Battery cell brand qusetions?

So I know the usual choice of 18650 cells is Samsung, LG, Sony(Murata), or Panasonic(Sanyo). Generally, anything that isn't one of those 4 is junk, and if the brand has "fire" or "core" in the name, it should be launched from a cannon as far away from you as possible. At least that had been true up through 2018. 2019 brings new options.

I found this brand called Molicel being compared on various battery forums. The Molicel P26a suppose to compare well to, and slightly beat standard cells like Samsung 25S and the Sony VTC5A. It's also suppose to have a super high cycle life compared to older cells. At least, that's what I pick up from random internet reviews. from what I can tell, the thing that seems to set them apart from the big four 18650 manufacturers is they are willing to deal with small vendors and distributors, so it seems easier to get them from a trusted source.
There's also an even newer P28A, a 2800mah cell with nearly identical specs as the 2600mah, but slightly lower cycle life.

Has anyone built an ebike battery out of these? Anyone have any experience with them at all?

Or alternatively, anyone got a recommendation on what cell I should use?

Here's the data sheets:
http://www.molicel.com/hq/product/INR18650P26A-V2-80087.pdf
http://www.molicel.com/hq/product/INR18650P28A-V1-80093.pdf

As far as I am concerned you can add the Boston Power Swing batteries to the "not junk" category. I have had several people use them for Ebike batteries and they are very happy with them. Avoid the Boston Power Sonata batteries because they do not have the current discharge like the Swings do. There are two Boston Power Swings with good current discharge. Here are the specs:

http://liionbms.com/pdf/bostonpower/swing4400.pdf
http://liionbms.com/pdf/bostonpower/swing5300.pdf

There has been a change in ownership/management of Boston Power in the last couple of years and production has been moved to China but I have not found any degradation in the quality.

There is also a review by Thunderheart here on this forum, as well as at least one user that comments on the performance of these batteries. Here are a couple of links:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=90938&p=1363747&hilit=boston+power+review#p1363747 (test using the Chinese manufactured cells)
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=93510&p=1429581#p1429581

Hope this helps ....

well no one gets fired for buying the name brand cells, right i used to think that way too until i started using the pack on the right made from chinese ATL amperex cells. turns out they're a major mobile phone battery supplier to apple samsung etc. they spun off their EV division (CATL) which is now, drum roll pls, the world's largest EV battery maker

i have no experience w/ moli other than ripping apart a powertool pack and finding canadian molicels in them. turns out it's a taiwanese company. i'd be willing to give them a try. needless to say i'm more open to other brands now

my next pack (for my vector light build) is going to have chinese cells that i've been cycle testing:

I have some limited experience with molicel P26a, only from using 2 of them in a vape mod. They seem to be very good, hard hitting batteries.I guess you have seen mooch rewevs?
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/blogs/mooch.256958/
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/threads/bench-retest-results-molicel-p26a-2600mah-18650-beats-vtc5a-best-all-around-18650.902761/

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to give Boston Power a consideration, too.

For now I've ordered 5 of the Molicel P28A since my Ryobi's battery just vented a cell. It will make a good test platform, and should work well, since the old cells were 1500mah 25a cells. Mooch's data seems to reflect everyone else's about the Molicel's ratings being 25A not 35A for continuous discharge. That's still a heck of a lot for a high cycle 2800mah battery, and I should have nearly double the run time on the Ryobi drill. We'll soon see.

Overclocker, do you have some type co app that's automating the testing and logging your cell test data, or are you hand testing and entering the data from every test?

icharger can be set to cycle around 7x per day so i just list the result every night

btw your scratch built frame was one of my inspirations to build my own frame