LG ICR18650-HE4 Batteries

Another battery in the high-current category, with a rated continuous discharge current of 20 A. It is essentially a competitor to the well-known Murata VTC5, although it falls slightly behind in terms of load performance.
Still, it's best to check out the full review, which includes tests and a comparison chart.


The batteries were bought from the same place as before, namely the Nkon website. This time, though, they were bought by a friend, not me. I took a couple for testing and to broaden my horizons.



The datasheet says the batteries have a capacity of 2500 mAh at a discharge rate of 0.2C (500 mA), and a maximum continuous discharge current of 20 A. By the way, the datasheet dates all the way back to 2013.


The heat-shrink wrap is a vivid yellow, which I'm not quite used to. If the HG2s are called "chocolate bars," these are more like "chicks."
Manufactured on day 276 (early October) of 2018.
The positive terminal has four tabs, just as shown in the drawing in the datasheet.


The dimensions match those listed in the datasheet, but they weigh a little less than the maximum specified 47 g.


Since the rated capacity is 2500 mAh, the 500 mA discharge current supplied by my charger corresponds to 0.2C. Even so, the charger overestimated the capacity, showing about 2700 mAh.


The maximum discharge current matches the maximum load current of the ZKE EBC-A20, so we'll use it for the main tests.


As usual, I'll start with the charging characteristics. The nominal charging current is 0.5C. At this rate, the battery takes just 10 minutes over 2 hours to charge, which is a very good result.


The maximum charging current is 4 A; at this rate, charging takes about an hour.


Discharge tests at 0.2C (500 mA), 0.5C (1.25 A), 1C (1 A), 2C (5 A), 10 A, 15 A, and 20 A.


Temperature at discharge currents of 10 A, 15 A, and 20 A


The second battery produced practically identical results, which is good news for larger battery packs, for example.


At a discharge current of 20 A, though, the temperature was slightly higher. That could be down to the difference in ambient temperature.


Here's the promised comparison with the competitors, the VTC5A and VTC5D. You can see that at discharge currents up to 20 A, the HE4 performs about the same as the VTC5A. Both fall slightly behind the newer VTC5D.


Battery resistance before testing, after "conditioning," and after all the tests.


I'll keep today's conclusions brief: these are good batteries, roughly on par with the VTC5A, but only at currents up to 20 A, since the VTC5A is rated for discharge currents up to 30 A.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading :)