1500 mAh Znter ZNT18650 USB Rechargeable LiPo Battery

24 Mar
2019

We were looking for something interesting to test and stumbled onto the Znter 18650 LiPo batteries on Hobbyking’s website, so we have decide to give them a go and see if this alternative to 18650 Li-Ion battery cells. The Znter ZNT18650 is a lower capacity cell, but comes with an on-board micro USB port for directly charging the battery with a regular USB cable. We have ordered one of these Znter ZNT18650 1600 mAh batteries, but what we have received had left an unpleasant taste in or mouths and it is the reason why we would just recommend that you stay away from these. Instead of the 1600 mAh capacity that we have ordered we got a cell that was market with 1500 mAh capacity and on top of that it was not charging (the indicator light was blinking when USB charging cable is connected).


Expecting a dead battery cell we have decided to open up the battery and at least see how it is made and to confirm that the LiPo cell is indeed at very low voltage, so that the charging electronics is not able to charge it. Our suspicions were confirmed, the LiPo cell was indeed with a voltage close to zero, but what we did not like even further about this product is the implementation. The LiPo cell is a round one enclosed in a metal casing with the charging electronics on top, however the board has to small solder joints with a little piece of cable sticking out that is essentially making contact by touching the plus and minus terminals of the battery. You can forget about using this battery with high discharge currents, that is if you manage to actually get a working one. Again to tell that you should just avoid this product as you might get a dead one and even if it is working it is not that well made to make it as a decent alternative to 18650 LiIon batteries for use with higher discharge currents.

2900 mAh Folomov A1 Magnetic Charger and Power Bank

24 Mar
2019

The Folomov A1 is a compact and convenient USB charger for various single cell Li-ion batteries such as: 26650, 21700,20700,25500, 22650, 18700, 18650, 18500, 18490, 18350, 17670, 17500, 17335, 16340, 14650, 14500, 10350 and 10340. The device uses standard USB port from a computer or a USB charging adapter to charge Li-Ion batteries with 1A max charging current. The positive and negative charging terminals of the device have magnets, so they are very easy to clip on the battery sides and charge the battery. The device can automatically activate 0V battery, comes with over current charging and discharging protection, constant current and stable voltage charging mode and reverse polarity protection. What is most interesting and the reason we are testing this device is that it can also double as a power bank, using a Li-Ion battery as a source of power to charge your USB devices and not only charge batteries. Let us see how well does the Folomov A1 Magnetic Charger work as a power bank with 5V/1A output used together with a 2900 mAh Panasonic NCR18650PF Li-ion battery that we have previously charged with the A1 as well…


The Folomov A1 Magnetic Charger does work pretty well in terms of delivering a little over 1600 mAh capacity from the 2900 mAh Li-ion battery used, however we are not very satisfied with the voltage curve we are seeing. Keeping 4.8V-4.9V output voltage for about the first 1 Amp and then gradually starting to drop after that, resulting in lower Wh output, making the result not so satisfying. Still the Folomov A1 does work quite well both ways for charging Li-ion batteries as well as functioning as a power bank getting powered form a Li-ion battery. If it handled the discharge with a bit more stable voltage output it would’ve been even better, and if the positive and negative clips of the charger were with a bit stronger magnets and flatter surface for better contact it could’ve been even better. Still decent results and performance for this compact and cheap multi functional deice that can be quite handy to have in your bag if you are dealing with Li-ion battery cells often.

The performance of the 2900 mAh Folomov A1 Magnetic Charger and Power Bank in our tests:

– 1614 mAh at 1.0A load

– 7.703 Wh at 1.0A load

9V Duracell Industrial vs Expiring 9V Duracell Industrial Alkaline Batteries

22 Mar
2019

We have recently tested 9V Duracell Industrial Alkaline Battery and surprisingly managed to find another one that is at the end of it’s shelf life this month. That was a good opportunity to compare a fresher 9V Duracell Industrial battery with one that is and the end of its expiration date and see what is the change in capacity you can expect to get with the 9V Duracell Industrial batteries compared to a battery that is at around half of its shelf life.


We were quite pleasantly surprised by the result we got, at a little over 300 mAh for a battery that should be considered expired in a couple of days and would normally be discarded and thrown away. This is just less than 15% lower capacity than that of a 3 years fresher 9V Duracell Industrial alkaline battery, so do not be in a hurry to throw away alkaline batteries that are near their end of life if you still have not used them as they may actually have more to offer than what you expect. Of course it is also very important under what conditions they were stored, because if not properly stored they could actually end up completely discharged even before the end of their expiration date!

Duracell – Fresher Industrial – Expiring Industrial
0.05A load – 347 mAh – 303 mAh
0.05A load – 2.562 Wh – 2.191 mAh

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