UltraFire 14500 arrives dead?

[Mugrunty]

Ok, I'll try and make this quick.

I ordered two Ultrafire 14500 cells off from ebay for my Quark AA light. They came from china and took a couple weeks to get here. Don't think I like that...

So, one of the cells has weird voltage reading on it...acting like the protection circuit is being funny or something. I tried charging it, but it won't work, and discharging it wont work either. I'm using a hobby Rc-power balancing charger. It does nothing in the quark light. The other cell seems fine. Charges and discharges fine so far. (despite having what seems to be a rather large internal ressitance? 1 amp draw and voltage drops to ~3.4ish??)

I'll have to do more testing with the good cell. But the bad cell seems really bad. I dropped them a message about it, have to see what they say.

This is my first 14500 cell and so far I'm not super happy with Ultra fire. The cell is too long to fit correctly in the quark and I have to loosen the tail cap to access Turbo mode. (I have tactical version).


I think I might just order a few good AW cells from 4Sevens. I'll do some research here again. But a quick question, are the AW cells any shorter than the UltraCrap ones? I remember hearing that the AW cells have about 700mAh of energy...but the overrated UltraCrap cells cannot be much better/worse.

Any ideas about the bad cell??

 

[DM51]

Of all brands of Li-Ion cells, Ultrafire have received consistently the worst reports on CPF for poor quality and unreliability.

 

[rizky_p]

i've had similar situation with Ultrafire 14500, but in my case removing the protection board solve the problem. My experience with Trustfire is alot better. if you can afford it, i think you should get AW instead you cant go wrong it.

 

[Mugrunty]

Yup, I just ordered a couple AW cells from 4sevens. With any luck, they might fit better too. I'd rather have a couple good cells anyday. Maybe I'll take the bad one apart...I really don't feel like shipping it back to the seller and waiting another week or two for another crap cell. Besides, It looks like DX can sell them cheaper. (3.99 for two, free shipping?!? Thats ridiculous!)

Maybe I'll get a few TrustFire cells from DX simply to torture them and see how they last. Are the Blue Labled ones shorter??? I heard they were wider than the grey labled ones.

 

[Black Rose]

One of the advantages of AW cells is that they are sized according to the standards, whereas the cheaper cells are usually larger in diameter and/or length.

I only use AW and TrustFire protected cells.

 

[rizky_p]

yeah i have better luck with Trustfire, all my 18650 Trustfire are still working with ~2000mah capacity after all this months.

 

[Mugrunty]

Ok I took apart the bad Ultrafire cell. Surprisingly, the protection circuit might be fine. It's very simply, I might take a picture of it later. It's a generic 8205 single cell li-ion protection chip, what I'm guessing to be an N-ch MOSFET, 2 SMD resistors, and a SMD cap. That same 8205 chip is in one of my cheap mobile ipod charger.

Anyway, the cell is crap. 100% crap. It acts like it's a billion years old and been sitting around forever. Discharges to 1 volt in about 2 seconds, and wont take a charge at all. Um...I think I'll throw it out. I almost paid the price of an AW cell for both of these. Sometimes I dont like ebay. I'll get some TrustFire cells to play with and use the AW's for my quarks.

Ok, so yup...cell is mega crap. The other one probably isn't too good either. I'll do a discharge test to find the capacity.


EDIT: I think the protection circuit is dead as well. Tried it on a unprotected 18650 cell I had laying around.

 

[NonSenCe]

i ordered trustfire 14500s from dx few weeks ago.. got ultrafires.. and they are crap.

my older trustfire 14500s are working fine so i decided to get couple more, as the ultrafires arrived i figured that "oh well they sent me wrong make but they will do as they should be almost the same.." but no.

voltages seem fine by multimeter. they recharge fine. but size if different the length is different the poles look different.

and most annoyingly my D10 wont work with ultrafires. d10 just flashes if you keep pressing the button. not constant on. not constant momentary..only less than second.

but jetbeam pro 1 works. but runtime is ALOT weaker than the trustfires. less than half. they are gone thru 4 reload cycles now and still fails. i think i toss them into junk bin.

this is my first truly negative experience with dx stuff and just because they sent me wrong stuff.. and i am now cussing i didnt notice that in 1st week after purchase as i kept them in shelf after reloading.. and when noticing that they are different decided that there isnt really much difference in them.. but there was and later as d10 got empty. i tried change batteries and GRRR!

they are not dead but there is something wrong with them.. volts are in 4.18 as should from charger.. the protection circuit works but they empty fast on one light and wont work in other.

i guess i must cough up more money for decent batteries from AW if dx starts sending wrong stuff that dont work right.

 

[Mugrunty]

Yeah, it makes me sad. But the other one came with about 3.8 volts on it, and I have been charging it for 21min 42 secs. So far its in the constant voltage stage and 168mAh have been put in. I'll just wait for my AW's to arrive. The stupid thing is that I paid 6 bucks a piece for these ultrafires. I forgot about the DX site until now. I could have had about 5 cells instead of one.

Oh well...too bad so sad. I'm going over to my cousins this weekend and we'll be using my POB, Stanley, Fenix RB100 and my quark with the ultrafire cell in it. I'll see how long it really lasts for. Exploring in the woods at midnight requires a lot of light. And of course a big old 12v battery with an inverter and a lamp or two....and a fire...and food....

 

[Mugrunty]

Ok, the ultrafire battery that was good really wasn't that good. It ran the Quark ok, but upon recharging...only 452mAh was put back in. I'd say thats pretty far away from 900mAh. Luckily the AW that I got are sooooooo much better its amazing. They perform better under load and charge better. Havent done a full test yet. They are the same length as the ultrafires though...

I'm getting a replacment ultrafire for the bad one, so we'll see if that one is any better. Maybe I just got a really bad batch?

AND, the protection circuit off the bad one still works ok.

 

[coppertrail]

Ultrafire cells are like playing the lotto, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. I've had a couple of them either arrive dead or go dead midway through the 1st discharge with a 0 voltage reading. My guess is it's the PCB that's causing the problem.

Regarding the delivery time from China, it's the same with just about everyone. If that's too long for you to wait, purchase them at higher prices often with additional shipping charges from the states, your choice.

 

[flasohollic]

I have like 30 ultrafire and trustfire in all kinds of types,,, and i have had more luck with ultrafire then trustfire...
The trustfire 18650 have more accurate mah rating than ultrafire,, that's is my experience.. But smaller cell is not correct this is both ultrafire and trustfire

But it think they change manufacture\design very often so you could go bad with both ultrafire and trustfire, like the old 14500 i have is perfect size but some new one that just arrived is alot longer than a normal aa making a tight fit…

I even had an ultrafire a123 explode and covering the room in toxic smoke.
These cell don't burst in flames,, but explode, it sounded like a gunshot.


and one warning, don't buy those cheap charging stations it is a battery killer,, buy and expensive computer charger. it allot safer, and will increase both battery life and capacity


also if your flashlight ore whatever have a lvc don't use protected cell, they are just in the way and restricting the current

 

[Mugrunty]

With this one, the cell was actually the source of the problem. After removing the circuit, the problems still existed. I tested the protection circuit and it works fine.

 

[Mr_Light]

These blue label trustfires fit fine in my AA Quark
TrustFire Protected 3.7V 900mAh 14500 Lithium Battery
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3435

I also bought the 14500 Trustfires with flames on them which are too long to screw the tail cap on all the way.

 

[Illum]

Of all brands of Li-Ion cells, Ultrafire have received consistently the worst reports on CPF for poor quality and unreliability.

+1

Forget mightfire or couldfire, buy AW and get it right the first time

 

[flasohollic]

I like the new green ultrafire,, is seems it a big stepforward when in come to quality, the metall casing have a differet design (the negative terminal have been raised and the metall have a "cleaner" color. under high load i dont notice any heat and it keeps it voltage.
if i would recomend a cheap battery now,, it would deff be the new ultrafire ones ( i havent testet the protected ones,, only unprotected)

 

[Marduke]

It is always a good idea to use ONLY protected cells. It is horrible advice to ever recommend unprotected Li-Ion's.

 

[DM51]

It is horrible advice to ever recommend unprotected Li-Ion's

... especially Ultrafire ones :green:

 

[flasohollic]

OK, did not recomend unprotected i say i only had not "tested=owned" the protected ones only unprotected off the new ultrafire ones..

And yes i recomend using non protected if you have a flashlight with LVC (low voltage cut off)..

The cell that exploded for me was in fact an PROTECTED one and i have the majority off my cell unprotected..explain that.

Most off the protected boards dont even work properly,, you should never thrust them.

 

[Marduke]

OK, did not recomend unprotected i say i only had not "tested=owned" the protected ones only unprotected off the new ultrafire ones..

And yes i recomend using non protected if you have a flashlight with LVC (low voltage cut off)..

The cell that exploded for me was in fact an PROTECTED one and i have the majority off my cell unprotected..explain that.

Most off the protected boards dont even work properly,, you should never thrust them.

No matter the application, you should ALWAYS use QUALITY protected cells. That means not using any "__fire" cells. Advocating otherwise is simply dangerous and irresponsible.