Ultrafire 16340 WTF?

Ok I bought a Lot of 8 ultrafire 16340s off ebay. they are genuine because the bottom is stamped ultrafire. I charge them up and put them in my ITP a1 eos ss and the battery life is beyond deplorable. The first battery lasted about 3 mins.. and it instantly goes out i charged it back up to get 3 mins of life again. several others had life around 5 mins. the best I got was 17 mins on one cell. I thought Ultrafire cells were good ones.. are these defective or is ultrafire batteries crappy? ALSO will I get longer runtime off a rechargeable or 123A Primary?? If ultrafire sucks, then what brand of battery should I try?

Hi diesel. UltraCrap cells, are..... well, just that, "crap". Among all the xxxxxFire cells (which are all pretty much "crap"), UltraFire is pretty much the bottom of the barrel. They have the lowest reputation of the mix. That's not to say that you might not luck out and get a good one once in a while, but generally, no.

UltraFire, like all of the other Chinese xxxxxFire cells, are a distributor, not a manufacturer. They buy up large lots of cells that have been rejected by the actual Li-ion cell manufacturer, recycled cells, and other more or less defective cells that they can purchase for little money, relabel them and optionally add a protection PCB to the bottom of the cell, and make a lot of money doing so.

Also, FleaBay is known for being a bad place to purchase cells. You'd be much better off buying from a dealer with a good reputation. On FleaBay the sellers know that 90% of the time, if something isn't right with the product they sell, the bidder is not likely to go through the hassle involved in resolving the issue.

Dave

Thanks! I have always wondered why the performance of my ultrafire 14500s is kind of iffy. anyway what is a good brand of LI ION battery to buy? I typically use 14500s and now 16340. I use the lights at work, on turbo for extended time sometimes. Anyway with my quark AA where will i get better run time? a 14500 or Li Ion battery?

45/70 said:

Hi diesel. UltraCrap cells, are..... well, just that, "crap". Among all the xxxxxFire cells (which are all pretty much "crap"), UltraFire is pretty much the bottom of the barrel. They have the lowest reputation of the mix. That's not to say that you might not luck out and get a good one once in a while, but generally, no.

UltraFire, like all of the other Chinese xxxxxFire cells, are a distributor, not a manufacturer. They buy up large lots of cells that have been rejected by the actual Li-ion cell manufacturer, recycled cells, and other more or less defective cells that they can purchase for little money, relabel them and optionally add a protection PCB to the bottom of the cell, and make a lot of money doing so.

Also, FleaBay is known for being a bad place to purchase cells. You'd be much better off buying from a dealer with a good reputation. On FleaBay the sellers know that 90% of the time, if something isn't right with the product they sell, the bidder is not likely to go through the hassle involved in resolving the issue.

Dave

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Hi again, diesel. When it comes to finding quality Li-Ion cells, smaller than 18650 size, AW is the way to go. Most (but not all) others, even excluding xxxxxFire brands, are crap as well.

I did some testing of various used Li-Ion cells a while back that reflect my experiences with many xxxxxFire and other no name branded cells, besides those that were tested. If you scroll down the first post a bit to "EDITED", you can look over some 14500 cells that I compared. Keep in mind that in all of the tests I performed with the exception of the 10440 cells, the AW cells were at least twice as old (Li-Ion cells suffer degradation whether they are used, or not) and had about twice as many cycles on them as the TrustFire and UltraFire cells.

I recently purchased 8 protected TrustFire "Flames" 14500 cells. While their initial capacity compared well with the now 6 year old AW cells, their ability to hold voltage under load is dismal, by comparison. This results in their actual capacity in Wh, being significantly less than the old AW cells. Disappointing to say the least. From previous experience, I fully expect that shortly, weeks rather than months, the capacity will drop below that of the old AW cells, as well.

I will add also, that my various forms of AW protected/unprotected 16340/R123 cells over the years, have held up very well also, and some of these have been used at higher current rates than is recommended. To this day, they still perform well, although some of the older ones are finally beginning to show signs of age.

Dave

Dave,

Thanks so much for the advice. I think ill be getting on 4 sevens and getting some AW batteries. In my line of work, i need a reliable battery.

Hello dieselducy. Definitely go with the AW brand. Here are a couple of sites that I have done business with and have some good prices on AW batteries.

Shipping is also very reasonable. (Under $2.00 for a small order such as a couple of batteries)

www.supertmanufacturing.com

and

www.rtdvapor.com

I just got 4 of AW's IMR 16340 550mah cells. They charged right up on my PILA and so far have run my Deree with out any issues.

Does the pila charger work with the 16340s? Right now i am using my wicked lasers charger with 2 nuts as spacers..

16430 Ultrafires (and Trustfire), you can expect anywhere between 150 mAH to 375mAH (if lucky). These are both protected and unprotected. In contrast, AW 16430 750 mAH ring in at about 580 mAH. All of this at 0.5a discharge to 2.75v.

dieselducy said:

Does the pila charger work with the 16340s? Right now i am using my wicked lasers charger with 2 nuts as spacers..

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I just use both spacers in the same bay to charge one 16340 at a time. Looking for some spacers to allow both bays to be used.

dieselducy said:

Does the pila charger work with the 16340s? Right now i am using my wicked lasers charger with 2 nuts as spacers..

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They work in the itelli- I4.

dieselducy said:

Does the pila charger work with the 16340s? Right now i am using my wicked lasers charger with 2 nuts as spacers..

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Pila IBC has too high current for normal 16340's, but it should be fine for IMR 16340's.