Looking for recommendations for extra 18650 batteries for a surefire duel fuel turbo pro and a charger for said batteries. I've heard good things about Nitecore chargers but have no idea where to even start woth the different models. A two battery unit would be just fine for my needs.

Thanks folks

I've been very pleased with these, which came recommended by other members who are far more knowledgeable about batteries than myself...

https://www.18650batterystore.com/products/molicel-p28a

And these are the next generation, with a lot of functional improvements over the ones linked above...

https://www.18650batterystore.com/products/molicel-p30b-18650-3000mah-36a-battery

As for chargers, I much prefer the Nitecore dual 18650/cr123 charger that came with my Cloud Defensive lights over the one that came with my Surefire Scouts. The Nitecore seemed to charge faster, and it has an overall better build quality feel about it. It also has the included ability of charging from either a wall outlet or a USB port. The batteries I was charging in both chargers were a brand new batch of the Molicel p28a's, so I assume they were all at the same rate of charge.

Molicel makes first rate batteries.

P30B is the current hotness.

Keeppower 18650 3500 mah P1835J protected cell.

Under $10 on illumn.com

You do not need 30A discharge on a weaponlight. You are just giving up 500 mah of capacity for no benefit.

As for chargers, I would look for something with 0.5A for 16340, 1A for general use, and 2.0A fast charging. Something that will do NiMH and LiIon. Something that will take as large of a battery as you will ever use. 21700 or 26650  for future proofing. In a 4 cell charger, I want to be able to charge different types of cells in every slot.

I personally use an XTAR Dragon  4 cell charger because lithium ion battery's have huge capacity, take a while to charge, and I am impatient. I have Nitecore and XTAR 2 cell chargers at work and in the shop to top cells off.

High drain batteries tend to also have very low internal resistance, which limits voltage sag once you get deeper into the cell. At the 3-5A that these lights run on, the runtime of the P30B at rated 3000mah is actually right up there with the 3500mah batteries as far as power deliverable. The benefit to them is that you can always run them harder, charge them faster, they will "decay" at a lower rate from abusive schedules. If you step up to 10 amps, they are notably better/longer running than the 3500MAH batteries.

MAH capacity is rated at 0.2C or something, as I recall.

Sure, if you might need high draw on something that is NOT a weaponlight, an IMR or INR unprotected cell is a great choice. Want to build an electric drag bike? Use IMR cells.

That Keeppower P1835J that I reccomended has over 3100 mah (~3150 I believe) at a 5A discharge output. Well more than enough for any reasonable 18650 application or flashlight where you would even consider a protected, button top, standard chemistry battery. It trips the protection circuit due to heat late in a 7A draw, so it loses capacity there (but not that much from voltage sag) . It can do intermittent 8A no problem, but suffers from voltage sag, cutting capacity at 8A intermittent as well even though it is rated at 8A continuous duty.

HOWEVER; A 3A and 5A draw capacity is IMO what anyone considering an 18650 for a weaponlight should be looking at. No normal flashlight will pull more amps than that and it covers all the lesser uses such as optics, electronics, battery banks, etc.

The Keeppower P1835J has a 1.5A rated charge current, so you get long life at a standard 1A charge and are getting reduced cycle life at 2A charge, but you CAN quick charge at 2A on occasion when necessary. IMO, cycle life for a weapon light is just not a big deal anyway. If you get 350 instead of 400 recharges going from 5% to 100% before the battery is worn (degrades to 80% of its original capacity) that is still more charges than the average user will EVER need for as long as they own a weaponlight. Throw in a second battery so you can put a full one in and let the other charge and even a cop on night shift who runs a battery down each shift on a handheld 18650 flashlight can go years before needing to buy new cells.

I have not seen what that 3000 mah Molicel P30B has for capacity at 5A draw. but I know the 2800 mah version is less than the Keeppower P1835J. Unless it is at least 3100 mah at 5A and under $10, the Keeppower is the better buy.

You also need to look at your WML's cutoff voltage and not the battery. Most of those tests are down to 2.5V-2.8V, which is well below Modlite/Cloud/SF cutoffs. When you get near the cutoff, voltage sag can be a big issue, too. Especially activating the light. This is why you can run a WML, and then click it off and then back on and when it comes back on, it doesn't have the oomph to go back into regulated power draw. Voltage sag on start-up of the driver. So the voltage sag isn't typically something you'll see just looking at numbers without seeing a graph, to that end, here is a graph of the Keeppower P1835J  and P30B.

Attached File

Attached File


Notice where they cross the 3.4V line. Many lights drop out of regulation around this range. The P30B has more capacity when run at 5 amps, to this juncture. That is why I say MAH does not have "all the info needed" without more context. Also note the drastic difference in voltage sag between the two.

I see you get 1.5 hours from the Keeppower and 1.8 hours from the Molicel at 3.4v if that is where the regulation stops.

I notice my lights seem to be dimming/dying and pull them around 3.1v when they go back on the charger.

That is 2.4 hours on the Molicel and 2.9 hous on the Keeppower.

I guess it comes down to what you want. An extra 18 minutes of "peak" performance vs 30 minutes of extra "useful" reduced performance.  The ability to "occasionally" recharge at 2A and get 400 recharges or the ability to recharge at 2A EVERY single time for 500 recharges.

And that Molicel appears to be available at the same price delivered as the Keeppower now, so it really seems like either one is a great buy.