Fake Ultrafire 18650 battery warning

[Ted12]

I purchased some UltraFire 4000mAH batteries with flashlights. One is a one cell flashlight and the other is a 2 cell flashlight. One of the batteries does not work and I've since learned from this site that they may be fake. In fact the do say "Sheef-life around 10 years" on the label which another user pointed out on a fake. My question is several users have mentioned these batteries being dangerous and being dangerous in a multicell use. What is the danger of using these cells? If they just go dead - I'll just learn and not buy any more of this brand. However if there are other dangers like the recent airliner fire problems with lithium batterise I won't use them any more. Thanks in advance for your help.

Ted12
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Hey everyone,

Just thought I would pass this along to any new people to the board. About a year ago I bought some Ultrafire 3000mah 18650's off ebay for about $3 ea shipped. They turned out to be about 2250mah but for the price I didn't complain too much. So about 6 weeks ago I ordered some more some protected and some not, 2 separate sellers on Ebay. I got out my Imax B6 charger and did some discharge tests at 1A and1400mah was the best. A couple where dead and some came in at about 70... yes 70mah. I opened them up and this is what I found. NONE of them match!

Clearly recycled, old spot welds where ground off. The unprotected batteries where not even 18650's they had some weird thick plastic cover to make them thicker.

These things could be really scary in a multi cell flashlight! I did get a full refund from both sellers, so if you get any fakes by all means ask for a refund and let other people know, these batteries are to dangerous to play around with.

 

[avrilcory]

I just manually charged a 6-cell laptop pack full of those (well, 2000mAh versions), only to find the pack controller is dead so it won't work anyway. I think they mean any complaints about the same person to be looked at seriously. Yes that is a big task to so to cut it down, how about working with Paypal and cross reference claims for fake items etc.


Thanking You
Riello-ups

 

[Full Power]

Hi there,
Where to start ... just bought a XML -- T6, UltraFire* Flashlight/Torch. It came with a rechargeable 18650 (protected) battery. When the battery is on charger, there's only a blinking red light -- let it charge 5 half hrs, with no change to the blinking red light.! The question is; how is a person to tell whether or not this battery is fully charged, since there is no real indication to let a person know?

 

[eric1565]

don't buy cheap fire batteries... look on youtube for fake 18650 and some pretty neat vids come up.

 

[eric1565]

There is a guy on endless sphere selling tesla cells. I bought 5 from him and they are what he says they are. Capacity wise and sag wise. I would recomend them. I saw he was running low last time i checked.

 

[Gew]

Oh, these "Ultrafire" cells are off the hook in a really bad sense. I ordered two pieces that looks exactly like the in attached images in original post, i.e. red wrapping and the same font and characteristics. Only that these bad boys say "6000 mAh", and also that they are circuit-protected. I've removed wrapping and at least I can't tell they're re-cycled in any way, but now when I've tried them out I can definitely tell that they do not hold the 6000 mAh that is advertised. I mean, I also ordered (eBay) a cheap battery pack for USB-charging, you know. It has room for one 18650 cell and after having fully charged it I hook an old Samsung Galaxy Mini up, this phone has a 1200 mAh battery, and since mine is ~5 years old it's likely to hold < 500 mAh. Yeah, after removing charger the battery is drained in just a couple of hours. An old cell phone battery, I was saying. However, after having fully charged this "Ultrafire" battery and connecting the old smartphone when fully drained, it seems to charge it around halfway full, that's it. I've also tried charging my current phone, an GT-i9506; needless to say that the cheap Chinese 18650 cell is drained in less than half an hour. Gosh, I guess there is actually some truth in what they say; "What you pay is what you get", and I don't think I'll be buying stuff like this again, anytime soon. Now I'm thinking, the "circuit-protected" is probably b/s as well, so next thing I know will probably be a mad explosion in my pocket, carrying that emergency charger. Gosh, I really need to get a hold on something better. This is my first 18650 experience, ever.

 

[HKJ]

Now I'm thinking, the "circuit-protected" is probably b/s as well,

Probably, a protected cell has a circuit, usual at the back, but in a few cases at the front.
See these articles:
http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/battery protection UK.html
http://lygte-info.dk/info/isMyBatteryProtected UK.html

 

[hauer]

There are many fake 18650 batteries in the market. The most of them come from China. It is very difficult to recognize which one is fake battery brand. :shakehead

 

[Bretcoe]

There are many fake 18650 batteries in the market. The most of them come from China. It is very difficult to recognize which one is fake battery brand. :shakehead

Also, there are more and more counterfeit/clone/fake versions of legit batteries out there today.

I've seen fake Sony VTC-4's (not mine thankfully) and have heard of. They looked very similar but just had some stretching of the QR code on the green wrap.

I don't recommend eBay for popular batteries anymore. And some B&M stores don't even know if they have fakes (think uneducated or shady smaller business owner, though I guess larger companies could do it too... Wait while I get my tinfoil hat on).

Just an fyi

 

[markr6]

Just came across this one while browsing ebay.

So...

- There are potentially 1988 poor suckers out there in the world
- $24452.40 wasted
- 71568 grams, or 157 lbs of lithium soon to end up in a landfill or have to be recycled (estimated since these are likely 2500mAh cells at best)

 

[ven]

I bet you would be lucky to see 1500mah, if I was to guess sub 1000mah:thumbsdow

 

[CelticCross74]

some kind of law needs to be put into effect against counterfeit cells like these. I learned the hard way not to buy Ultrafires. They nearly caught fire on my i4 and the chemical smell was so overwhelming I cant believe I did not pass out and die. The same 3100mah glossy red wrapper Ultrafires are still for sale today.

 

[CuriousOne]

Ebay is a world of phenomenon. I'm selling on ebay by myself, and encountered truly amazing stories. For example, I sold a camera lens to customer in Germany, in about 2 weeks, he wrote me positive feedback, telling how great lens is, all ok. Nothing special. But in about 2 months, I got that parcel back, with stamp text in German, meaning "recipient not available". I've contacted that guy immediately, asking him, whenever he wants me to refund or to resend. He was very curious, stating that he already got my item, what I'm talking about?

 

[snakebite]

I bet you would be lucky to see 1500mah, if I was to guess sub 1000mah:thumbsdow

still too generous.
one my neighbor bought for $1.39 shipped just for s&g tested around 400.and was off balance.so tiny cell and mystery powder.
hey they have to dump that corrosive,toxic drywall stuff somehow...

 

[CelticCross74]

OP I hope you have disposed of these toxic potential fire hazards...