Last year I ran two battery packs, both 14s10p built from salvaged laptop 18650 cells. As we get closed to spring here, I decided to do some maintenance on the packs in preparation for the riding season. While I had them somewhat disassembled, I tested a handful of the individual cells to see how they've held up. I thought I'd share my results here.
After about 750 miles of riding, the batteries showed the following drop in capacity
Samsung 26E - From ~2200 down to 2050
Samsung 28A - From ~2350 down to 2150
LG 2600 From ~2300 down to 2000
LG 2200 From ~2150 down to 1900
Sanyo 2600 From ~2300 down to 1900
On a side note, I've disassembled over 600 laptop packs, and hand charged/discharged and categorized every cell. I've built 6 high capacity packs and of all the cells, I've had only 3 sony US18650GR cells that were worthwhile. I'm not talking about the VTC4 or VTC5 cells, only the lower current laptop varieties but yes only 3 good cells out of hundreds. The samsungs far and away had the best ratio of good to bad
After about 750 miles of riding, the batteries showed the following drop in capacity
Samsung 26E - From ~2200 down to 2050
Samsung 28A - From ~2350 down to 2150
LG 2600 From ~2300 down to 2000
LG 2200 From ~2150 down to 1900
Sanyo 2600 From ~2300 down to 1900
On a side note, I've disassembled over 600 laptop packs, and hand charged/discharged and categorized every cell. I've built 6 high capacity packs and of all the cells, I've had only 3 sony US18650GR cells that were worthwhile. I'm not talking about the VTC4 or VTC5 cells, only the lower current laptop varieties but yes only 3 good cells out of hundreds. The samsungs far and away had the best ratio of good to bad