Early into my interest in cell reviews I was sent a set of Vapcell 18350 liion cells. My ways and means are different now, and LiIonwholesale agreed to send me a fresh set for testing. So here’s another test of these well-regarded 18350 cells, this time with actual discharge (etc) data! Who knows, in another year maybe my testing will have evolved so much further that these cells deserve another look!

As always, click for bigger images!!!

Official Specs

Here’s a link to the official product page for the Vapcell 18350.

Price

These are $4.98 currently, and volume discounts start at as low as 3 cells!

Short Review

Still great cells. Still the 18350 cells I’d recommend!

Long Review

Package

These two cells shipped in a plastic liionwholesale container, each in it’s own zip-top baggie.

Build Quality

There’s nothing bad about the build in any aspect of these cells.

Do note that the wrapper as well (as the spec sheet) has been updated. These no longer claim 10A discharge capability, but 9A on the wrapper.

Size

Testing

I’ve tried to keep the scales similar, so over time the charts will be generally comparable. These charts are scaled for 18350 data, so they won’t line up with the 18650 and greater cell testing charts.

Discharge Tests

The cells perform very consistently, which is a good sign of a good cell.

Capacity

The 0.2A discharge does indicate the 1100mAh capacity is an approximately correct rating.

Energy

Bounce

“Bounce back” is what the cell voltage does when the cell rests after a discharge. After heavy discharge rates, the cell voltage bounces back higher when discharge is stopped. This corresponds to a discharge amount of less energy, and does mean that there’s energy left in the cell. So if I selected the cell with the highest bounce back voltage (ie the cell that was discharged at the highest current), then discharged it to 2.8V at 0.2A, I’d still find that there was a lot of energy still in the cell.

Here is why I think it so interesting about “Bounce.” A poorly performing cell will bounce back higher after high discharges. That’s because the IR is higher, and because the cell performs much worse under high loads. So a good performing cell will bounce back much less because it’s much more capable of high discharge. At high discharge on a capable cell, more of the energy makes its way out of the cell! Hence less bounce.

I more or less figured this out on my own, so I welcome discourse about this topic. Until I hear it’s wrong, I propose this as a new metric for cell quality!

Charge Test

Temperature

Power, Constant

Internal Resistance

Most often (read: always), internal resistance is mentioned as a spot value. In truth, the IR changes over time. Due to cell age and cell heat among other things. A graph of IR is interesting because it can show, for example, when a cell begins to “die” – at which point the remaining energy will be “harder” to extract. This is when the IR spikes. In the graph above, that’s around 800mAh. These graphs are also useful for determining if a cell would be good for a hot-rod flashlight, for example.

Conclusion

Even though I now have hours and hours more data, my original conclusion is still correct:

The capacity alone makes them appealing, and they’re certainly able at 5A, and looks to be capable even higher. I really like these!!

I think these are the best available 18350 cells!

Notes

These cells were provided by LiionWholesale.com for review. I was not paid to write this review.

This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!

Whether or not I have a coupon for these cells, I do have a bunch of coupons!! Have a look at my spreadsheet for those coupons. It’s possible to subscribe and get notifications when the sheet is edited!!