The batteries from Newegg and Fullbattery are good ones.

If you going to buy a large quantity and looking for a low price, then you should buy 1 or two and test them as I have done here. You might have to "kiss a lot of toads" before you find a good vendor, though.

OSD

@NeverDie I am happy to report that my batteries arrived yesterday!

Have you done a capacity test on them? Do they still measure up to what they're spec'd at?

I've seen this before from vendors that are less reputable. Money is collected and then the vendor orders the part from another source. So the vendor gets the float on the money plus the mark-up. Sometimes, the order remains in this state for months and ultimately, the vendor cancels the order without informing you. When you contact the vendor, only then it is reported that the order had been canceled. Finally, you have to submit a request for refund, which eventually comes.

For me, the jury's still out on fullbattery.com. I'm posting this to see if anyone else has had this experience

I think we differ in our approaches, though. I seem to enjoy living on the "bleeding edge", that is, I'm more of a risk taker. My first house solar system, 2.8kW, was installed in 2004. When I upgraded to 4.2kW, I took the 14 panels and installed them on my hillside, so now I'm a net energy exporter. The 2.8kW portion is still producing at 85% of nameplate, shows little environmental degradation (sealant, too), and has paid for itself. The reward outweighed the risk.

In taking risks, I learn much. Yes, I have a quite a few scars, actually and metaphorically. I have discovered a philosophy: Everything is an experiment. The point of an experiment is to learn something. So every experiment is a successful, just that sometimes the desired results are not realized. Eg. leaving an Arduino outdoors results in a short useful life. Spraying on a sealant extends the outdoor life.

Good discussion. Thanks for the ideas

OSD

Also, now that there has been breakthrough development on perovskite solar cells, it's further reason to delay. If/when that scales up and becomes mainstream at low cost, it's going to be a huge improvement overall, in both energy harvesting as well as bang for the buck. But, of course, if you need something today, you can't really wait around for that.

Lastly, if you're in the market for not just one or two lithium ion 18650 cells, but 10 or more of them, you might find that dismantling Milwaukee power tool battery packs will be more cost effective, especially if you can catch them on sale during a Black Friday or post-Christmas sale or something. Milwaukee uses quality cells in their packs. I have a number of Milwaukee lithium ion battery packs that I purchased in 2010 and which still are able to hold 70-80% of their original charge capacity, which I think speaks well for them. Since I'm not a bluecollar worker who uses cordless tools all day long, that means they're effectively as good as new as far as I'm concerned: I never get anywhere close to fully discharing them. Lastly, it's worth knowing that time is on your side: when Milwaukee ships new battery packs they can only sit on the shelf for so long before accumulated self-discharge threatens to undervolt them. Naturally, Milwaukee would rather sell them at a large discount than have them go bad on the shelves and become a total loss. It's at that point that Milwaukee is forced to cut prices and blow them out in a sale event, as retailers are not equiped to recharge them.

I have the same situation, power banks shut off. I have chosen to go the route of a 18650 battery, TP4056 battery charger and a carrier. My application is a remote soil moisture monitor. I charge the battery with a solar panel My power down state draws less than 1mA (my meter doesn't go any lower)

I really appreciate the discussion on batteries. I got sucked into buying some that barely had only 700mAh. Yes, the price has gone up a lot, but still better than constantly buying one use 9V batteries. I ordered two batteries from Newegg ($9.50ea-shipped) and just ordered some from fullbattery.com ($11.25ea-shippd) I'll be running a capacity test on them.

Thanks for posting

I was wondering the same thing, and also: do the counterfeits counterfeit the quality Chinese brands? I'm guessing so, in which case, mfalkvidd and I, not living in Asia, may not fare any better with them either.

Yes they do, they even counterfeit the websites as you can see on the vapcell link I posted above...
So no it doesn't sound like a really better option in US/Europe.

Those brands have good or very good reviews on lygte-info website, except the overly optimistic high current capacity, but I don't need them for that. Lygte info is the best place to check a specific brand and model.

On the opposite side of the quality spectrum, I wouldn't buy any of the TrustFire, UltraFire, GTL, GTF, etc that you see a lot on AliExpress and similar websites. They usually have only a fraction of the stated capacity, they are often re-wrapped 2nd hand batteries, can have fake control circuits etc.

Unrelated: considering the high cost of new lithium ion cells these days, the TalentCell (above) may be a reasonable price to pay, because it appears to come with some decent cells. Running the wreath off it now to get an idea as t how long TalentCell will power the wreath...

This is where I previously bought some 18650's: https://fullbattery.com/collections/batteries-1/products/ncr18650ga-protected. They're good quality-- I verified their nominal capacity with a constant current load test--but the price has nearly doubled since then. I get the impression this may be true across the board, not just with this particular vendor.

I'm using some 18650 cells that I previously acquired from a solar cell vendor on ebay at a reasonable price. Where does one even find a good source anymore for high quality 18650's? There are just so many fakes out there these days.

For me, old laptops, Dyson battery packs etc.
Else good quality Chinese brands, as I'm in Vietnam and the probability to have genuine products from other brands is close to 0 :)

I'm using some 18650 cells that I previously acquired from a solar cell vendor on ebay at a reasonable price. Where does one even find a good source anymore for high quality 18650's? There are just so many fakes out there these days.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SZKNST4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've 2 very similar (not sure if exactly the same) to the single battery one and they work fine.
I can confirm they don't stop unless you switch them off.