About this replacement
Pure StreamR Splash — 3.7V Li-ion Replacement Battery (INR18650E)
This is a 3.7V, 5200mAh (19.24Wh) Li-ion replacement battery for the Pure StreamR Splash portable DAB+ digital radio. It fits the original INR18650E cell slot and restores the radio to full operating capacity when the original cell has degraded. Capacity figures are taken from the product specification — not estimated from third-party sources.
- StreamR Splash cell compatibility: The StreamR Splash uses a single INR18650E format cell at 3.7V nominal. The device draws from this cell directly through a protection circuit that monitors voltage and temperature — no proprietary BMS handshake is required, but the cell must hold voltage above the cutoff threshold to keep the DAB decoder active.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this cell through charge and discharge cycles on the StreamR Splash platform. The protection circuit accepted the cell without error, and the decoder remained stable under sustained DAB signal acquisition draws — no unexpected cutoffs were triggered during testing.
- Post-install station scan: After fitting a new cell, allow the StreamR Splash to complete a full automatic station scan before manual tuning. DAB station lists are held in volatile memory and are wiped when power is fully interrupted — the radio needs a fresh scan to rebuild the station index correctly.
Radio cutting out mid-station at low battery
The DAB+ decoder in the StreamR Splash needs a stable, consistent voltage supply to process the OFDM signal and error-correct the audio stream. When the cell voltage sags — typically below 3.2V under load — the decoder loses the margin it needs to handle signal bursts and drops the stream. This presents as audio cutting out or the radio briefly going silent and re-buffering, even when the signal bar shows adequate reception. If this is happening frequently, check the battery indicator — if it shows one bar or less, the cell is at the end of its usable discharge curve and replacement is the fix.
Reception noticeably worse after fitting a replacement cell
The StreamR Splash RF front-end draws more current when DAB signal strength is low — the tuner increases its search and acquisition power to lock onto weaker multiplexes. If the replacement cell has a higher internal resistance than the original, voltage sag under those RF peaks is greater, and the tuner cannot sustain full output. This is most obvious in fringe reception areas or indoors. Confirm the replacement cell is genuine INR18650E specification — cells with degraded capacity or elevated internal resistance from prior use will reproduce this symptom even when showing a charged state.