# I want a longer-lived battery for my CREE XML T6 LED bike light



## ewarnerusa (Jun 8, 2004)

Hello. 
I've got a knock off CREE XML T6 LED bike light that I bought from Amazon. The battery is listed as "rechargeable 8.4V 4400mAh lithium-ion battery pack (4x 18650 Batteries)". Claimed performance is 3-4 hours on high power, but I only ever get about an hour on high power. I'm thinking of trying out a replacement battery from ebay. This one in particular. It is listed as "New 6400mAh 8.4v 18650 Battery Pack". So more amp hours means a longer capacity, right? Anyone here have any input on if this is a bad idea or not? 
Thanks.


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## Vancbiker (May 25, 2005)

That ebay battery will most likely be about the same as what came with your light. This thread may help.

http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-riding/battery-thread-2013-a-834295.html


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## the mayor (Nov 18, 2004)

I want a date with young Heather Locklear...
And a solid gold toilet seat.

At the end of the day....you have a better chance at getting a longer life battery.

As far as what battery you got with your light...who knows?
It may even be defective. Or not.


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## ewarnerusa (Jun 8, 2004)

Vancbiker said:


> That ebay battery will most likely be about the same as what came with your light. This thread may help.
> 
> http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-riding/battery-thread-2013-a-834295.html


I browsed through it and almost put my post in there, but then changed my mind and started a new thread. I get your point about the unknown quality in the Chinese battery off ebay. I assume that the list compiled in post 1 are regarded as high quality and true to their performance claims?

OK, I went with the Xeccon 6600 mAh. I'll report results


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## the mayor (Nov 18, 2004)

Reader's Digest version: If you buy a battery of EBay or the Chinese sites....you may...or may not... get a good battery at a cheap price.

If you buy one from...say Action LED or Xeccon....you will pay more but get a proven battery plus great customer service.

I think that big Xeccon battery will give your single light plenty of life....


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## the mayor (Nov 18, 2004)

It looks like you already bought a battery...
But another option is to upgrade the system to something like the Hi-Max U2.
Better light and long run times....


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## Cat-man-do (May 16, 2004)

ewarnerusa said:


> ... I'm thinking of trying out a replacement battery from ebay. This one in particular. It is listed as "New 6400mAh 8.4v 18650 Battery Pack". So more amp hours means a longer capacity, right? Anyone here have any input on if this is a bad idea or not?
> Thanks.


While most people are quite used to the exaggerated lumen output claims of Chinese bike lights it seems this practice has also been extended to replacement batteries as well. This is a somewhat new phenomenon and is catching a lot of people off guard.

The battery you linked to is a 4-cell 18650. To be a 6400mAh battery each cell would have to be 3200mAh. In a nut shell, that's not going to happen at the price they're asking. If you buy from them expect to get the same quality battery you got with your original Chinese bike light. If it turns out you actually got a 4000mAh battery, you got lucky.

A while back I ran into a website on ebay selling just batteries. Prices were super low. I wrote the seller and asked them what brand batteries they used. They wrote back that they used Sony. The problem is that "Sony" is one of those brand names that get's counterfeited a lot. I see fake Sony cells being sold all the time. I decided not to include any links to the website on the "Battery Thread".

No one wants to buy a battery pack that gives them 1hr run time or even worse, blows up while charging. I'm beginning to think that Chinese battery quality is getting dangerously close to what it was several years ago when the first MS batteries were beginning to have problems. That is not a good thing if you are considering buying a cheap Chinese light or battery.

If you really want a better battery it's best if you know the cell brands that are the most reliable. Panasonic is the best. Samsung, Sanyo, Bak, LG ...also get honorable mention. Sometimes the sellers don't tell you what brands they use and sometimes they do. If they don't you can send them an email asking what they use. Regardless asking the websites selling cheap Chinese batteries what brands they use would likely be a waste of time.


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## ewarnerusa (Jun 8, 2004)

Cat-man-do,
I appreciate that you started "The Battery Thread: 2013" and the info you are trying to summarize. I did read through it first when I came to this subforum (first time was yesterday). I recognized that it had valuable information, but I quickly became lost in the specific discussions because it was over my knowledge-level. Plus, I am certainly guilty of gambling on unknown brand knock offs because when you gamble sometimes you win. So I went into that mode of finding super cheap possibilities via Amazon and ebay. Then I managed to stop myself and thought I'd at least try to poll for opinions and started this thread. Seeing the exploding battery thread, and knowing that I've already got 1 questionable battery from a questionable source, I thought I'd just go ahead and get something considered more reputable. So the battery I'm buying is already more expensive than the entire lighting setup was initially, but I've learned that I really can get quality riding done in the winter after dark. And much of this summer's riding may well be best fit in during the late evening hours due to family commitments (3 year old twin boys!). So I figured investing in a quality battery (and having the old battery as a 1-hour backup) will be money well spent.


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## ewarnerusa (Jun 8, 2004)

*Report on the Xeccon 6600mAh Li-ion*

So I got my new Xeccon 6600 mAh Li-ion battery on Friday. I bought it for use in my Amazon special 1200 Lumen CREE XML T6 Bulb LED light. Shipping took about a week. The order seems to go on the Australian website, then they contact their North American distributor to ship the battery. It was $56.48 with shipping which took about a week. 
It is bigger than the old one, but that is to be expected. It took much longer to recharge than the old one, to be expected. Probably around 6 hours or so. 
I took my first ride on it last night. After the one hour mark I got some anxiety since that's all the longer the old battery would last. No issues with this new battery though and after my 2-hour ride it was still going strong. I left it on afterwards thinking I'd run it to empty so I knew how long it lasted. After 4 total hours of on time, I wanted to go to bed so I shut it down and hooked it back up to the charger. So it's life on high power with my light is > 4 hrs. It came with a pretty heavy duty velcro strap for securing it to the bike. It slid around a little bit at first but I cinched it up good and no more slipping. The electrical connection seems pretty secure.


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## the mayor (Nov 18, 2004)

You definately have some serious battery there for a single light.
My HI-Max light was still going at almost 7 hours when I tested it and I lost interest.
The only downside of that much run time is forgetting to charge it!


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## ewarnerusa (Jun 8, 2004)

I finally ran the battery all the way down. My estimate of composite time over several rides is about 6 hours of run time with my light.


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## teenasparkle (Feb 12, 2018)

*Exaggerated Amp Hpurs*

Yeah - seems to be common thing - you get an amp hour or milliamp hour rating and when you use the battery or batteries - you get maybe half! I'm using a 12V lead acid battery for some portable music gear - rated at 9 Amp Hours. I've done a test on it and I can get an hours worth at 2 amps before the voltage really plummets. What does that tell you? Maybe a bit of an optimistic rating?! Yeah - believe it when you measure it. :nono:


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## Cat-man-do (May 16, 2004)

teenasparkle said:


> Yeah - seems to be common thing - you get an amp hour or milliamp hour rating and when you use the battery or batteries - you get maybe half! I'm using a 12V lead acid battery for some portable music gear - rated at 9 Amp Hours. I've done a test on it and I can get an hours worth at 2 amps before the voltage really plummets. What does that tell you? Maybe a bit of an optimistic rating?! Yeah - believe it when you measure it. :nono:


As your first posted thread you chose to dig up a thread from 2013. Since you are new here I'm being nice enough to tell you this is something that is not looked on as something to do if you want to be taken seriously. Going forward best not to post to a thread where the last post was more than a year old. There are newer battery threads. You just have to do a better search.


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