said:


> HKJ, will you be doing reviews on new Fenix cells such as the 3400mAh and 3200mAh versions?



I do not have any plans for it. 
My queue of 2800mAh+ batteries are empty (You can see my lap setup here) and I was planning to get a few unprotected brand name (LG, Samsung etc.) cells to test, I am missing some of them.
After that I do not have any plans for that test station and Fenix is a possibility.


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## newbie66 (Nov 21, 2014)

HKJ said:


> I do not have any plans for it.
> My queue of 2800mAh+ batteries are empty (You can see my lap setup here) and I was planning to get a few unprotected brand name (LG, Samsung etc.) cells to test, I am missing some of them.
> After that I do not have any plans for that test station and Fenix is a possibility.



Alright, no problem. Thanks for all your efforts! Really appreciate it!


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## Skyraider59 (Jan 18, 2015)

Hi
I am running some output/runtime test on a
light, running a single 18650. And I must say that I am well impressed withe the Fenix 2600, in my test, it outperform AW2600, INT 3100 (advertised as Panasonic cell), PluzPower 3400 (supposedly Keepower cells). 
As anyone tried the Fenix 3400 and is it as good as their 2600?


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## HKJ (Jan 18, 2015)

Skyraider59 said:


> Hi
> I am running some output/runtime test on a new bike light, running either a single 18650. And I must say that I am well impressed withe the Fenix 2600, in my test, it outperform AW2600, INT 3100 (advertised as Panasonic cell), PluzPower 3400 (supposedly Keepower cells).
> As anyone tried the Fenix 3400 and is it as good as their 2600?[/QUTE]
> 
> 2600mAh batteries has higher voltage than 2900/3100/3400mAh batteries, in many single cell lights this is an advantage. This has nothing with brands to do, but depends on the chemicals inside the battery (High capacity batteries uses other chemicals than lower capacities).


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## Skyraider59 (Jan 19, 2015)

HKJ said:


> Skyraider59 said:
> 
> 
> > Hi
> ...


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## HKJ (Jan 19, 2015)

Skyraider59 said:


> Sorry for my lack of knowledge on this, but in the past I always have had better result with higher capacity batteries, obviously the result also did vary according to brand of batteries, and I kind of believed this was the reason why manufacturers keep bring higher capacity batteries. All the batteries are charged to 4.2v before start of test. Are you saying that 2600 batteries (if of good quality) are better suited to high drain lights?
> And what is the advantage of using higher capacity batteries?
> What application are the higher capacity better suited for? Maybe lower drain for longer?
> I would like to understand a little more about your reply, thanks



Higher capacity batteries has higher capacity, but not necessary as high voltage.
If you use my battery comparator you can fairly easy see it: http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650comparator.php
Checkmark one current, say 2A, and select a 2600 and a 3100 battery.

The 2600 curve has higher voltage, but is shorter due to the lower capacity.

What is best for a specific application depends on the minimum working voltage, i.e. anything that works perfectly at 3 volt get the best result from the high capacity cell, but something that need 3.5 volt will work better with the low capacity cell.

A single cell high drain light will often work best with as much voltage as it can get, some people uses 4.35 volt cells for that.


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## Skyraider59 (Jan 20, 2015)

Thanks HKJ, great work on the comparator, will use that in the future!


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## tango44 (Jan 18, 2017)

Sorry it's out of topic but do you know why did Fenix discontinued the FENIX ARB L2 3200 (18650, 3200mAh) ???
Any concerns or danger with it?
Thank you.


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## degarb (Jan 18, 2017)

tango44 said:


> Sorry it's out of topic but do you know why did Fenix discontinued the FENIX ARB L2 3200 (18650, 3200mAh) ???
> Any concerns or danger with it?
> Thank you.



No idea. But quick Google brings up http://www.fenix-store.com/fenix-arbl18-high-capacity-18650-battery-3400mah/

The overheat protection is not a feature in my Panasonic protected cells. Wonder how much this helps, and how to retrofit a cell for thermal.


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