Hello guys:
IMR and LiIonwholesale have increased their Samsung 30Q prices by a lot.
Samsung 30Q rertail price was US$ 4.99, now they are selling for US$ 6.49, that’s a 30% price increase.
The price is supossed to decrease over time not increase.
Any online alternatives?
P26a is a better cell all around. @BenjaminF can attest to this. Samsung is pulling its cells from the retail market.
The general consensus is no. Samsung is going through the motions of stopping all loose cell sales. Something about not wanting the the risk of selling cells in an unprotected application. If you need them urgently for an order, I have 50qt I’ve been holding onto, but really don’t see me using them anytime soon.
Overall I would suggest just not offering them as a pack option in the future.
As EV-related orders skyrocket and efforts to prevent any loose cells from being sold to end users gains steam it will become harder and harder to buy cells made by the big manufacturers.
One distributor told me that Samsung received an order for 100 million cells a month from just one EV customer. 
The Murata VTC6 performs essentially the same but I have not compared their cycle life. The Molicel P26A is a better choice if above about 17A or so.
They were never offered for sale on the retail market by Samsung. 
All of the round cells we buy from the big manufacturers are excess inventory sold off by customers of the big manufacturers, unauthorized sales, or diverted shipments.
None of the round cells we use were ever meant to be used outside of a fully protected battery pack. The manufacturers are working harder now to get them off the market because of all the lawsuits by people who set themselves on fire.
Wait…was that what you were saying?
@Battery_Mooch is there any other cell alternative besides the P26a but with 3000mAh capacity and 15-20A constant discharge?
Mooch is going to say that when you discharge each at the same rate they end up having the same capacity but he’s gonna sound way smarter about it
don’t know if it is what u looking for, but:
there is no details on it yet
Umm…what @jack.luis said…really.
At 15A-20A the 30Q and P26A have essentially the same run time down to 3.2V.
There”s the VTC6 I mentioned. There are also some cells from the smaller China factories wrapped by Vapcell, Efest, and Hohm Tech but they’re very expensive. Well, retail they are expensive. I don’t know what they go for wholesale.
The Molicel P31A will probably be available by Autumn, perhaps earlier. I don’t know how well it will perform but my hopes are high.
The HG2 is a not-so-great performing alternative but it’s faked so widely now I don’t know if you can find genuine ones.
Would you recommend using those cells if price wasn’t so high? I have seen those cells sold on vape stores but like you said they are expensive.i always thought they were just Samsung or Sony cells rewrapped in fancy colors for marketing reasons $$$.
If nothing else is available and you are under 15A-17A or so, yes. They are often decent cells. I haven’t tested any Efests in a while but the Vapcells were pretty good.
They used to all be rewrapped big-manufacturer cells but the China factories are getting better at making decent cells (still not as consistent and safety and cycle life are unknown) so the cell wrapping companies are using their cells. The profits are higher and the supply is more consistent.
The thing is we don’t use the cells at 15-20A continuously. Only for very short times when accelerating at maximum power.
In normal operation I only use like 2-5A per cell. Then 30Qs are probably still better
True.
But the voltage sag at 15A-20A is still an important part of choosing a cell as the ESC/BMS can react to the sagging voltage and throttle back or, hopefully not, cut off power.
How legit do you think cells from Vapcell are?
They sell P42A and it looks like it might be the only way I can get them 
Why would you buy P42A cell from Aliexpress when you can get them at IMR for US$ 5.99 each?
Why would you buy P42A cell at US$ 9.63 from Aliexpress when you can get them at IMR for US$ 5.99 each?
Because nobody, including IMR, ships to Israel 
The price increase is unfortunate. I heard the exact same thing from the owner of one of the Chinese board manufacturers.
And does this aliexpress store ship to Israel? I had trouble getting cells shipped to Tahiti and found a vape wholesaler who told me he would ship but just cannot ship just cells. I needed to include some other stuff so he could ship, probably some loophole regarding battery shipping regulations. I didn’t have to buy anything pricey on top of the cells, I got some 10$ vape coils and a Nitecore charger.
18650batterystore.com ships to AUS, they may ship to israel as well. Also queenbattery.cn.com might?
