mA
h does not always equate to max discharge current(unless i'm mistaken which is as always most certainly possible) . mAh is just a rating for how much current it it can spit out over time...? Not seeing anything on wikipedia to confirm me wrong on this?
Ampere-hour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ... I would assume if you pump 4amps through a 26650 it just means it won't be able to sustain the voltage for longer than an hour.
Right, basically, but this also influence the max current that you can get from a cell.
Max current is basically due to low internal resistence (note, i'm simplifying a lot, it's just an example), and there's no way for produce a low mAh cell with low internal resistance, til a certain point you can go, but not over it ..... this means that a low mAh cell is also, for definition, a low max discharge cell, basically.
Then, it's true that mAh is current for time, 1000mAh means that the cell, fully healty and charged, can give you one Ampere for a whole hour ..... or 2A for 30 minutes, or 4A for 15 minutes, and so on ..... but also consider that, usually, 4 times the rated hourly current is the maximum SAFE current that you can take from a good cell (except some specific structures, like LiFePo, liquid alkaline cells and Gates lead cells) ..... over this current, you can still get more current, but at risk of explosion, fire and acid leak, and in any case, the battery is to throw away after very few uses, also if don't blow up.
Still just as example ..... an 18650 is usually rated at 2400mA (good cells) ..... you can easily get 5A for less than half hour from them, without kill them (becoming HOT) ..... you can, in specific cases, and keeping the cells ventilated, take til 10A from them, for 10 minutes, without kill them (i repeat, GOOD cells), and in this case you can probably cook a steak on them (they get A BIT MORE HOT
) ..... over this, it's all your risk ..... a very good cell with very low internal resistance can give you 20A for 3 or 4 minutes, but this put your battery at least 50% risk to blow up or take fire, and this is not good