18650 ULTRAFIRE CELL

So often I read about how anything branded with the aforementioned name, is not a good thing, and is closely related to the S..TFIRE or C..PFIRE brands.
This has me a bit worried, cause I own a few of them. Not many though, I think about 8 of them is all I have been able to find. They would all be about 5-6 years old and have had probably less than 100 odd charge/discharge cycles. None of them have ever given any problems or issues in regular use. Am I sitting on potential timebombs ? Should they be disposed of, post haste ?

Details of cell;
Brand, Ultrafire Also has picture logo and trademark symbol.
LC 18650 2400mAh 3.7V Li-ion
'High rate discharge', 'no memory effect', 'short circuit, over charge and discharge protection', 'PCB life is around 10 years', 'it is GREEN'. All printed on side.
'Li-ion' and 'attention' symbols also printed on side.
+ and - symbols printed in black stripe that runs top to bottom.
Plastic shrinkwrap is a silver/grey colour, and all printing is black.
- end is brass and etch printed with ' Ultrafire ' and the picture logo.

Can anyone enlighten me on these cells ? Are they ok ?

Many thanks,

Mike.

What u read is true, that these brands cells are usually shity cells.. The claimed capacity is usually nowhere near the actual capacity & some claims of protected cells are actually non-existent as well.

If you are using them in single cell configuration with low drain flashlight. It should be okie.
But multi cell or high drain setup will be very dangerous...

However these days, trusted brands of 18650 aren't too expensive & a decent one can last u a few years. It's is definitely worth the investment.

I even got one of these cells with "Sony" Rechargeable LC18650 wrapper. The capacity isn't even near the advertised capacity. No protection circuitry whatsoever as i had it at <2v.

The minus pole is also dented slighty from that China charger and i think that there is a much smaller battery inside as it has around 1000mah of capacity.

daan_deurloo said:

I even got one of these cells with "Sony" Rechargeable LC18650 wrapper. The capacity isn't even near the advertised capacity. No protection circuitry whatsoever as i had it at <2v.

The minus pole is also dented slighty from that China charger and i think that there is a much smaller battery inside as it has around 1000mah of capacity.

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Something like that I bet.

It's just astonishing to see what people can do to make an extra buck with complete disregard to other's safety.
OP I would definitely not use those cells, you and your family's safety is worth much more.

Anyone can make a wrapper, you (YOU) can buy Ultrafire wrappers and put them around dowels or tubes with sand in them, or real cells, or real old cells, or a AAA inside and a free toy, whatever you want to....

...and that's what the people who made YOUR Ultrafire wrapped cell did...as there is NO ONE ULTRAFIRE COMPANY...ANYONE, even YOU, can make and sell Ultrafires.


As there is no reason to BET that the Ultrafires YOU have are any different, except by shear serendipity, I would deep six them and get real ones (NOT Ultra or any other xxxxxFires).

TEEJ said:

Anyone can make a wrapper, you (YOU) can buy Ultrafire wrappers and put them around dowels or tubes with sand in them, or real cells, or real old cells, or a AAA inside and a free toy, whatever you want to....

...and that's what the people who made YOUR Ultrafire wrapped cell did...as there is NO ONE ULTRAFIRE COMPANY...ANYONE, even YOU, can make and sell Ultrafires.


As there is no reason to BET that the Ultrafires YOU have are any different, except by shear serendipity, I would deep six them and get real ones (NOT Ultra or any other xxxxxFires).

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I don't expect that MINE are any different from anyone else's, but not being 100% sure, was the reason for my post in the first place !! I have no issues with 'DEEP SIXING' them, as you suggest, and spring for some REAL ones, also, as you suggest. These were the first 18650's that I'd owned, and at the time, they appeared ok, but with six years of hindsight, that's now obviously changed.

I'm not about to defend U...afire, or anyone else for that matter, but I did disassemble one of these cells, prior to ' correct and proper disposal ' of same. Referring to HKJ's sticky on 18650's and the two UF's he disassembled. ( Remember, these are only points of interest, and what I found, not defence of UF in any way )
The button cell top, was spot welded onto a flatter, vented top.
The - casing was clean, ie; it hadn't been part of a multiple cell pack. There were no telltale spotwelds.
The case wasn't rusty.
The vent protection seemed to be a thinner flat metal, not the indented 'x' style of blowout protection.
The case held protection, as per one of HKJ's photos. The protection was TR183b with a brass - contact behind the pcb and etch printed with the UF logo. ( see photo of three types of protection in, how to identify a protected 18650 sticky. Same as middle pcb. )
The case was full with a ' normal ' li-ion centre and its electrolyte coat. No talc or sawdust or CR123's or aa's etc.
I don't know what brand of base cell it was, there were no identifiers printed on it. Could have been anything.

Anyway, as for MY UF cells, they have been disposed of 'properly', and a batch of Eagletac 2500mAh ordered to replace them ( Better safe than not ).

Forget this entry, my dumb fingers.

Is that a RCR123A ? @WarRaven.

daan_deurloo said:

Is that a RCR123A ? @WarRaven.

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I'm certainly thinking so. It's not my picture but I feel that needs to be shown now and again to keep focus on these cells. Shameful huh?

It's a shame indeed. I bought some aaa 1000mah advertised capacity Nickle Metal Hydride batteries today for a well so cheap €2,99 for 4 pieces. Capacity is 1000mah ? No i don't think so. Using a 18650 holder with place for 3x aaa's and charging them up that way. Not on the LiPo mode ( i could use that, but less capacity at the end ).



As you see there are even fake NiMh batteries around Not that i'm gonna use these fakes. The weight of these is just extremely low compared to a real aaa's battery\

I'd like to do a teardown of that Sony battery, but i must overdischarge it many times to get that thing destroyed. I don't like to teardown working batteries and causing a Thermal Runaway as i had with a NiZn battery.

I've some Duraloops AAA 1000 mah, I'm pretty sure. Newer ones are 900mah.
Idk bud, you may have the real deal there.

€2,99 for 4x 500mah. They may work perfectly when new, but dunno how long it takes to die.

Came off at 4,3v from charger with that 18650 holder for 3x aaa's. I had to stop the charge manually as the voltage dropped 0.02v and these were slightly warm.

Um, no NiMH charger?

WarRaven said:

Um, no NiMH charger?

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I do have. I use the iMax B6 to charge those batteries in series or just one.. That's why i said 4,3v.
I do have another charger to for Nimh,Nicad and Nickle Zinc. So no worries

I watched this you tube video of ultrafire battery testing. A dismal failure for the batteries. I think the reviewer bought them off ebay or something.
The guy also tests some other batteries including Olights in other videos.

I use the new Eagletac 18650 3500mAh cells, 10A. I am sure you will be happy with yours.

harro said:

Anyway, as for MY UF cells, they have been disposed of 'properly', and a batch of Eagletac 2500mAh ordered to replace them ( Better safe than not ).

Click to expand...

I bought about 12 of the 2500 mah Eagtac batteries for some of my soda can lights.
I was not impressed. Some of the cells would be discharged more than the others and not charge back up to the same full charge of 4.2 like the other batteries from the same light. So out of the initial 12 batteries, 3 were taken out of being run with other batteries because they consistently performed different. I use the 3 odd cells in single cell lights.
I'm still using about 5 old ultrafire batteries I purchased from Battery Junction years ago. No problems yet but watching them closely.

THIS POST IS IN REPLY TO LOU MINESCENCE ( I didn't hit the quote button ) I have about 35 of the 2500mAh Eagletacs already, hence replacing the old UF's with more. They have pretty much all performed flawlessly. I have noticed some discharge more quickly than others in the same light, but never an issue with recharging to that 4.19 - 4.20V. Not to say that dud cells are not possible, that can happen with anything. Maybe this points to a lower overall capacity of those particular cells, who knows ?? I do believe that the base cell is a different brand ( in the 2500 ) to the 3100's and 3400/3500's. My UF's were years old, possibly like yours, and did seem to perform ok. They would recharge to the aforementioned voltages consistently, after a cycle, but with a bit of age, comes a bit of doubt, so time for replacement. Your idea of watching them closely is timely advice for pretty much all Li-ion.
I use either a Soshine S1-MaxV3 or Pila IBC 600 2 bay for charging. The Soshine, for me is a little more consistant than the Pila, and will make 4.2V in any of its 4 bays. The Pila tends to be a little more conservative, finishing at about 4.17 - 4.18V.