Will China's 18650 Battery Beat LG, Samsung, Sony & Panasonic? Let's find out!

18 650 batteries are used to power all sorts of different things everything from power tool batteries laptop computers portable flashlights portable jumpstarters but the question is how good are the batteries inside those devices we testing several brands that claim they can provide three times the capacity as some more expensive batteries will be testing so let's get the testing underway and see which brand is really the best and the first test we'll find out if the affordable Chinese brands really do provide three to four times more capacity than the more expensive competition will also see how these batteries perform at colder temperatures we'll see how these batteries perform under a really high load in the final showdown event we'll see which battery can power up a fan the longest at two dollars and seventy five cents the least expensive batteries that we'll be testing is the ultra fire which is rated at a very impressive 9800 milliamp hours which is about three times the capacity as many of the other brands with the name like ultra fire I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on this battery loss discharge no memory effect low reoccurring operation costs short-circuit and overcurrent protection shelf-life around 10 years and environmentally friendly the first battery weighs thirty five point three six grams the second battery weighs thirty five point eight eight grams which seems to be very light for such a high milliamp power rating at $2.99 the second least expensive battery is the LG he4 it's only rated for 2500 milliamp hours and 20 amps continuous it can handle up to a four thousand milliamp charge rate made in Korea the LG weighs forty five point eight two grams the second LG weighs slightly more at forty five point nine five grams so about ten grams more than the ultra fire I wanted to keep an eye on the temperature of the batteries during the charge and discharge cycle so I bought a thermometer with four probes none of the batteries overheated during the one amp charge and discharge cycle in the first test all the batteries will be charged at a thousand milliamps and once fully charged I'll measure the internal resistance and then measure the Basti during the discharge cycle the batteries are fully charged I'll explain more about the internal resistance later in the video the first ultra fire had an internal resistance of forty eight point one the second was thirty one the LG 80 did much better at twelve point three on the first cell the second was the same at twelve point three the batteries at a thousand milliamps the ultra fire which is supposed to produce nine thousand eight 100 milliamp hours only produced 1230 and 1163 which is only 12% of its rated capacity the LG 84 did much better at 2500 24 and at the second battery at 2500 24 slightly exceeding as 2500 rating at $3.25 the LG mj1 is the third least expensive battery it's rated for 3500 milliamp hours and 10 amps the LG is made in Korea a first battery weighs 40 6.8 grams the second battery also weighs 40 6.8 grams at a price of three dollars and 42 cents the Samsung 25 R is rated for 2,500 milliamp hours and 20 amps it's made in Korea or Malaysia the first Samsung weighs forty three point nine grams the second battery weighs 43.92 grams the batteries are fully charged the LG MJ one had an internal resistance of 27 and 27 point three the Samsung 25 R did much better at eleven point seven and eleven point seven the 3500 milliamp power LG MJ once produced three thousand four hundred and four and 3389 into two thousand five hundred milliamp hour Samsung's produced two thousand five hundred and forty five in two thousand five hundred and twenty eight at only three dollars and sixty says the ETS air seems like a great bargain if it can indeed produce 9999 milliamp hours it claims to be a high rate discharged battery no memory effect short-circuit / charged and discharged protection PCB life around ten years it is green made in China the first ETS air weighs thirty five point seven grams the second weighs thirty five point four grams again this seems like a very light battery for such a high milliamp power rating the cast new cost $3.75 and is rated for three thousand milliamp hours recharging and discharging protection circuit low discharge rate short circuit and overcurrent protection shelf-life around ten years environmentally friendly made in China the first cast new battery weighs thirty six point zero eight grams the second one weighs slightly less at thirty five point six one grams ETS air had an internal resistance of fifty-seven point one and forty six point one cast news really struggled at seventy one point five and seventy six point three the 9999 milliamp-hour ETS Aires really struggled only producing 1299 in 1298 milliamp hours which is only 13% of its rated capacity the caste news which are rated at 3000 milliamp hours also struggled only produced in 718 and 651 the bxe cost three dollars and 92 cents and is rated for 9800 milliamp hours no memory effect low reoccurring operation cost short-circuit and overcurrent protection shelf life is around 10 years environmentally-friendly from my research the bxe is made in China the first bxe weighs thirty five point zero five grams the second bxe weighs thirty six point two eight grams the Samsung INR 30 Q costs four dollars and thirty four cents and is rated for 3,000 milliamp hours and 15 amps the Samsung is made in either Korea or Malaysia the first battery weighs forty five point seven seven grams the second battery weighs forty five point eight for the BX II had the internal resistance of fifty five and fifty three point one the Samsung thirty Q did much better at eleven point eight and twelve point one the 9800 milliamp Arab exe produced 1194 and 1244 milliamp hours which is only 12% of its rated capacity the three thousand milliamp power samsung 30 Q did much better at two thousand nine hundred eighty five and three thousand and two which is ninety nine point eight percent of its rating the Samsung 35 e cost four dollars and 89 cents in is rated for 3500 milliamp hours and eight amps made in Korea the first battery is the heaviest yet weighing forty eight point seven nine grams the second battery weighs slightly more at forty eight point nine four grams the Sony Mirada veetc six cost five dollars and sixty seven cents and is rated for 3000 milliamp hours and fifteen amps the Sony is made in Japan the first battery weighs forty six point six five grams the second battery weighs nearly the same at forty six point six seven grams the Samsung 35 II had an internal resistance of eighteen point seven and nineteen point one the Sony Mirada veetc six did even better at eleven point nine and eleven point six Samsung 35 II which is rated for 3500 milliamp hours produced three thousand two hundred and seventy-six and 3234 milliamp hours and the 3000 milliamp hour sony VT c6 produced two thousand nine hundred and sixty nine and two thousand nine hundred and sixty one at six dollars and forty-seven cents the eleventh most expensive battery is the sony Murata veetc 5a which is rated for two thousand five hundred milliamp hours and thirty five amps the VTC 5a is made in japan the first battery weighs forty seven point nine grams the second battery weighs nearly the same at forty seven point nine two grams at seven dollars and 89 cents the Panasonic sanyo is the most expensive battery that we'll be testing it's rated for 3500 milliamp hours and ten amps made in Japan the first battery weighs forty seven point seven eight grams the second battery weighs nearly the same at forty seven point seven six grams the Sony Mirada VTC five had an internal resistance of nine point four and nine point two the lowest of all the cells tested the Panasonic was at twenty two point two and twenty one point five the 2500 milliamp hour Sony Mirada delivered two thousand four hundred and fifty nine and 2425 milliamp hours three thousand five hundred milliamp Panasonic delivered three thousand four hundred fifty and 3484 comparing 18 650 batteries is a lot like comparing cars some are designed for high efficiency while others are designed for high performance and aren't as efficient however just like some car brands offer better at more reliable cars the same holds true for 18 650 batteries when it comes to lithium batteries the four brands on the left side of this chart which are made in China way around 10 grams or 28 to 30 percent less than the brands that are not made in China when it comes to battery technology less content usually means less milliamp hour capacity when it comes to internal resistance the lower this number the better a battery of low internal resistance can deliver current to meet sudden current pulses or high current demands more easily as batteries wear out their internal resistance increases the sony v TC v a samsung 25 r sony VT c 6 samsung 30 q + LG 84 did excellent at 12 million of resistance or less for brands with the highest internal resistance are all made in China beginning on the left side of the chart the first seven brands did a terrific job while delivering at least 97 percent of their rated capacity the Samsung 35 e did a respectable job at 93% of its rating however the four on the right side only produced around 12 to 22 percent of their rated capacity up next we're gonna see how these 18 650s perform when they're very cold the freezer is set at 6 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 14 degrees Celsius the batteries were all placed in the freezer after they were fully charged for several hours before the test began cold temperature had very little impact on the Korean made Samsung 25 are in the LG 84 however the Samsung 30 q Sony Mirada veetc 6 Sony Murad a VTC 5 Panasonic LG MJ 1 and Samsung 35e all achieved very close to her over 90% of their rated capacity showing terrific cold temperature performance once again the Chinese brands delivered well below 25% of their rated capacity well there are many factors to consider when buying 18 650 batteries including the ability to meet high drain rate applications cost per milliamp hour is an important factor the l JM z1 produced 10.5 milliamp hours per penny which is actually pretty impressive the LG 84 did very well 8.4 the Samsung 25 are at 7 point for the Samsung 30 Q at 6.9 in the Samsung 35 e at 6.7 it's all about milliamp hours per penny the Korean made LG and Samsung appear to be a much better value than the Japanese made Sony Mirada and Panasonic sells well it appears that the Sony Mirada BT c5 is about the same value as the Chinese brands there's obviously a lot more to consider VT c5 offers a 35 amp drain capacity the highest of all the cell's tested Chinese brands are lower quality and actually cost more per million power than most of the other brands in the next test will use a tester to apply a load to the batteries increase the load in one amp intervals up to but not exceeding the current rating for each battery I wasn't able to locate the manufacturer's specifications on four brands that were made in China so I increased the battery load until the voltage drop below one volt the batteries all started out at 4.2 volts with a 1 amp load applied the first six brands were at four point one eight volts the BTC vive a and the Panasonic work four point one the brands made in China range from three point eight seven to four point zero two with the two amp load most of the brands remained above 4 volts but the Panasonic was at three point nine five the ultrafire three point eight and the remaining three brands really struggled at three point five seven to three point six two volts at three M the first six brands which were all rated for at least 15 amps did terrific at three point nine volts or higher the LG mj1 and the Panasonic both rated for 10 amps did well at three point eight seven volts the brands made in China were quite a bit lower ranging from three point two seven to three point six two volts at 4 amps the first seven brands were at three point eight seven volts are higher while the LG mj1 was at three point eight volts the ultrafire was at three point five ET s air three point two seven bxc 2.82 and cast knew at one point nine eight at five amps the first eight brands continue to do very well with a voltage ranging from three point six two to three point eight seven the ultra fire was at three point two seven and the rest the chinese brands were below three volts at six an old age was a three point five seven and above for the first eight brands the ETS air was at two point five nine in the rest the Chinese brands dropped below two volts at seven amps the first eight brands delivered between 3.5 and 3.7 two volts at 80 amps seven of the eight batteries we're at three point five volts or more the LG mj1 was at three point three four at nine amps seven of the eight batteries were at three point four two volts or more and the LJ mj1 was at three point two seven I didn't test the Samsung 35e at 10 amps since it's only rated for 8 amps the 35 amps Sony Mirada PTC 5 really began to shine managing the 10 amp load with three point five volts the LJ MJ 1 which is rated for 10 amps was at three point one nine volts only five brands are rated for 15 amps or more and the Sony muradov ET c 5 did the best at three point two seven volts only three brands are rated for 20 amps or more and the sony VT c 5a came out on top at three point zero four volts in the final showdown event we'll see which battery will power up the fan the longest all the batteries were fully charged before the test the cast knew was the first to quit at 69 minutes the ETS air stopped at 102 minutes the ultra fire stopped a few seconds later at 102 minutes the BX II gave up at 104 minutes the Sony Marauder VTC 5a stopped at 214 the Samsung 25 r gave up at 228 the LG 84 stopped at 242 the sony VT c 6 was the next to stall at 262 the Samsung 30 Q quit at 277 the Panasonic gave up at 200 in 93 and it's down to the Samsung 35e and the very affordable LG mj1 and the Samsung stalled out at 304 the LG mj1 did the best at 307 minutes the top three brands are rated for 3500 milliamp hours and the fourth and fifth place finishers are rated for 3,000 the LG 84 Samsung 25 R and Sony Mirada BTC 5a are rated for 2,500 unfortunately the bxe ultrafire and ETS air operated for 9800 milliamp hours and more performed very poorly as did the 3000 milliamp hour rated cast new it comes to those 18 650 batteries one thing for sure is you don't necessarily get what you pay for in fact you're probably not getting very much at all for your money if you're buying a Chinese branded battery so my advice is buyer beware and do some research there are some very good batteries those that are made in Korea and Japan are very high quality batteries doing very good as far as meeting the manufacturer's specifications and they tend to hold up over time from my experience all my video ideas including this one are from viewers so if you have a video idea I hope you'll take time to leave a comment I read and reply to as many comments as possible thanks so much for watching the video please take care and I look forward to next time

Channel: Project Farm

Views: 2,083,429

Rating: 4.9019532 out of 5

Keywords: Seafoam, project farm, LG, LG HE4, Samsung, Sony Murata, Murata, sony, Panasonic, 18650, 18650 comparison, 18650 battery, ultrafire, etsair, castnoo, bxe, lg battery, samsung battery, panasonic battery, sony battery

Id: qMZuHMlRw_0

Length: 14min 36sec (876 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 23 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/bradland]

I really liked this video because it has a good collection of cells, including cells we see a lot of in ebike battery packs, like the Samsung 25R, 30Q, and 35E, as well as the venerable LG MJ1. It's also very accessible. You can, of course, find more detailed test data in other places, but this was a nice compilation of results side-by-side.

[u/eschlerc]

I definitely don't think I'd buy a Li-ion battery with "fire" in the name, lol!

[u/Pstrap]

18650 cell claiming >3600mAh = scam. I don't even know why they claim super unrealistic capacities like this because it makes it very obvious they are fake.

[u/[deleted]]

People should be careful from what conclusions they draw from this video.

The 9800 mAh ratings are outright false because the form factor is the same as reputable brand 3000 mAh rating. So you know right off the bat that it's physically impossible.

Batteries are not as simple as - oh it runs the longest so it's the best. The discharge currents matter, the discharge curve, internal resistance etc matters when choosing a cell type for a specific applications like ebikes.

[u/otherone909]

Yeah, I remember getting a bunch of 9800mah cells off aliexpress. Thought they were awesome till I did a capacity test. They are still fine cells, but not as advertised.

That being said, I had the option of Sanyo or upgraded LG cells for my Biktrix. Went with the LG and have been happy. Range and power as advertised.