What is the best battery brand?

[Stacey Gray]

Hi, what is the best battery brand and how to tell if is not fake? Thanks

[esaj]

Hard to say what is the "best", but large manufacturers like Samsung, Panasonic, LG, Sanyo (owned by Panasonic nowadays?) and maybe Sony (I recall reading a while back that they don't manufacture the cells themselves anymore, but use a network of subcontractor manufacturers) seem to manufacture high quality cells. There are also companies that re-package and sell the cells with things like in-built protection chips (which are unnecessary and even dangerous in EUCs, but very much recommended for things like high power flashlights).

Telling a fake cell from a real one just by the outlook can be really hard. The only way to be (reasonably) sure of getting real original cells is to buy them from a reputable supplier (for example, I ordered my custom packs from a domestic battery building company, which then ordered the cells directly from a domestic importer).

What comes to which is best, that varies depending on your needs (capacity/discharge rate/charge rate etc.), and the setting probably changes at least a couple of times a year, as the manufacturers release better and better new cells.

[zlymex]

'Best' may be refer to one or more or combination of the following:
Safety, reliability, capacity, internal resistance/discharge current, cycle life, leakage current, uniformity, performance in extreme temperatures, price.
Some of above are quite contradictory.

[dmethvin]

As for how to tell if a battery is fake, this article explains some ways to find out. It can be very difficult.

http://batterybro.com/blogs/18650-wholesale-battery-reviews/30828867-is-it-a-fake-18650-battery-featuring-the-samsung-25r

[Tomek]

@Stacey Gray, all the replies so far are about individual battery cells. Unicycle "batteries" are in fact "battery packs" that typically include 16 or 32 cells and a so-called BMS (an electronic circuit board that makes sure all the individual cells are charged evenly and don't exceed allowed charging/discharging limits, which would likely cause fire). In most online (Chinese) shops the brand of batteries inside sold packs is not specified. In the ideal (unlikely) case you will find inside Japanese/Korean A-brand high-current-rated battery cells, more likely you'll find regular cells rated around 5A, which is not ideal for unicycles, or Chinese no-name cells which are unreliable, or even second hand recycled cells, which happens and is dangerous because of fire hazards. The best option for you IMO would be to buy the battery from a US reseller that also sells A-brand unicycles, or to buy the BMS, quality battery cells, and solder the battery pack together yourself (requires spot welder, or batteries with already welded "u-tags").