Fake Ultrafire 18650 battery warning

[RIX TUX]

ANY WAYS TO KNOW IF AN ULTRAFIRE IS FAKE BY EXAMINING IT?

 

[Helmut.G]

ANY WAYS TO KNOW IF AN ULTRAFIRE IS FAKE BY EXAMINING IT?

You'll know it's not fake if you don't buy it.

Get the real deal, it's going to save you money in the long run.
Even the good ****fire-cells are usually crap after a relatively short time (compared to quality cells).

And quality cells were never available as cheap as they are now.

 

[RIX TUX]

THX FOR INFO.....I HAVE A FEW THAT CAME WITH A LIGHT I SWAPPED FOR AND WILL USE THEM IN CHEAPER LIGHTS. ONE HAS A GOLD END AND ONE A SILVER END?.....I HAVE A REASON TO GET AN "AW" NOW.

 

[us3rname]

THX FOR INFO.....I HAVE A FEW THAT CAME WITH A LIGHT I SWAPPED FOR AND WILL USE THEM IN CHEAPER LIGHTS. ONE HAS A GOLD END AND ONE A SILVER END?.....I HAVE A REASON TO GET AN "AW" NOW.

stop typing in CAPS its wayyy annoying...

I too have the unfortunate case of buying fake batteries and have gotten a partial refund on my purchase. Also from Ebay...

 

[dc38]

I ordered some red/silver black lettered ultrafire 18650 3000mAh cells from the bay of evil, I'll be doing Voltage, Amp, and mAh measurements/estimations. They'll be here in (hopefully faster than) 3 weeks, and I'll let you know when they come in. As soon as I let you guys know that they're here, please pray to whatever/whomever you believe in as I may not be around after testing those cells.

As for ultrafire cells in general, I have a couple of 14500's that i randomly swap off in my xeno's as backups to my AW's when i'm not patient enough to wait for a full charge. The voltages of the UF14500's peak out at around 4.38 V somehow, and operate until "dead" at around 2.68 V (what a weird number, I think i'm overcharging/over-discharging them.. :X) anyways, I had a friend of mine estimate the mAh on them because I lack the book smarts and patience to, and they have around 730 mAh each. (they are labeled as 900 mAh). Maybe I got lucky :/

 

[yo6ial]

Didn't visit CPF in a long while but these days I got myself some hilarious Ultrafire..ish cells too.
I must admit I was more amused than mad as I payed and got my money back soon after complaining to the seller. I think he pleaded "profane"
Nevertheless here's a pic for your attention and amusement.

Note the missing over-pressure valve.
And the marked capacity...
Cheers and take care!

 

[HKJ]

Didn't visit CPF in a long while but these days I got myself some hilarious Ultrafire..ish cells too.

They might be better than the genuine UltraFire batteries, I was not impressed with them when I tested them.

 

[CVLPA]

Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

I bought these for my Fenix TK35 in Bangkok. After a closer inspection i see that they are not alike. The one to the left is shorter, has an indentation around the top and use a different font for "BRC". I'm a noob, but I should stop using them, right?

 

[Shadowww]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

I bought these for my Fenix TK35 in Bangkok. After a closer inspection i see that they are not alike. The one to the left is shorter, has an indentation around the top and use a different font for "BRC". I'm a noob, but I should stop using them, right?

Yes, especially considering your TK35 runs them in series.
Get something proper (if you want to save money, you can get pair of Xtar 2600mAh's or Solarforce 2600mAh's for $15) instead.

 

[CVLPA]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

Yes, especially considering your TK35 runs them in series.
Get something proper (if you want to save money, you can get pair of Xtar 2600mAh's or Solarforce 2600mAh's for $15) instead.

Thanks!
Now i have scrapped them and ordered a pair of XTAR 3100mAh and an XTAR SP2 charger. Hope that will be safer!

 

[Shadowww]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

Thanks!
Now i have scrapped them and ordered a pair of XTAR 3100mAh and an XTAR SP2 charger. Hope that will be safer!

Yep, the 3100mAh batteries are highest tier of protected ones at the moment (in unprotected version there also are 3400mAh ones, but they aren't safe to use in series without protection).
And SP2 charger is awesome, you'll love it

 

[USSR]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

so who is the real manufacturer and how to identify between a genuine and fake uf "? any urls to UF ?

 

[HKJ]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

so who is the real manufacturer and how to identify between a genuine and fake uf "? any urls to UF ?

It does not really matter, the real UltraFire is just as bad as the fake UltraFire.

 

[45/70]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

so who is the real manufacturer and how to identify between a genuine and fake uf "? any urls to UF ?

I wholly agree with HKJ, and maintain that there are no "fake" UltraFire products. I think it would be ridiculous to attempt such an endeavor, although others have suggested why they might. It just wouldn't make any sense to me though.

Since their site offers sales, I don't think it can be linked to here because of CPF rules. The company's name though is "WhaFat Technological Co.,Ltd". They are based in Hong Kong/ShenZhen, China and they are a distributor, not a "manufacturer". I'm guessing that most of the other "Fires" (except for SureFire, of course, which is a U.S. company) are all on the same block, next door to each other, but really don't know that.

Dave

 

[127.0.0.1]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

It does not really matter, the real UltraFire is just as bad as the fake UltraFire.

not really, it depends. ultrafire is actually decent
but ultrafires do have counterfeits all over the market

I personally buy only eagletac protected 18650

a friend of mine likes ultrafire stuff, and ordered 2 ultrafire 18650
he ended up with a box of 50 ultrafire 18650 for free, and they didn't want them back.

all the ultrafire 18650 have blue labels and digital 16-bit printing of the ultrafire name and capacity
each individual cell was packed in nickel-mylar and electronic sealed.

he gave me 10 of them to play with. I peeled open 4 of them and they are all identical.
all the 10 ultrafires tested at 3.76-3.74 volts as I took them out of the packages, all charged
up fine to 4.2 volts.

I will use these in my skyrayking and then as backups to eagtac 18650 protected



I will say yes buying ultrafire is a crap shoot depending on the seller, but real ones
are new cells and test fine.


no matter the brand, I would -never- series stack unprotected cells, I will only run these as singles or parallel such as the 4x18650 skyrayking

 

[HKJ]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

not really, it depends. ultrafire is actually decent
but ultrafires do have counterfeits all over the market

In my battery test I bought UltraFire from two places where they said it was real UltraFire, they did not do very good in my battery test, the "fake" ones did better.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

http://i.imgur.com/aPGyA.jpg
This were purchased in Shenzhen, from the link I posted a few posts up. I'd be curious to see what the cell in your picture, the one without the crimp around the positive end, looks like inside. Same with yo6ial, is that silver cylinder metal, or just metal-looking?

 

[CVLPA]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

http://i.imgur.com/aPGyA.jpg
This were purchased in Shenzhen, from the link I posted a few posts up. I'd be curious to see what the cell in your picture, the one without the crimp around the positive end, looks like inside. Same with yo6ial, is that silver cylinder metal, or just metal-looking?

I threw them away but i did peel them down to the bare metal first. The battery to the right, without the crimping was wrapped in layers of yellow plastic and white paper to make it fatter.

Sorry i can't open them more, because now they're recycled

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

Interesting, a 17670 packaged and marketed as a protected 18650... Thanks for the added information! I was just wondering if it was another one of those LiPo fakes.

 

[tandem]

Re: Possibly Fake Ultrafire?

not really, it depends. ultrafire is actually decent

What qualifies as "decent" then in your estimation? Does a cell merely have to charge to what appears to be a "full" voltage? Run a light for a while?

Or have you taken a bunch of Ultrafire cells and put them on various loads with a logging voltmeter or battery workstation of some sort to see how they stand up to the sort of use you'll put them too?

I consider Ultrafire cells an unnecessary risk and potentially dangerous, as well as being poor value for money. Cheaply made, often fraudulently advertised, is no bargain.