Unfortunately I managed to tear part of the heatshrink on one of my 18650’s when removing it from it’s plastic spacer. I’ve covered the tear in electrical tape and little bit of super glue to ensure the tape holds in place. I’ve ordered some new 18650 heatshrink but it won’t arrive for anywhere between 2 and 4 weeks. Reckon it’ll be safe enough to use the battery in my space cell in the mean time?
As long as it was just the heatshrink, you should be good.
Yea, no damage to the metal can underneath
Maybe not, as the metal shell of 18650 is the ground so if this touches one of the other cells things could go bad
Yea, having the whole can the negative terminal seems a bit poorly designed. The metal is fully covered by electrical tape through?
Should be fine if your not cared about the inside
Inside of what sorry?
Of a case or enclosure if sorts
I did the same thing here, and at the same time caused a short, not a cool experience
Since it’s an assembled pack i can’t put a new heatshrink, but 3 layers of tape is holding pretty good
Was the cell not damaged at all afterwards if you managed to short it?
Not in a measurable way, same IR and no capacity loss while resting, but is was a very brief short, just a instantly spark
First i got worried because there was something wet in the spot, but turns out that i had written in the cell with permanent markers, and the ink dissolved with the heat
Close call
I wouldn’t use it. This is how people end up with “bad luck” and fires.
Fair call. I’ve decided to order a couple of new cells which I’ll use one of to replace this then I’ll use this one when I upgrade to a 10s4p pack once the battery heatshrink arrives 
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@michaelcpg good choice. I know it’s tempting because you probably really want to get your build on the road, but I think it’s better not to mess with cells that have been shorted. It’s cheap to replace them, but it’s expensive to deal the problems they can create!
Should clarify the cell was never actually shorted